October Fun Carries On

After a crazy busy day of work, I rushed home, bopped from my car to the passenger seat of the truck. Off we went. Just King Ralph and I, off for a "romantic" camping weekend. Beating the traffic on Highway 70, making our way to the state's Capitol: Jefferson City, and Binder Park Campground. 

We arrived before dark, which was helpful to getting set up. Binder Park Campground is a quiet, small 17 site campground. The sites are nicely arranged with decent spacing between each. All the sites are full hookups for $18 a night. The only flaw is the water hookups are shared. God help you if you or your water partner are without a "Y" splitter. Or without 75 feet of hose. Lucky us we had both! Good thing we had enough hose because it was a distance to the water supply. Some sights are crazier in distance to their water hookup. If I could have selected my site ahead of knowing what I know now...sites 6, 12 or 15 are the sites to score. Those sites have the best water positioning. Insane to think about selection of site based on where a utility is. Other than that the sites themselves are decent. Pads are concrete (could be a tad wider), picnic tables are covered (appearing to have recently been refurbished), the campfire rings are perfectly placed--away from RV's. Oh and each site has a BBQ grill. 

What drew us to camp here? Our desire to tour the Missouri State Penitentiary. It shut down in 2004 and is open for a variety of tours. We chose the 3-hour history tour, which included viewing the gas chamber.  I don't want to share to much, in case you want to visit. I will say this...had one guy not escaped in a bread box history could possibly have rewritten itself.

I'll also say the very open railings gave my fear of heights with no security boundaries a workout. Walking the catwalks from one side of the cells to the other--eek! My heart was palpitating! 

After getting our prison history on we got lunch. We headed over to Prison Brews just up the street from the MSP, and fittingly named considering.

The micro brewery suds were fantastic--it was Octoberfest all the way for King Ralph and I. Food equally as yum. Matter of fact, best sweet potato fries I ever eaten. 

When we returned to camp we took a relaxing hike through the woods and around the lake, as the sun's warmth touched us. Then we BBQ'ed and relaxed by the campfire. Mother Nature was teasing us with Fall-ing evening temperatures.

Making a campfire absolutely perfect! 

The October weekends have been perfectly perfect! There is more fun to be had this coming weekend as well.