Hannibal, Missouri

We had an easy drive to Hannibal on Sunday, and quickly got checked in and set up at the Passport America park, Mark Twain Landing.

It’s a really nice campground with large, paved sites, a nice pool, fishing ponds and lots of activities for kids. 

There are a lot of seasonal campers, but the sites are well-maintained, for the most part.

It’s also just down the road from the Spalding Recreation Area on Mark Twain Lake, where there is a boat launch and swimming beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday afternoon was warm and sunny, so we took advantage of the pool to cool off before dinner.

By Sunday afternoon, the campground had pretty much emptied out, so we had the place almost to ourselves!

Monday was rainy, so after lunch we made a Walmart run for groceries, and walked around downtown Hannibal.  Tom and I were there in 1995, and I remembered the downtown as being cute and having lots of nice shops.  It’s looking a little run-down now, and several of the shops that were still there were closed on Monday.  I did find a nice quilt shop and a popcorn shop where we got some caramel corn.  Other than that, Hannibal was pretty much a disappointment, so we went back to the campground to make dinner and watch a movie.

Tuesday was a much nicer day, so Tom took a motorcycle ride while I worked and the kids did some schoolwork.  In the afternoon, Tom and Nick washed the RV and Bryce and I went to the pool and did laundry (multi-tasking, and working on our tans!). 

When Tom and Nick were finished, they came over for a swim,

 

 

and then we went to the park store for a pizza and ice cream.

We didn’t do a whole lot, but we enjoyed our couple of relaxing days in Hannibal!

Canyonlands National Park–Island in the Sky

For our last day in Moab, we got up early, packed a lunch and took a driving tour of Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park.

Our first stop was Dead Horse Point,

where we were overlooking the same canyon that we traversed in the Jeep last week.

Dead Horse Point State Park borders Canyonlands National Park at the White Rim Canyon,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

overlooking the Colorado River.

We enjoyed the view from each of the overlooks,

and took a quick drive through the campground.  Some of the sites were long, but the roads were really narrow and had pretty tight turns . . . I don’t think it’s a place we’ll be staying. 

From there, we continued on highway 313 into Canyonlands, past the Monitor and the Merimac,

and stopped at the Schafer Trail Overlook.

These are the roads that we drove down in the Jeep last week . . . even more frightening from above!

Our next stop was the Mesa Arch Trail.

Since it was not too hot yet, and the trail was billed as a .5 mile easy walk, we decided to take the hike.  We walked through Utah Junipers,

to the edge of the canyon, where we reached Mesa Arch.  Of course, Nick & Bryce were way ahead of Tom and I, and reached the arch first!

It’s supposed to be a really beautiful sight at sunrise.

Our next stop was the Green River Overlook, which was new territory for us.

Oops!  We lost Nicolas!

Just kidding . . . there was an intermediate level to the canyon, before you got to the big dropoff, and he was standing on that!

The views on this side of the canyon were just as amazing as the other side!

We drove to the end of the road where we reached Grand View Point.

This is the point at which the Colorado River and the Green River come together, and the canyons converge into a single large canyon.

 

We followed the dead wood  trail to the overlook, and caught part of the Ranger’s talk on the geology of Canyonlands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It truly was a GRAND view!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After our driving tour, we went back to the RV and changed into bathing suits to spend the hot afternoon the same way we spent most of the afternoons while we were in Moab . . . at the pool!

The city of Moab has a really nice Aquatic Center, and for $50 we got a 1-week family membership. 

They have Open Swim everyday from 1:30pm – 5:30 (7pm on Friday and Saturday), and we certainly got our money’s worth.

 

On the way home we got 50-cent ice cream cones at Burger King to tide us over until dinner.

 

Afterwards, we did most of our packing up so that we could get a really early start on Tuesday . . . we had almost 300 miles to drive and it was going to be another HOT day!

Dragonboat Races–Homosassa Springs

We had seen posters advertising the “Dragonboat Races” in Old Homosassa on Saturday, and since we weren’t sure what it was, we thought we’d drive down to the end of Fishbowl Drive and check it out.  We weren’t alone – there were lots of cars already parked on the grass when we arrived at 9:30am.

There was already a large crowd gathered at the edge of the pier.

We made our way through the crowd, and found a good location for watching the action from the pier.

This guy liked this spot, too!

The teams began to gather and after loading up the boats, they headed down to the starting line.

Each boat had 20 rowers, 1 guy to steer, and a person in the front to keep the rowers in rhythm.  Some teams were more coordinated than others.

Several teams were from the retirement community, The Villages, and others were from the Tampa area.  They travel to a different location every weekend during their season.  They need to have some pretty good upper-body strength to row like that.

We watched the 300M race, where most of the times were in the 01:38 minute range, but some were even faster.

There was a lot a friendly competition between the teams, and plenty of cheering from the spectators.

After the first round of races, the teams were matched up by times in the semi-final and final rounds, until there was an ultimate winner.  Those last couple of races were really close!

A group of pelicans even tried to get in on the action!

The final group of racers was a team from the Citrus County Sherriff's Department and another from the Citrus County Fire Department.  I think they each had some help from a few rowers from the regular teams.

The Sherriff's Department Team was the winner!

There were more races throughout the day, but we went back to the RV Park for lunch, and then spent the afternoon at the pool.

A great way to spend the day!