An empty RV park on the Mississippi River?

When we get into the Y2V routine of monthly projects, that gives us about two weeks in between. After wrapping up our Cane Creek Project, we slowly started our journey north for our next, Rock Island County's State Forest Preserve. Not too quickly though....temperatures are a LOT cooler in the Quad Cities. So, we made a stop in Little Rock at the Maumelle US Army Corps of Engineers park along the Arkansas River just west of town, followed by our first-ever visit to Branson, MO. What a cool town that was. In Branson, we stayed at the Branson Musicland Kampground right in the heart of the theater district. If it wasn't for the four days of cold, punishing rain that was nonstop during our time there, we might have seen more but at least we picked up a couple of shows; Reza and the Whodunnit Hoedown. Reza was a pretty talented illusionist but we really like the Hoedown - a small fun cast with a hilarious storyline. Shar got tagged as the wife of the victim, so, a suspect of course, and "what's she doing with that schmuck?" It was a lot of fun.

But, the real reason for this post is where we're currently parked and it's worth mentioning. We discovered the Mississippi Park RV Campground in Canton, MO in 2022 when we were making our way from our Mark Twain State Park and Historic Birthplace project to our final project for 2022, Living History Farms in Urbandale, IA. It's a small, linear 23-site RV park with all sites facing the Mississippi River. All sites have 20-30-50A power and sites 10-23 are full hook ups. What we really love though is that it's situated at the southern entry to Lock & Dam #20...I mean literally, right at the entrance. Phil, forever a sailor, can sit in the front seat with river barge traffic no more than 50 feet away making their way into and out of the locks. If you're a train enthusiast, there's a rail line behind the park where a few freight trains pass but never so much that it's annoying. This park is the real deal... and it's almost always empty.

I supposed the reason is that there's nothing flashy about Canton and because it's like most mid-western industrial small towns. You can tell that the economy in Canton was a lot more vibrant and welcoming in the past. You can see a number of boarded up buildings and remnants of industry that no longer exists. Most residents commute to outlying larger towns such as Quincy IL, Keokuk IA, and Hannibal MO (where there is plenty to see there). Canton is sleepy and quiet simple town and for full-time RVers like us, it's a perfect stop as a place to take a breather between projects or just sit and watch the river drift by. And that barge traffic.

Here's a link to the park with a great map to show you just how close the sites are to the river and locks. Sites just went up this year to $40/night and for us, it's worth it. Sites are advertised at 50 feet long but the pads are shorter. That said, there's room for us to park our trailer in front and if we needed to make space for another camper, a parking area for the Subaru. Take a look.