Harry S. Truman State Park, Warsaw, MO

April 29-May 1, 2011

What beautiful weather for our first camping trip of the year! It's been windy-rainy-cold in every combination for the past few weeks. We finally got warm Friday and the sun came out. A stiff headwind meant a tiring drive to Warsaw and Friday-after-work traffic wasn't fun, either, but we reserved a nice, grassy, level site and got set up in no time. Not too many neighbors this weekend, so we thought it would be nice and peaceful.
Eh. Not so much.

At the end of our quiet little road is a cul-de-sac of sorts, a on3-way traffic loop of campsites filled to the brim with trucks, campers, tents...and fishing boats. Before the sun was fully up a NASCAR-worthy stream of engines passed our campsite on their way to the marina. A short while later a similar stream of bouncing motorboats flew across the wind-chopped waters on the fork of Truman Lake we could barely glimpse through the trees across the road. We managed to get a little more sleep, though, before starting our day in earnest.
Our day started slowly and lazily just the same. After breakfasting on cereal and orange-glazed cinnamon rolls, will popped in a DVD of classic Bugs Bunny and laid down for his first nap of the day. He earned it. He was up at 5:00 a.m. to take his telescope down to the field by the ranger station to look at the moon.

Meanwhile, I read some Dan Brown, walked the dog, coerced her into eating her breakfast so she could take her pills, met the camp host and registered (they were off duty Friday night), and read some more Dan Brown. Just before 10 a.m. Will roused and changed into regular clothes (as opposed to his "camping jammies" - sweat pants and a T-shirt) and took (a) Storm for another walk and (b) pictures of me doing tai chi. (I wanted on for my World Tai Chi & Qigong Day article.)

Around 10:45 we set off for our adventure. We started at the Truman Dam Visitor's Center. Every time we've been there we've found something different. the first time we happened onto Heritage Days and the whole place was abuzz with historic activities and displays. The second time we got to see what the Visitor's Center looks like without all the festival sights and sounds and could see the dam and its construction history without other distractions. This time we saw turkey vultures enjoying the wind currents and soaring all around the cliffs and trees around the massive viewing windows. we also discovered we could walk all the way around the center on a walkway that runs under the observation deck and along the edge of the cliff. 

Turkey Vultures soaring

The view was spectacular but I never did get a really good picture of a turkey vulture up close. They dive-bombed the windows a couple times, but they were too fast for me.

Walkway around the center overlooking the cliff & dam

We decided to walk the grounds a bit and see what the historic buildings are like when it's not Heritage Days and found a woman cleaning at Hooper House. 

She turned out to be the wife of the president of the Heritage Society and told us about the improvements and repairs they're working on - new paint on the porch, freshly sanded and polyurethaned floors in the house and summer kitchen, and a new general store being built. 

New general store under construction

The store should be ready for viewing by Christmas and stocked for next summer. They were getting things ready for school tours this week. They have so many schools coming they had to expand tours this year from two days to three. I think she said they have something like 150,000 kids coming in those three days!

Harry S. Truman Dam

Walking path to Hooper House

The schoolhouse

Blue Star memorial plaque

After the dam we went to Walmart and found a little antique mall on the way. So after stopping at Walmart to get (ouch) gas and a few forgotten items (not as many as usual! Yay!), we went to the antique mall. Now, we've been to a few of these and you always find new items among the old. It's really a consignment house but that's okay. It's fun to browse. One booth in particular made me stop and take a picture. Except for the fact that nothing was dusty, it looked like it had been cut and lifted straight out of my grandmother's house! It had a little bit of everything she "collected" over the years, right down to the one-person-path into it - not through it, because you couldn't go all the way around the center "display."
On one end of the mall was a door near the back that led into an artisan's shop where I found a beautiful pair of cross earrings and some nice little quilted coasters for the camper. I only found the "Made in China" sticker on one when we got back to the camper. :P
While we were walking through the various booths in the mall, we overheard a conversation that explained our early-morning wake up. Saturday there was a big fishing tournament. when we came back after an excellent lunch at the Warsaw Cafe, we brought our activities outside and could have sworn we were camped near a super highway.
There's a nice little woodcraft store we like and we stopped in there to try to find something for the old flowerbed at home. Will reclaimed it with rubber mulch and it needs something decorative. The funny thing is that last time we stayed here, we stopped there and it was pouring that whole weekend. This time the weather was bright and beautiful, but it still tried to rain on us when we stopped in there! It only sprinkled for a minute, but it still cracked us up.

standing on last year's site looking at this year's site

Upon our return it was time for some reading and writing in the lovely outdoors - listening to the boats - and I wondered if we could actually walk down to the water and get a picture of the fishermen. I fully expected to see a mass of them from the sound, but we didn't see even one. The site across from us was the site we camped last year - when it poured the whole weekend - and we couldn't do any exploring then. There weren't any campers there this weekend, so we went over and into the woods.

woods behind last year's site

In the first place, the lake was a little farther than I had expected - accessible, but it sounded like we would walk a hundred yards and fall in. In the second place, we discovered a wonderful rock shelf where the land began to drop toward the lake, so I got some nice shots of that...and sorta lost interest in walking the rest of the way down. 

rock shelf

view from the rock shelf down to the lake

"yard" beside last year's site

 



I like that site. Its layout and woods remind me of where I grew up back in Michigan, except Missouri is rocky where Michigan is dune-y. 
Oh, just an FYI, btw - if you're going on a quick exploratory hike in an unfamiliar hilly-woodsy area and you happen to have, oh, say THREE walking sticks in your possession, you might try to remember that BEFORE you head out rather than on your way back. Nobody fell. Jus' sayin' it would have been a little easier. ;)

While Will broke in his new hammock with nap #2, Storm tried to keep him awake, entice him to play, and generally not nap herself. I'm sure her version of this weekend would be vastly different from ours...

"Daddy? Play? Play ball, Daddy?"

The weather being far too fine for indoor activities, Saturday night became drive-in movie night. The TV is portable and the power cord reached the picnic table. Voila! Hot dogs over the campfire, kettle corn, a fire at our backs, and Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie on the screen. Ah, yes, this is the life! :D
Sunday morning was a little colder, a little drearier - a good time to pack up and beat the rain home. Great weekend! :D