Trail of Tears State Park, MO

Mississippi Mud

Friday, August 24 -Trail of Tears State Park,, MO,122.8 Miles Today, 14,043.9 For the Trip

Ah, the marvels of a GPS. I had set my GPS for Jonesboro, IL since it was in the direction I wanted to go & the map showed a campground symbol. The GPS lets you choose POIs (Points of Interest) near your destination, so I chose campgrounds. It showed the Trail of Tears State Park as only 2.4 miles from Jonesboro. Well, yes, but in another state and on the other side of a big river (the Mississippi). I realized the problem when it sent me across the Mississippi into Missouri, but since the distance was only a few miles longer I decided a State Park was a good stop. Besides, I managed to save about $.50 per gallon filling up in MO, and I can cross back into IL a few miles south of the park at Cape Girardeau. From there it is a short hop into Kentucky where I hope to spend the rest of the weekend.

Trail of Tears State Park is right on the Mississippi River (well, there is a train track between the park & the river; more about that later.) The good - a nice location, not at all crowded (when I arrived the only other trailer in the park was the campground host's, however now at 8:30 there are about 5 other campers.) At $24.00 for full hookups, the price was good. The bad - the bathrooms are about 1/2 mile from the campground (but they do have a shower). And, of course there are those tracks I mentioned. First bad sign - they are shiny (shiny means used). Second - there is a crossing at the edge of the campground (about 150' from my trailer - you can see both in the crossing photograph). Trains are required to blow their horns at crossings. I don't mind the sound of the engine and the clacking of the wheels, but that horn! The campground host noted that there are only 2 trains after 11:00 at night & he doesn't even hear them. Of course he also mentioned that he is further from the crossing & he takes out his hearing aids at night! We'll see how it goes. The only other problem with the park is hornets. As I've mentioned before, I like to sit outside and read - while I was never stung, many hornets were buzzing around, landing on my legs, etc. I was hoping that as it got dark they would go away; they did, but the mosquitos arrived.

The river is very low - I heard on the radio that is was 35' below normal. The boat ramp (the reason for the railroad crossing) is like the one at Turquoise Lake in Leadville, CO - it stops well before it reaches the water. There are a large number of cars & trucks parked by the ramp. I couldn't figure what they were doing until the campground host said they are workers on the dredging operation going on just up river. They are dredging many parts of the Mississippi in order to maintain barge traffic.

More photos at today's LakeshoreImages page.

Dinner was a couple of cheese brots - I'm trying to get rid of the unfrozen meat since the temperatures in the refrigerator are higher than I'd like when the outside temperature is over 100°F, which it has been during the peak of the day lately...

Until Tomorrow -