While visiting friends who lived in nearby Port Charlotte, we decided to run down to the Punta Gorda harbor for sunset. Punta Gorda harbor had lots to see and do, lots of good places to eat, listen to live music, and just sit around for the evening as the sun set. It was a pleasant, relaxing evening. We even got to see some manta rays swimming close to shore!
The “Grandaddy”: Bass Pro Shop in Springfield, Missouri
The “Grandaddy of all outdoor stores” as it is billed, this Bass Pro store in Springfield, Missouri has it all, and then some. From the Hemingway’s Blue Water Café, National Archery Hall of Fame, National Rifle Association Sporting Arms Museum, John A. and Genny Morris Conservation Education Center, White River Conference Center, and of course, the Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium is a massive facility and is a full-day experience if you include taking time to visit the Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium. If you’re an outdoor enthusiast, this is a must visit experience.
The only thing left to do is share some of the images I managed to capture here. The museum and especially the aquarium has really low lighting so plan accordingly if you expect to take quality photos here. Beware – lots of images follow:
MERRY CHRISTMAS
MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone! I hope everybody is having a wonder Christmas holiday with friends and loved ones.
It’s been 60 years in the making but the Beach Boys, one of my favorite groups of all time, finally made it to town. And they were performing their Christmas show to boot! I just had to drive the 1100 miles back to my home town of Ottumwa, Iowa to watch them! (To keep this somewhat RV related, I did drive my truck back home; it is actually more comfortable on the road than my little Prius even though it uses 250% more fuel!)
The Boys performed all of their classic hits interspersed with their fun Christmas tunes. Two and a half hours of their famous harmonious music with only a 15-minute break.
The Bridge View Center opened in town in 2007. This was my first visit to the facility though I’ve driven by it many times when visiting back home. I “performed” with my guitar instructor (and the rest of his students – whew!) a few shows in times long past in the original facility. I saw many shows, performances, karate demonstrations and tournaments, dog shows, etc. over the years.
Walking across the bridge to the center for the show:
The Beach Boys are here!
Mike Love of the Beach Boys. At nearly 81 years old, he’s doing and sounding great!
Do you recognize the drummer? That’s John Cowsill. Yes; John Cowsill from “that” group. You know, the group that performed the song “Hair”? And “The Rain The Park And Other Things”? He’s been performing with the Beach Boys since 2000.
Here’s some more photos from my two and a half hours with the Beach Boys:
It was a fun night. I hope I get to see them again soon.
The Snow Caught Us Again
Our next overnight stop found us literally on the banks of the Mississippi River in the small town of Bellevue, Iowa. This town is about 10 miles south of Dubuque which was our original destination because of the Dock Dogs tournament (more photos in a later post). This park, Spruce Creek Park, is a county park. It’s nestled back at the end of a road that stops at the banks of the Mississippi River.
This park is unpaved and had dips throughout but is easily passable if you take it slow. I didn’t have any problems with my 35 ft 5th wheel. It looks like most, if not all, sites have trees to provide shade. There are several sites, like the one I was at, that are literally on the bank of the river; I was about 30-40 ft from the water’s edge. A marina is also associated with this park. Since this was late October 2020, I was the only one in the park! Here’s a few images of the park:
Yes, it did snow on us while we were here. No accumulation fortunately but it was interesting experiencing mother nature reminding us that it’s close to winter time!
There are lots of parks and other things to see in the vicinity. More to come…
Season Three is Underway
This is the start of season 3 of our RV adventures around the country. So, what is season 3, and what is a season defined as anyway? Good question
For us, a season is any excursion away from our home base. We use our home base as a location to store all of our possessions (except for what we bring with us – i.e., our house) and where we come back to at least once a year to take care of “important” things like doctor appointments, etc. So, what have our prior seasons been?
- Season 0 – Our “shakedown” trip to Tyndall AFB which is about 15 miles from our house
- Season 1 – Our “maiden voyage” where we made our way through the midwest to visit friends and family (our “Friends, Family, and Food” tour!)
- Season 2 – Our trip to have our complete solar package installed and a quick visit to various Florida locations
- Season 3 – What we’re going on now.
It’s been said that your first trip out (ever, or when returning to travel after any length of time at home) should be close to home just in case you forgot something. I can emphatically endorse that idea. We needed to return home a couple of days after we made it to our camp site at Hardridge Army Corps of Engineer (COE) campground to pick up a few things we had forgot. The only problem was the campground was about 150 miles from home so that made for a long 300 mile day. A few days before we left for our next campground location, we needed to make yet another trip back to the house to pick up the charger for my watch so we ended up doing a load of laundry and I washed the truck while we were there. Plus I remembered to turn off the water to the house this time when we left. Now I think we’re really ready to begin/continue this trip.
Hardridge campground is a rather typical COE campground with partial hookups (water and electric) but it does have a dump station so you can empty your waste tanks. It has a typical 14-day stay limit though we were only able to stay 11 days because reservations weren’t available over Memorial Day weekend.
Trying to find a place to stay over Memorial Day weekend was a daunting task. It seemed like every place I looked at along our route to the north was already booked. I ended up finding a place in the opposite direction but just a few miles away. It wasn’t much but it would do for the weekend. As fate would have it, I somehow managed to break my glasses right at the nose bridge and I was going to need to get those replaced before I went any further. And of course my eye doctor was closed over the weekend.
Stay tuned for more nightmares…
In the meantime, here are a few images I managed to capture around the area: