July 19, 2014 - Coffman, MO

Post date: Jul 20, 2014 2:45:21 AM

We are stopping at Coffman, MO today. It is too small to note the population, but there are a lot of vineyards up here. We ate lunch in St. Mary, MO, population 360. The map says there are all services available in St. Mary, so we planned to eat there. But sometimes, all services means a gas station with a convenience store inside. We were lucky that this convenience store also cooked hamburgers, so that is what we had today.

We camped in Murphysboro State Park last night. It was right on a lake and very pretty, but had no water available. There were showers within driving distance and outhouses close by. They even had electric hook ups for the RVs. We drove/rode an alternate Mississippi Levee route this morning which ended at a big coal transfer station with a long line of rail cars waiting to unload their coal.

I drove to Chester, home of Popeye the Sailor Man and drove across the Mississippi River into Missouri, the state where Doug was born. We plan to spend an extra day here looking for 3 of the houses he lived in while he was in St. Louis with his family. We will camp here for 2 nights in Eureka, MO. I have a few mosquito bites, but the one bugging me right now is inside the top of my ear.

I’m excited for my next shower- I skipped taking one at the fire house (Doug would have had to stand guard by the door for me) and in the boiler room of the UMC church (I don’t like boiler rooms or outhouses). We will be at a KOA campground tonight, so they will have good facilities, I’m sure.

I finished reading ‘The Art of Racing in the Rain’ today. What a great book! Enzo reminded me so much of Beau, our Brittany.

More dog names:

Murphysboro, IL (Murphy)

Chester, IL

Cave In Rock, IL