Ruth's Life is Good: Friday 4-25-25 Laundry, New State Park & Walking

Saturday, April 26, 2025

Friday 4-25-25 Laundry, New State Park & Walking

Smile and have fun

We had rain overnight. The rain started late last night and stopped early this morning. It was very hard for awhile. We woke up to 66 degrees at Dr. Edmund Babler State Park (Wildwood, MO) and the high was 80 at Meramec State Park (Sullivan, MO). We slept under the fan.

I woke up at 7:30 and got dressed. Then I made mini waffles for breakfast. We took our time getting ready to move on. We put everything away and secure. We were ready to leave at 9:00. Today our adventures take us 50 miles down the road to Meramec State Park, which will be our fifth state park.

Our drive was mainly interstate.

On the way to Meramec State Park we stopped at Inside-Out Laundry in Sullivan, MO. The laundry was about 5 miles from the state park. It was a very modern place and well kept up. It was clean and had a lot of washers and dryers. I used the smallest front-end washers, that cost $2.75 per load. I did two loads. The washers worked great, after the last spin their were almost dry like at home. The dryers cost $1.00 for 20 minutes for additional time $.25 for 5 minutes. I used one dryer and put enough money in for 30 minutes. I used medium heat and the clothes were dry. While we were waiting for the clothes to dry a couple of people decided to do donuts in the dirt parking lot out back. The owner came out and put a stop to it. They were just tearing up his parking area and they came very close to the Minnie. We were afraid they were going to hit it. Rich's Famous Hamburgers was right next to the laundry but we decided to go to the park to have lunch.

We arrived at Meramec State Park around 12:30. We stopped at the check-in booth. The lady and gentleman at the booth asked if we had a reservation. We said no. They suggest a site and Larry asked if he could drive around. They said yes but we need to come back to make sure it was available. They told us it was the first day the park had been open in the last month due to flooding. That's why there was no openings yesterday. We parked the Minnie and walked around to check out sites. We found a couple we liked. Then we walked over to the booth and they registered us in 166 for two nights. We thanked them for the suggestion for a site but it was too far away from the shower-house. It was a great site with a lot of privacy.

Meramec State Park is a hugh park with three sections and three group sites. Section 1 has 14 sites with electric and 52 sites with water and electric, Section 2 has 18 full hook-up (water, sewer and electric), 41 electric and 52 primitive and Section 3 is with 29 electric sites.There are three group areas. Some sites are by the Meramec River. They have two shower-houses and the pit toilets were locked. The park has a playground, boat ramp (closed due to the flood) and fields to play in. It has a lot of trees but you don't have much privacy. The sites have a picnic table, fire pit with grill and a hook. They did an excellent job of cleaning the park up from the flood.

We setup the Minnie for the weekend. Afterwards we shared a pasta salad for lunch.

Then we relaxed with a book. Larry finished another book.

I played my Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Tri Peaks Mini of 5 games. It took me 9 minutes and 14 seconds, which put me in 11th place in my group. I played Angry Birds. Then I continued reading Guncle Abroad.

For dinner I barbecued seasoned pork. After dinner we walked around the campground. Larry walked with me for 45 minutes. We walked by the Meramec River and through the three sections of campsites. While walking by the river we saw a jet boat go up the river. The river appears really shallow and the current is very strong, we are guessing they have to use jet boats. Larry went inside and I walked around for another half hour. By the end of the day I had done 13,000 steps. LIFE IS GOOD!!!!