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