Our most expensive diesel fill-up ever!

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

October 10, 2022

We left our very hospitable stay at our latest Boondockers Welcome at 10:00, and headed straight west  through the crowded highways of St. Louis in the motor home. Denisa snapped a picture as we rolled over the wide Mississippi River.

Just like that, Missouri welcomed us.

As we pulled onto I-70 we saw that Kansas City was showing up on the signs for the first time since we left there close to five months ago. That will be our destination to see our son and his family, but we are still 267 miles and several days away from that. 

It was in Missouri that we stopped for our most expensive diesel fill-up ever! We usually fill up our 100 gallon tank before it gets below half. But Mark had picked out a station further down the road with a good price, so we got down to just a quarter of a tank. The only problem with this delay is that diesel is going up in price, and the $3.95 price he saw a week ago had gone up to $4.99 by today. It was $301.50 to fill up our diesel tank. Ouch! We also had to fill up with DEF. We dread these fill-ups because it's hard to find stations that have it available at the pump. Then we have to go through the truck lane in the wrong direction because our DEF tank is on the opposite side of most trucks. So we added another $30 in DEF to make this expensive stop even more record-breaking!

With all that expense, it's a good thing we are heading to a free camping spot in Columbia, Missouri. Bass Pro is very welcoming to RVs spending the night among the beautiful fall foliage in their parking lot. After our 140-mile trip today, we settled the motor home in at Bass Pro Shop and drove the pickup out to Finger Lakes State Park. The water was absolutely calm when we started out on the four-mile canoe trail here.

We visited the Finger Lakes in up-state New York a month ago, so it was interesting that we were at a state park with the same name here in Missouri. This land had been strip-mined for coal and was a wasteland of ridges. It was decided to use that new terrain for recreation. So the long thin corridors were flooded with water to form the long finger-like lakes that give the park its name. Birds love this new terrain, and we spotted a great blue heron . . .

and Canadian Geese on our kayak trip.

The trees beside the fingers were perfectly mirrored in the still water as we rowed by. It feels like we have wandered into another of God's wonders when He can make a beautiful park from an old strip mine.

It was a lovely day!

From another part of the undulating hills left over from mining, they laid a motocross track where they hold competitions.

On a smaller scale, a wavy bike course can be ridden by smaller bikers (and enjoyed by crazy old runners).

The sun was going down as we looked over the motocross trail, and we still had to drive back to Columbia and Bass Pro for some shopping. We always try to find something to buy when we are enjoying a free night's stay in a retailer's parking lot. But it won't be a big purchase after today's most expensive diesel fill-up ever.