Camping Trip #5 Harry S Truman State Park and Historical Site

Hi everyone,

Our camping took us to Harry S Truman State Park and Historical Site this past week-end.
We arrived at the park on Thursday after noon at site #59.  We set up camp and made sure we were ready for the next three days.

We decided to take a look around the park so we hopped in the car and took a drive.  We discovered that they have around 200 campsites of which about 100 are basic without electric and the rest have electric hook-ups.  The shower house and bathrooms are super clean with no spiders or bugs in the corners of the stalls.  They have a beach area in the summer and was closed at this time. There are lots of tall oak trees and the acorns were dropping like hot cakes.  Fortunately we did not get hit one time.

The grounds themselves were very well kept.  No tall grass in the campsite area and all rubbish was gone. The grass along side the roads going in were mowed and also well maintained.

It is so dark at night, you can;t see your hand in front of your face.  Good idea to have a flash light. .

Don and Sharon our neighbor and friends decided to come camping also.  We joined them for hot dogs, coleslaw, beans and chips for dinner.  Then we sat around the fire, then off to bed early since I had been up since 3:00am.

On Friday I was up early and cooked breakfast for the 4 of us.  We had pancakes, bacon, eggs, hash browns and coffee.  I love breakfast when we camp.  It smells and tastes so much better on a camp out.

 After breakfast we hopped in Don's truck and took a tour of Warsaw to find out where we could park on Saturday to attend the Heritage festival. Warsaw sits on the river and is home to quite a few antique shops.  Not much area for parking.  We found out that we would be able to park down below the dam and hop on a shuttle that we could ride all day by buying a band for $5.00.  That was gong to be our plan on Saturday morning.

After driving around Warsaw a bit, we proceeded to Cole Camp.  Cole Camp is where Dave has relatives and ancestors who settled there from Germany.  There is a memorial there in town and one of Dave's ancestors has his name there. 

After that we went to the Cole Camp  Museum.  The lady at the desk was very friendly and helpful along with lots of great artifacts.

Next stop was Charley's Buffet.  Charley's is outside of town and we had to be there by 4:00 to get in line to enter the building at 4:30pm  When we arrived the line was down the front of the building.

We had a mini reunion at Charley's.  Dave ran into a cousin who lived in the area and our other neighbor Mary was also there with friends she was visiting. We had a nice meal.  What makes it so good is that it is all homemade.  Everything is wonderful.  The dessert bar has to be at least 15 ft long and coverd with every kind of dessert you can imagine.  The price to eat is $14.00.  In some eyes this might be pricey, but if you are only going to do it once or twice a year then the experience is well worth it. After dinner it was back to camp and to watch the Royals beat the Jays.

Saturday morning everyone was up early for biscuits and gravy provided by the park.  Don Sharon and Dave went down for breakfast and I stayed in camp and had an apple.  I was still stuffed from the night before.  At 10:30am we were off to the the festival. We parked below the dam and purchased our bands and were shuttled to the top of the hill where the State Park Historical Site was set up.

Below are lots of pictures from the festival.  It was very nice and we enjoyed all of the actors and loved watching them make  many things such as lace using spools, corn being ground by a horse, sorghum molasses, lye soap, apple butter, the black smith pounding out metal to make a hanger for the cast iron pot, kettle corn, branding, basket weaving and pig roasting. I hope you enjoy the following pictures.

After visiting the Historical Site we took the shuttle to downtown Warsaw where they had over 100 crafters selling goods.  Also a food vendor area where you could find all kinds of midway food.  We opted for a corn dog since that was the shortest line at the time.
After visiting several tents we hopped back on the shuttle and headed back to the car.  Made it back to camp in time to listen to the Royals game on the radio.

Yeah!!!!!!!  We were headed for Toronto.  Watch out Jays!!!!!!
After the game it was over to Don and Sharon's campsite for Spaghetti and meat sauce. garlic bread and salad.  Sooooooo good!!!!!!

After dinner Dave built our last fire for our trip and then off to bed.

Sunday after breakfast we packed up and headed home.  We were having a couple of problems and told Sharon and Don if they wanted to go ahead and leave it was okay by us.  Maybe not such a good idea after all.  They had a flat tire and a nice person passing by stopped to help Don change the tire.  They ended up having two tires replaced and getting home almost two hours after us.  I am sorry they had problems and wish we had been there to help. I am happy no one got hurt and they got home safely.

Hoping to get at least one more trip in before the really cold weather gets here.

I am looking forward to making more memories and hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Until we meet again,
Happy Camping

Hi everyone I hope you made it back to my Blog.  This past weekend we made a trip to Winterset, IA to see the Bridges of Madison County.  If you have seen the movie Bridges of Madison County you know that Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood both starred and fell in love in this movie.  The movie was filmed in Winterset, Iowa and released in 1995.  It was filmed around several covered bridges, the town square and a farm.  It is a love story well worth your time to watch, then go to Winterset and visit the bridges.  Also in Winterset is the birth home of John Wayne.  They also have a John Wayne museum.  The museum was a little pricey at $15.00 a person and the home was only 4 rooms.  It took our friends all of 10 minutes to tour the home.  The community theater put on a mystery dinner show on Friday night.  We went to the dinner show and enjoyed it.  Cost for seniors is 27.25.  We had stuffed chicken, broccoli, mashed potatoes and wedding cake.Just keep in mind when you go that it is a community theater.  I hope you enjoy the pictures to follow.  Some of the bridges might look alike,  but all have some kind of history behind them.  Most built in the 1800s.  They are beautiful!!

 Here is Skipper and Buster.  they were our watch dogs for security this weekend.  They belong to Sharon and Don and are sweet dogs.

 This is just one of the bees from this weekend.  I had a Bumble Bee the size of my thumb land on my back and would not fly off until Sharon shook my shirt.

 Setting up camp and getting ready for the fire the first evening.

Of course we camped.  Our neighbors bought a new camper so we all went to Winterset.  We had a nice time camping, except for the bugs and bees.  Little black flying bugs that liked to bite and honey bees that liked my perfume and my Pepsi.  The middle of the day was the worst and then when the sun went down they disappeared. Our first evening for dinner we had hamburgers.  Don did an excellent job getting mine well done.  Thank you Don.  I made some potato salad, and bar b que beans.  Nice dinner.  Friday night we went to the dinner theater and for lunch on Friday we ate at the North Cafe.  The cafe was in the film.  Dave sat at the 4th stool at the counter. The stool that Clint sat at. See his picture below. 

Here is John Wayne's Home.

 Out house at John Wayne's home.

 John Wayne museum.

This is pictures of the North Cafe.  Clint sat on the fourth stool in the movie.  That is where Dave is sitting.

This Rock tower was in the Winterset Park.  Too many steps for us girls to walk up so Don and Dave went to the top.

Here is the rock bridge that was in the same park as the tower.

The square in Winterset took me back in time.  Reminded me of the days of growing up in Richmond.

Pictures of the mystery murder play dinner theater. Alfonzo the wedding planner was the murderer.  I was the only one at my table who guessed that it was him. 

The following pictures are of the bridges we visited.  I believe there was a total of 5 bridges.  Most were outside of town 3 to 5 miles. 

The pictures that follow are just random pics I took and I like.

 Field across from campground.  Sun shinning on corn.

I hope I have given you a little insight into the town of Winterset, Iowa.  If you get the opportunity to visit and tour the bridges, tower, John Wayne's and all the other sights I am sure you will enjoy.

We had a great time and the weather was beautiful.

Until we meet again,
Happy Camping