Camp Carpe Diem has come to an end. We packed up, said our farewells, and hit the road into Springfield Missouri with a special dinner we’ve waited years to enjoy.

Leaving is the hardest

We have had so much fun at Camp Carpe Diem. We have met some wonderful new friends. And, I got some great helpful photography tips from Barry Benton. Now, the time has come to go our separate ways.

Thanks to yesterdays rig tour, I had put a lot of the stuff away that tends to accumulate all over when we sit in one place for more than one night. Still, there is a whole checklist of tasks to get us road-ready. We packed up, took some time to hang out and say so long to the early-birds, then hooked up the truck and went back for our real farewell hugs, handshakes, and selfies.

We had a pretty full day of driving but, thanks to summer sunshine, didn’t worry too much about our arrival time.

Drive Day

The drive was pretty easy today. The weather was lovely. It was a bit hot and humid when we got out of the truck, but we didn’t do that too often. Mostly we just put the miles behind us, looked at the limestone road cuts, and listened to podcasts.

Oh, and we did see a Tesla truck actually being used as a truck.

We did drive through Branson, Missouri. My family has visited there in the past, when we weren’t able to join them. We did’t stop because we don’t really gamble and without the family to show us around, we weren’t sure what to look for. Plus, towing the trailer we have to be aware of parking limitations.

Then we passed the famous Lambert’s Cafe in Ozark. We’ve heard about Lambert’s for years and wanted to go. It was early for dinner, and we were only about 20 minutes to camp, so we decided to get settled and head back that way for dinner later.

KOA Springfield

We are at the Route 66 KOA in Springfield, Missouri. The sign out front makes the claim that they are the friendliest holler in the Ozarks, and you won’t get an argument form us. The staff here is so nice and helpful. We checked in and like many KOAs we were escorted to our site by a golf cart.

I don’t remember if I mentioned our little accident the other day; we were parking in a small lot and backed up too far and broke the lens off the left taillight. Luckily, it mostly only broke the white back-up lens, and the bulb is intact.

We planned to buy some packing tape when we went grocery shopping, but we still haven’t gone shopping. Tony asked if the KOA store had clear tape, and they so kindly sent Tim in the golf cart with a roll of tape for us to borrow. Tony cleaned up the light, and I taped it back together. Now it’s good as new and we don’t have to buy a new one! OK, just kidding.

My memory sure is a strange place to be. I don’t specifically remember anything else about being at this KOA before, but as I sit typing I can see the restroom building and I recognized the porch on the back of the building. I had to verify with photos and yep - in 2021 (the year of our Route 66 trip) we stayed in this very park! As I look through old notes, I find that we ha an electrical issue here (caused by our neighbor) and today, the neighboring power pedestal is being worked on. Seems to be a theme here! I imagine it’s a recurring nightmare for any campground owner. We might think of them as simple places, but there is a lot of maintenance in keeping up a campground.

More new friends

We saw tow other Mini Lites in camp. One is at the other end of the park, and we saw it as we were driving by. The others, though, are right across the road and we had a nice visit with them and invited them to join our Rockwood MiniLite/Flagstaff MictoLite Fan Club group on Facebook. The are from Santa Rosa, California, so their trailer and our first Mini Lite came from the same dealership!

Home of throwed rolls

We were ready to eat, so we headed back into the town of Ozark to Lambert’s Cafe. The reason we’ve wanted to go there, is it’s the home of throwed rolls. The roll guy (or gal) of the day spends their shift baking and distributing big, delicious, piping hot rolls. They do roll around with a cart, but they don’t roll close to each table. Instead, they sort of stand in the middle of the room and toss the rolls over the other tables, right into your hands! We took a lot of video but sadly didn’t get any photos. When the video is live, I’ll add a link the the throwed rolls video (added!).

Because all the servers take turns at being the roll-thrower, they all need to be able to do that. Our server Austin offered to throw a long pass for our video. He went as far as he dared, so he could throw the roll and not hit the ceiling, and gave it a toss. Tony caught it - well, he caught half of it. The roll broke in half upon impact, and part of it bounced to the floor!

Lambert’s also has “pass-arounds” which are five or six side dishes that servers carry around and serve table-side. Tony added black-eyed peas, fried okra, and fried potatoes to his already complete meal. When we were full and ready to box up our leftovers, he had more food than he had when he started!

This is a nice office

We had planned on being here only one night, then heading north to visit my cousin Julie and her family. However, we have a lovely site, full hookup, and good wifi so we are delaying our departure by one day. This will help us relax on Wednesday, knowing that our work is caught up and we can have a day to goof off with Julie - once we drive there, of course!