Third day - uneventful - Day 863 (Yr 3, Day 130)

Rock Port, MO

Feeling grateful and blessed that today mostly went off without a hitch.  We left just a tad later than we wanted (8:30) but that was ok.  The plan was to drive to a campground in Pacific Junction, Iowa.  I miscalculated the distance -- it was only about 156 miles, so we decided to look for another campground about 50 miles further, which is how we ended up here (the first place didn't take reservations so we had nothing to lose by not showing up).  We were even very lucky in that there was a torrential downpour that we ended up missing by about 15 minutes!  The roads were still wet, but the sun was out by the time we arrived.

Rock Port isn't exactly in the middle of nowhere, but it's not a big city either (pop. 1300) - no big box stores or malls nearby.  This is a small, very wide open and nice place and the owners are extremely friendly. There is even a corn field along the edge of the property (a few weeks earlier, we could have picked some but alas, it was all harvested). Nice place to stay for a few days, or overnight in our case.

To clarify "mostly" in the opening sentence... there seems to be a problem with 2 of our tire valves in that the tire monitoring system sensors aren't working because the valves need to be replaced.  This is something a truck tire shop needs to do.  As we got off the highway, we saw such a place, which is literally just up the road from the campground.  So Mitch decided to unhitch the truck and go over there while I did my work.  Unfortunately, they didn't have the parts in stock.  The real problem was that we're parked kind of on an angle, so it took almost 1 1/2 hours for Mitch to get the truck hitched back up again.  I'm glad we did it today, though and not in the morning!  That would be incredibly stressful!

We also discovered that the shul in Kansas City, MO that we were planning to go to doesn't have Shabbat services.  The rabbi recommended a different place - in Leawood, KS [note: this area is right on the border of MO and KS].  As it is, the first place was about 15 miles away from the campground, and this one is about 25.  It's a bit more than we like to drive for services, but the only campground that's closer has terrible reviews, is very small and cramped, and no one answers the phone so we don't even know if they're open.  I was getting stressed trying to figure out what to do, but we decided to just drive the extra 10 miles.