Thursday June 25th
We got up about 8:00 and began to get things together to leave. Sue fixed breakfast this morning; cooked apples eggs and biscuits. We finished eating a little after 9:00 and got ready to leave. Sue & Herman have a huge rock in their back yard. I wanted us to have a picture made there. It was more difficult than I thought. The rock is on the hill side and Don and I both had on sandals. We finally made it up, took the picture and then began the process of coming down. We had to take off our shoes to make it down and Sue had to help Don. We said our goodbyes and walked down to the camper. WE were on the road at 9:24. We left Hode and took Rt. 292 to 52 to Nagatuck and then took 65 to Charleston. We hit I-77 to Beckley. We made it in 3 hours. Don decided to get gas before entering the campground. We didn’t know it but a hanger on our tailpipe had broken, and the tailpipe caught the curb and crushed it up against the wheels on the camper. We couldn’t go anywhere because a saw was needed to remove the tailpipe. So, Don called my Uncle Gary, that lives in Beckley, and he came down to the gas station and crawled up under the camper and cut the tailpipe off. It had just started to rain when my uncle arrived and he got soaked to the bone from the water running on the pavement. At 1:30 we finally left the gas station and headed to New River Park. We got the same site we had in April, site #14. It was really raining when we arrived so our neighbors brought us an umbrella. They are from Belmont, NC, just a few miles from us at home. I hope to talk to them more. We got set up and by 3:00 we were in the camper resting. We made our menu for the reunion and then our store list. I walked 4 trips around the park by myself. I sure miss Sue. After my walk, we then headed out to the grocery store and dollar store. We will have to go to Wally World tomorrow for a few things. We got back about 8:30 and I walked 4 more times around the park and walked a little more on the flat ground. These hills are rough on this flat lander. Donnie called today to say the results from his MRI were in and that he had 2 bulging discs in his neck caused by the accident he was in. His doctor told him no more riding horses, 4 wheelers, or anything that could jerk his neck. He goes back to the doctor in 2 weeks.
Friday June 26th
We got up about 8:00. Mom text me to let me know that a good friend of ours, Mildred Cook, had passed away last night. We will not be able to attend any of the services since we are out of town. We ate breakfast and got dressed. I walked 4 extended laps around the park. We did some laundry and finally left about noon for me to hit some primitive shops. A lot of the shops have either moved or gone out of business. I did find some cute things though. We went to eat at Shoney’s (not at all like fish camp seafood) for supper and then back to the camper and roasted some marshmallows. Then I walked 5 laps before going in for the night. We got everything together for the reunion and went to bed late.
Saturday June 27th
We got up early and ate breakfast at the camper. We then got ready for the reunion and arrived at Little Beaver State Park a little after 11:00. We forgot some things so Don went back to the camper to get them. We had the biggest turn out yet since we re-started the reunion. We had 27 there and food galore. It was great! My dad’s brother, Gary and his wife Debbie, came and he brought his guitar. WE sang some songs together. Most everyone had left by 6:30 so Don and I headed back to the camper to get things in. We are leaving tomorrow after church. We hope to make Evansville, IN by dark.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Well, I woke up at 6:00 with a terrible since headache. I have had a few since last Sunday. However, this was the worst one yet. We were supposed to go to church at Harper Heights Missionary Baptist Church but I was too sick to be able to get everything put away inside the camper and to get dressed and out of the campground by 10:30 to make it to church by 11:00. So I took a hot shower to try and open up my sinuses, drank some hot tea to do the same and ate 2 pieces of toast. That’s what my mom always had us do if we were sick or had a headache. I don’t know why but it works. I took my decongestant, ibuprofen and my nasal spray and went back to sleep. I woke up about 9:00 and my headache was better as long as I didn’t move. So I went back to sleep for another 20 minutes or so. I then got up and began to get the inside of the camper ready for travel. It was 11:00 when I left the campground to take the bathhouse keys back to the office. I did a little shopping and then met Don about 11:30 to put the car on the dolly. We pulled out just before noon. We headed up I-77 towards Charleston and things were going well. Then about 12:30, we heard something that sounded like a gun had gone off. Don thought it was a tire. We found a place to pull off and check and found that something had fallen in the camper and was hoping that it was that, that made the awful noise. We checked the tires anyway and sure enough the passenger side inside tire was flat. We were over 30 miles from Charleston but thought if we could take it slower than normal we could make it there and have better luck at getting it changed. We had gone maybe about 10 miles, when we saw a Travel Plaza road sign. We made it there and called our road side assistance. About 2:45 the assistance arrived and $255.00 and ½ hour later we were on the road again. We made KY in early evening and by dusk we were crossing into IN. The bridges and Ohio River were absolutely beautiful. I took several pictures. Somewhere in IN, the time changed. It was still dusky daylight ‘til after 9:30. We made Evansville about 10:00 PM central time. We finally found a Wal-Mart on Burkhardt Rd., just off I-164 and IN route 66(I-64 to I-164 to IN Rt. 66. We finally got to sleep a little after 1:00. We watched a video on DVD “Ordinary Miracles”.
Monday, June 29, 2009
I didn’t sleep well even though we were parked under a street light and security cameras. Wal-Mart was open 24 hours and folks were out during the night. Wal-Mart welcomes campers to stay overnight so I know they are keeping an eye out for us but there is just something about staying in a campground that seems to be more restful for me. We were up at 7:00 Central time on our own. We got up and ate cereal and left a little before 8:00. We traveled back about 10 miles or so to get gas at a Flying J, where we saw gas for $2.41/gal. We had also seen a truck wash, but it was a full service wash so we passed that up. I couldn’t believe that at 8:30 in the morning it was 75 degrees here. I thought it would have been cooler. Don drove to the IL line and I drove from there to about 50 miles from St. Louis. The wind is very strong. It reminds me of the wind at the outer banks of NC. No wonder I was struggling to drive. It is very flat here and lots of farm land. Up to that point there weren’t many towns but we saw more the closer we got to St. Louis. I was a little disappointed when we crossed the MO state line. It wasn’t at all like I had imagined. The Ohio River was so pretty and other than the arch, I was more impressed with the Ohio/Indiana state line and the Ohio River. We made it to Warrenton, IL by 1:00 and stopped to eat at a Pizza Hut there. By 1:45 we were back on the road. We arrived at Wildwood Campground in Steedman, MO at 3:00 Central time. We were the 2nd camper in the campground for Coast to Coast campers. This place is huge. It has about 900 permanent campsites. The road goes back 3 miles to the end of campground but there are 26 miles of road in here. We chose site #3. It had the most shade. There are no decks or pavement to park on just gravel like at SC Three Flags. We are parked under a big pine tree on one side and a hickory nut tree on the other. We rested a bit and then set out to find the nearest town. We went into the town of Steedman but there was nothing there. We went to another town called Mokane. The population was 880. There was nothing there either. We then headed to Fulton. Bingo, we found a Wal-Mart there! As much as I hate spending time shopping at Wally World it seems we have to go there so often. Anyway, we picked up what groceries we needed. The strip mall also had a Dollar Tree. Now that I don’t mind at all. After shopping we headed back to the camper. We fixed scalloped potatoes and fried pork chops for dinner. We ate late even for Central Time but I guess there is no set time when you are on vacation. I think we finally turned in about 10:30.
Tuesday June 30, 2009
I slept well. I don’t think Don did though. He was up early. The sun came up a little after 5:00 here. This Central Time is going to take some getting use to. Donnie called at 8:00 so we both got up then. I had another sinus headache but thought it would be OK. We had breakfast and got ready to leave heading into Fulton so Don could see about getting lab work for the Coumadin clinic back home. We forgot Don’s phone, the computer, the battery charger for the camera, the cell phone car charger, the inverter and our lunch. We were batting a 1,000 for preparedness. We did find a lot of info at the visitor’s center and even a local lab for Don. We headed to the lab to see what Don would have to do to get an appointment. The Coumadin clinic will just need t fax over the orders here and then Don can get that taken care of. With head hurting worse we headed to what we thought would be a flea market like the ones in OH (Holmes Co/Amish & Hartville). It wasn’t. It was a consignment antique/home décor mall. It was fine; just don’t know that we would have gone there had we known the facts. Head still hurting, we headed to an Old General Store called Crane’s. Another not so thrilling stop, but my head hurting may have some bearing on my perception too. By then it was lunch time so we decided to head back to the camper since we forgot to pack a lunch. Head still hurting, we made it through lunch and then we both took a nap, we on the couch and Don in the recliner. The next thing I knew it was 3:30 and my head was still hurting. I finally made a cup of hot tea (don’t know why I didn’t think of it earlier) and it finally eased my pain enough to function. I looked through some brochures to get some ideas of what to do. We will be visiting Hannibal, Mark Twain’s hometown and there is a stretch of Rt. 66 in St. Louis that looks interesting. Don also wants to visit the arch again. He was there as a kid. I told him that was fine and he can even go up if he would like but I can see all I need to from the ground. With head feeling better, I decided to go outside and sit a while. It was 82 degrees and a nice breeze was blowing. It felt really good. I gathered some firewood in hopes I can roast marshmallows tonight. We plan to ride through the park tonight. They tell us you can see deer and even foxes throughout the camp. They told Don yesterday, that just before dark most every evening, the deer come right through our camping area. I hope I can get some good pictures. Well no deer or foxes tonight. We did see a whole family of raccoons, about 8 of them. We were not impressed with the park itself. We like our Coast to Coast camping spot and area, but the park well, let’s just say I wouldn’t want to be out there after dark. Everyone is very friendly but their permanent camping areas makes Hillbillies look like rich folk. We came back to the camper about 9:30 and watched another Hallmark video, “An Angel in the Family”. I don’t think I have mentioned but there is no cable and we haven’t purchased new TVs or converter boxes. We didn’t even know that Michael Jackson and Billy Mays had passed away sometime since we left KY until it was old news.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
We got up about 8:00 and had breakfast. We then got ready to go to St. Louis. We packed our lunch and got all the other technology equipment on this trip. As we were putting our lunch in the car, Don noticed paw prints on the trunk of our car. He said it was raccoons. It is very dusty here so let’s just say the car looks like it has been sprinkled in flour or something. We left about 10:00 and headed to St. Louis. We arrived there at noon. We visited a catholic church, The Old Cathedral, Basilica of St. Louis, the King, which was very interesting. There were folks there just like you see on TV, just stopping in to pray. I didn’t see a priest or any other church officials, but there were quite a few other folks coming and going. Some like us just curious and then others who were obviously Catholic. Next we went to the Arch. What a sight! It is made of stainless steel. We took several pictures of the church and the arch. Then we went over to the Mississippi River. That was interesting. They had big casino boats and paddle boats on the river there. We plan to take a river boat trip but we hope to do so in Hannibal. After the river pictures we set to find Rt. 66. After many wrong directions, back tracking, lunch and ending up where we started, we finally found the Rt. 66 State Park in Eureka, MO. It was really interesting. The museum is now in what used to be Steiney’s hotel and restaurant. It sits on the Meramac River. We spent a good amount of time there and took lots of pictures of road signs and the river. It is neat to say that we have been on part of the original Rt. 66. We headed back to camp and traffic was pretty slow on I-70. It took us 3 hours to get back to the campground. We ate supper and came out to the picnic table to catch up on the notebook I have started this year, with all the places we have been by state. Don figured out our plan for tomorrow and I also caught up on the blog. I hate not having internet connection and very limited phone service.
Thursday July 2
We had planned on getting up early but that didn’t happen. We finally got left about 10:00 and headed to Jamesport, MO. There is an Amish settlement there. It took us about 3 hours or so to get there. When we arrived in the area, we began to see houses that resembled Amish homes but they were not as neat or clean as the Amish homes we had seen in OH. The closer we got to town the homes began to look a little cleaner and neater. Although there seemed to be plenty of fields around, we did not see anyone working in them. It really didn’t seem that the fields were even planted with much more than grass for hay. Not at all like OH. It seemed that maybe they raised more livestock than crops. We finally made it the center of town and went into the visitor’s bureau. We found some literature on the area and found out that many of the Amish shops are closed on Thursday. They have weddings and funerals on this day. The gifts shops consisted of about a city block and quite a few of them were closed. The few shops we did visit seemed to have most of the same items that we found in Berlin, OH although, much more expensive. We heard about a sale that was being held just out of town. So we decided to got out and have a look. It was a livestock/tack auction which we expected it to be. What we didn’t expect to see was that it appeared to be at someone’s farm and there were food tents set up on the lawn and people were cooking. There were dozens of horses and buggies in several fields. We saw several Amish folks as they were leaving the sale. As we left Jamesport we decided to head up to Iowa. On our way we went through Trenton & Princeton, MO. There were also Amish settlements there. However, we only passed a few buggies between the two areas. We then went into Iowa and there was yet another Amish settlement there. We did see a father and his small sons working in the garden of their home. We entered back into MO and stopped to eat supper. We finally made it home about 11:00 or so.
Friday July 3
We got up early and got it all together and headed to Hannibal, MO, home of Mark Twain (Samuel Clemmons). They were having “Tom Sawyer Days” which is equivalent to the Apple Festival at home. They had vendors set up on the town square lawn and music and food. We ate lunch here and visited all the booths. We decided to look for the other points of interest and found our way down next to the water front. Mark Twain’s boyhood home was literally on a block or two from the water’s edge. We were able to visit Mark Twain’s home, Huck Finn’s home and the drug store that the family lived in at one time. Becky Thatcher’s home was under construction so we were unable to enter it. We also saw the Justice of the Peace office where Mark Twain’s dad worked. There were also two museums that were included in the ticket price. We then headed down to the river boat landing to take the Mark Twain Riverboat on a tour of the Mississippi River. We were shown the area where the home of the real “Widow Douglas” was and also Jackson’s Island that Mark wrote about. So many of the stories in his books were based on things that happened to him growing up, though he changed the names and the details to some extent. I had just asked Don on Thursday I wondered where Mark got his name from. I have never heard of the surname Twain other than him so there must be something unique about the name. As we were on the riverboat tour, the captain told the story behind the name. Mark Twain loved the river and his dream was to be a captain on the river someday. His dream came true. A piece of information needed to navigate the Mississippi was the depth of the water. It was a person’s job to measure the water and they had a rod or cable that had marks on it. Each mark stood for 12’. If the device went down two marks they would holler “Mark Twain” meaning two marks, and that was enough water depth to navigate. After the riverboat tour we went back to the boyhood neighbor hood for some more pictures. We then left and headed back to the campground. We stopped in Mexico, MO and at supper at a BBQ restaurant called “Porky’s”. Don said the BBQ was very good. I had my usual Friday night shrimp. It wasn’t as good as home but about equal to Shoney’s. We got home about 10:00 and watched another movie “Fielder’s Choice”.
Saturday July 4, 2009
We slept in this morning. We had a really bad storm here during the night. I woke up at one time and looked to the front of the camper and water was running off the roof and down the windshield like a waterfall. The thunder was so loud it rumbled the walls of the camper. I don’t know if the lightening was bad but it rained to well after daylight. It had rained hard for about 6 hours or so. When we got up the campground area didn’t seem to be in bad shape from the storm. We had breakfast and finally headed off to town for some errands. There is a lot of bottom land between here and Fulton and these fields were under water. Not from rivers mind you, but from the amount of rain we got last night. The creeks were probably triple or quadruple there volume from yesterday. We went into town and finally went back to Wal-Mart. We also hit the Dollar Tree and Cato while we were there. We then went to a souvenir shop in Kingdom City. We had seen several billboards about this place being low price. Wrong! They had one rack of T-shirts for the advertised price and they were t-shirts about the Ozarks. Everything else was (what you would really want as a souvenir) was high priced. We left the shop and headed back to the campground. It was still raining off and on so we sat around the camper just watching videos and catching up on things we have put off. We finally had supper about 8:30 last night. I have been working on some crocheting. We finally headed off to bed about 11:30.
Sunday July 5, 2009
We got up about the normal time and had breakfast. We are leaving Monday so we just sat around and I did a little crocheting and worked on computer stuff. We watched a whole lot of movies that made no sense whatsoever. Mostly there were just on to have some noise. After it began to cool down we started a fire and while it was catching up we started taking everything down outside. Then we roasted some marshmallows and went in about 9:30. Everything outside was ready to go all we had to do was unhook the utilities. We finally headed off to bed about 11:30.
Monday July 6, 2009
I got up about 8:15 had some cereal and started getting the inside things put away for traveling. Don got up about 9:00. He didn’t eat breakfast and we finished getting things put away. We left Reform (Steedman), MO at 10:15. We headed out Hwy O to US hwy 54 to I-70 W. We took the 70 to 75 S (after a few detours – long story – don’t trust maps a publications – LOL!!) About 30 miles outside of Topeka Kansas we finally found our campground. We are at Crossroads RV Park in Lyndon Kansas. We plan to visit Kansas City area and some Jesse James memorials. We are here until Thursday and then we will be making our way back home through the southern states that we have not been to yet. I finally have internet so I can finally post all this info. Wooo Hooo!! I am glad to have a connection. It makes communicating a lot easier.
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
