October 10, 2016. A Quiet Day at Lake of the Ozarks State Park.

October 10, 2016.  A Quiet Day at Lake of the Ozarks State Park.  Tomorrow we will head home in preparation for the fourth leg of our autumn travels.  Our final day here was spent in the park, nearly deserted now after a bustling weekend.  We took a walk this afternoon and that pretty much describes the active part of the day.  Later, we sat in the low autumn sun, reading and watching the shadows lengthen.

I purchased two stacks of firewood several days ago.  The wood turned out to be pretty green.  To complicate matters, I had no paper to use as starter.  I splintered the wood to create kindling.  I tore the state of New Mexico from our Good Sam's campground book.  New Mexico consisted of about twenty pages.  However, New Mexico wasn't big enough to start a fire.

So, I ripped out Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.  I carefully positioned the paper pages under the kindling and fired it.  Wowzzer!  I had a fire.  Unfortunately, we had no Graham Crackers, marshmallows or chocolate.  We had no s'mores!  But, watching the fire burn down was fun enough for a couple of septuagenarians.  In fact, it was about all the fun we could stand.

This pedestrian entry closes the blog for fall, 2016.  Most of those I write for will be with us for some of the remaining trip.  I will fire up again the week after Christmas as we journey to the Gulf Coast of Texas.  Until then, stay safe.

For now, goodnight.

October 8, 2016. Hanging Out On the Lake.

October 8, 2016.  Hanging Out On the Lake.  Somewhere in the USA within the last year, we bought a 2016 Atlas.  As we were leaving Colorado and entering New Mexico, Annie was trying to figure out where we were.  "Hey," she exclaimed, "there's no New Mexico in this Atlas!"  Upon closer inspection, there were eight pages missing from the center section of the Atlas.  The staples were fitted perfectly in place, so it wasn't a matter of the pages being torn out of the book.  Somehow, that Atlas company had manufactured a book without the 8 pages in the center.  New Mexico, New York, North Carolina and enlargements of urban areas didn't exist in this Atlas.

I've never seen that before.  I remembered buying it at a Walmart, but where and when, I had no idea.  The sales receipt for the purchase perished long ago.  "Well, we'll just return it - "satisfaction guaranteed" and all that rot," I pontificated.

"Yeah, good luck with that." Annie responded.

The first picture above is the service desk at the Osage Beach Walmart.  The intimidating lady behind the desk is Ragenia.  I was a little alarmed when I noticed that the first four letters of her name spelled the word, "Rage."  I could imagine how the conversation might go.  "What, you idiot, you have no receipt!  Out with you before I call Security!"

My fears were completely unwarranted.  "What, no New Mexico!  What kind of Atlas is that.  Here, let me give you your money back, no questions asked."  And, she counted out $8.48 in cash and handed it to me.  "I am so sorry for the inconvenience.  What could be worse that being lost in New Mexico."

She had made a very good point.  I hadn't thought about that.  That Sam Walton, he created quite a business, didn't he.

So, yesterday, we visited the Premium Outlet Stores and spent absolutely nothing.  We walked around for nearly two hours.  There must be nearly 100 stores there, and we couldn't find anything we needed or wanted.  Today was a quiet day in the campground.  Scores of campers arrived yesterday for the three-day weekend.  It was nice to look across the campground tonight and see campfire smoke filtering through the trees.  Kids are riding bicycles as their fathers clean and fillet their daily catch for dinner.  This is such a great country.

We will be here tonight and two more.  We leave for home Tuesday after having lunch with Annie's Aunt Dink and her cousin Jo.  They are from Seattle.  We tried to connect with them in the spring of 2015 as we passed through Seattle but we couldn't make things work out.  We look forward to seeing them Tuesday.  Dink is 88, so she may not be up to making the trip again.

For now, goodnight.

October 6, 2016. A Short, Familiar Trip - Lake of the Ozarks.

October 6, 2016.  A Short, Familiar Trip - Lake of the Ozarks.  This is a different fall for the Farkleys.  We were in Colorado for a week and Santa Fe, NM, for a week.  We returned home Monday, reloaded and rode Harvey, the RV, to Lake of the Ozarks.  I generally blog while traveling with Harvey, so there will be a short series before we return Harvey to his home in the caves, and drive to Florida for a cruise.  We will then spend a week on Amelia Island before meeting the family at Walt Disney World, in Orlando.  The only portion of the various trips which will be reported here is the one we share with Harvey.

We drove through rain to Versailles, MO, home of Lehman's Restaurant.  It is one of our favorites, serving foods which are prepared by Mennonites living in the area.  The servers are all in Mennonite dresses and the restaurant has an emphasis on home cooking.  The nice folks there also make some pretty fantastic pies.  Annie is on some kind of natural foods kick, so we passed on the pies.  Actually, I didn't have room for pie after making a second trip to the buffet line.

Tonight, we are in Lake of the Ozarks State Park, a very nice campground filled with large oaks.  We have seen the lake from the park, but haven't found our way to the water yet.  The Lake of the Ozarks resulted from the construction of Bagnell Dam on the Osage River by Union Electric Company of St. Louis.  Construction on the dam began in 1929.  Upon completion, it created the largest man-made lake in the United States and one of the largest in the world.  Most Missourians have visited the Lake at one time or another.  My favorite black and white television rests in a watery grave here.  It died in 1968 and received its burial at sunrise the same day that Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in 1969.

So, we will be here just a few days.  I'll be back between now and the time we return home to reload again for the drive to Florida.  Goodnight.