Berryman Campground, Mark Twain National Forest

Yesterday morning, Sam and Donna took us down to the old section of the city of St. Charles. This is famous as being the spot where Lewis and Clark and their dog Seaman set off for their expedition way back in 1804.

It’s a very pretty area down there and we enjoyed walking around. We looked in a couple of the shops and I needed a key chain so I bought a St. Louis Cardinals one ($4.30) with a bottle opener. You never know when you might need a bottle opener.

They have a Lewis and Clark museum down by the riverfront in St. Charles, but it was a small privately owned museum and they wanted $4 each so we declined.

Ruth always did like Daniel Boone

Lewis, Clark, Seaman, and Ruth heading out on their expedition!

Then we headed back to the Weeb Ranch. We have been watching the gas prices the last couple of days and they have been dropping like crazy. St. Louis had the cheapest gas prices in the U.S., and it had been down to $3.139 a gallon ($0.828 per litre) at one spot. But now, we were seeing some stations at $3.399 a gallon ($0.897 per litre) and even the one near Sam and Donna’s was back up there. We wanted to fill Sherman up at the cheap price and Donna found another station nearby that still had it cheap.

So back at the house, we quickly got Sherman ready to go and said our goodbyes.

We made it to that gas station and put in 42.5 gallons at $3.199 ($0.846 per litre) and when we left the gas station the gas price was up to $3.399 a gallon ($0.897 per litre), so we got in by the skin of our teeth! Pretty much the cheapest gas in the whole U.S.A.! We love getting a deal, and now Sherman had a full tank of it!

We headed south on the backroads and made it into the Mark Twain National Forest. I had found a site online that showed some free RV sites at the Berryman Campground. We put in the GPS co-ordinates and Ruth’s Streets and Trips brought us right into the entrance. There are 11 paved RV sites here, each one with a picnic table and fire ring, but no hookups. And, totally free! And, we were the only ones there! Only drawback was that the sites are not very level, but of course we were able to choose the best one.

Sherman, free camping in the forest.

Oh, and another drawback. When we went to bed, it was very warm and very calm. But the wind picked up overnight and at 3:00am we were woken up by acorns falling on Sherman’s roof from the oak trees in the forest! We eventually got up and moved Sherman to a clearing in the front parking lot. So we didn’t get a great sleep even though it was such a quiet place.

We have to say a big thank you to Sam and Donna for extending such fantastic Missouri hospitality. We had a great time visiting and hopefully we can meet up on the road somewhere in the RV’s!

We took all the backroads from Sam and Donna's and did 98 miles (157 kms) yesterday