Destination Wakonda State Park, La Grange, MO - July 16

 After a good night's rest with air conditioning, private baths and showers, and included Wi-Fi, we headed south toward our new destination of  Wakonda State Park near La Grange, MO.

We continued to enjoy the scenery of rolling farmlands and forests but the enjoyment was often punctuated by frustration. We occasionally encountered certain highways that set up a rhythmic vibration between the camper and the car that caused them to fight one another. This seemed to happen most often on concrete highways where the joints in the concrete were a consistent distance apart. These joints created slight almost imperceptible bumps that, when repeated over and over created this rhythmic vibration. There was really nothing wrong with the road that you would notice with just a car, but the combination of the car hitting bumps and then the camper hitting the bumps at a certain speed caused them to pound against each other. The only way to continue was to slow down and try to find a slower speed where this didn't happen. This was usually around 45 miles per hour. Needless to say that turned a relatively short day into one that was much more tense than we had planned. This seemed to happen more in Iowa and southern Wisconsin and less on country roads than on major highways. Needless to say, we looked for back roads whenever possible.

But along the way, we did pass by some abandoned lime kilns. Very similar in shape to the iron furnace that we saw in Michigan. That got us to wondering - what in the world is a lime kiln,  what is produced, and how is it used, and why here?

The "Why here?" Is easily answered. They seemed to be placed near limestone cliffs.

What is a lime kiln? In the kiln, limestone was burned at 900 degrees centigrade to produce powdered lime.

The powdered lime was used with water and sand to make mortar before the invention of Portland cement. It was also used for field fertilizer and crushed stone for road surfacing. You can read more about it here.

We finally made it to Wakonda State Park. We didn't have reservations but were pleased to find a Campground with many available sites. We chose one that was shadd and somewhat secluded, mainly because there weren't many other campers.

The temperatures stayed in the mid-80s today and the evening has cooled off to be quite pleasant.