The Ozarks - a vacation day or two...

S0, retirement is supposed to be a perpetual vacation. Or so they say.  Or so I thought.

But that’s not reality.  For some reason there are days where you feel like you have to accomplish something and then there are days where you feel like you don’t. I’ve been calling those days where I don’t, my “house days.” Those are the days where I just either sit home doing some thing like working on my blog, or crocheting, or reading, or doing laundry, or cleaning the RV… Or when I go out and do some shopping for food or other supplies. You know, just living life. Then there are days where I want to go see the sights, drive around and see the town, or just go sit in the park somewhere not in the RV and chill.

But… there are also “vacation days.” A vacation day is when you get to sit out in the sun, or you get to sit by the river, or you get to go sit in the hot tub all day. Stopping in the Ozarks was a definite vacation day thing to do.  I had heard about the campgrounds created by the Army Corps of Engineers. From what I read in general and what I saw in Palo Duro Canyon, these are the best campgrounds from a quality of your site standpoint. So when I was trying to find a place for a couple nights that would be relaxing in the middle of the trip, I found a Army Corps of Engineers campgrounds called Aux Arc Park. I have to tell you it didn’t even dawn on me that if you pronounce it the proper French way it’s Ozark.  I am pretty sure that people there pronounced it “Awks Ark.”. But I don’t remember for sure.  I just felt dumb when I realized my faux pas (that’s “foe pa” not “fawks pahss.”  Just sayin...). But anyway I put the information in my RV GPS and off I went.

Following the GPS I got to where I was a mile or 2 away from the campground so, once again, I didn’t question turning down that small little street. I turned down that small little street then I turned down another little street. Driving through a small residential neighborhood in my big ol’ RV, I thought this park must really be secluded.

I kept going down that little street and stopped at a stop sign.  My GPS told me to keep going straight.  But there is a slight problem since there was no street ahead of me! Yes siree - GPS has done did it to me again!

But this time was a little better... I looked at the map and saw that I could twist and turn my way out of the neighborhood through more little streets and back to the main street. I was sweating bullets doing so because these were really little streets and a parked car anywhere along the way could hamper my passage. However, unlike previous escapades, there was no way for me to turn around anyway.  I really had no choice so ahead I went.

All worked out OK - I was back at the main street quickly enough. By the way when I say “main street” I mean this street that was bigger than all the other little streets.  I tried my other two GPS’s and both tried to send me back the same way I had just come.  Yeah, sorry, not doing that. 

At that point I called the campground. He laughed because he knew exactly what I has had done. Evidently everyone else has done the same thing. Yippee… I’m in good company at least!  So anyway... I follow his directions and wind up at the park.  And yes, I really was incredibly close when I turned off that first time.   It really didn’t look like a park when I first got there because you can pull in and you just see the big dam that’s there.  It felt more like I was driving up to the parking lot for the dam.  Do dams have parking lots?  I guess so.  But I did know that I was in the right place because I’d seen the dam in pictures. I then pulled in further to see the most perfectly manicured RV park I have seen yet. Every site was nicely slanted, making parking pretty easy, and because of the angle,  a river view was guaranteed.  Sweet!  Of course, somehow my reservation was messed up, but at that point I didn’t care. I paid for the stay and off I went to my site.  I detached the car and backed into my spot with no problems.  I am getting a little better about backing up.  Getting into all those jams does have a bright side.

The setting was almost idyllic with bright sunshine and a constant cool breeze. I took out my zero gravity chair and a glass of wine and sat looking at the river flowing by. Ahhhh... this is nice.  I closed my eyes and enjoyed the gentle breeze.  All of a sudden I hear a train and I looked across the river and there was a long freight train driving by.  All I could think of was how much my dad would’ve absolutely flipped over seeing that. Trains and trolleys were his thing and he would’ve thought that it added perfectly to the idyllic setting. Some others may have thought of it as intrusive, but for me, here I was,  sitting by a gorgeous river on my vacation days with my dad by my side... smiling and enjoying the train. It was perfect.

Emily‘s boyfriend Victor had asked me to read his masters thesis and I decided this was a perfect opportunity. So I added my iPad to the zero gravity chair and glass of wine equation and read his thesis.  Wow was it complex and intense!  But it was also interesting and it was cool reading it in this setting and so the time passed quickly. I enjoyed my little vacation stop and in the morning...off I went.

Now you may say I had my vacation day so I should be all ready to jump back into busy days of touring. But I have to tell you the truth -  I was tired.  Not sleep tired, just beat.  I felt like I had had enough touring for a bit. I was already formulating the notion that I needed to stay in areas for a longer period of time and that going from place to place as a tourist, as opposed to place to place and living there,  was exhausting. With that thought in mind I decided that the day I had planned to stay in St. Louis was perfectly OK to bag.  I also rememberred that the last time I had gone through St. Louis, when we were coming home with the new RV, the traffic has been horrendous, so I felt like it was a smart decision in every way.

As I drove and drove and was figuring out where I was going to stay that night, I realized I had one problem… DUH, I was supposed to be in St. Louis for two days! So voila -  I had an extra day on my hands and no plans and nowhere really to go. So I decided to stop driving and not push into the night as I would usually do on a Walmart day.  I stayed in a Walmart and the next day I drove until I was close to my next destination, a gay campground in Indiana, and just stopped in another Walmart parking lot.  I hung around the RV for a bit, and then I walked to a little diner for dinner, which I never do, and had a amazingly good dinner.  I had a great conversation with the waitress and the hostess who came to visit me and stayed a while to talk. Remember part of this trip called retirement is about experiencing people and I thoroughly enjoyed their company. And I must say I also enjoyed my extra days.  They felt like I was just living...they were house days! The next day, I was refreshed and happy not to have to drive too far... It was off to the campgrounds and another adventure (oh, and more vacations days... woo hoo).

Do you have days that feel like house days vs. vacation days?  I know I used to struggle with trying to balance those attributes on my non-working days.   You want to just hang around the house but you have errands to run.  Or you want to read a book, but you have to do laundry. Some things don’t change in retirement, but you do have much more flexibility to do what you want.  Not always, but most of the time.  And that feels great!

Love hearing from you… tell me about your idea of vacation days that aren’t really vacation per se but they do the trick. Click like… subscribe… say hello!