Monday 8-26 Happy Birthday Larry

Happy Birthday Larry

We woke to a beautiful day. We stayed overnight in the Downstream Casino RV and truck parking area. The RV parking was separate from the 18 wheelers but not by much, we were pleasantly surprised that we didn't hear the trucks running their refrigeration units. They had to run them all night. As we were getting the Minnie ready to get back on the road Larry noticed we had some neighbors in the field across from the casino, what a surprise, they were bison.

Our neighbors at the casino

After getting the Minnie ready we walked over to the coffee shop in the casino. We figured we might as well use the $10 voucher I earned gambling. We got a pineapple cupcake, a big cinnamon roll and chocolate milk. Then we walked around and checked out the hotel lobby area. It was very nice. It had a fireplace with a sitting area. The entrance was pretty with tile flooring. When we got back to the Minnie we shared the cupcake and cinnamon roll. The cupcake was made a little different than normal cupcakes, it tasted more like the flavored pound cakes you buy in the bakery. Larry cut the cinnamon roll in quarters and we ate half of it. We saved the other half for a snack down the road.

Free breakfast at the coffee house

We were on the road by 8:00. Today Larry drove about 300 miles. We drove four lanes highways and two lanes highway. We took a bridge over the Lake of the Ozark. It's a hugh lake and very popular. It had homes all over its shores, I can't imagine how busy the lake gets on the weekend. While we drove over the lake we saw a few boats driving down the lake. It's a gorgeous lake. We drove through Jefferson City, which is the capitol of Missouri. I was going to take a picture of the capitol building but it was a under construction. The drive was nice and the ditches and hillsides were very green.

Boating on the Lake of the Ozark

I slept part of the way because I didn't go to bed until 3:00 in the morning. Initially I got back to the Minnie from the casino a bit after 9:00 but then decided to go back and stayed until a bit after midnight. A while back Louise introduced me to another Solitaire Challenge event, it occurs every other day and occasionally a mini Solitaire event appears. Yesterday was a World Tour Event which had 30 challenges. After getting back I started on the challenge, I only did 28 and still came in 28th in my group of 100 people.

We arrived at Mark Twain Lake about 3PM, it is a Corps of Engineers property. On the way to the campground we stopped at an overview of Mark Twain Lake. There was a tower that gave you a great view of the lake. I climbed the stairs and took a few pictures. After I got back on the ground we walked on the dam. There are a couple of campgrounds on the lake, we decided to stay at Frank Russell, it has 60 campsites. Because I have a Senior America The Beautiful pass we got the site for half price, which was $9. The site has power and water. There is a dump station free of charge for campers. The couple at the gate were very friendly and set us up on a great site across from the bathroom. After setting up the Minnie for the night we walked around the campground. It has an equestrian area with seven campsites and a big corral for horses. There is a fishing lake with a path that goes around part of it. They have gorgeous archery area with figures of turkeys, deer, bear and wolves for the archers to hit with their arrow. There are hiking trails, bathrooms with showers, playground, amphitheater which has a weekly show during the summer and you can get to the lake from the campground. We walked for 45 minutes. The walk started out cool because of a breeze but by the time we got back to the Minnie it was muggy. Frank Russell is a great campground to camp in and have fun. 

The tower at the overview point

Larry waving at me when I was in the tower

The archery stand to shoot from

The figures to aim at

The corrals at the equestrian area

The fishing lake

We had another great day.