MO to IA to NE - July 14- 16

We stayed two nights in Columbia, MO, and really enjoyed relaxing and catching up on a few things that needed to be done. Yesterday, July 15, we went to Council Bluffs, IA, and camped in a casino parking lot with electric and water hookups. We went across the river to Omaha and ate at The Drover. Phil had heard the announcers for the CWS raving about it when the Gamecocks were playing for their championship. It was expensive, but really good! The whiskey filet is their star, and it was with us, too. The server told us the Gamecocks and coaches ate there after every game.

We woke up this morning, walked, drank coffee, and hit the road, headed to Mitchell, SD.  Best laid plans...hahaha! We started up I-29, thinking all the flooding problems were behind us because we had not seen anything on the NE DOT's site about a closure, but sure enough, it is closed. We pulled off an exit and studied the map. The detour would have taken us 100 miles out of our way, just to get the north bound highway. So, we stayed on I-80 and landed in North Platte, NE, for the night. We stayed at this campground on the way back home last year. The cottonwood trees are shedding their seeds, and it truly looks like we are in a snow storm (except for the extreme heat....).

I took a photo of the arch (on I-80) before we got to North Platte. It represents the gateway to the West. It is quite impressive. We stopped there last year, but we kept rolling today.

Clarksville to Columbia, MO

We went to bed early and were able to leave Clarksville shortly after 8:00 a.m. It helped that we gained an hour yesterday! Driving through large cities is a little nerve-racking on Phil, but he made it through St. Louis just fine. The campground here in Columbia is nice (as was yesterday's). We dropped the camper, hooked her up, turned on the air and frig. and went to gas up and to Home Depot. When we got back, I fixed taco salad for supper. Leftovers last night and the hamburger tonight for the taco salad was already cooked, so I've had two easy nights for meals. Gotta love that after a long day of travel. Phil's back continues to do well. We are so thankful and praise the Lord for safety and health. We pray each morning, and then I read the Bible as we travel down the road. Tomorrow, I think we are going to Council Bluff, IA (near Omaha) and stay at an RV park of a casino. We won't go in the casino, but the pickings are few around there. Phil wants to go eat at The Drover restaurant in Omaha. It is supposed to have awesome steaks. We will see.... I took a couple of photos on my Droid while driving through St. Louis and posted them on Facebook, so there are no photos to place on here today.

Townsend to Clarksville, TN

FINALLY!!!! When Phil's chiropractor told him he thought he'd be fine to go on his trip, and that his back was 75% well, we started gathering the things we had brought home six weeks ago from the camper and the things from the freezer and frig, loaded the bikes, and headed to the campground where our camper is stored. We spent the night in the camper. It was so hot yesterday in Townsend. Just taking the bags of stuff to the truck and then loading them in the camper was exhausting, and we were both dripping sweat. In the evening Phil loaded the bikes on the ladder rack. We are taking our truck rack, too, in case we want to ride bikes on a bike trail somewhere other than the campgrounds. We were going to try to get off by 10:00, but we left around 11:00 and headed for Clarksville, TN (very close to Kentucky border). That was around 250 miles and a good test for Phil's back. He did fine, but has some numbness. We saw one wreck and drove through a corker of a thunderstorm (actually two). We also had a corker of a thunderstorm at 5:30 a.m. (thus, we overslept). Anyway, it is good to be in Clarksville. I may even take a swim in the pool after supper. Phil said he wants to try to make Columbia, MO, tomorrow. It is further, so we will see. The photo is one I took from Big Meadow Campground last night. God is good and has blessed us this day!

Summer 2011 - getting ready!

We are hoping to begin our trip May 31. The weather will be the determining factor. We look for a good window of weather to cross mid-America. The weather this spring has been so dangerous, and I surely do not want to be in a camper in severe weather!!!! We will head to Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area that straddles Wyoming and Idaho. This is a new area for us, and our good friends Bill and Barbara Inkelbarger love this place and recommended it to us. Maybe we will even see them while we are there. The other places we plan to visit are the Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier National Parks in the U.S. and Banff and Waterton Lakes National Parks in Canada. We visited them all last year, and

To get ready, we have already loaded the camper with winter clothing and as much of our summer clothing as we can spare. I will be washing every fifth day because I will run out of underwear if I do not! All the rest are in the camper.

Today the camper went back to Chilhowee RV where we purchased it to let them tweak a few things. When we picked it up from storage, we had five bins of stuff to put in. We can't keep our camper at our residence. Usually the truckis loaded/stuffed with things to put in the camper when we get to our destination. That will be a little difficult on this trip (understatement)! We purchased a few more things today, so when we go pick up the camper, we will put them in.

We also are making a list of things we will not need, like four dining chairs. We will take two out. Phil is going to see if he can take the table top and put it lenthwise against the wall. That will be easier for dining, and we will have a beautiful window to view nature - or shade pulled if we are packed next to another camper in a private campground.

We are eating food from the freezer and trying to get rid of anything in the frig that might go bad. We take a picnic basket with bread, peanut butter, jelly, plastic spoons and knives, and a small cooler with drinks and some times pimento cheese. I have gotten quite competent at making sandwiches in the truck and at eating while we travel. This year we are not packing snacks. We do pack our Bible and I read as we go down the road, and we discuss the day's passage. We pray together before we take off each day of travel (Of course, we pray individually off and on all day!!! We have got to stay connected to the One who blesses us with our travels!) We also have The Next Exit and the U.S./Canada Atlas in the truck. We bought editions that are spiral bound. The one we had last year from Walmart is in pieces after four months of travel.

Bet you had no idea anyone could talk this much about nothing! I am getting excited and felt the need to get started! OK - pray with me for good weather next week and from then on. The Lord sure made our path calm last summer! We are so thankful!

Big Pine Key, FL - Sat., Sun.

Getting through the traffic in Key Largo which was at a crawl because of the Stone Crab and Seafood Festival there was the only glitch getting to Big Pine Key Saturday. Mike, Helen, and Renaee were about an hour behind us, so we set up and then helped them set up. We went out to eat - too tired to cook! We sat around and talked until between 9:30 and 10:00.

Sunday - We loaded the bikes and headed to Bahia Honda State Park, about six miles from our campground. What a glorious day!!!! We camped there with the children 27 years ago. It is in my top five places I have ever visited. It is still just as beautiful! We hope to come back next winter and camp there. We picnicked, biked all over, visited the nature museum there, and gift shop. It is a wonderful place! If you ever get down here for anything, do NOT pass Bahia Honda State Park without a look-see!

Monday - We are taking the bikes to Key West and will eat lunch at a restaurant where Renaee and her husband ate many years ago. Renaee's husband was killed on a New Year's Eve by a drunk driver about six years ago. A few weeks ago, the home her husband built her burned to the ground. Sadly she had no insurance. We are so happy she is with us and able to get away from it all for just a bit. Have a wonderful day!

Florida Trip, Jan. 24-28

sunrise Fri., Jan. 28

to the left is Phil in the world's smallest police station

Bald eagle

photo taken from Bill and Barbara's dock

Jan. 27 sunrise

To the left is the hawk that just sat on a limb and let me take a bunch of photos of him!

We actually left town before the snow started this trip! We had a rather long ride down to Perry, GA. Carrabelle, FL, was our destination for Tues., Jan. 25, but the heavy rain caused us to stay put another night. Wednesday afternoon, we finally made it to Carrabelle, FL, to visit our dear friends, Bill and Barbara Inkelbarger, who live part of the year in East Tennessee and part of the year in Florida. We went to Wed. night church service at River of Life. What a wonderful church and church family they have! It was wonderful to meet some of the people Barbara and Bill had told us about. We had a wonderful chicken soup for supper the first night. We talked and talked and finally went to bed. They live right on the sea front, and about seven o'clock the next morning, I peeped one eye open. WOW!!!! Right in front of me was a window that had the most spectacular sunrise. I even woke Phil up to look at it! I took a few photos with my phone camera and then threw on my clothes and went downstairs to take some with my camera. Barbara cooked a big breakfast for us. Then we went to the golf course for a nice walk. After walking, we rode into Carrabelle and saw the world's smallest police station. When we got back to their house, we went out on their dock and watched an eagle fishing for lunch. Their view is wonderul. They even have a black bear that comes around every night. He left a nice pile of evidence! I also got some great photos of a hawk that sat on a branch near the house. Sevearl times we saw a group of porpoises swim by. In the afternoon, Bill cooked some from-scratch cinnamon buns for our breakfast before we left. We had to sample one as soon as they came out of the oven. YUM! Barbara, Phil, and I started a jigsaw puzzle while Bill fixed the cinnamon buns. For supper, we had one of Bill's red fish with a wine sauce, rice, slaw, and garlic bread. Bill's red fish is always wonderful! He is quite the fisherman! They treated us like royalty! All too soon, it was time to leave and head to Ft. Pierce (an 8 hour drive) for the night. We had a good supper at a Touch of Brooklyn. Tomorrow we head for Big Pine Key for a week. Mike and Helen and Renaee will join us there. We look forward to a wonderful week there!

We are really enjoying this week! It is low 70's and 50's at night. This is our favorite place to ride bicycles. We had a nice ride yesterday and took some nice photos at the causeway and at the visitors' center. We are going to a buffet for lunch, probably Prossers.