Riding in St Joe State Park Missouri

St Joe State Park is located 3 miles West of Hwy 67 on Hwy 32. It is an 8,242-acre park, in the “lead belt” of Missouri. It is Missouri’s third largest park. There are four lakes with a boat ramp. They have 6 open shelters.

horse campground entrance

Activities in the park include Camping Fishing, Swimming, Hiking, Horse back riding and Mountain biking, and all terrain vehicles.

The park has firewood available, a laundry, showers, and a dump station. There are a few reservable campsites.

The park has two campgrounds, one of which is to accommodate campers with horses and ORV”S (off road vehicles).

The horse and biking trails are designated as multipurpose trails and you may encounter cyclists on your ride through the park. There are also separate paved or hard surfaced trails for hikers and bicycles only.

The Pine Ridge Trail is a ten-mile loop. There is a trailhead at the horse trailer staging area- it is a day use only paved parking lot. The other trailhead is at the campground.

There are vault toilets, water, and picnic tables, BBQ grills and hitching posts at the day use area.

The campground for horses has very nice large lots. They are gravel with a large table and fire ring area. They all have hitching posts in the back. There are 12 basic and 13 electric campsites, just in the horse area. Water is available near the roadside.

campsite at St Joe Park

Lake of the Ozarks State Park

Located off Highway 54 in Osage Beach, and from Highway 42. Another entrance is from Highway A.


This park has 17,600 plus acres of natural forestry to explore. The Lake of the Ozarks is one of Missouri’s largest lakes.

There are 12 trails for hiking and of those three are for horses and biking. To get to the horse trails you have to go through the Highway 42 and then Highway 134 entrance. The longest trail is 16 miles, Trail of 4 Winds. Hidden Springs trail is 2 ½ miles and White Oak Trail is 0.7 miles.

You can rent a horse at the Ozark Homestead riding stables and ride with a trail guide.

Trail information cabin

The trailhead for the Trail of Four Winds is on Highway 134 about 1 mile south of the trail information center a log cabin with info inside. Equestrian parking is on one side of the highway and hikers and bicycle parking is on the other. Access to the trail is also found across from the Ozark Homestead riding stables.

Homestead Riding Stables

They have 230 camping sites all shaded and range from primitive to electric hook ups. There are restroom and a laundry, and eight camping cabins to rent.

The Lake of the Ozark State Park has fishing and all sorts of water sports, boating, they have a boat rental and boat launch area. The park is open year around for camping.

There are two swimming beaches, with rest rooms and picnic areas.

There are cave tours at Ozark Caverns, a guide will take you through the beautiful cave. The cave is a one hour tour.

Our State Park systems are great for getting out to enjoy the natural beauty and the wild life that you can see. The walks are easy to extreme so you need to be prepared and wear good walking shoes. Take bug repellent with you.

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Hannibal Missouri, America's hometown

This trip is not for the horses again, it’s just for the camper trailer.


Hannibal Missouri located on Highway 61 and Highway 36,100 miles north of St Louis, on the Mississippi River is the home of Mark Twain.

Hannibal has so many things to see. There are two different cave tours at Mark Twain cave campground. Cameron cave is 1 hour and 20 minutes long and the Mark Twain cave is 55 minutes long. The caves are in original condition except for safety items needed for protection.

Another campground is the Injun Joe Campground. It has a game room, restaurant, and laundry room, batting cages and hillbilly golf. They have tent sites to full hook ups.

Places to visit are the Rockcliffe Mansion, Mark Twain’s boyhood home, Planters Barn Theater, Mark Twain Clopper, and the Hannibal Trolley sightseeing tour. Mark Twain Mississippi Riverboat is a must for dinning on the river afternoon has a lunch and evening has a full dinner.

There is a charge for all the items listed above.

There are many shops and gift stores, many restaurants, lots of specialty shops. You can get everything from kitchen gadgets to fun and game items to quilt and gift items.

There are wineries to visit in nearby towns, Collver Family Winery and the Crown Valley Port House.

There are many other theaters that portray the life of Mark Twain, they have 11 hotels and motels, 9 bed and breakfasts, 16 restaurants from McDonalds to pizza and everything in between.

Take some games with you for relaxing at the campsite.  check out some of these displayed.
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It is a very memorable day to experience.

Camping at Whispering Pines Trail Ride

This is one time that we went camping in our horse trailer and our neighbor took their camper trailer on a weekend trip with us. The campground did not want to let the camper trailer in but when we told them they were with us they allowed it. This was the first time we had a problem with a regular camper in a horse campground. Today the new owner will welcome horseless campers.

We went to Jadwin, MO to Whispering Pines Trail Ride and Campground. This campground has over 100 miles of trails for horses. They have stalls for the horses, there are electric and basic sites and water is available.

Camp at Whispering Pines Trail Ride

They have bedding, hay and feed and firewood for sale and a few snacks and ice cream.

When you have had enough horse riding you can go search the area for other place to see. There are six major springs in the
area to visit.

Going down Devils Well stair way

We visited the Devils well while we were there it is a well dug by nature. It is called a sinkhole. It is 100 feet below the surface of the ground. You walk down several sets of stairs to get into the cave where the explorers put an iron gate. You look through this gate to see the lake below. To get to the well you go down a very steep gravel road. Years ago people went down the well and there is a big lake 100 feet or more below the deck of the cave. It is a very interesting place to visit and read the information on it. The explorers went down and put a canoe in the lake to see it all. They installed an electric light down in the lake area so you can see it from the cave.

We also rode across Akers Ferry that crosses the Current River below Whispering Pines campgrounds, and north of Eminence MO.

I have more camping and other information on Macdonaldsroundup.com

There is a lot to see and do around this area. It would take several days to see it all.

Grab your gear and lets go see it all. Stay in the saddle and God Bless.

Fun with our fixer upper camper Part III

We made it to Show Low AZ. With no more major problems. Bruce got it parked and jacked up and we enjoyed a week of visiting with his son. He had not seen his son in fifteen years so it was a precious time. He son was graduating from high school and then going on to the Marines.



When we got everything settled Bruce and his son went to buy two more tires. We needed one for a spare and one to replace the flat one on the camper again. He found a couple of used ones that may work for a while. Headed home on the weekend of Memorial Day. We left on Friday and we took a different route home to see some more of the country.

When we got off the interstate in Tucumcari, NM I heard a noise and asked Bruce what it was. We stopped on the side of the road and guess what??? Another flat tire in Tucumcari. I was not going to call a wrecker again here.

We went up through town and could not find a tire shop, we did pass a campground so we were turning around to go back there so spend the next two days, we thought. In turning around we passed a transmission shop that was just closing.

Bruce pulled over and flagged the man down that was leaving. He asked him if there was a place that we could get tires changed now and the man said he would do that for us. It took almost two hours but we got two more tires that were good and he put them on the trailer. That still left us with the spare that was pretty good. Now it was near eight p.m. and I was ready to quit for the night, but Bruce wanted to go farther.

So he was driving and it began to rain. It started to rain so hard that Bruce could not see the road and he had to pull over. There was no traffic on the road at all. The wind started to come up and I thought we might be blown over at any time. But we started up again in a couple of minutes when the rain slowed up. The wind stayed with us though. We got near the Kansas border and found a truckstop and pulled in there for the night.

We parked next to a big truck to block the wind and it was better. Then another camper pulled in beside us and it blocked the wind for both of us. I went into the camper to get our bed ready and it was soaked. I mean we had a pool of water in the bed. The rain blew so hard it blew the rain under the vent that is over the bed.

Now I had to make the table into a bed. It is one that folds down into a spare bed. Naturally in the rain and as late as it was we did not level the trailer and when I lay down on the bed I almost rolled out on to the floor. I turned a little so that I would be sideways and slept soundly the rest of the night.

We woke up early the next morning and went inside to eat breakfast. We heard that there was a tornado in the area. We were lucky that we were on the edge of it and protected in God’s arms.

We got under way again and as we drove through the area we could see the wind damage that the tornado did. The entire town of Greensburg, KS was gone. We had to go around it, the highway patrol had all roads blocked.

We took lots of pictures, I always do. We took a very scenic route home and arrived home about ten p.m. on Sunday. We had a very nice time and were relaxed when we got home.

Now, let me tell you, this could have been a very bad experience for some people. It could be very stressful. You need to learn to let each day be what God intended it to be and live your life for God. Have fun and enjoy each day. We do and no matter what happens we figure a way to enjoy and fix it.

I hope this true story will inspire some one and that you get out and enjoy this world. Enjoy our country.

Stay in the saddle and God Bless you

Part two of Fun with a fixer upper camper

We left Oklahoma City and had good nights sleep behind us and felt good about the camper. We expected to make some repairs, so what we found was not catastrophic. The structure was sound and the floor was solid.

We made it to Amarillo TX for lunch the next day. We again stopped at a truck stop to get fuel and eat. We checked out the outside of the camper and it seemed to be holding together pretty well. Bruce started to drive a little faster and we were making good time.

We got as far as Tucumcari, NM when we had a blow out. One tire on the passenger side blew out. I mean it nearly blew the camper over. We had just passed the first exit to the city and it was too far to the next one to try and drive on it. We had the spare tire, but Bruce could not break the lug nuts loose to change the tire. I called AAA and they sent out a highway patrol man to see if we were ok. He then called a wrecker to help us. The wrecker came and changed the tire for us and then charges us $230.00 for it. I was out raged with this.

I told them I was going to call everyone I could to get a better deal. Of course they did not pay attention to me. So, we got all packed up and on our way again. Now Bruce had to drive slowly again because we did not have a spare tire.

We made it into Morarity, NM. The stations were all closed and it was hard to find any one that had a tire for sale. We stayed again in a truck stop parking lot, and I cooked supper in the camper. The next morning Bruce went out hunting for a spare tire. He found a tire shop that had two of them and we bought them. The spare we had put on was chipping off tread and so he changed that one again and put another tire on the spare rim. So, we are off again.

We were going down the road minding our own business and a big fancy camper went by waving and pointing to our camper. I told Bruce something must be wrong so he pulled over to the side and we looked at every thing and could not see what was wrong. So Bruce started to drive again and I was watching out the mirror on my side to see if I could see what the people were pointing at. Bruce was driving slowly again. I could not see a thing wrong.

Well, he decided to drive a little faster and I kept watching. When Bruce got up to about 60 MPH the awning would unwind. When he slowed down it would wind back up. It was funny- he would speed up and the awning would unwind, slow down and it would wind back up. So it began to rain and I told him we had better stop and tape it or tie it so that it would not come undone. So he pulled over again and we got out to repair it, it was freezing out. I mean it was cold. I could not believe it. He got the awning tied up and we thought it would be ok until we got to our destination.

He picked up speed again and we pulled off the interstate onto the two-lane road going to ShowLow AZ.

The awning was still coming out and so we stopped to tape it good. It was not going to come out again for awhile when I got done with it. It was like a mummy.

We got to ShowLow and got our camper parked. Bruce got out and he had another tire coming apart so he and his son went looking for more tires. He got a deal on two more tires, changed them and we enjoyed the rest of the week and the graduation.
                                                            

Fun with a fixer-upper camper

I would like to tell you about a trailer that we purchased a few years ago. This is funny to us but to some it may not be. I have told you that we try to have fun and make living a joy. We had just been asked to come to Arizona for a graduation. We did not have a camper and no money to buy a really good one. So we searched for one that we could buy and fix up.

Well we found one. I liked the layout of it and it had lots of room in it. It was a 26-foot bumper pull. When we talked to the man that had it he told us that everything worked and as far as he knew it was ready to go. Bruce backed up to it and hooked it up- we did not have any lights on it. So he took it home and worked on the lights, we ended up putting on a new set of trailer lights. The wires to the lights were all rotted and brittle. Bruce and a friend worked on it all day trying to get the lights working.

While they were doing the wiring, I decided to turn on the water and see how that was. I had water spraying out the back end of the trailer. After looking at the plumbing it was only a matter of replacing a section that had frozen and broke. So I took care of that.

With the wiring all done and the water seemingly ok we decided to just go with it. We bought the trailer on a Friday and needed to leave on Monday to get to Arizona on time for the graduation. I started to load all our clothing and dishes and what we needed into the camper.

We started out on our venture Monday around noon. Before we drove 15 miles a piece of chrome came off the side of the camper. Then we stopped in Lebanon to see Bruce’s mother and let her know we were leaving. We lost a hob cap somewhere along the way. She wished us well and we left.

We drove on I 44 almost to Joplin MO when another piece of chrome came loose. Bruce stopped on the interstate to see what it was. I took my trusty duct tape and taped it up until we could nail it. I have learned
to never go any where with out duct tape.

Bruce drove to Oklahoma City OK, we stopped at a truck stop for the night. I did not cook yet, we ate inside because we did not have lights inside the camper. When we had it parked at home it was plugged into the electric. We did not even think to try it on the battery. We had a very peaceful night and slept well.

I got up the next morning about six am and made breakfast for us. It turned out very good. The appliances worked fine and the refrigerator was cold.

This is going to be a two-part story at least. More later.

Keep camping and stay in the saddle.
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Do you know when a saddle fits your horse?

Do you know when a saddle fits your horse?

That may sound funny but it is not for your horse. The key is to find the right saddle, one that offers room between his back and the solid parts of the saddle. You want a saddle that allows a horse to move naturally while bearing weight.

Horses are expressive animals and can tell us if they are having a problem with the saddle. We jut have to learn how to read them. Here are a few signs that he may be trying to tell you that he is uncomfortable.
Objects to saddling, Difficult to shoe, slow to warm up, difficulty in changing leads, swishes tail, pins ears, grinds his teeth, or tosses his head. He may drop or hollow out his back, reluctant to bend, shortened stride, dry spot on hair coat, abnormal breathing, and nervousness.

The front or pommel of the saddle should not be too wide or too narrow. It will hug the horse’s withers closely if it is too wide. If it is too narrow it will sit too high. The back of the saddle should not extend beyond the last rib or reach the loin area.

A comfortable saddle for your horse will give both you and him a better ride. The horse will be willing to ride and enjoy the time spent with his favorite partner. (you)

If you have to take your horse to a professional and ask if you have a proper fit.
Until next time, stay in the saddle and keep riding. God Bless.
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Paddy Creek campground, Roby MO

The Paddy Creek Campground and picnic area is six miles off of Highway 17 and six miles from Highway 32 on Paddy Creek Road, north of Roby, MO.

They have 23 camping pads with a lamppost and table with a fire pit. There are three toilet units through the area. It is located on the creek, wet weather may do a little flooding. It is wooded and partly shaded.
The Paddy Creek Trail is a short 1-mile hiking trail that begins and ends at the picnic area. It has a variety of Ozark Mountain terrain.

This campground is closed from Dec 1 to Mar 15 but you can camp at the picnic area during this time.
Paddy Creek Wilderness area is in the Houston Ranger District.

The SlabtownTrailRides is located on Slabtown road that connects with Paddy Creek and with both places you have over 50 miles of horse trails to ride on. The Slabtown Bluff Trail is a two-mile loop that is on the east bank of the Big Piney River. It has a picnic area, tent camping and a toilet.

Roby Lake is another area close to this trail and it is one of the trailheads for the Big Piney Trail, a ten-mile trail. They have a big parking lot for horse trailers and boat trailers. It is a five-acre lake and drinking water is available here. This is a day use only area.