For those who don’t know, COE stands for US Army Corp of Engineers.  They are much maligned and maybe deservedly so in New Orleans and other places, but as RVers we love them.  Wherever they have created massive works on water in the US they have wrapped up by creating campgrounds in some of the most beautiful places and these campgrounds are generally spacious, well maintained and really inexpensive, especially for seniors with National Golden Age Pass or America the Beautiful Pass.  These entitle us to 50% off of already inexpensive camping. 

Having called the Lustigs in Prairie Village KS (Kansas City KS area) and agreed to get together, we  found a COE facility just south of Lawrence KS (home of Kansas University) on the south shore of Clinton Lake, a lake created by the Corp.  Our plan was to take the coach into Prairie Village and park on the street as we did two years ago.  Saturday dawned clear and warm.  It seemed a shame to give up a wonderful campsite in a great park on the water so we called and the Lustigs agreed to a change of plans.  They drove out to us and we had lunch together, Carol put together a wonderful omelet plate for each of us and we sat around the campsite and enjoyed reconnecting and just relaxing in the gorgeous weather.  Eventually we drove into Lawrence to wander the Main Street shops (actually Massachusetts Ave) and eventually we ended up at Pachamama which Dianne had chosen.  The meals were very good and the company even better.  I hope we get to see Diane and Marty again before another two years pass.

We started east in earnest on Sunday and came to a screeching halt in less than 60 miles to tour the Harry S Truman Library and Museum in Independence MO.  Leaving there we had a goal of spending a night in Illinois.  In all of our crisscrossing the country we had never stopped in IL overnight which meant our door map had a blank in the IL space. 

First we had to stop for the night in Missouri.  The best we could do on the way to Rend Lake in Illinois was Wal Mart in Sedalia, MO.  When we got to Rend Lake for our overnight stop, we realized it was too nice to just leave in the morning.  We booked a second night.  In case you are wondering, young wage earners would pay $24 a night for the privilege, that is what two nights cost us.  We biked and hiked and lazed around, hard to do all three in one day but we are good.  We had a small ceremony as Carol affixed the Illinois sticker:

On the second morning we packed up and headed for yet another COE, Canal View Campground at Land Between the Lakes, the Kentucky end. 

We move on again in the AM to Berea KY.