Gorgeous Sunny Day
We had a gorgeous day with sunshine. We woke up to 50 degrees at Mark Twain State Park. The high was 70 degrees at Dr. Edmund A. Babler Memorial State Park, due to a wind it was a little nippy.
We spent five days camped out in Mark Twain State Park and three of them were rainy days. Before the rain came we had a chance to hike the trails. We ended up doing three hikes for a total of 7.75 miles. We walked around the park. We had a great time at Mark Twain State Park and now it's time to move on.
Our next campground is at another state park called Dr. Edmund A. Babler Memorial State Park. It's real close to St. Louis. So on the weekends it's hard to get in. It about 120 miles from Mark Twain State Park.
We got up and had cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Then we put things away and made sure everything was secure. Then we got the Minnie off the blocks and put the blocks away. We were on our way by 8:00.
On the way out we stopped by the dump station, dumped the tanks and filled the water tank. We really didn't need to do either but it was easy to get in and out the dump station. I walked across the street to the dumpster and got rid of our trash.
Before leaving Mark Twain State Park we swung by Mark Twain Birthplace State Historic Site. On the way to the site we saw a few turkeys walking on the side of the road. Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) was born in a small cabin in the village of Florida, which is one-fourth mile from the site. The cabin is preserved in the museum. When we got to the museum it was closed so we weren't able to see the cabin and read about Mark Twain. This was disappointing. It was a couple of miles down the road from the campground.
Turkeys on the side of the road
After leaving the museum area we started our adventure to Dr. Edmund A. Babler Memorial Park. We weren't in any hurry because Larry had booked our three night stay this morning. The drive was mainly on two lane highways through farmland and ranches with cattle. The last 65 miles was a four lane divided highway. We had to slow down a bit because of road construction. They were patching the four lane highway and one of the lanes was close.
We arrived at the park at 11:30. It was hard to see what way to go to our site because they were making improvements to the sites. They were redoing the concrete slabs to park your RVs and making the sites full hook-ups. Larry parked the Minnie and started to walk to the check-in booth. The host walked up and told him where to go.
Our site is very nice. The sites have a concrete slab, picnic table, fire pit and hook for garbage. They are level. There is a lot of growth around the sites. Once Larry plugged us in I made sandwiches for lunch. Then we relaxed a bit.
Larry had read about a paved bike trail. About 2:00 we decided to find the trail, no problem. The trail is black top with yellow markers, it goes 1.75 miles one way. It had been closed due to the construction of the campground and they repaved part of the trail. The trail was very nice and had a lot of dogwood trees in bloom. It also had other trees. We hiked under the road through a rock tunnel (it was short). There was a couple of places where you had to go up hill. But we didn't know where it ended, it just ended at a parking area and a maintenance road. There were a couple other parking areas to get on the trail. There also were a couple other trails you can hike off the bike trail. We had a very nice hike. We saw a group of four guys, I assumed it was dad and his three sons.
The bridge we walked through
Dogwoods in bloom
When we got back to our site the host came by to tag our site. We happened to be outside so we talked to her. She said that they will be happy when the construction is finished. Because there are only 10 electrical sites available and some non-electric sites. About half the campground is under construction and it's been going on for a year and a half. They just need to do the grass.
I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Medium Mayhem Mini of 15 games. It took me 56 minutes and 5 seconds, which put me in 17th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.
When it was time for dinner the wind was down so I was able to barbecue some pork sausage patties. After dinner I walked around for 40 minutes to get some steps. I ended up doing 18,000 steps.
Dr. Edmund A. Babler Memorial State Park
Larry is very excited. This evening he signed up for a library card for the Houston Texas Public Library. It's free and allows him access to all kinds 0f online stuff. He can check out movies, e-books, music and more.
He loves to keep informed about whats going on all over the country and sometimes the world. For many years he has done this via the web but lately many of the websites have instituted paywalls and you can no longer view the articles for free. He has paid subscriptions to the NY Times and CNN. He also has accounts on other sites, some he donates money to but in the last few weeks they now require a yearly fee. He found a online service that you could pay that allowed you to read lots of newspapers and magazines. In researching the service he found lots of folks could access it for free via their local library.
The Houston public library allows any permanent Texas resident to get a library card. Late in the day he signed up and in seconds had access to all kinds of stuff. Tons of books by authors he likes are available to check out either via e-book or audio book. There are also 100's of newspapers and magazines from around the world. If he wants to research anything they have searchable access to papers and articles going back into the 1800's. He has just begun to explore what is available. No idea how much he will use any of this but he is excited to begin.
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I would love to hear friendly comments on anything at all. Ruth