Ruth's Life is Good: Saturday 4-27-24 Return to Missouri & Greenville Campground

Minnie by the Mississippi River

Today we said good-bye to Illinois and returned to Missouri.

The rain came in last night and stayed around most of the day.

Playing in the rain

Larry got up around 6:00, his normal time. I got up about 6:45, which is early for me. I had to go to the bathroom so I decided to stay up. I made pancakes for breakfast. After breakfast we got ready to leave Randolph County State Conservation Area. We had a great time here but it's time to move on.

The rain had stopped and we wanted to get on down the road before it returned. We were on the road at 7:45 am. Before leaving Illinois we drove back to Chester and parked by the Mississippi River. Chester has an area where you can park as long as your trailers are not left unattended. We parked there for about a half hour. We enjoy sitting by rivers and watching barges go by or into the locks. Today we saw a tugboat pick up construction workers and deliver them to a barge, where their equipment was. They are working on building a new bridge across the Mississippi River. The current bridge is really old, it is narrow and rough. We saw another tugboat delivering stuff from the Missouri side of the river to the Illinois side. We also saw a huge barge going up the river, it was going into the current so it was moving pretty slowly. We were surprised we only saw one barge on the river. We had fun hanging out by the Mississippi River.

The construction barge by the bridge

Barge going up the Mississippi

The tugboat moving the barge up the river

The barge on the other side of the bridge

After watching the barge go by we were back on the road. The roads we drove were two lane highways through small towns. They were curving narrow roads. We did take a four lane divided highway for a short period of time. The two lane roads didn't have any shoulders and they were damp. It was a beautiful drive because we drove through canopies of trees.

When we got to Perryville, Ill. the clouds were very dark so we parked at their soccer complex. It was a gorgeous park and big. We decided to walk around the park before the rain started. There was a soccer game going on. They were very small boys and they had their own portable goals. We thought the kids were just going the wrong way but they had their goals going perpendicular to the field. We watched the game a little bit. It was fun watching. Kids this small don't always understand what they are suppose to be doing but they were having fun and their lady coaches were really enthusiastic. We walked around for probably a half hour. We were going to sit in the parking lot and wait out the rain but we decided to go to the Walmart. I needed to pick up a few things. So off to Walmart we went.

Parents cheering the boys on

Perryville Soccer Complex

We parked the Minnie at the Walmart and went inside to do our grocery shopping. We finished our shopping just in time because it started to rain. We sat the rain out and waited for the road to dry a bit. We were there a couple of hours. While waiting we had lunch and read.

After the rain stopped we were back on the road. We drove to Sam A. Baker State Park and checked out the camping sites. We decided on a few of them and Larry went to register for one and found we had no cell service. We drove to the visitor center and had a little bit of WiFi. But because there is rain in the forecast and the park didn't have internet at the sites we left. We parked at a Dollar General so Larry could find a place to camp for the night. He knew that Greenville Recreation Area was nearby. He found and booked a site for the night. The park was just 11 miles down the road.

On most of our trips we make sure we have a campsite locked down for Friday and Saturday and because most campgrounds are full on the weekends we don't move until Monday. Here in Missouri weekends have not been a problem, we have always been able to find open spots. Of course come summer that probably wouldn't be true. Missouri has lots of state parks with large campgrounds, there are also quite a few large Corp of Engineer parks and even some National Forest/Park campgrounds.

Welcome sign

We had been at Greenville Recreation Area back in October of 2010. The town of Greenville was moved back in the 1940's because they believed the town would be flooded by the dam project. All the buildings were moved but the foundations were left. The campground is actually where the town of Greenville use to be. As you walk around the campground, there are signs about the buildings that were there. The old sidewalks are still there and the old cemetery is still there.

It's a gorgeous campground and has a hiking trail that takes you to Greenville. We found our site and parked the Minnie for the night. Our site is full hook-ups. There is a bathroom with showers. The bathrooms are old but are in good condition.

By the time we got to Greenville it was 4:30 and Larry had driven 110 miles. After setting the Minnie up Larry barbecued pork chops for dinner.

After dinner I walked around the campground for 45 minutes and took pictures. I ended up doing 15,000 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group. We also took showers. I played my Daily Challenge of Solitaire and Event. The event was Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 10 games (5 Klondike and 5 Free Cell). It took me 1 hour, 42 minutes and 21 seconds, which put me in 12th place in my group.