Tuesday…

I’m just two days behind in my story folks, so bear with me. After setting up the rig in pitch dark at the state park, I mentioned earlier that we just had some chow and hit the sack. We both slept like the dead. We were up around 9 and decided that we would check out how far it would be to Eureka MO where Byerly RV is which is where we need to be early Monday morning.
We stopped at “Lilly’s Café” for breakfast…I had a huge pancake and Paulie had a half order of biscuits and gravy. It was so-so and Paulie complained that there wasn’t any “sausage” in his gravy…I asked him if the menu said sausage gravy ‘cause I sure didn’t read that. He couldn’t remember so I said ya gotta READ the menu, genius.

We traversed the country side and found the quickest way to St. Louis and then to Eureka. The road from Grafton to Alton along the river is beautiful. I could SEE fish jumpin’ outta the water, to the obvious frustration of the fishermen in the boats watching ‘em I am sure. We decided to get a soda and gas and then go to Union Station and surprise Jr who was working at the putt putt place. I think he’d worked 7 days straight so it would be a nice visit for him, well for me anyways!

We get to Union Station and yep, we surprised him. We stayed for about an hour and visited. We seem to get along well now since he is on his own and we are now just “parents”….let me correct that…parents who PAY.

On the way home from St. Louis back to Grafton, we stopped in Alton at Fast Eddy’s. This is the infamous Fast Eddy’s… 29 cent shrimp, 99 cent ½ lb burgers, steak on a stick for 99 cents. We had a beer, some shrimp, and one pork on a stick and one steak. The pork was dry, the steak was wonderful. The shrimp sauce just makes those shrimp jump it is so full of horseradish..yummy.

We headed back to the campground and the temp was over 100 degrees. No campfires for US tonight, LOL! We paid our Sunday night fee, and planned to hit the sack early so we can get on the road by 7 am. We watched some TV and then went to bed.

I was up at six, showered and we were on hwy 100 by 6:55 a.m. The traffic into St. Louis was fine until we hit the 270 interchange, but overall we made good time. We arrived at Byerly’s at about 8:30. We checked in, unhooked the car, grabbed the laundry and off we went to get some breakfast and do the wash. We drove all around trying to find something better than Burger King or Denny’s to no avail. Finally after about 40 minutes we head into “historic” Eureka and find a little café. We had a nice breakfast of eggs, Paulie his usual western omelet. I am such a foolish person…I KNOW I cannot eat two eggs, toast, potatoes and bacon, which is just what I ordered. I did take home a ½ bacon sandwich…I’ll add a little tomato to it later for lunch!

We hunted all over for a Laundromat and couldn’t find one anywhere. We stopped at Panera’s so we could upload a few pictures, of course we had problems with the PC and I was ready to toss it in the trash. I hope you were able to view the pictures. I didn’t take a whole lot, especially in Hannibal, but the one’s I took are ok. Paul said to tell everyone to skip Hannibal…I said he was just disappointed because it was a bit tacky and dated…money must be hard to raise to keep such private sites open. In our search to do laundry, we found a beautiful state park near Eureka, Babler Memorial State Park. It even has a beautiful pool which we will be heading to later today. It is going to stay in the 100+ degrees all week. Since we only have 30 amp service here, only one air can be on. It is warm in the rig but not unbearable as we have several low wattage fans circulating the air.

After we picked up the rig…with the bill well over $900 (grabbing heart) but the rig is 5 years old and things will need to be replaced. So far it’s been tires and slide toppers. The next thing is to add window awnings so we can open windows if it is cool but raining. I also want to get rid of this disgusting carpet. That is going to be a real tough sell to the Polish Prince.

We stopped at WalMart and dropped another $100 for groceries and tank holding stuff…we really haven’t been grocery shopping in a long time. Off to the state park to get settled. It was so hot, the poor tomato plant was wilting. Paul rigged up something so the plant can catch the water waste off the air conditioner. We have about 10 half red tomatoes on the vines but then I think our traveling garden is kaput.

Since it is so unbearably hot with warnings abounding about heat indexes etc, we stayed in and made meatball sandwiches for supper….yum with melted mozzarella. I was able to access a wifi connection probably from one of the other campers with a satellite setup so I was surfing the net for a while. It was wonderful to have 11 mbps since my air card gives me 3.6. I was able to upload more stuff on the blog, access the bank, etc. Unfortunately my knight in shining amour with the internet satellite took off this morning and once again I am at the mercy of Cingular. Ugh.

We will stay one more night here…then head back into IL. I still haven’t been to Cahokia, however even riding my scooter around 68 burial mounds is a bit much in this heat. It is almost noon and its 103. I hear everyone is having a heat wave.

Don’t know yet where we are staying but want to visit with Zack a bit. Michigan’s cool breezes and the lake is calling us. We may just head up there early to escape the heat. We’ll pay a premium at a RV park, but I am not sure if that sounds so bad when I think of how hot it can get in here with only one air running if we stay in Il. Call me spoiled. Like I care, lol!

We are going to the pool in a few…will post more later,

Hugs

dee