We spent part of yesterday visiting with Smokey and Pam Ridgely at Mark Twain Landing, which has an RV park and a huge water park. Smokey and Pam are workamping there this summer, and we wanted to see them before we left the area.

Bob and Molly Pinner had moved to Mark Twain Landing from the Corps of Engineers campground, and we ran into them at the RV park’s restaurant, where we joined them for lunch.

Paul, the restaurant’s cook, really knows how to turn out some great food, and our waitress, Tracy Grove, was an absolute delight. She is pretty, funny, and kept us laughing during our meal.

After lunch, Smokey gave us a behind the scenes tour of the water park. It has several pools, including a 500,000 gallon wave pool that uses huge fans to create waves that would be great for body surfing. There are also water slides, a “river” for floating on tubes, and wading pools for the little ones. Not to mention a lot of very pretty young ladies in bikinis. I’m not sure how much they are paying Smokey to hang out at the pool all day, but I suspect he’d actually pay the park instead, based upon some of the “scenery” around the pool.

Driving back to our campground, I realized that I had I goofed. When we arrived at Ray Behrens Corps of Engineers Campground we paid for a week, and for some reason I had it in my mind that we were due to leave today. It was not until I happened to glance at the tag hanging on the rear view mirror of our van that I realized that we were actually supposed to leave on Friday! Oops! A classic example of cranial-rectal inversion on my part.

Checkout time is 4 p.m., and it was about 3 p.m. when I realized my mistake, so we stopped at the ranger station and asked if we could pay for an extra night. The volunteer on duty said no problem, we were in a non-reservable site, so nobody was waiting for us to leave so they could come in.

Later in the afternoon we drove to the campground at Mark Twain Lake to visit with Ron and Brenda Speidel, who are camp hosting there for the month of June. They had a steady stream of campers coming in to register, and others stopping by to buy firewood.

Ron and Brenda enjoy volunteering at state parks, and it’s a pretty good gig. The work is easy, the hours are flexible, and they get a full hookup site in exchange for their work. So they get a month’s free camping in exchange for a few hours of light work every week registering campers. They don’t clean the restrooms or mow any grass, just check campers in, sell firewood, and answer questions. They said the park is busy on the weekends, but Monday through Thursday, they pretty much have the place to themselves.

With budgets cuts everywhere, state parks, Corps of Engineers campgrounds, and other facilities nationwide are always in need of help. If you are interested in learning more about volunteering, Ron and Brenda will be presenting an excellent seminar on it at our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally in Celina, Ohio September 28 – October 2. Make your plans to attend.

Thought For The Day – Having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world.

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We have been enjoying our time here at Ray Behrens Campground on Mark Twain Lake near Hannibal, Missouri. The one drawback over the weekend was the many smoky campfires we had to put up with from weekend campers. At one point we had to turn off our roof vent fans because we were drawing so much smoke inside that our eyes were burning. But by Sunday afternoon most of them had gone back to their homes and jobs and the campground had really thinned out.

Our friends Ron and Brenda Speidel arrived Sunday for their month long camp hosting commitment at Mark Twain Lake State Park, across the lake from us. Once they were settled in the four of us, along with Bob and Molly Pinner, and Smokey and Pam Ridgely, drove a few miles to a restaurant near the little town of Perry called The Junction.

Ron had told us that the restaurant serves huge pork tenderloin sandwiches, so several of us tried them. As you can see from this photo, Smokey looked like he had literally bitten off more than he could chew!

Molly took a picture of Ron, myself and Smokey posing with our big sandwiches, and you can almost hear our arteries hardening when you look at it.

 Unfortunately, even when you live the carefree life of fulltime RVers, mundane things like chores and illness catch up with you. Terry spent the first two days we were here doing laundry and cleaning the inside of our bus conversion. With that out of our way, she has come down with a bug.

I had a cold at Escapade that kicked my butt for a couple of days, and now Terry is feeling bad, with a headache, cough, and overall aches and pains. She’s taking medication, and hopefully it will run its course and she’ll feel better in a day or two like I did.

Our friends Ron and Jerrie Lea Hopf arrived at the campground yesterday afternoon, and once they were set up, Jerrie Lea came over to say hello. Not too much longer after that Ron and Brenda arrived, followed a few minutes later by Smokey and Pam, for a cookout hosted by Bob and Molly. Terry was feeling a bit better, so we walked across the road and joined in the fun.

If you’re not following the common thread in all of this, RVers love to eat, whether it’s dining out or just a group of good friends gathered around a picnic table enjoying good food. I don’t think any of us ever go hungry!

Thought For The Day – Forget health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.

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