After saying goodbye to Lance, Ray, and the farm babies, I was St. Louis bound. A few days prior, I had contacted a man who said he could host Neville and I; we emailed, texted, and spoke on the phone. When I was on the road, I asked the man for his address. He responded saying he can send it, but he can't accommodate the Drag Queen or Neville. WTF?! We spoke in detail about this! I informed him that his listing clearly states RV/pet friendly and suggested he update it. I found a Walmart off the highway and discovered that I have a gift- a gift for finding the Walmarts with no wifi. Super. This should've been an omen that this city is not the city for me, but I kept searching. I used my phone and found a campground that only charged $8 a night. I only planned to be in STL for 3 nights, so I can handle that. Back on track! En route, the directions took me back through my favorite state of Kentucky.. chose there to pull off for gas and a potty break. I notice that the gap between the wall and the bathroom door is huge- I HATE when bathrooms do this. WHY? As I'm minding my own business in the stall, this woman stands directly in front of the crack and is just staring at the wall. Oooook... go away. Stand somewhere else. What are you looking at? The situation reminded me of a friend's husband who was in a similar predicament, but far more intimate since the person on the other side of the door was a child and blatantly stared at him through the crack. When she leaves, I exit and notice that there is a Bible verse painted around the border of the bathroom. Of course.
Whilst driving to St. Louis, I'm having the same thought process as my pre-farm camping night in Nashville: my route is actually happening (with a few adjustments) and this is really my life now. I'm happy I planned this out (tentatively) and have choices. This will be my first time going into unknown territory- new state, no contacts there, no one visiting. I'm up for the challenge, I think to myself. Sidebar: country and Christian radio come in EVERYWHERE. I like country, but I am about done with it since that is just about all I have been listening to. At least all of the gas pumps still have the little thing on the nozzle. I entered Illinois and noticed a few little fires on the side of the highway. I wasn't sure if this was normal or not, so I attempted to contact the equivalent of *FHP with no luck. I finally found a phone number and had the option to contact a plethora of departments unrelated to roadside or fires, and then had the option to leave a message. Oh well. I drove through a few extra bumpy ass roads and turned down the path that was to take me to my campground. It's a beautiful drive past fields of crops and the arch is visible in the distance. I get to the end of the road, as instructed by Siri, and there are two giant concrete barriers blocking the road. THAT'S FUN. There's barely enough room to turn around, but after a few thousand back ups, turns, and pull forwards, I'm make down the road. I pull off to the side and double check the address, directions, and map, and sure enough, it all points to that road. I see another road on the map that looks like it leads to the campground and decide to give it a try. Why not? I drive back down the scenic street and turn down road #2. Nope! Road closed. I called the campsite, not expecting to reach anyone since it was after-hours and I didn't, there is a recording giving the same address I had and stated that they don't take reservations. Spectacular. I make another tight turn and as I'm heading out of these roads to nowhere, the man who was supposed to host me called. Not today, man, I'm annoyed as can be and in no mood to talk to you. He left a message apologizing about the confusion earlier in that day, and that was nice, I just wasn't feeling receptive at the moment.
The day is ending and I am already in the city I aimed to be in, so I bit the bullet and paid for a night at KOA. They are nice campgrounds with a lot of amenities included, they are simply not in my budget for this trip. But one night won't hurt; in fact, it will be nice having everything I need in one spot. I called, they had availability, and off I went. Upon arriving, I start hooking up and my electric isn't working. I go out and double check that I am plugged in to the correct spot, go back in the camper and try again. Still nothing. I take a deep breath and just sit for a second, because what the hell. After going back outside I decided to move on to something else and come back to the electric issue. Hose attached, no problem. Turn hose on, water sprays out of the spigot. Don't care. There's a dump site at my spot, which is sweet! The way the sewage tank works on an RV (or, on mine, anyway) is that when you flush the toilet the contents empty into the black tank. When the black tank is full (there is an indicator inside) it needs to be emptied at a dump site. This is my first time having a dump site handy, otherwise, there are sites that are either free or charge a small fee and you can pull up and empty the tank. To empty the tank, there is a type of hose where one end connects to the tank and one end to the dump site, you pull the lever for the black tank, and whoop there it is. As I'm setting up my hose, I see that the lever to the blank tank is no longer on my RV. That's not good. One of those bumpy ass roads must have claimed it. I won't go into detail what happened from there, but it was gross, and after the day I had, I was pushed to the edge. Feeling like I was on the edge of a breakdown, I reached out to Roni, my girlfriend solo-hiking the Appalachian Trail, and let it all out. While our journeys are very different, it seems the personal trials and triumphs that come up are similar in nature. I check the electric one more time before giving up and notice that was just a personal error.. I didn't switch the box on. Duh. Thankfully, I can laugh about that. Finally, I can relax. Neville and I go for a walk, check out the dog area, and I see there is a cute lemonade stand set up at one of the RV sites. This was cute and brought me back to when my best friend from childhood and I used to set up occasional lemonade stands in our neighborhood.
I use the KOA showers, and they are real, live, hot, well pressured showers. I stood in there for who knows how long, just basking in indoor plumbing. The next morning I want the late check out, but was informed by the staff that that was not an option. She stated they are filled up, which confused me since there was a number of open spots and more people leaving, but whatever. I called the campground from the day before, they gave me a whole other address and set of directions to get to them, and I was off again. Lo and behold! The directions she provided me led to an actual campsite, though technically in Illinois just over the border of Missouri. Once I was paid up for the remaining two days, I drove two miles through the park to get to Horseshoe Lake State Park and it was a very nice drive. There's a two lane road with people fishing on either side, another big field of crops, and a playground just before the circle of campsites.
Much like the Meriweather Lewis campground in Tennessee, there are no hook ups other than the occasional water spigots here, but that's fine for the short time I will be staying. However, the pit toilets there are disgusting. I'd rather do any business I had in the woods. Thankfully, I have my own toilet in the camper. Anyway, as people are driving through the loop I realize that I love the unspoken rule of the campsite: wave to others who pass by. Like we're in a secret club. Don't be the jerk who looks at you then just keeps driving. Rude. If you don't want to wave, just don't look- simple. There was a man near my age, DJ, and his big meaty dog camping a few sites down who I made friends with shortly after arriving. A few other people were parked at the campsite, but the campground was far from busy.
Before leaving, I never learned how to tie a hammock and my wonderful friend Petey back in Florida gifted me one. I thought now is the perfect time to learn how to tie it, but it turns out that it doesn't get dark until late, but when it does starts to get dark it does so quickly. The next day I was following a local's advice and Neville and I were geared up to go on a hike about 1 hour outside of town. On the drive in, my engine light comes on and my start begins to shake anytime I hit 60mph. Did I mention I was driving on a highway? I pull over to a car place to have them run a diagnostic; the first place I go to doesn't run those tests anymore. Then it starts to rain. I drive up the road to another car place and they run the test. Coils, they tell me, though they can't tell me which one or how many of them. I'm confused by this, because when I just got my spark plugs changed a week ago at the Ford dealership, they mentioned the possibility of bad coils but told me mine were good. Can they go bad that quickly? I thank the girl then called every Ford dealership I could find. Five days from now was the soonest anyone could get me in. Well, I have plans to be in Indiana with friends this weekend, I sure would like this looked at ASAP. Too bad, it turns out. I slowly drive to a coffee spot that has outdoor seating. I check it out and it's only slightly raining at this point, so I decide to go for it and bring the pup back. I use the wifi at Shameless Grounds, a coffee shop for people whose love life falls outside the box (or just like minded individuals).
I called every mechanic that comes up in the area. Same story.. five, six, days out, maybe a week or two. Nooooooo! Finally, I find a shop that says I can bring the car in in the morning. Whew. The skies clear up so I take the dog to Forest Park and walk some of the trails there. The park was created in 1876, houses 5 major institutions (and many smaller ones), hosts public events, and is larger than Central Park in NYC. Back to the campground after some exercise and that night, I hung my hammock successfully after two tries. My dear, sweet, supportive sisters were not rooting for me and wanted me to record it, just in case something good happened. Before I tested my hammock hanging skills, I used the dog's big bag of food and went slowly from there. Nailed it.
Much like the Meriweather Lewis campground in Tennessee, there are no hook ups other than the occasional water spigots here, but that's fine for the short time I will be staying. However, the pit toilets there are disgusting. I'd rather do any business I had in the woods. Thankfully, I have my own toilet in the camper. Anyway, as people are driving through the loop I realize that I love the unspoken rule of the campsite: wave to others who pass by. Like we're in a secret club. Don't be the jerk who looks at you then just keeps driving. Rude. If you don't want to wave, just don't look- simple. There was a man near my age, DJ, and his big meaty dog camping a few sites down who I made friends with shortly after arriving. A few other people were parked at the campsite, but the campground was far from busy.
Before leaving, I never learned how to tie a hammock and my wonderful friend Petey back in Florida gifted me one. I thought now is the perfect time to learn how to tie it, but it turns out that it doesn't get dark until late, but when it does starts to get dark it does so quickly. The next day I was following a local's advice and Neville and I were geared up to go on a hike about 1 hour outside of town. On the drive in, my engine light comes on and my start begins to shake anytime I hit 60mph. Did I mention I was driving on a highway? I pull over to a car place to have them run a diagnostic; the first place I go to doesn't run those tests anymore. Then it starts to rain. I drive up the road to another car place and they run the test. Coils, they tell me, though they can't tell me which one or how many of them. I'm confused by this, because when I just got my spark plugs changed a week ago at the Ford dealership, they mentioned the possibility of bad coils but told me mine were good. Can they go bad that quickly? I thank the girl then called every Ford dealership I could find. Five days from now was the soonest anyone could get me in. Well, I have plans to be in Indiana with friends this weekend, I sure would like this looked at ASAP. Too bad, it turns out. I slowly drive to a coffee spot that has outdoor seating. I check it out and it's only slightly raining at this point, so I decide to go for it and bring the pup back. I use the wifi at Shameless Grounds, a coffee shop for people whose love life falls outside the box (or just like minded individuals).
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