Sunday, July 25 - Day One of the Great Adventure - my first long solo camping trip. I had no idea what to expect for travel times. I chose to take US 36 W and that was a GREAT choice. I55 was busy and bumpy but once I exited onto I72/US36W at Springfield and headed west, the road improved greatly in both traffic and road quality. At Hannibal, MO, I72 ends and US36 continues. US36 is a 4 lane divided highway and has much less traffic than 70 or 80 which were my other choices for this trip. I figured I'd be slowing down going though small towns but I didn't. It didn't actually go through any towns. It also made me start wondering where I was going to get gas, being used to the interstate and gas/food/lodging signs at every exit. I noticed there were towns indicated every 30 or 40 miles but some were miles off the highway. Good to know - and THAT is where my gas will be.
I asked Ryan to build me something so the dogs could have water in the car that wouldn't spill. My business requirements were...A water Bowl on a Stick. Here it is and here are my copilots in their new bed just for the trip.
Today was a good start to my trip and I'm stopped for the night in Hamilton, Missouri. It's a cute little campground right on the main drag in this little town. It looks kind of like someone had a really big back yard and they turned it into a campground. It has maybe 15 spaces. It would have been great to just drive till I was tired and then pull into an overnight spot in a Wal Mart or Bass Pro Shop or Cracker Barrel or places like that that let you pull in for overnights, but with the temperatures being so hot, I needed to make sure I had electric. Otherwise, the T@B is a little oven. It's going to be 95 - 100 most of the trip. The police cars here are pick-up trucks.
When you don't have storage in your tiny trailer, your car is PACKED!
This is my new Edge Star FP630 Fridge Freezer. The fridge in the T@B isn't the greatest and it is tiny. Plus, trailer fridges need to be level to function properly. So, I bought this, which plugs into 110 or 12v and it will freeze down to -8! I keep my stuff in here, close to freezing. When I stop for the day, I plug it into my solar generator, another wonderful addition to my camping collection.
Yep - PACKED.
This is my dry food storage. This will move from my campsite to my car when I'm in bear territory. That's the Jackery solar generator sitting next to it.
And here's a picture our first overnight spot in Hamilton, Missouri. According to a sign in the downtown, the boyhood home of J.C.Penney. I'm right across from the high school, named Penney High. This town is also the hometown of Jenny Doan, creator of the Missouri Star Quilt Company. We also passed the birthplace of Mark Twain, Walt Disney and General Pershing today.
This is a very small campground and there's a rooster living next door. At at the back of the campground, where I was standing to take this next picture, there's a farm with cows. The campground owner, Jerry, warned me to keep an eye on my dogs as there's a nesting Golden Eagle in a tree at the edge of the propery and she would get my dogs "Like That". We've already been out on two walks without watching out for eagles! That is check-in information in my book! Anything followed by the words Like That and a snap of the fingers? Yep, that sounds like up front info! (Not after two walks info!)
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