4th of July Camping

First of all, I'd like to say "Happy Belated 4th of July" to my fellow bloggers & readers!

We decided to venture away from home this past week/holiday weekend, so we found the Catfish Place in Arbela, MO. I'd actually eaten at the Catfish Place once before..they have a little buffet-style restaurant with an outside eating deck that looks out over the lake that is stocked with fish..you can buy .25 bags of fish food & feed the fish, who are more than happy to jump out of the water & put on a show for your dining pleasure. Overlooking the lake is a campground with over 90 sites, as well as lakes & ponds for fishing. They have shuffleboard, pool, washers, basketball, exercise room, laundry, in-ground pool, & plenty of areas for golf carts & bikes to ride. I pulled the Shasta there on Thursday...arrived late afternoon after having to take a detour due to some closed roads from the recent flooding that part of MO has had. I remember seeing a sign that said we were 10 miles from IA.

The Shasta was just a few feet from the water, which made me nervous but as the weekend went on I became more comfortable with the water being right by us. There were some very friendly full-timers across from us that helped me level up and set up the awning...they also loaned Kid 1 a bike to ride for the weekend. Another set of folks loaned me an extension cord when we realized our electric didn't work and had to move closer to the other site.

There were some disadvantages....the road there made the kids carsick, the sites are really close together, and the BIGGEST problems for us were the campsites were lacking in picnic tables & firepits. (Not to mention the electric not working at a few, apparently.) Robert came up the next day & brought my firebowl from home, but I guess I'll invest in the folding Walmart firepit for future excursions. The lack of a picnic table was kind of sucky, too, but we made do. We were close to the bathrooms, showers, and pool..and we had a HUGE grassy spot next to us because the site wasn't occupied. Our site didn't have sewer, either, but we don't have the shower & toilet working yet anyway. (Poor us..)

There was a parade & fireworks for the 4th, a huge playground, lots of areas for the kids to play and ride bikes, etc...the fireworks display was easily seen from our site so that was wonderful!

So here's the pics...overall we thought it was great and will definitely go back sometime.

Sadie guarding the campsite:



The Croppin' Cabin at our site..right by the water. Nice!!





Nighttime at the Shasta Croppin' Cabin:



Pictures from the parade:







Fireworks at the Croppin' Cabin:





View from the back window of the Croppin' Cabin:



Robert posing, hoping to catch some orbs:



Me posing with the Shasta/Croppin' Cabin:



View from the restaurant deck:



Feeding the fish from the restaurant deck:



View of our Shasta far, far away..from the deck at the restaurant:



Other views of the campground area: