July 12 track

Back on the road, this day also went pretty much as planned, again except for the fact that my idea of being on the road by 5:00 AM to avoid the heat turned out to be a total impossibility for us. Too bad we didn't manage to pull it off, as the temperatures really started to climb during this day. The overhead computer was over 100 degrees while we were driving. My other idea about driving without using the air conditioning was also quickly abandoned.


We arrived as planned at the Lazy Day campground in Danville, Missouri. We had some extra time, so we decided to go for a quick swim. There were a few afternoon thunderstorms building on the horizon, which I was keeping an eye on while wondering if maybe there was a reason that we were the only people in the pool. No problem, though, the storms stayed far enough away not to be a problem.


The campground has a commemorative wall set up to allow people to express their patriotism since 9/11. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to sign it. We had planned on doing so in the morning, but we left before the office opened, and we realized that we didn't have any markers. Ball point pen would have just looked silly, so we didn't bother.


I did meet the world's second friendliest cat at this campground. The collar tells me he wasn't a stray, he must have belonged either to some other camper, or the campground owners. I was working on something outside of the trailer, and I noticed this cat wandering around a few camp sites away. He saw me, and made a beeline for me (as much as cats ever make a beeline for humans, naturally he had to pretend that he just happened to be wandering in my general direction). When he rubbed up against my legs, I sat down for a minute to pet him. He instantly jumped in my lap and started purring. After a few minutes, I put him back on the ground and continued what I was working on, then went back inside. The next time I came out of the trailer, I found him sitting on the steps of our trailer. Then he saw that we had a dog. He ran to a safe distance, and gave me a "how could you?" look. It was almost like he wanted to hitch-hike with us. We have enough cats at home, thanks anyway.