The Next Chapter - Part II: The Journey: Fifth travel day

Jonesburg, MO

Another uneventful travel day - thank you Lord for once again bringing us to our destination in safety, without incident and in beautiful driving weather. Being a Sunday and not having the pressure of having to work in the afternoon, we were able to leave without having to rush. We also gained an hour due to daylight savings time ending, so our bodies felt a little bit more rested when we got out of bed at 7:00 (note: we'll lose this extra hour later next week when we're back on Eastern time). We went through the usual pack up routine and pulled out of that noisy (trains) campground at about 9:30. We arrived at our new location about 12:30.

The drive itself had a few more things to look at. We're still following the interstate system (today was mostly on I-70; previously it was I-29). We passed by a few more cities (namely Columbia) and it seems that the farmlands are far less frequent. Now, if we don't see big box stores along the road, it's a lot of billboards or just plain open space. BTW, Jonesburg is about 70 miles west of St. Louis. Most of the drive was a lot of rolling hills.

The campground we chose this time is a nice little gem (Jonesburg Gardens). The sign entering the town says population 769 and it is clearly a very small town - nothing at all in the area, although there are a number of attractions within 10-70 miles. The campground seems nice enough, although it is practically empty right now, so it's probably not quite as nice during peak season. For now, it almost reminds me of the state park we stayed in last week, except that it also has a playground (we swung on the swings) and a little lake. Since a license isn't needed to fish here, I was hoping to once again try my hand at casting without getting the line caught (LOL), but we couldn't figure out how to thread the line and Mitch didn't have the patience to go to YouTube to learn. He did spend at least an hour trying to figure it out though, so at least we tried. I wish we had a few more days to spend here, as I think they probably have a lot more to offer than meets the eye, including nature trails, exercise area, and campers tv lounge. We had a gorgeous day (sunny, 70s), so we did get to spend some quality time outdoors. We also discovered a bit of a farm. It's not advertised, so I'm not really sure about the story behind it, but we found a pen of goats and chickens. In fact, there was a loose chicken at our site when we pulled into our spot. Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera available and it was gone by the time I had it. We found it and it's siblings, around the bend a bit later. There seem to be quite a lot of chickens roaming the premises.

I forgot to mention that today marks the 40th anniversary of when Mitch and I met (Friday will be our 38th wedding anniversary). I wish there was a nice place to have dinner out, but alas, the only place in town is a place called "Frumpy Joes," and they don't have anything on the menu we can eat. We'll be sponsoring the kiddush next week so we'll look forward to celebrating our anniversary with our old friends in Asheville.

Anyway, here are a few photos of the campground:

From our front door: the woods, the playground and some cabins (and our rig at the site)