Remembering & Flooding & Mark Twain

 Location: Ray Behrans Campground (COE); Perry, Missouri (about 100 miles northwest of St. Louis)

It was a longer than normal towing to this campground, but I knew it and liked it. The roads and weather were good for traveling and the traffic was light. Plenty of time to think about all sorts of things. For those wondering about the memory demons, their knots were tightened and all is well on that front, for now. One of the things I thought about was the RV'ers/bloggers that have either passed on or just hung up the keys. Over the years, I've probably followed a dozen or so blogs on a regular basis but now only a few. You can get to know people through their writing style and you can feel/understand things that they aren't saying. Most of the ones who are no longer blogging and traveling basically transitioned into it for weeks or months beforehand. I'm not sure if they knew they were getting close to the end or if it was a subconscious thing. One blogger/traveler was even blogging while she had terminal cancer. It was her way of saying goodbye. Her blog of 15+ years disappeared over night because hers was on a private domain and when she passed away, the domain wasn't renewed and thus the blog was deleted and the domain name sold to someone else. When I found that out, it was a big shock. So, if you're a blogger, be aware of that possibility. Most of my thinking was about nice things that I remembered from all of their blogs. Some things just stick with you and the ones who have gone on to the next campground, well, they know all of the answers now. (RIP)

I found my first large fields of corn on this tow. I will be seeing it more on a regular basis since I will be entering Iowa in a few days. It is a comforting feeling to see which surprised me because I'm not a farmer at all. 

My campsite here at Ray Behrens. It is a full hook up site but I won't use the sewer connection because my next campground is also full hookup. The site is long enough that I was able to set up Liberty in the shade of the tree. 

The view out my back window. Notice the fawn at the edge of the bushes just beyond the firepit. It only came out in the open for less than a minute before calmly walking back under cover. My back window is my ever changing view of this traveling lifestyle.

This is another great COE campground. It is well laid out, quiet and secure. I only have a few more COE's before I cross into Illinois and have to start staying in state parks. I think I've reserved some good ones, but we will see. As I mentioned in my last post, one of my campgrounds was about to be flooded out. I've been tracking the flood waters and right now my reserved campsite is under about 3 to 5 feet of Mississippi River water. The Corp is hoping the campground will be opened on the 12th and my reservation for the 14th would be good. I've been around flooded rivers and their aftermaths before so somewhat familar. Usually, but not always, there is a strong organic smell for days/weeks after the flood waters recede. So, I made an executive decision to cancel and make a new reservation at a state park about 30 miles inland on the Illinois side of the river. I think I'll still be close enough to scoot into Davenport/Moline to check out the roller gate dam like I had planned. Talking about executive decisions, did I ever mention that traveling alone makes making decisions a whole lot easier. If you know, you know.

Pretty nice visitor's center uh?

Not all COE damsites have visitor centers but this one does and it ranks pretty high in quality. Beside me and the attendant ranger, there was only a family of four gypsies. They were there when I arrived and were still there after I left. The female and two kids were clearly distracting the ranger while the male was doing some questionable things, mainly associated with display objects and gift shop areas. I didn't witness anything criminal happen, it was more or less a bad vibe feeling. 

The view of Mark Twain Lake from the visitors center. A nice thinking bench with a great view. Also, I liked the tree stumps with flowers growing out of them. Nicely done.

Same visitors center but now you can see the lake on the left and the hydroelectric dam on the right. Nature and technology, coexisting. 

I took this one specifically because of the red truck crossing the dam. One speck of color. 

The backside of the dam indicated they were shedding any water through the gates or making electricity. Interesting, since most of the area is experiencing flooding.

My exploration yesterday was one of the many Make Twain museums. This one is located at his birthplace, Florida, Missouri. I was puzzled when I saw the name of the building. It is Mark Twain Memorial Shrine. The word "shrine" threw me for a loop. It makes it sound as if Mark Twain was a holy person to be worshiped. I almost didn't go it because of the word but decided I wanted to ask the people inside about the word. No one that worked there liked the word either but they also didn't know why it was being used or who was responsible for it. Oh well, It was a free museum so I wasn't contributing to something I didn't really agree with. The museum is a part of a much larger Mark Twain State Park that is on the shores of Mark Twain Lake. It you have even a passing fancy for Mark Twain, it is worth a visit.

The museum is a nice building even with the out of place name.

The cabin Mark Twain was born in. I never found out how much of it was original, if any. 

I liked this picture in the museum a lot. Looking in the faces of each man tells a complete story. They are "The Thunderbirds", CCC Company 1743. They were the only all black Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) crew to help develop Mark Twain State Park. To me, the CCC was one of the best New Deal programs of the Great Depression which the politicians in charge at the time, foolishly extended. Remember, each man was paid $30.00 per month and was required to send $25.00 back home to their family. World War II ended the program because people were needed to fight the war instead of building state parks. 

This one picture captures a lot about the man. On the left is steamboat wheel because of the time Twain spent on the river as a pilot. He had an interesting life but I realized I wasn't that interested in him.

My quest for the best Reuben Sandwich continues. This one is from The Junction Restaurant located at the junction of Missouri highways 154 and 19. It was so large, I almost didn't finish it. It is probably in the top 10 but the sauerkraut lacked the tang and there wasn't enough swiss cheese. The corned beef was excellent though. The number one is still in Hinckley, Minnesota and number two is in Freeport, Texas.

Today is moving day and I'll only be moving about 15 miles to another COE campground on the other side of the lake. This is because I needed a place to hunker down for the 4th of July and to be close enough to drive into Hannibal, Missouri. I had reservations for a steamboat ride on the Mississippi River out of Hannibal but they called me yesterday to let me know the ride had to be canceled due to the river flooding. Yep, the same flooding that caused me to cancel my campground reservation at Shady Creek. This is the second time I've planned to ride this riverboat but had to cancel. I'm not sure if there will be a third, cause time seems to be running out.  

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road.  

Castle in the Sky? In Missouri??

Location: Damsite Campground (COE); Hermitage, Missouri

It's a kick back and relax stop at this COE campground. It's also a day of air conditioning because there is a heat advisory for today. Combining temps in the mid 90's and high humidity gives a heat index of 108. I had hopes that the storms that passed through last night and this morning would bring cooler temperatures but I was wrong. The storms approached from the west without any cool temps behind the front. Oh well, it's just for today and the temps will moderate beginning tomorrow.

I took this picture as I was leaving the last campground. I tried it get it several times but forgot to have the phone ready until the day I was leaving.

Representative of rural country road in south central Missouri

This is a frightening thing for RV'ers traveling down strange two lane roads in the middle of nowhere. I saw the bridge a long time before seeing the clearance sign, then breathed a sigh of relief. Upon see the bridge from the distance, I suddenly remembered I haven't been checking bridge clearances when planning a tow.

Recently overlaid four lane highway with little traffic on a pretty weather day. Nice.

This is the view of the campground and lake as you enter.

Nice campsite.

While Liberty's AC was cooling things off after getting set up, I drove to the back side of the dam to check it out. Looked like the gate were opened fully and releasing the max. It had an unusual amount of foam which smelled badly. The foam is decaying biological junk. 

A nicely framed picture of the lake while out walking around the campground.

Talking about weather, I have a new problem. The Mississippi River is flooding in Minnesota and moving south. I have reservations for three days beginning July 14th at Hickory Creek (COE campground) which is on the banks of the Mississippi River just south of Davenport, Iowa. Checking online, the Corps has closed the campground and it is due to re-open (post-flood?) on July 12th which is two days before my reservation. That's only a two day margin of error. Am I willing to bank on that two days or should I cancel and make another reservation further inland? I was looking forward to staying at Hickory Creek so I could drive into Davenport to look at the Roller Gate Dam I saw a few years ago. There aren't any COE campgrounds in that area that aren't on the banks of the river and that fit into the path of my travels and current reservations. I was able to find a couple of Illinois State parks that seems to have plenty of vacancies. That many vacancies on just two week notice is a little troublesome, but I think it will be OK if I need them. My plan is to wait and see while keeping up with the flood and state park vacancies. If it isn't one thing, it's another. But things like this is what makes life less boring. 

After doing laundry at a small but nice laundromat and getting a haircut from Walmart (by the way, the stylist wanted to escape her life and was hoping to hitch a ride with me. I sympathized with her life, but it was a big NO on giving a ride), I was able to explore something interesting. Is an old dilapidated castle on the top of a semi-mountain interesting? If you're anything like me, you just said, "a castle in Missouri"? After traveling around this country, I'm not too surprised about some of the things people have done. 

A Kansas City business man bought 5,000 acres of land in the foothills of the Ozarks back in the early 1900's. His plan was to build a retirement home and disappear from civilization. He imported skilled Scottish masons to build him a castle using local stone. Sadly, he never saw it finished. He died in one of the first car accident in Missouri around 1906. His sons finished the job but the castle was gutted by fire in 1942 and bad luck seemed to follow. I gave up my research at that point since I didn't want to jinx myself with any more bad ju-ju. I have enough to spare and can loan my excess to anybody who wants some. Anyway, I saw a picture of the ruins of the castle several weeks ago and wanted to see it in person. I was most interested in the use of the buttresses I saw in the picture. They are very impressive in real life. Instead of explaining them, I'll try to remember to point them out in one of my pictures. It was an interesting visit that lasted only about an hour, was free and included a one mile walk. All in all, a good day.

This the remnants of the carriage house near the parking lot. It was also gutted with fire along with the castle.

This is the first view of the castle. Each exterior wall had buttresses. 

The castle is fenced off due to liability reasons. Just a few years ago, you could wander around inside and inspect the construction.

This is the rear of the castle with it's own set of buttresses. If the buttress wasn't connected to the castle at the bottom then it would be considered a "flying buttress". 

This is the view from the castle. 

Tomorrow is moving day and I'll be headed about 180 miles north to Mark Twain country. It will be the longest tow so far on this trip and I weirdly am looking forward to the long drive. The road looks nice and the weather a little cooler. I'll use to trip to do some "thinking driving" and tighten the knots on some of my memory demons that are trying to get loose. 

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe, I'll Cya down the road.  

 

Cosmic Caverns

Campbell's Point Campground (COE); Shell Knob, Missouri

This is the eighth Corps of Engineers campground I've stayed at on this trip. I haven't counted them up but I would guess I've stayed in about 100 of them over the last 10 years and have only had one bad experience. One interesting thing has occurred this year compared to the past. Even though there are camp hosts, they don't routinely occupy the gate house or travel around the campground. Of the 8 campground on this trip, only one gate house has been manned. In the years past, the gate house was not only manned but they almost always wanted to see my senior pass and driver's license before logging me into the campground. The good part of this setup is I can show up before the check-in time and if my campsite is empty I can set up. So far, it's worked out pretty good. 

This campground is located in southern Missouri about half way between Eureka Springs, Arkansas and Branson, Missouri. Although there are a few "high hills" or "small mountains" it is not as someone would think about if you say you're staying in the Ozark Mountains. There are some good vista views and the roads are in above average to very good condition. Freedom and Liberty sort of like the winding and hilly roads (I'm just along for the ride sometimes).

I think this was southern Missouri and not northern Arkansas. It may have been psychological, but there did appear to be a difference in landscape once I crossed the state line.

This is about 10 miles from the campground. You drop down from this hill/mountain into the valley below.

This is the same view as the one above but is from a vista turnoff that I drove back to after setting up camp.

Although it is in a very rural area, the feel of the campground is "big-city".

The view out my back window

The main reason for my stopping here was to visit and explore the Cosmic Caverns of North Arkansas. They are Arkansas's largest privately owned show caves and were first discovered in 1845 but weren't developed until 1927. There are at least two lakes in the cavern and are considered to be "bottomless" since divers have not found their bottom. There was no evidence of the caves ever being used or visited by the native Americans.

The Cosmic Caverns are my fourth caverns I've toured and explore. The other three are Carlsbad, Longhorn and Mammoth. All four are different and after visiting Cosmic yesterday, I can't decide which one is the best and worse. I'm usually pretty good at ranking things, but am unable to do so with the caverns.

This is the map of the caverns

This is at the very beginning. That horizontal shaft in the center of the picture is a new exploration tunnel. During heavy rains, they have been hearing a tremendous amount of water rushing behind that wall. They suspect a possible underground waterfall, but haven't found it yet. By the way, that thing hanging down is a part of a stethoscope.

There was a large variety of geological formations.

An example of the walkway. This was the sturdier of all of them.

Fins and bacon. It did look like bacon.

There were some low hanging head knockers and narrow passages. 

That is the last of the lakes

Stalactites and our tour guide, Meagan, born in Beaumont, Texas.

Last picture.

The caverns are definitely worth a stop. You spend about 1 1/2 hours on the tour in 65 degree weather but very, very humid (90+ %).

Tomorrow is moving day and I'll be heading about 125 miles north of here to another COE campground in Central Missouri. That campground should be close to the northern edge of the Ozarks and it will be interesting to see the change in landscape. 

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road.

 

Two Top 10 Museums in the Aux Arcs

 Location: Hickory Creek Campground (COE); Northwest Arkansas

I didn't list a town for this campground because there are so many that are close by that I just listed the location as Northwest Arkansas. I originally had reservations in a campground about 30 miles north of here but the Corps had to close that campground because a tornado hit it a few weeks ago causing severe damage. I was lucky in two ways. One by not being in the campground when the storm hit, and two, by being able to find a vacancy at this campground on such short notice. 

Over the last few weeks, I have grown used to having a water view at my campsite but this one, although near the water, doesn't have nice watery view. This is also the first of my campground where I've stopped for four days instead of three. I did this on purpose because I've learned over the years that I routinely need a longer stay about every three weeks to "let time catch up".  Think about that for a second. When was the last time that you spent a day seeing everything for the first time. Now multiply that by three weeks. When moving every three days and seeing all new stuff, it takes a while for my mind to categorize and file away all of the new memories (silent echoes).

This picture is for all of the RV travelers out there who have visited (explored?) a campground dump station. This is from my last campground as I was leaving. The weather wasn't too hot, there wasn't a waiting line, no one was behind me so I wasn't rushed, there was water from the black tank flush, there was pavement instead of dirt or rock. I know non-RV'ers are going to think I'm crazy. I'm OK with that because I've learned over the years, I may be, just a little though.

My current campsite. Nice morning and evening shade. Today is moving day.

The view out my back window. That is a road in the distance going to the marina, but still nice. 

This area is on the southern edge of the Ozarks. Remember, earlier this year, when we explored the Arkansas River through the state, we learned the Ozarks are generally north of Interstate 40 and the Ouachita Mountains are south of the interstate. It's interesting in how the Ozarks got their name. As the French trappers where exploiting/exploring the lands of the Illini Indians of Illinois, they were told about the Quapaw Indians which the Illini called the "Arcansas's" which meant "people of the south wind". The French didn't like the Indian word so they changed it to "Arkansas". That word came to represent this entire region and became the name of the major river. They established a trading post near the junction of the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers called "The Arkansas Post". We explored that area earlier this year. Lots of circles being completed, uh? The official French documents in the late 1600's and early 1700's used the term "Aux Arcs" to describe this area of the Quapaws. Along came the English and whenever they heard or read the words Aux Arcs, they would pronounce it as Ozarks. The name stuck and carries on till today.

I only did a minimal amount of exploring because it was supposed to be more of rest stop but I was rewarded with two great museums. 

Yeah, you read that last sentence correctly. After not finding a really good museum in a while, I got lucky (get your mind out of the gutter, not that kind of lucky). I found two museums that rank in the top 10 of the museums I've explored. I haven't counted them up recently, but I would estimate the number being greater than 100. Over the years I've become jaded to museums but can never resist exploring one that sounds interesting. 

I believe these two were way above average because their subject matter covered thousands of years. Too many museums are focused only on one thing and usually one time frame. You would think that would make it easier to drill down deeper in what they are showcasing. I guess if I had lots more time to spend studying the subject, I may like it more. But, moving quickly like I do, I only need a surface view. These two museums gave me an option to dig deeper or not. Life is always easier if you have options. I dug deeper in some areas and not so much in others. I spent about 2 hours in each of the museums and came away feeling about right. With most museums, it seems I either feel disappointed and at other times I'm blown away. Uhhmmm,,,, I wonder if it's me or the museums? In terms of ranking, I would rate both about an 8 1/2 to 9 out of a possible 10.

The first one was the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History. It is a very nice city-owned museum that covers this entire area going back thousands of years. 

I could have stayed at this one for a lot longer but school buses of children began showing up which encouraged me to move on down the road. The children were very orderly so that wasn't a problem. It was just time to move on.

This is the best geographical representation of the Ozarks that I've found over the years. Wow, I can still spit out weasel words when I need to,,,,lol

They had some nice and interesting things. This represents of the prehistoric things found in the Ozarks. I also got a new "thinking bench" to try out. A little uncomfortable, but OK.

The same bench. I include this picture because of the picture in the background of the elephant/mammoth. 

The second great museum was the Museum of Native American History. Surprisingly, it is a privately owned and operated museum using things mostly from a person's private collection. Like the other museum, it covers things going back thousands of year as well as places in Central and South America. If you're into arrowheads, this is the place for you. There must be at least a couple thousand of them on display. They are grouped by name and locations. Very impressive. 

The sign at the door warns people that mammoth sounds are ahead. 

This is what you're greeted with as you enter the door. It a recreation of a wooly mammoth skeleton complete with sounds. Of course they are just guessing at the sound since no one knows for sure. 

The museum also includes several paintings. I liked this one of some plains Indians. It must have been an important place they were going to because of the highly decorative headdress and lance. If it was simply a hunting party, they would have been dressed more simply.

Everything was displayed perfectly and had excellent descriptions. You also carried a listening device that would give you more information by pressing a number shown near the display.

This one was interesting. It is decorative, maybe useful, things from the Mayans of Central America.

This takes us back to North America. It is a calendar made by an Indian names Lone Dog. He would ask the elders of the tribe what event should be used to represent the current year. He would then draw a image to represent it onto a bison hide. It begins in the center and spirals outward. The time frame is from 1800 to 1870. 

This is the legend key to the symbols used by Lone Dog

just some of the elaborate headdresses.

I got this picture as I was heading out. To me, it represents books, sculpture and painting. Three pretty good things.

Today is moving day and with only one campground in the state this time, I'll be leaving Arkansas behind. I'll be heading into the heart of the Ozarks to another COE campground, this one in Missouri. It looks like it will be kind of rural and remote so I hope there is a good cell signal so I can have internet. 

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road.