McConaughy State Park and Driving

We got up this morning and the weather had improved.  It had rained through the night at MSP but had quit around 6 am.  It was still cool but at least we could pack up with no rain.  We had really hoped to be able to spend half of the day here yesterday but the additions and detour made it impossible.  We had to get on the road but decided to take a quick trip down to the lake beach area for a walk before leaving.  It is a nice beach area and it is allowed for rv’s to (dry) camp right out on the beach close to the water’s edge.  I don’t know how far down the water is at the lake but looking at some of the older watermarks it appears that they have had a substantial drought.  We got on the road and went through from Mountain Time to Central Time-  Those extra hours that we enjoyed getting on the way are now going the other direction!  We made good time today and crossed Nebraska on mainly I-80.  We later skirted through the edge of Iowa before entering  Missouri.  This is the only night of the 30 we are out that we did not have a camping reservation.  We made the call to stop for the evening a little short of our target, Kansas City, and to stay in St. Joseph, MO and to stay at a hotel tonight rather than a campground.  With the continuing cold snap, we wanted the kids (and parents) to be able to have a heated pool to play in to burn off some energy before tomorrow’s long drive day.  The thrifty hotel owner, a Mr. Patel, had decided not to splurge on the heated pool and had decided instead just to place a large space heater in the room and call it heated.  How industrious of him.  He also had a non working elevator and other issues but who are we to quibble.  The kids did not care, they splashed around and had a blast even it was too cold for L and I.  We headed back up to the room and watched our first TV in 27 days- you would have thought we were a 1960’s family watching Neil Armstrong land on the moon they way we stared at the tv!  We have satellite tv on the camper but don’t have it hooked up and I am glad- the little bit of tv we did watch was mindless drivel. I just went out and met the AAA guy since the Explorer battery had died today in route- fixed now- hopefully no more issues.  Long 500+ mile day tomorrow