After our two-day stay at Camp Lakewood, in Effingham, Il, we were On the Road Again driving towards Missouri. Our route took us through St. Louis,MO. We were very familiar with this drive, but this time we encountered lots of road construction. The road construction slowed the traffic and I was able to get some of the best pictures I have ever taken of the famous St. Louis Arch! I was also able to get a picture of a church that I have always admired. Today, I finally got a picture! Road construction and slow-moving traffic paid off today! (Ken doesn’t agree)
(click on photo to view as slideshow)
After passing through St. Louis, we drove to St. Robert, MO and stayed overnight in a Walmart parking lot. It was not our first time to stay at that particular Walmart. (We stayed there In 2013, when we visited Leslie, Gabe, LIly and Carter at the Fort Leonard Wood Army Post. )
On Monday (Labor Day), after a restless night, we pulled away from the Walmart and drove to Lebanon, MO. We had reservations at the Hidden Valley Outfitters RV Park. As we drove on the road to the RV Park, we passed several trailers and 5th wheels heading the opposite direction. Upon arrival at the RV Park, we could see that it was practically empty! It was true…summer WAS over!
(click on photo to view as slideshow)
We arrived in the early afternoon and it was such a beautiful day that we removed the Jeep top(first time this summer) and took off to check out some nearby country roads. We quickly realized that there was not much going on in the area! We stopped at the Fish Hatchery, in Bennett Spring State Park, to look at the Trout. Over 320,000 pounds of rainbow and brown trout are released here every year. We saw lots of Trout in all sizes! We watched the fishermen, but, we only saw one angler make a catch!
(click on photo to view as slideshow)
[foogallery id=”4716″]
Returning to the RV Park, we took a secondary road that led us into the back gate winding through the tent area of the campground. It was empty, too! Driving on towards our section, we passed a Wedding Chapel and a covered Walking Bridge. The RV Park was larger than we realized! I wonder what the RV Park is like during the busy summer season?
(click on photo to view as slideshow)
On Tuesday morning, we woke up early, packed our lunch, and walked to the river for our float trip. We had 10 AM reservations to float on the Niangua River. We were anxious and ready early and arrived at 9:15 AM. We got our floating instructions and life jackets and loaded our cooler and bag of necessities into the canoe. We were informed that it would take us 5-6 hours to reach the take out point and if we weren’t at the take out point by 5PM, there would be an additional $50 charge! I was hoping we could make it by 5 PM! It sure seemed like it was going to be a long trip, but, I wasn’t complaining!
We launched our canoe at 9:30 AM. Another couple from our campground launched two kayaks at the same time. They were experienced and had floated the river three times. They missed their take out time on their last trip. That didn’t sound good! We floated out ahead of them and we never saw them the rest of the day!
Soon, we came upon a church group with four canoes but we lost them when they stopped to regroup. The river was definitely not crowded and we only saw two more canoes, one fishing boat, one kayak, and one diver(don’t know where he came from). We stopped on a rocky sandbar and pulled the canoe ashore at lunchtime, but, we were quickly on our way.
It was a nice,easy paddling, float trip. The water was clean and clear and we saw numerous turtles sunning themselves on the fallen tree logs. There were a few rapids(class 1), but, they were easy and fun! The trip went by too quickly! We pulled our canoe out at 1:15 PM…WOW!…only 4 hours! A shuttle was supposed to meet us at the designated take out point, but, when we pulled out our canoe, there was no one around. Ken quickly discovered that we didn’t have cell service, so, we couldn’t call the office. So much for worrying about how to keep our phone dry…we didn’t need a phone without service!. Since we pulled out of the river earlier than expected, we hoped we weren’t going to have to wait until 5PM. We spread out our towels near the riverside and laid on the ground while we waited. Looking up at the sky, we saw moving clouds, eagles, airplanes, and a helicopter. If it hadn’t been so uncomfortable, it would have been fun! Finally, at 2:45 PM, the shuttle arrived and drove us back to our RV.
(Click on photo to view as slideshow)
[foogallery id=”4718″]
At the end of the day, we were hot and tired, but, we had such a fun day and we look forward to doing another river float!