This little blog for friends and family is a chronicle of our RV travels during the summer and fall of 2024. We are headed from Tampa (our winter, and sometimes summer, home) to Oregon. This trip is a continuation of many years of living full-time in our fifth wheel trailer and traveling this beautiful country. If you are interested in perusing the many wild (and not so
wild) natural places we explored from 2011 to 2018, visit http://www.travelswithtucker.com
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Illinois and Missouri
When one attempts to plan an RV trip of 3,000 miles, most of it through unfamiliar territory, there is a ton of research involved (which is so much easier than it used to be, thanks to the internet). But no matter how many articles you read and satellite images you peruse, the trip inevitably presents many surprises, some good, some not so good. Our past week had some outstanding examples of the former!
Rend Lake
Who knew that hidden down in the southern tip of Illinois is a beautiful lake with excellent campgrounds and a great bike trail. And this lake just happened to be one standard ¨LeBlanc driving day¨ (~250 miles) from Nashville. Rend Lake is an Army Corps of Engineers artificial lake, and these usually have great campgrounds. We spent three days here and it rained a lot, but we did get one nice day to ride our bikes part way around the lake on a paved trail
Another day´s drive took us to Coopers Landing, a high point of the trip so far and one of the top few campgrounds of the literally hundreds we've experienced over 13 years of doing this. I had stumbled across this place in my research and did not really know what to expect. It is not only a campground, but also a live music venue and a staging area for a serious bike trail. It exceeded my highest expectations.
Coopers Landing sits on the bank of the Missouri River near the college town of Columbia. For over 30 years, it has been a music venue, campground, hang out place and second home to a very loyal bunch of laid-back, but active people of every generation. It´s been flooded out by rising water several times. Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday they have different food trucks and live bands. We saw three performers over three days and all were really good.
The Katy Trail is a bike trail built on an old railway bed that runs an astonishing 239 miles along the Missouri River; and Coopers Landing is a favorite access point for people to come to ride the trail, grab some food, listen to some music and generally admire the massive river rolling just a few feet away.
Lewis and Clarkś Cave
¨Boathenge¨
Coopers Landing was a great find and we had a wonderful time here!
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