Zan's Creekside Campground

Our campground was in Joplin, Missouri, a few hours' drive from Big Spring, where we had stayed with Kara and Dave. Zan's is a small campground along the Shoal Creek. I don't recall how I found it, but there is an interesting story/back-story attached to our visit.

Sunset in August on Shoal Creek, Joplin Missouri

When I was booking our trip, I had to find out crucial dates for visiting family and friends in Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, and Tennessee. I then back-tracked my bookings based on their available dates to find our departure date. All good. But as I was booking beyond our Big Spring stay, a glitch occurred in the Matrix! I called Zan's, talked to John, and booked JULY 15 instead of AUGUST 15. It was a big OOPS that could have created serious problems on our journey home.

But I didn't even discover the problem until Ron asked where we would be staying the night after Big Spring. I knew it was at Zan's, but then I realized my error as the blood seemed to drain out of my body. It was nearly midnight and all I could do was leave a voicemail message.

The next morning, I called John and quickly explained my error, asking if he had a site available for us. John was in the field at the time, so he asked me to wait a moment while he drove his ATV to the office to check his booking register. It seemed like an hour as I dripped in sweat, crossing my fingers and picturing perfection.

In the office, John (who has a fabulous sense of humor), informed me that I had indeed booked July 15, and that this would require A LOT OF ERASING in his pencil-and-paper based register. I sweated more as I laughed, (haha, funny-not-funny in this moment). John then announced that he had a site available for us. Hallelujah. He made the switch and said that he expected me to bring him a new eraser; I vowed to do so. Deal closed, I hung up and practically passed out.

Shoal Creek in Joplin Missouri

The next morning, I went on Amazon and bought, as a gift for John, a huge eraser emblazoned with the words: Oops! For Big Mistakes! The eraser arrived — no kidding — the day before Ron and I left on our trip! I carried it in my computer bag all along the journey. Then, when Ron and I left our Big Spring campsite, we stopped at the souvenir shop and Ron found a HUGE PENCIL, which of course I bought, regardless of price, to accompany John's eraser.

At Zan's, John helped us get backed in and settled into our campsite. I told him that I had something for him. He seemed surprised. I went to the truck and got the eraser and pencil and presented it to him while recapitulating the booking story. We all laughed and he made a comment about sharpening the huge pencil in someone's teeth who seemed to talk a lot. I shall not repeat, in order to potentially save John from future strife.

Ron and I settled into our cozy creekside campsite and grilled a nice dinner. We spent quite a bit of our "free time" (haha, please understand the scary-quotes joke there) strolling along the creek shore. In the morning, I slept in an extra 15 minutes (another joke, and if you RV travel, you will laugh along with us) while Ron was up and out to capture this fabulous sunrise photo (which I did NOT edit but did use with his express permission):

Sunrise over Shoal Creek, August, Joplin Missouri

We left Zan's around 10 o'clock that morning and made our way westward. It was a fun and somewhat less sweltering experience as we began to move out of the muggy Midwestern / Southern region into more arid climes. (No judgment here, just saying what is true.)

I hope you are all well and still enjoying our belated trip posts as much as I am! See you in the next blog post! xoxo