Jonesburg, MO. Can you say Deliverance?

Two hundred forty two miles east of Topeka is the struggling hamlet of Jonesburg, MO. It was nice to have reserved sites at a rated four star resort waiting for us with the added benefit of only traveling about two hundred miles in a day. We pulled into Jonesburg Gardens RV Park in the afternoon, and should have been suspicious when we stopped near the office.

The older gentleman, Bob, who answered the bell on the door was a bit rustic, could have used a shower and clean clothes, but very nice, and showed us the site that he had available for our stay. Again I should have been alerted by the large puddle of water and the backhoe in the next site over. But, oh no, I said hey, that's cool, and we signed up for two nights.

Not bad, huh? Well, later on, with Sasha in tow, we walked the perimeter of the park, stopping at the lake to check out the advertised paddle boats...

As the evening progressed, we began to notice that Roger and Mary, along with Donna and I, were the only two "guests" in the park. And it got really, really dark...

The next morning we contemplated leaving a days worth of $$ on the table and leaving, but reason prevailed a bit, and we decided to take a day trip to take our minds off our perceived problems. Just down the road, the town of New Florence is home to the Wood Hat Distillery. Now, don't get the wrong idea here, we visited to see the wood hat collection that the owner, Gary, had crafted over the years.

We ended up agreeing with the saying on wall art:

Roughly twenty miles south of New Florence is the German community of Hermann, so we decided to check it out. We didn't expect much on a Sunday afternoon, but were pleasantly surprised by what we found. Our first stop was at the Hermann Wurst Haus, a German butcher shop and deli, where Donna and I shared a couple of bratwurst with sauerkraut!

Hermann is located on the Missouri River, and was a thriving shipping port for many years. Now it's a tourist destination.

These days the Southern Pacific train roars through town on a regular schedule, as well as the Amtrac passenger trains. Just as we parked to get a good look at the river, a train came into town, so we had to check that out first.

We were so close to the tracks that Donna got a couple of train horn blasts in response to a wave! We stood and watched the railroad rails and ties rhythmically move up and down as each car passed over them.

As the afternoon wound down, we stopped at the Downtown Deli for a bit of custard ice cream. Very rich and flavorful! Donna is holding my Super Malt while I take the picture; made with extra malt and double chocolate, it was delicious!

Driving out of town we found a couple of nicely kept homes from the 1830's original German settlement.

Back to the "Garden", we spent a sleepless night wondering if we were going to be able to get out the next morning! Or, for that matter, if we were going to survive the night!