Sunday 4-12-26 Clarksville, Silo Access Area & Having Fun

 

Clarksville Missouri

Tonight I'm sitting here writing my blog on the Mississippi River. We had an outstanding day. We didn't do too much.

The morning temperature at St. Francois State Park in Bonnie Terre, MO was 61 degrees. The high temperature was 78 degrees in Clarksville, MO. We had overcast skies and a little rain. 

I surprised Larry by waking up at 6:45. We wanted to get an early start. We have to go through St. Louis. I got dressed and we started to get ready to go. We put everything away and secured. Then we had a quick breakfast. We were on the road by 7:30. On the way out of St. Francois State Park we stopped at the dumpster to get rid of our trash and cans in the recycling bin.

Larry drove 125 miles today. He drove on I55 to St. Louis (50 miles), where we picked up I270 to bypass St. Louis. It had six lanes and road construction. After going around St. Louis we picked up I70 West to Highway 79. We crossed over the Missouri River via a huge bridge. Highway 79 is a two lane highway through small towns. There were quite a few signs saying it was part of the Great River Road (Mississippi River). We did the Great River Road back in 2017 and had a super time. We started at Baton Rouge, Louisiana and traveled all the way to the beginning of the Mississippi near Bemidji, Minnesota. 

We stopped in Clarksville, MO to see the lock. While there we walked around by the lock. We saw a barge in the lock and watched it go in the lock. We saw an old Harley Davidson and we talked to its owner a little bit. Clarksville looks like it's barely surviving. Then we got back into the Minnie our final destination was 5 miles down the road.

The sign for the lock in Clarksville

A ship in the lock

The guys roping off the ship to get through the lock

Living in Clarksville

The Judge going in the lock

The final destination is a free camping area run by the U.S. Corps of Engineers called Silo Access Area. It is right off the Mississippi River. It's a beautiful camping area. It's paved and the sites are paved. There no power or bathroom but they do have a port a john. We took a pull-through site #10, which looks over the Mississippi River. It was very leveled.

Camping on the Mississippi River

We parked the Minnie and set it up for the night. It was very comfortable to sit in the Minnie because there was a breeze. We watched the barges go down the river. Occasionally a train went by but it wasn't a problem. We saw four of them I took pictures of three of them. We saw the barges coming from both directions, which was against the current and with the current. The barge we saw in Clarksville we saw it here. The name of the barge and tug was Judge. It had two barges it was moving. The other two I took pictures of were Andrew Cannava and Roberta Tabor. Andrew Cannava waited for the Judge to go down the river before moving on. It was going with the current. Roberta Tabor came a little later going with the current. It had five barges and we saw a worker walking around to make sure everything was ok. We always enjoy watching the barges going down the river and through locks.

The Mississippi River

The Judge coming up the Mississippi River by our camp site

The Judge tugboat

Worker walking the barge 

Roberta Tabor

Look how close the barge and the Mississippi River is to our site 

Andrew Cannava

We kept entertained by reading. I played my games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Easy Street Mini of 15 games. It took me 33 minutes and 37 seconds, which put me in 39th place in my group. I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2.

I didn't do too many steps because there wasn't anywhere to walk and the campground was very small. I ended up doing 2,200 steps.