Hannibal Missouri – Mark Twain Cave

As I drove Northeast from Columbia, the weather slowly changed into a classic fall day – breezy and cool with bright blue skies. I had called ahead to book a reservation at Mark Twain Cave RV Park, an interesting place in that it is a private operation that operates both a campground and tours of the cave located on their property.

It was nearing the close of their season so they were only at about 25% of capacity, which suited me just fine. I was given a fine site at the back of the park.  The sites here sport full hookup with one quirk: the sewer connections are near the front of the sites, far forward of everything else. My fifteen foot “stinky slinky” wouldn’t reach, so I had to pull forward and dump at departure. No biggie, but I did put a ten foot extension hose on my list for items to acquire for next year.

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Columbia Missouri – Third Grade Revisited

After leaving Kansas, my next scheduled stops were to visit friends & family in Hannibal MO, and Rochester IL. The line East was drawn directly through Columbia Missouri. It was one of the college towns we lived in for a while when I was a kid where I attended the second through fourth grades. There had not been any occasion for me to return for forty some-odd years, so I thought I’d stop in and check it out.

Finger Lakes State Park

As luck would have it, just to the North of town I located a fine spot to camp at Finger Lakes State Park. The weather was a bit drippy and cool, which was a shame because it would have been a great place to rent a kayak and paddle around at bit.  The rain was just like Chain O’ Lakes in Indiana where I camped back in June – another park that featured small lakes linked by creeks. Only as I write this do I recognize the coincidence!

One really nice feature was a public shooting range just outside the State Park property. I’m not sure if it was operated by the county or state, but it was super nice and completely free to use.  There were sections for different ranges from handgun out to 100 yards, complete with shooting benches and target stands. I took the opportunity to break out the pistols and shoot some paper targets. Seems I can still put the metal bits where I want them to go. Fun stuff.

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Roadside Americana – Three Kansas Oddities

Here’s something you might not know about Kansas: the people there are fully aware of the reputation of their state as a boring place to visit. What’s more, they go to great lengths to do something about it, and have for about a hundred years.

Kansans will take anything historic, notable or just down-right weird and build it up into a tourist attraction. Whatever it takes in order to get you to stop your car and spend some money as you speed across the prairie. In this post I’ll touch on three such efforts, varying in age, funding and audience appeal. All very different, but all 100% Kansas shtick.

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