Stop #6: St. Joseph, MO and Lake Manawa S.P.

Sunday morning, we all got up, jumped in the truck with some prepackaged breakfast pastries and were on our way to St. Joseph, Missouri. This was the site of the initial Pony Express station and stables. In the museum, it was cool to see what the young mail carriers went through to take letters from Missouri to California. They faced starvation, freezing temperatures, snow, rain, tornadoes and much more to make the ride. Some of them were as young as 11 years old.



practicing riding a horse



playing dressup, how sweet!


 

stables for original pony express



St. Joseph was supposed to be our next overnight stop but Jason decided to press on to Council Bluffs, Iowa just outside of Omaha. By the time we reached town, it was storming. We were all starving and had no camping reservations for the night. I was thoroughly exhausted from refereeing the kids in the backseat and navigating our path while trying to locate replacement tires for our camper. The Wal-Mart parking lot didn’t really appeal to us in the downpour and lightning.

Dinner was our priority, so we found a yummy Golden Corral buffet. After stuffing ourselves with salad, fluffy rolls and lots more, we drove a few miles to Lake Manawa S.P. to check for camping openings. We arrived around 9:30 pm just before closing and were blessed enough to get a site yet again. We piled into the camper for some well needed rest.

I don’t have a picture of this place even though it technically was our 6^th stop. We were only there about 12 hours. 

The lake was beautiful and I am sure it was a nice place to stay. The only thing I can say is it was cheap ($16.00) and we had electric for our A/C.

Monday morning, we headed back to Wal-Mart for a few things and I worked on business stuff in the camper with their free Wi-Fi. Paychecks had to go in the mail today in order for them to make it to Lutz by Friday. We finally ended up finding the trailer tires we needed from a little tire store in town. The guys were awesome there and after 4 new tires and $722 later, we were back on the road headed for South Dakota driving at the normal speed limit. We no longer had to drive at Ken Engel speed (60 mph).