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Bev's Journal A New Page |
| 25 April 2003 Hawn State Park near Farmington, MO Ozark spring Fragile perfection of a dogwood blossom, Bursting forth into bloom, Blasted by a killing frost. Inspiring bad poetry and introspection And wonder at the never-changing Cycle of renewal. At long last, we’ve escaped from Farmington – albeit only to the state park down the road – but we are in our own house again, and on the road. We are taking some time to relax and get organized. Monday, we leave here for 10 days in St. Louis. We are staying close to home in large part to the fact that our newly discovered British cousin and his wife are coming to visit next week. John and Val Summers came into our lives just last November when Keith (my brother) received an email from John introducing himself as our long lost cousin, the son of one of my uncles and an Englishwoman he met during WW 2. |
| 14 May 2003 Farmington, MO We have met my cousin John and his wife Val at last – a red-letter day for our family. John and I had them to dinner in our RV last night – we’re currently parking on my mother’s property in Farmington. Nicer people you couldn’t hope to meet. We compared notes on RV’s vs. boats – many of the systems are similar. Only with boats, everything is twice as expensive as it ought to be since it’s assumed that if you own a boat you must be wealthy. John (my cousin) says that the price of petrol in the UK is on the order of $5-6/gallon (so you’d almost have to be wealthy to ‘caravan’ over there!) Last year, John and Val spent three months travelling the canals of France south to the Mediterranean. Beautiful country – too bad about the people. They spent the winter docked in Barcelona. Hope someday we get to visit them! |
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| 26 April 2003 Hawn State Park near Farmington, MO The Missouri state parks have gone to a mostly reservation system, which is a pain in the butt for full-timers. One of the things we love about RVing is the spontaneity - it's nice to be able just to pull in and pick out your spot. First come, first served. I don't have a problem with some of the sites being reservable, but 75%???!!! That's what Missouri's done. So, be warned, if you're planning a visit to a Missouri state park, and you don't have a reservation, forget about pulling in on a Friday, or even on a Thursday afternoon, because mostly likely all the sites are going to be taken. I also think it's a sneaky way to hike the camping fee without hiking the actual fee per night - $8.50 per reservation (non-refundable) and $5 if you have to cancel more than two days before your start date. If you cancel LESS than two days prior to arrival, then, in addition to the above, you forfeit one night's fee - cancelling on the day of arrival, you forfeit two night's camping fees. So your plans better be ironclad, or you're going to be out $41.50 before you even arrive! If this seems as unfair to you as it does to us, please go to: www.mostateparks.com and tell them about it! |
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