Camping spots on our way to Reno

Shawnee National Forest

So our first weekend was perfect. Our first camping spot was in Glendale, IL. We stayed in the Shawnee National Forest. The site that we picked was absolutely perfect! It was nicely shaded with plenty of tall trees. At this camp site since it was so pretty we only set up our sleeping tent and bathroom (shower & potty). The temperature was a nice 70-75^o during the day and 30-40^o at night. Perfect camping weather.

Our shower…..Our shower is one of the best purchases we made! It was so nice to be able to warm up our own water and take a shower right next to our camping spot. Needless to say, that we didn’t have to go very far to potty at night! Glendale Recreation & Camping Area is definitely a camping spot that we would visit again!

Graham Cave State Park

We had a wonderful night at Graham Cave State Park in Montgomery City, MO. The camp hostess was very helpful and friendly and helped us find a really good spot. There's one thing for being said about camping out during the week....not many other people there! 

We timed ourself last night. It took us 1 1/2 hours to pick out our camping spot, setting up our tent and blowing up our beds and making them and ready for bed. Not bad! Now, lets see how fast we can get it all done tonight!!! :-)

Once morning came and we had our breakfast we made a goal of leaving camp by earlier than the last two times of packing up and hitting the road. We actually left about 3 hours earlier than the last two days! Trying to learn how to pack the trailer so that we only have to take out the essentials with our one night stays at these parks has been interesting and fun all at the same time. 

We are now on our way to see Kansas City! Yay!

West Rolling Hills Park  

So our first free camping site was at West Rolling Hills Park in Junction City, KA. It was a beautiful spot right beside a large lake! It was quite lovely.

Our Camping Shower

So showering in the out of doors without a typical bathhouse was thought, by myself, to be a bit tricky. But our camp shower sure is awesome!

We tried laying the bag in the sun for 3 hours like it said but because it isn't hot yet, the water didn't get hot enough for us. So we boiled water and had a nice hot show! It has a cubby for bathing products, for dry clothes, and a towel bar on the outside (window unzips completely to grab towel). We also put our potty in there for privacy when there is no toilet available or for easy access at night.

It won't take much to be able to have a nice shower whenever we have available water! So exciting! And it can totally fit 2! ;-)

On Our Way to Reno, NV

1st Camping Spot

Lake Glendale Recreation Area

Well, we made it to our first camping spot around 9pm. It wasn't our first choice. We had actually chose another camping spot that was free but it seemed to have been closed by the Government so we back tracked a bit and found Lake Glendale. It was quite nice. Very reasonable in price. We stayed for 3 nights, to get everyone acclamated to camping again - Kadin again and Danaya for the first time. Everyone enjoyed themselves. The trees were nice and tall and protected us from some high winds that were happening the first night.

We had a lovely bike ride and got to use our bike trailer for the first time while camping. We had a wonderful time biking around the camp grounds and then letting the kids play at the kid's park.

THE ARMOIRE

Anybody who knows about The Armoire knows that it has been for sale for about 3 years now. It was a wonderful piece of furniture that really served it's purpose! 

Oh the Armoire! When trying to have our Estate Sale we were hoping that this piece of furniture was one of the first to be sold! But alas, it was not! Here is how the Lord blessed us in the sale of our beautiful Armoire...

   Through the Estate Sale many people were very interested but no one wanted to pay what we were asking. And our asking price kept going down about each day that our sale continued. We had a couple of serious interests but once everything was said and done, no takers. We resigned ourselves to the fact that we were going to have to donate it with the rest of our stuff that was left.

   We had a phone call the last Thursday of our sale (Friday was the last day of our Estate Sale) and the gentlemen seemed very interested. He was a Southern student engaged to be married in June and was very interested in the furniture. We sent him some pictures of the drawers as he remeasured his hallway, to make sure that it would fit.

   He had called back to let us know that he only had about a 2" clearance and didn't think it would fit. We were really bummed because we thought for sure that he was going to purchase it [at this point we had dropped the price down from $1000 to $500]. With Friday being the last day of the sale, we thought our chance just went out the window!

   However, that isn't the end of the story, but really just the beginning!! The gentlemen called back Friday morning and said that his fiance did want the piece and that he could pay only $400! I said, "SOLD"! He then preceded to tell me that he was talking with a friend of his about us going on the road doing ministry, selling all of our belongings (for the most part) and heading to Reno, NV to do laymen training. He said that his friend wanted to make a donation to our ministry that would match our original asking price! ($1000!!!)

   WOW! were we blown away! Praise the Lord, here we thought we would never sell this piece of furniture. The piece that we hoped would go first, went last. And in the end we got our original asking price!

   After searching all over Chattanooga, it seems, we finally found an open trailer to move this Armoire (apparently everybody was moving that weekend because not 1 truck was available). We got it loaded up nicely and 4 Southern students moved it into this guys apartment. They had a lovely one bedroom starter apartment that held the lovely Armoire just perfectly. We were glad to see it go to such a nice couple who will enjoy it for a long time!