Travel

Bennett Spring State Park, Missouri

by Karen on October 12, 2012

in Travel

I have nothing finished in the quilts to share today and off to quilt group this morning.  We will be having a busy weekend doing some work at home and the weather will be warm so we will be spending a lot of time outside.  A heat wave – low 80′s :)   should be nice.  I might post this weekend and I might not – I really am at home though and haven’t run off any where on another trip LOL

This campground is about 4 or 5 hours north of home and was our last stop on this trip.  It was just for one night and due to several stops along the way we didn’t get there until about 4 PM.  The weather had gotten a little warmer but wasn’t really sunny.  Bennett Springs is a haven for fly fisherman – the park was packed – we got there on a Friday – what a difference from the previous 2 nights at an almost empty park.  We left on the Saturday morning for home with very little stops as we were going over very familiar ground having been on the route numerous times – Though we had never been at this park.

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fishermen and women – all over the place.  At places there were so many in the water that I don’t know how they kept from not having their hooks hook on to near by people.

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So this concludes the photos of the trip to Wisconsin and back home.  Hope you have enjoyed seeing the places that we visited and that I didn’t bore you Smile  Back to regular stuff now for the rest of the year and beyond.  We have no travel plans right now for the near future.  Mike’s contract goes into February at least and maybe longer.  This winter we will be here at home.

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Hannibal Missouri–continued

by Karen on October 11, 2012

in Travel

The Mark Twain boyhood home area is what we came to this town to see – I found the quilt shop right across the street and visited that first – took the purchases to the car and then saw the historical stuff!

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The white house is the boyhood home, the stone buildings are the visitor center and the museum.

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I loved reading some of his quotes that are scattered throughout the museum.

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Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) during his steamboat days.

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A crazy quilt that was in the museum – behind glass of course – didn’t get too close to it so zoomed in.

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This 1906 sock loom was at one of the stores scattered throughout the little town – a lady was demonstrating how it works and was busy making socks.

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an antique store in town of course – a nice one!

I don’t know which kind of Singer this was but I wasn’t in the market so didn’t look really closely at it.

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I love this stove – the top lids lift up and the burners are underneath it.

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I like this one too.

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Next morning we take off and continue on the way home with one more night of camping.

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More From Hannibal

by Karen on October 10, 2012

in Travel

Hickory Stick Quilt Shop – Hannibal, Missouri — where I went crazy and continuing my quilt shop shopping – I really thought I needed to help the economy out I guess – I don’t know what I was thinking other than what a great sale I had found!  The shop looked small from the outside – but it went room to room to room.  I really enjoyed my time there – if you are in the area – it is right across from the Mark Twain historical area – which is what we went there for to begin with!

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The Motorhome

by Karen on October 10, 2012

in Travel

So many of you have placed interest in seeing more of the inside of our home on wheels.  I went outside and took some photos yesterday afternoon and will give you a tour.  Edited:  keep in mind this is intentionally for 2 people to use and is a good size for two people who spend most of their time when camping hiking and outside a lot.  It is too small to live in full time or for more than two people – we do not have pets.

The motorhome is 24 feet 8 inches long and stands about 10 feet 8 inches tall if I am remembering right.  There are no slide outs to add more in area inside in width.  It is a 2008 Navion IQ – from Winnebago – they no longer make the model that we have.  Edited:  I should have added that the motorhome has a diesel engine and a generator (really comes in handy when you camp at an area with no electric hookups)

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We have an awning on this side to pull out for shade and usually park our camp chairs out here on this side and we have a fold out table for in between the chairs.

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Open the door and the first thing you see is the  bathroom door.

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Step on up inside – the bed is at the back – this used to be a extra large dinette area but we felt the need to upgrade to a good mattress instead and have this area now permanently made up as a bed and do not use it as a dinette.  At our ages (60) we feel the need more for a good mattress than the futon style that was here!   I made this log cabin quilt about 7 or 8 years ago  by hand when we were camping using a tent and/or cabins – the top was made on the road and the quilting when we got home.  It is a queen size quilt.  We have 4 little shelves in the corners of the bed – two on each side.  I do not use them much for anything as you have to put everything away when you are on the road.  Occasionally I will use them for little things.

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We have a stereo and dvd player in this cabinet and below it a tv that swivels away from the wall and pulls out about a foot – you can have it aimed at the bed or at the living area.  We started to talk this last trip of possibly removing the tv as we rarely watch it when we travel.  The area the tv is in now could be used for the kitchen better – a paper towel holder under the cabinet and spice shelves ect on the wall among other ideas that will come up I am sure.  We have two long thin storage boxes under the bed that we use for packing extra clothing and things.

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the small stove top and the sink – big enough for cleaning up – I mainly try to make one dish meals and cook outside when I can.  The microwave is above and I use it when I don’t have room on the stove top.  I do not care for this microwave as it is so much slower cooking than the model I have at home.

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Microwave and a cabinet  that I use for food.  This is above the stovetop and the sink.

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The kitchen cabinets – with the lids down on the stove and sink it gives room to prepare the meal.

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The kitchen galley is narrow – turn and you can open the refrigerator – it is an ok size for two people and has a small freezer as well.

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We took the shower door out – it was such a narrow space – Mike put in a curved shower rod instead and we got an long shower curtain to make sure it would hang inside properly.  We have a cord at the lower area to hold it open when we travel if it is pulled all the way around it is in the way for when you need to use the facilities because it sticks out from the curve.  Propped up in back of the toilet is a dust mop for the floors.  there aren’t many spaces for things like that so I stick them where I can.  The laundry hamper goes in the shower most of the time as there just isn’t any place else to put it.  I have two collapsible kind, if one fills up before we find a place to wash clothes it gets put in the car and we start to fill up a second one.

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The other side of the bathroom – Mike made that smaller cabinet above the sink for more storage space. Laundry supplies are stored on the floor in the corner by the toilet.

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the living area when we travel.  Seats face the front.  And yes we do have a big sky light – if we are traveling in the summer and it is sunny and hot we have a reflector shield that goes over it to try to block out some of the heat.  It also has a pull down shade on it but it is light colored and doesn’t reflect the sun that much.

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The Living area when we are parked at the campground.  The seats swivel to face the inside of the home and the tables – one slides out from the drawers and the other is against the wall when not in use and is a nice size for hand sewing :)

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A dresser set – Mike wants to do something different with these cords – they tend to get in the way – so many things now to charge! phones, kindles, computers ect.

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A charging station here above the drivers’ seat but he wants to tuck those cords in a different way and will explore options.   He also stores his camera up there, his hat, wallet ect – all that man stuff Smile besides some more of the towels.

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This cubby hole is above the passenger seat – I stick more of the bathroom towels up there and on the little ledge goes my purse.  My kindle, camera, and whatever goes above the visor which has a good small storage area as well.

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The closet

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The closet redesigned – it had two rods for hanging clothes – we think one rod is plenty and Mike made shelves and we have 3 plastic boxes that get strapped down and we can store folded t-shirts and other clothing in there and made better use of the space for us.

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If we keep the tv we might move it over here or get a smaller one and mount it on the wall in the same fashion as it is now – closer to the chairs — we do not watch tv in bed.  Once in awhile I might watch a movie on dvd that Mike has no interest in and I can always recline on the bed with my hand stitching and watch it off of my computer.

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So that concludes the tour – I put way more photos up than you probably wanted!

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Mark Twain State Park

by Karen on October 9, 2012

in Travel

Mark Twain State Park was about 20 miles from Hannibal, Missouri (where I went crazy at the quilt shop) were we wanted to spend part of the day at Hannibal so that was the park of choice to stop at for 2 nights.

On the way that day of travel we stopped at Fort Madison, Iowa for a break and lunch time.  We took the short tour through the fort (a replica) and took a walk along the River next to the Fort. (on the way home we actually crossed the Mississippi River 9 times in order to see things on either side of the river – Like I said we were taking our time)

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So you can see a comparison in size of campers – See that long silver airstream that is about 34 to 36 feet I think in length – see the small motorhome ahead of it – the beige color – that is our motorhome – can’t see the car but we are towing our Honda behind us.  Big difference – big difference going through small towns too Smile worth it in our opinion.

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Our campsite.  This was in the middle of the week – we practically had the place to ourselves and it was a very large campground.

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At the entrance to our site – I took a picture to the left – no campers in sight!

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A picture to the right – no campers! It was quite – nice evening walk around the campground.

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At Hannibal we saw the American Queen Steam Boat in port.  This was actually the second time we had seen her – the boat was at one of our rest stops the day before in Davenport.

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I found it interesting that when they get ready to leave those 2 big steam stacks come down – they do not fit under some of the bridges. Pulling away from the dock we see one of the stacks being tipped over  – we continued to watch the process.

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One down one left to go.  We saw that one being lowered as the boat made a turn and was ready to get going to it’s next port.

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Here you can see the paddle area.

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I will do another post or two from Hannibal Missouri as we saw some interesting things there.

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On The Way Home

by Karen on October 8, 2012

in Travel

A trip from our area of Arkansas to our daughters area of Wisconsin in actuality can be done in about 14 hours.  We took 4 1/2 days – yes we didn’t drive much each day – we were busy looking at things along the way.

Here we are in the Wisconsin campground just about ready to leave – just have to get those orange leveling blocks out from under the front tires and we will be on our way.  Look at those fall colors – they were turning each day of our 10 day visit.

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I lost track of how many times we criss-crossed the Mississippi river.  We went from WI to the very eastern edge of Iowa into Illinois at times the first day.

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Camped near Rock Island Illinois the first night.  We got there plenty early enough to do some sight seeing and stretch our legs.  Our first place of interest was a park called Credit Island.

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One of the unique things about this park is a small area where they have Victorian area sculptures sitting out in the grass.

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And there is this pretty walking/bicycle bridge that you can walk across and see the river.

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Such a clear day – just see the reflections in the water.

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At the campground there was a walking trail as well.  This photo didn’t come out clear but I liked it anyhow.

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Next morning we were off to our next stop about 3 or 4 hours down the road.

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