St. Charles, Missouri

On Monday we left Lake of the Ozarks, a few days later than originally planned, and drove to St. Charles, Missouri to spend a couple of days seeing that town and visiting relatives.  We had never been to St. Charles and were impressed with it.  The historic district is made up of buildings from the 1800’s that house bars, restaurants and shops.  The main street is made of cobblestone and the Missouri River with a riverfront park is nearby.

Our RV park was close to the downtown area and adjacent to the Katy State Park bike trail, so we were able to ride our bikes into the downtown area, park them, and then walk around the town.  We ended up at a local restaurant for lunch on their outdoor patio.

Here are some pictures from visit to St. Charles.

Lewis and Clark statue at the riverfront park

We got back on our planned schedule and drove to the Chicago area on Wednesday.  We are now at an RV park near Starved Rock State Park, where we stayed last year.

Whirlwind Tour

In my last posting I wrote about my niece’s husband having an accident while with us here at the Lake of the Ozarks.  Due to this it would have been difficult for them to drive back to their home in Houston with their RV attached to their Ford Excursion.  I offered to drive the RV back to their house in advance of them and then return to Lake of the Ozarks for Fran and I to move onto the St. Louis area for an abbreviated planned stop.

I left on Saturday morning at 10:45 am with their trailer attached to our truck and their dog, Oreo, riding in the back seat.  On the trip there I had decided to take the main interstates to Houston which is a little longer, but I thought would be faster due to the higher speeds allowed and more lanes available.  The downside is that the route takes you through the major cities of Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Dallas, all of which had some traffic issues not fun when pulling a trailer. Dallas was horrible at 8pm on a Saturday night.

My original plan was to stop at some point late in the evening at an RV park then finish up on Sunday, however about halfway into the trip I realized I could make Houston by midnight and stay over at my niece’s house.  This was the best choice as it was so hot and humid in Texas that staying in an air conditioned house and not setting up an RV was a much nicer option. 

I did make it into Houston at midnight and my traveling companion, Oreo, was excited to see his home.  After a few tries I was successful at backing their trailer into their driveway (very tight turn with our truck!) and then slept for a few hours.  I left on Sunday morning at 6:45am.

On the return trip I decided to take a different route since I did not have a trailer attached.  I told my GPS to use the fastest route option and this took about 120 miles off the distance and kept me away from all the major cities.  The best part was it took be by a scenic byway in Arkansas that I decided to take as my northern cutoff to get into Missouri.  This cutoff is the Highway 7 scenic byway.  I picked it up at the junction of Interstate 30 in Arkansas and drove it north until it stops in Harrison, Arkansas.  This beautiful drive takes you through the Ozark National Forest and the town of Hot Springs, Arkansas.  I have never been to these places and was impressed.  This is definitely a place we will be bringing our RV.  You can check out this byway here http://byways.org/explore/byways/2155/travel.html. 

The downside to this drive was the highway is only two lanes and very curvy, so speeds are slower and you frequently get caught up behind trucks or slower drivers and cannot pass for miles.

I made it back to our RV at 6:45pm on Sunday.  So in 32 hours I drove 1600 miles! I had no incidents, no tickets and no issues with my driving companion, Oreo (who did not make the return trip).

Here is a map of my route

Today we are moving to St. Charles, Missouri for a couple of nights then on to the Chicago area on Wednesday.  Today’s drive is a leisurely 168 miles (chump change!!)

Still in Lake of the Ozarks

We encountered a situation while here in the Lake of the Ozarks that is changing our plans somewhat.  Over the weekend my niece’s husband was involved in an accident that ended up requiring emergency surgery on Tuesday evening.  He is recovering well and should be out of the hospital on Thursday or Friday.  Presently we are working out logistics of getting them, their kids and their trailer safely back to Houston.  Most likely I will be using our truck to take their trailer back and then return to Lake of the Ozarks to pick up Fran and move on to the Chicago area. 

Since the last posting we did some additional sightseeing.  We went to Ha Ha Tonka State Park to see their castle ruins, natural bridge and to have a picnic.

The castle ruins date back to the 1900’s when a man began building a huge stone mansion on the top of a bluff overlooking the lake.  Sadly he died a year after construction began but his sons completed the project then a fire destroyed it, except for the stone walls.  Looking at what is left you can imagine how large of a house it was and the views are spectacular.

Ruins of the mansion

View from overlook near the mansion

The other sight to see is a natural bridge that was made by water flowing under rock until a large opening was created.

We had great time at the park.

This has been a beautiful place to visit and I can see why the boaters love it so much.  The lake is huge so there is much to do with a boat and the surrounding area is beautiful.

Lake of the Ozarks

Let me catch you up on what we have been doing since arriving in Lake of the Ozarks.  Prior to my niece and family arriving we took a scenic drive through the hills and around the various towns to get an idea what was around things to do.

The scenic drive was not as nice as it was described in the brochure.  There were a couple of old churches with cemeteries that were interesting.  Here are some pictures from that drive.

Dual outhouses for the church shown above!

We took a nice hike the Lake of the Ozarks state park.  It took us right down to the water and followed the shore for a bit.

On Tuesday our relatives arrived.  They have twin two year olds and a five year old, so the activity level significantly increased.  On Thursday we rented a pontoon boat for 4 hours and took a nice ride out on the lake and did some tubing.  It was very difficult tubing as the water is wavy and you had to hold on for dear life, which caused your arms to get very tired quickly.

My niece and her youngest daughter

Me!

Nieces husband

Fran

Garrett (on the right) did not warm up to the boating experience until right at the end.  He mainly stayed firmly on a seat, cried, and then fell asleep.

There were many very nice homes along the lake, but this one caught my eye.  It is up on a cliff and they have cleared a path down to the water and installed a moving lift on a track.  Yes, you can have it all!

Great day.  More activities planned for the remaining days of their visit.  Check back for an update.

Moving Day

On Wednesday we left Carthage, Missouri and drove about 150 miles to the Lake of the Ozarks area.  We are now in a little town called Linn Creek, Missouri which is near the Lake of the Ozarks state park.

First I wanted to tell you about the drive over.  The majority of the drive was on Interstate 44 going eastbound.  Around Springfield, Missouri I began to notice many cool looking hot rods and old cars on the westbound side of the interstate.  Many were in groups.  These sightings went on until our route called for us to get off of the interstate.  As we changed highways there was a group of 5 cars coming onto to the same highway going to an Auto Zone store.  On the rear window of each of these cars was a sticker “Power Tour 2012”.  I Googled this title and found out this is an annual road trip sponsored by Hot Rod magazine.  It lasts a week and this year the trip is from Michigan to Oklahoma.  It was cool to see all these cars.

Ok, back to us. We are in the Lake of the Ozarks area to meet up with my niece and her family who arrive on Monday.  We have not explored the area yet but what we have seen is very beautiful.  Our RV park is nice and has lots of trees.  I was amazed that our satellite was able to get set up, but it did.  Here are a couple of pictures of our site.

We had a minor glitch when we arrived.  After we got set up I went to turn on the air conditioner in the living area part of the trailer but the thermostat display was blank and the A/C, fan or anything would not turn on.  The A/C in the bedroom was working fine.  I went into troubleshooting mode.  I discovered there was a fuse in the thermostat and found it had blown.  I took the fuse from the bedroom thermostat and put it in and it also blew.  So now we have no working A/C’s.  I installed the old manual thermostats but they did not work. 

I decided I would go to Wal-Mart and get some fuses so I could troubleshoot some more.  As I drove to Wal-Mart I found an RV dealer just a mile away from our park, and they are a Jayco (our trailer brand) dealer.  I bought the fuses and talked with the service guy who gave me some ideas to try.  I tried his recommendations and it did not resolve the issue but, with enough fuses, I was able to narrow down the issue to the high setting on the thermostat.  When I moved the switch to high the fuse would blow.  At least now both A/C’s are working, but I still have an issue and I am out of fuses.  I go back to the RV dealer to buy some more fuses and follow up with service guy.  He calls an A/C tech and is told that it has to be a short in the green wire that runs from the A/C to the thermostat.  With that information I take the interior grille off the A/C unit and see that the wiring harness is rubbing against a bolt and a small section of the insulation has worn away.  I put some electrical tape on it and everything works fine!  All it cost was $2 in fuses.