Stan and Connie Spielbusch's Web Site

StanAndConnie.com

July 2000

We're Travelling!

We finally sold our house and everything that won't fit in the RV, and got on the road July 17th. Our first stop is St. Charles, MO (near St. Louis). We'll be here for 2 weeks, to "settle in", get some organizing done, etc. before we head to New York and Maine.

July 17th, 2000

(Stan's log...)

Our first trip in 3 months -- it was great to get on the road again! Although still hot and sticky out, it was a fantastic driving day because it was cloudy the whole way from Kansas City to St. Louis, with a few rain showers along the way. With great big front windows, you don't really want a bright sunny day.

After a little bit of a nervous start, I settled in to the driving with no problem. Connie even thought I was doing well (at least that's what I assumed since she didn't tell me to slow down very often ;-).

Although I'd been warned that I-70 was pretty rough in spots, we decided to take it instead of the smaller highways because I'm comfortable with the route -- we're not ready to be too adventuresome yet, especially when we get a late start. We found a couple nice paved truck stops along the way to stop for lunch and rest stops -- much better than the mostly-gravel truck stops we found along US 69 on our trip to Texas. All in all it was a very nice drive. Traffic wasn't even bad for a weekday.

We pulled into Sundermeier RV Park in late afternoon, finding it without a problem. We were delighted to see a totally paved RV park -- nice asphalt streets, huge concrete pull-throughs with patios (with mowed grass between sites), and excellent hookups (two water and two sewer connections per site). Not to mention the instant phone lines and cable. Normally I wouldn't care about cable, but when I realized that it has the local channels too, I decided I like it -- no fussing with the TV antenna, and I don't have to switch between the satellite receiver and antenna all the time. I do still like using the satellite receiver, though, because of the nice online guides and my favorite channel lists.

We ended up parking right next to another Mountain Aire motorhome, the same year as ours:

(Click photo to enlarge)

After hooking up, we pretty much just relaxed and I got some work done on the computer.

July 18th, 2000

(Stan's log...)

We slept in today, for the first time in months. It was great! Of course, "late" was 9AM since we went to bed early, but it was much-needed extra rest. After getting my work done, a friend came to the park and we ate lunch at the Beef Eaters Pub which is right on the RV park's premesis -- right in front of our parking spot. They aren't cheap, but the burgers are great!

(Click photo to enlarge)

July 19th, 2000

(Stan's log...)

Wow, this kind of day is what the RV lifestyle is supposed to be....

We decided to take a little walk since it was a nice cool morning (about 75 degrees and somewhat cloudy). I just planned to get out to the main street and find a place to get a Diet Coke, so I took the area map from the tourist brochures. We decided to walk on down to the "Frenchtown Historic District" to see what it was like, since it was close.

After several episodes of "we're almost to this next attraction", we ended up all the way down in the St. Charles historic area (South Main Street), and had toured the whole area. We stopped at St. Louis Bread Company for lunch, browsed a few museums, shopped a few shops, and basically had a great day in the old town. The Lewis and Clark museum was pretty interesting even though I hated history in school. St. Charles was the first state capitol on Missouri, and there is a nice exhibit about that too. Surprisingly, this little town has a lot of interesting history!

The St. Charles historic district looks like a small New Orleans French Quarter, with balconies and similar architecture. It's quaint and quiet, a really pleasant place to walk around.

(Click photos to enlarge)

By the time we got back home, 5-1/2 hours had passed. We were starting to get a bit sore since we aren't used to walking so much, but were happy to have enjoyed a beautiful day without any schedule to worry about. The only problem is that I didn't bring my camera, so I didn't get photos. Oh well, we'll go back another day. (The photos above were inserted later.)

July 20th, 2000

(Stan's log...)

We went back to Main Street today -- we walked into town to eat breakfast, using the Katy Trail. The Katy Trail runs straight from the RV park to the "down town" area, and it's a wonderful trail. It used to be a railway but was turned into a hiking/biking trail and park. It goes right along the Missouri river where we can see a boat collecting sand from the river bottom and dumping it into barges. The trail is mostly shaded in the morning, making for a nice cool walk. Near town, it opens up into a large park area with the old train depot, a couple train cars, and part of the old track.

(Click photos to enlarge)

It takes about 1/2 hour to walk to the restaurants on Main St, some of which are open for breakfast and have great outdoor patios. I think we'll be doing this every day!

(Click photo to enlarge)

The rest of our stay here will probably be uneventful, just settling in to the RV, so we probably won't be updating until our next stop (around August 1st).

July 31st, 2000

We stopped overnight in a little campground in Cloverdale, Indiana. Nothing special here, just needed a half-way stopping point on our way to Nappanee and this was convenient, less than a mile off of the freeway. Although pretty rustic (ie. lots of trees and no pavement), we could maneuver our home into the site without a problem, and didn't have to back up or unhook the jeep. Since backing up is nearly impossible to do with the Jeep hooked up, we like to find pull-through sites that let us pull in to park and then pull out the other side, with enough room to make the turns without backing up (and without scraping the motorhome against trees and poles!)

(Click photo to enlarge)

The weather was nice and cool -- we walked around the park several times to enjoy the evening before getting a good night's sleep.

Thank you for visiting our travel site. Please visit our other sites too:

Campground Master -- A tracking program for your campground or inn. Easy to use and learn, but modern and powerful. One of the most inexpensive systems, great for small campgrounds. Designed by campground owners and full-time RVers.

MysteryPhotos -- Every week a new photo is shown, which may be a close-up of something, or a section of a common object or sight. Guess what it is and you might win a prize. Lots of fun for the whole family! Free screensaver and wallpaper too.

Awesome Screen Savers -- Cool photographic screen savers of the highest quality, for Windows PC's. Download FREE Lite versions of them all. Some are created with photos from our travels, some are awesome photos from NASA. (Contact me to have a screen saver made with your own photos!)

Cottonwood Software -- My shareware business site, currently featuring File-Ex 98: a Windows 95/98 dialog enhancement tool. Great for people who work with a lot of files.

Free -n- Cool -- Tons of Freebies, Giveaways, and Cool Sites -- all in one! You'll find a large selection of free samples you can get mailed to you, free games, screen savers, internet services, etc., plus hundreds of contests of all types, and a unique "intensely cool sites" list.