The Great Foster Ozark Adventure

We loaded the camper Thursday night, we loaded the camper Friday night, and we loaded the camper Saturday morning. Finally, at about 8:00 am, we loaded us up in the pickup and hit the road. As we wound our way towards Missouri, I had a bit of revelation. I have long noticed that many Missourians dislike Kansans, and now I think I know why; the closer to Missouri you get, the more the Kansas people act like Missourians. The most notable was in Fort Scott, where just a cursory drive through the town (only a few minutes from Missouri) revealed such interesting business characters as “Judy’s Iron and Plumbing”, “The Wolf’s Den Tanning Salon” (in a dilapidated old block building with no paint and a rusty tin roof), and even one place with a pig on the roof! No wonder Missourians don’t like Kansans, they think we look just like them! What’s to like? (My wife’s family excluded, of course…)
It took us about 10 hours to get to the Alley Springs Campground, only to find that the campsite we reserved lacked about 10 feet enough to accommodate the length of our camper. By this time it is pushing 7:30, but we thought we found the last spot available (without electricity, but at this point, who cares?), so we unhooked the fifth-wheel, and Brynn started supper. As some of you already know, if 7:30 rolls around and I haven’t eaten anything, usually I’m feeling pretty glum, or perhaps irritable is a closer description.
Anyway, to add insult to insult, after unhooking and getting camp started, I realize that there are 2 posts with the same number on them, and the one further from the road shows that someone has already reserved the spot we are in… So… I load back up, hook back up, and drive to the seediest RV park in the western hemisphere, I’m sure. The guy behind the counter could hardly be bothered to put down his PS3 game controller to look up at me, and certainly couldn’t be bothered to take the smoke out of his mouth, nor to put on a shirt. Oddly enough, their prices were higher than the much nicer, much cleaner state park, the only reason I can think of is that the crowd there was willing to pay a higher price in order to not have state park officials looking over their shoulders all the time.
But all in all, we had an uneventful evening; I finally got my supper, and the kids learned all about bikers and marijuana. Oh, and did I mention the RV park apparently featured a BAND!!! Lucky for us, we were the closest camper to the “stage”, so we didn’t even need to leave the trailer to listen to the old 70’s songs howled out by some brave soul determined to please his crowd of about 15 people, even though it was fairly obvious that he should have been lying down and sleeping long ago. Maybe tomorrow will bring better even better luck.