We aimed to leave Wappaello early (for us) at 8:30 am because we had a 325 mi drive the next day—breaking our 2-2-2/3-3-3 rule of no more than 200/300 mi a day. Since we had a long drive, we wanted to get an early start. We left the dump station and subsequent recycling station right around 8:30 am…YES!
We hit three states on this drive. At one point the road goes over the Mississippi River and then over the Ohio River which connects to the Mississippi at this juncture. We went from MO to IL to TN and drove through Nashville.
When arriving we were out of groceries, so I went to the Walmart there and was pleasantly surprised that way more people were wearing masks than in any of the other places we had visited. I got gas and headed back to enjoy the pool with the crew. We ordered O’Charlies take-out before attempting a walk on the KOA nature walk. This KOA was a beautiful little stop: cute cabins, very clean, lots to do. On our nature walk the girls posed with the sculptures we passed and we saw a herd of deer (far away), but it was all cut short by a bee sting Elsa endured. Poor thing. Luckily, we had some Sting Reliever with Lidocaine in our first aid kit and a big book of Disney bedtime stories that was going to be a surprise that was on sale at Walmart to dull and distract.
As always: Make sure you wait for the photos and captions to load below! If the photos are too small and you want to zoom in don’t forget you can Cmd+/- on a Mac or Cntl+/- on a PC to zoom in/out your browser!
Leaving Wappapello State Park: They recycle! It’s a rare occurrence to find recycling on-site and for both glass and aluminum. I still don’t know why there is no paper recycling, I guess maybe I should be burning it in all the fires we have but we don’t have fires every night.
Driving from MO to TN: The lushness of things has started to become apparent as we cross into the East. Another thing is I knew the Appalachian Mts were around Southern TN and Northern GA but I didn’t realize they were actual Mts! For some reason, I just didn’t think they would be as grand as they are. Of course not as grand as some we saw out West but still so beautiful, grand, lush, and special because of that mix of Southern foliage and Mts. Photo captions: The lakes, grasses, and bugs. Lake; bridge over Mississippi; a close up of that bridge =0; the Mississippi (it was too big for my frame!); the bridge over the Ohio River; TRAIN BRIDGE!; another bridge; another river…maybe the Missouri? Hm; rock wall on the road; mountains in the distance; rock wall; Nashville in the distance
Manchester KOA: map; our site and Anna; our site again; swirly slide!; swimming; Goat Dog at the pool; pool; snacking (one processed food I love for some reason); lawn bowling Elsa!; lawn bowling Anna; Lawn bowling Keith and the girls; sliding again!; Anna on the slide; she got to the side don’t worry; Elsa on the slide; looking awkward coming off that slide—I was really trying NOT to get my head wet (and I was somewhat successful)
Dinner and our walk with an abrupt ending: ducks!; the beginning of the sunset on the cell tower; 6 deers!!!; modern dance performance art; riding the wolf; the sunset later on the cell tower; dinner; sitting on a wooden horse outside the “frontier cabin”—totes normal; very entertained by the big squirrels (entrance to the nature path); Elsa’s bee sting (now we are scared of bugs)
