Campgrounds at Last!

I promise to stop talking about our trip. Sometime.

Today is not that day.

I had planned to write about this today anyway, but yesterday one of you asked if we ever got to really set up camp like we hoped, and the answer is YES! If you missed the earlier post, we learned in the first part of our trip that just because something is called a campground doesn't mean it's a warm and cozy space where you can kick back and enjoy. But we were SO EXCITED to discover on the way home our last two campgrounds were all about the atmosphere we craved.

We had to giggle about the first of the two, because one of the reviews we'd read prior to going labeled it as a dump, but it was one of our very favorites!!

This one was in Mansfield, Missouri, and it was actually called the Laura Ingalls Wilder RV Park. It made me laugh, because Laura traveled in covered wagon...I suppose it was the precursor to the RV? The park was just across the street from the Mansfield Little House Museum, so it was incredibly convenient to our travels. (We literally drove out of the RV Park, went about 1000 feet, and turned into the museum lot. Can't beat that!)

This was a family owned campground, and the owners were the nicest people. They were sitting on their porch, just enjoying the evening, when we showed up. They told us we were welcome to settle in and then pay or pay and then settle in. They even said they had extra cord and hose we could borrow if ours weren't long enough. We didn't need them, but that was so kind!

The park was full of trees, and even though our site wasn't level and we had to pull out the blocks to level the RV, we loved the location of our site. It was up at the top of the hill, overlooking a little pond and gazebo!

We were THRILLED to find it had a fire ring, so we were finally able to have our hot dogs and s'mores outside the RV! 

We were able to explore the campground after dinner and then we slept so well. Woke up to a pretty sunrise, too!

Then the next night, we stayed in Casey, Illinois at the KOA. It was our first time to stay at a KOA, and while we found it a bit pricey (for us), we also found it to be a fantastic campground! We arrived around sunset, and the campground host escorted us to our site and helped Ryan navigate backing in. We were right next to a little fishing lake, and I was so happy with the view!!

Ryan was super excited to cook over the campfire, including trying out his new grill grate!

To be fair, we did not put out our awning or lights - or our rug - at either site, simply because we arrived late and left first thing the next morning. We were trying to save ourselves some time. We are hoping to take some weekend trips this summer that would allow us to stay put in one place for a couple of days, and we'll use those things then. But even getting to enjoy trees and lakes and campfires made the end of our trip a true joy. 

And Ryan loved his morning coffee by the lake that final day:

I was so thankful we got to experience these two nights at campgrounds that lined up with more of what we were hoping for!! They were a blessing!