St. Genevieve, MO
Monday, May 6
We’d have very much liked to stay and play at Land Between the Lakes Recreation Area in western Kentucky, but we’re making our way to Missouri today. We have plans to spend time with my family in Nebraska this weekend and I’d rather chip away at the 10-hour drive over the next three days vs. powering-through at once. Tory and Aden get a little antsy when we drive further than three hours at a time and it also gives us a chance to sight-see along the way.
After breakfast, Tory and Aden played with their new campground friends from Virginia. I barely heard a peep out of the kids all morning — they were busy running between our two campsites, catching bugs, building forts and playing on the playground. It doesn't happen often that Tory and Aden both make a friend their ages so when it does, Andi and I try to slow down our schedule and let them enjoy. While the kids played, Andi and I sat at Luke and Jessica’s campsite (Joanna and Josiah’s parents) and shared stories about everything from work to travel to homeschooling. It was a fun, low-key morning!
Tory and Joanna swapped mailing addresses with one another so they could keep in touch, and we promised we’d look them up if we ever make our way to Virginia. Even though time together is short, it’s neat to see Tory and Aden make friends with other kids from different parts of the country.
After lunch, we packed up the RV and drove north toward St. Genevieve, Missouri. We had no rhyme or reason for visiting St. Genevieve other than it was about 3 hours away from Land Between the Lakes Recreation Area on our way to Nebraska, and we’d read it was a cute small town to visit. On this trip, we’ve tried to stay off the interstate as much possible in an effort to see more of the USA. We drove through rolling hills of northern Kentucky, the very southern tip of Illinois, and southeastern Missouri passing through some pretty poverty-stricken areas. It’s sad to see small towns which were once thriving places to live so run down and left behind.
St. Genevieve, located just west of the Mississippi River in Missouri, was adorable though. We parked the RV in a parking lot and hopped on our e-bikes to explore. Most of the businesses in the historic downtown area were closed because it was after 5:00pm, but we happened upon a transportation fair taking place at the school. Score! We parked our bikes and walked around the parking lot looking at all the different types of vehicles on display. Tory and Aden sat inside a medical helicopter, a race car, and a fire truck.
As the four of us sat on the curb and ate hot dogs and chips for dinner, we got a kick out of watching people check out our e-bikes — they thought they were on display, too!
After the transportation fair, we biked around town. There were some gorgeous old buildings in town. I loved how many of them adorned a plaque with the very first owner’s name — some dating back to the 1700’s! Afterward, we hopped in the RV and drove 20-minutes to our campsite at Hawn State Park. We didn’t have a camping reservation, but it wasn’t crowded on a weekday.
Andi commented and I agreed that Missouri was the first place that felt like “home” after traveling in Costa Rica and the southeastern part of the USA for the past three months. The people in St. Genevieve sounded like the Midwest — absent of Spanish speaking or a southern dialect. Not that they weren’t everywhere we traveled, but the people we met at the transportation fair were especially friendly and welcoming to us. As we drove through Missouri, we even started to recognize store names. At one point today, Andi said “We’re in Menards country!”
It’s bittersweet to be somewhere so familiar again. In some ways traveling through Missouri is less exciting because it’ more like “home” and in other ways, it feels comforting to be here. All of these similarities mean our trip is nearing its end which is hard to believe.
Tomorrow, we’re traveling East to the Lake of the Ozarks for our final stop in Missouri.
