9-20-09 left Wilderness 8:30 AM

pictures coming
For $27 nite-best place so far to stay :o)
heading towards Omaha, Nebraska left at 8:30 AM weather was a little foggy and some wind-prices for gas has been so varied from $2.50 to $2.16 gal we're gonna drive as far as we can and stop as close to Omaha as we can-we're trying to get to Dakotas we have three days of traveling ahead of us.
Needed to find a Wal Mart-needed some essentials-our GPS took us to a little town which happened to take us over a little bridge in Bellevue City, Nebraska and when going over the bridge there was this adorable city campgrounds so you got it-we doubled back and that's where we camped last night. It was right on the Missouri River and called Haworth Park and only costs $20 a night and run by the city-very clean too with ceramic bathrooms & handicapped too
It would've been the perfect night, EXCEPT....poor little bud-we didn't even disconnect because it was such a serene and picturesque area that we wanted to take him out and run and play with him because he'd been stuck in the car all day long-so we put the leash on and took him down by the boats and water and next thing you know he's falling down and biting at his paws and when I pick him up he's got hundreds of little burrs all over his paws and in his pads and undercoat-it took us forever to cut and chop his hair and pull those things out of his fur......poor little thing, not saying how many splinters Joe and I got in our fingers working on him all that time. Thank God I brought all his clippers and snips with from home-and thank God there were two of us to work on him because it definitely was a two person job to hold him down while the other clips and cuts-he was sooooo stinkin good too!

9-18 & 19-09 Wilderness Campgrounds SDC

Well we found a little bit o' heaven in Missouri & it's right here at Wilderness Campgrounds and its not a KOA or a Good Sam's but it's the best we've seen or stayed in so far and we'd strongly recommend it to anyone anytime....it was actually recommended to us from Karlee the nurse at Ozark Hospital while I was getting treated, her and her family come and tent camp here a couple times a year and they love it too. We had asked if they do AAA discounts as well and she said heck no but I'll make you a Silver Dollar City member and give you a 15% discount which is even better than anything you have plus it got Joe free coffee whenever he wanted-so he was thrilled :o) Each site is truly in the "wilderness" and built into a cliff of some sort and wooded with full hook ups and cable TV and loads of stations. It actually was the first time we've used the tv in 9 days of traveling and we're happy we hooked it up because the next day was a "monsoon" type of day- it never let up all day long.... poor Bailey did not even want to go out to the bathroom! I went up to get a shower first thing in the morning, came out from the shower (which I must say was a gorgeous shower-fully tiled (ceramic) brite, clean & plenty of hot water & huge) and walked out the door....should not have dried off because I never got two foot out the door and I was soaked to the bone AGAIN & that was the beginning of the day and it never let up till late in the night-so we'd say the day was a wash...
It was Saturday too, felt sorry for all the poor saps who drove in for the weekend and bought tix for SDC -oh we also found out that if you stayed at this campsite and bought a day pass you got the second day for free-not that it would've done us any good today but next time (if there is a next time) we'll know and plan ahead because those tix are expensive and I would've liked to see more of the crafts and how things are made & Joe would've liked to see more of the "cowgirl" shows, lol!

9-18-09 Silver Dollar City, Branson, MO

Arrived at the SDC parking lot around noon, decided to come here first because it would've wasted too much of our park time to go to the campsite and unhook and come back since SDC closes at 6PM and tickets here are about $50 a piece for a day admission, but it does include everything except food and souvenir's -it was a good deal if you had a full day and as it was our day was dwindling quickly......So-we set Bailey up with plenty of food and water in the RV parking lot and off we went for a day of walking hills and valleys and seeing shows and rides & looking at crafts and all kinds of home cooking! There was a final show in the amphitheatre at 6 Pm but we had to check into our campsite before 8PM so we couldn't stay for the whole show or we'd risk not getting a campsite for the nite and that was more important at this point.
I'll have to put in here a picture of a little old lady that was a violin maker, she was in her late 90's and cute as a button, she was playing one of the violin's she had made with a young feller playing a guitar and she got so excited when I asked her if I could take her picture :o)
Then there was a blacksmith type feller that was making the coolest knives out of railroad spikes-very neat and extremely sharp but they were starting at $70 and Joe passed them up for a belt buckle instead-go figure :o) But the buckle is excellent and cut from an actual coin and we all know Joe and his buckles, lol

9-18-09 Fantastic cavern tour

8AM woke up bright and early to head out to the cavern tour-first one is at 8:30 so we're only 15 minutes away and have plenty of time...nice day for the tour and the cavern is 60 degrees all year, chilly down there :o) Cost is about $21 each and pulled by jeep with about 20 people guided by Garret our guide who just does this because it's a "job" poor guy :O(
Very interesting facts we find during that tour because when I was in school (at least during that class I usually cut and went to Art class :o) teachers always knew where to find me, lol....anyways-we learned how they found the caverns and used them especially during the prohibition era and they actually had hootin hollerin shows down there with a lot of the country western talent guys back in the 30's and 40's! It's strange too but a feller & his dog found the mine (can't recall his name now) actually kept it a secret for a couple of years during the war and then asked for volunteers to help him explore it and believe it or not (I believe it because I saw their names engraved on the wall of the cave) 12 woman and most of them married) actually were the only ones that volunteered....go ladies! I'll have to stick that picture in here for all to see, lol. Like I always say-woman are the backbone of this country....when God created earth she certainly knew what she was doing!
Oh well, now on to our next stop....we head back to our campsite-pick up our camper and of course our pooch and head off to Silver Dollar City

9-18-09 Silver Dollar City

1PM pulled into their parking lot, decided this was easier than trying to go to Wilderness campsite down the road, unhook & then get back to SDC since they close at 6PM and tickets are about $50 each for a day pass, little did we know that staying at Wilderness we would've gotten two day passes for the price of one except it wouldn't have done us any good since our second day at the site it rained :o(


SDC was an experience-don't know if I'd go out of my way to do it again unless I brought the kids with-simply because all the rides and admissions are included with the cost of the tix and we didn't do any of the rides but we saw and did plenty. A lot of craftspeople and their wares how they make them and of course for sale. I even took a picture of a little old violin maker (lady) that was in her 90's sitting playing with a young feller playing a guitar that was so thrilled that I took her picture :o)

this post was in the process but then we lost internet connection so we re-did it the next day...now miraculously some of it reappeared so I am including it as a "footnote" you might say because I can't really remember what we said in the one after and I don't really care at this point if ya get my drift, lol. Too many dang days in this camper and too many dang nights trying to get this internet to work!

9/17 morning leaving st louis going to Springfield

we left our cozy noisy campsite at Casino Queens (don't think we'll be staying there again) very nice but right against railroad tracks and boy do they blow the horns (Metro Links runs till about 1 AM and then starts again bright and early in the morn, so you get about 4 hrs sleep) but at least the laundry area was a couple steps from our site so I caught up on that and thought I was doing good by doing two loads of laundry....little did I know that my new soap was going to put me in the hospital later in the day! Yup, that new stuff they talk about on TV called Purex all in one- one sheet does it all...from the washer to the dryer, well it did it all and I broke out in welts that made leprosy look like it was coming back. Started on my arm to my butt up my back and then my face....what a site! Thank god my camera was full and Joe couldn't snap any pictures.
so after wasting that afternoon at the hospital we were too late to do much of anything so we pulled into a site in Springfield, MO that believe it or not was on top of another friggin train track and we couldn't see them because it was too late and dark but boy could we hear them.....ugh i just wanted to scream at this point between scratching and itching and being soooo uncomfortable and not being able to sleep and all the friggin noise from the trains I swear at the next site we both agreed that was going to be our first question we ask before checking in.....Do you have any train tracks hidden behind the trees?
we're staying here tonight and going to Fantastic Caverns in the AM, then coming back to get the camper and Bailey and go to Silver Dollar City and maybe Branson and a new site....bbs

Legends in Concert in St Louis Lumiere Casino 9-16

We decided to stay an extra night in St Louis because Joe signed up for a players card & got free show tickets for this show plus a tailgate chair & while we were at the concert a fellow a couple seats down from us (who just so happened to be a Home Inspector,lol) was taken up on stage by "Madonna" as her "prop" and his wife did not bring their camera with that night! I was going to include the clip but this blog upload did not cooperate, so sorry. Here is a picture of a lady in our row with the Belushi guy from Blues Brothers-they were really good too. I'll stick a Madonna pic in there but it's a little blurry-she was built, it was funny seeing all of these performers afterwards walking around the hotel/casino floor-not like A/C or Vegas where they hide out!

The Cornucopia is from Silver Dollar City entrance-just thought it was a pretty addition :o)

more to come tomorrow-long road ahead of us if this weather ever lets up-been raining cats n dogs non stop all day! Poor Bail doesn't even want to go out in this crap to pee...what's a dog supposed to do?

Oh yeah, update on my hospital visit two days ago in Ozark Memorial, St Louis-my welts came back full force middle of the night last night but not as bad as two days ago-popped the meds again - they went down and itching subsided enough that I fell back asleep but this craps gotta stop! I'm not really sure what's bringing them on, but my god do I look horrible & especially when it hits my face & lips....ugh! Joe wanted to take pictures and post them but I think I would've filed for divorce :o(

We're heading to the Dakota's tomorrow, I believe...but I'll be back soon and let you know about that. Just finished securing down the hatches for the trip - boy do you learn the hard way about camper traveling and what is secure and what isn't....like the faucet in the sinks have these little bursts of energy sometimes, so don't dare store anything in the sink or it's ruined.....for instance Joe put his pill case there between the last two campgrounds and yup you guessed it.....each compartment is now one big clump of a pill!

Me, I put my dish washing soap under the sink in the cabinet standing up and wedged-yeah right, like it's going to stay there~! Got here last night and I had soap all over under the sink. Not only did it tip over but it popped open the lid too.....what a gooey mess that was to clean.

But all in all its been fun and definitely a learning experience and much better than sleeping in a tent, lol.