West Memphis, Arkansas

We had dinner with Shawna, Stephen, Kara and their daughter Sophia, Bill and Susie (Shawna's Mom and Dad) on Monday evening at Monical's Pizza...a tradition!  On Monday's all pizza's are $11.  We ended up with four thin crust pizza's and all of us got lots of left overs!  It was great seeing Bill and Susie.

On Tuesday night Stephen and his family came over and he barbecued hamburgers for us, with Ted keeping him company.  We had mac and cheese with them and home grown tomatoes!  Another good meal!  We had a fun dinner with Shawna and the kids, especially little Sophia!  Said our goodbyes and were ready to leave on Wednesday.

Shawna giving Sophie some love:

Sophie giving Shawna some love back!

 Todd getting ready to leave for the night shift!

It was a long drive but we made it down to West Memphis, Arkansas Wednesday afternoon.  The Tom Sawyer Campground right on the Mississippi River was really busy and we are on the back row but still have a nice view of the river.  The river is quite low and it appears to us that the barges aren't as long or as heavy as in the past.  It is still fun to watch them go by!  It is great except this year there are a LOT of mosquitoes!  From walking Sophie I have huge bits on my ankles :<(

Looking across the Mississippi from West Memphis, Arkansas to Memphis, Tennessee!

Barge traffic is constant!

Sophie and I have enjoyed the sunrises on our early morning outings!

While we have been here we got the oil changed for the first time on the RV!  We also went over to Memphis, Tennessee to get Sophie a bath!  I wanted to take her picture and I think she's looking at me saying WHAT Mom?

 Our nephew Craig ready for Octoberfest!

 His wife Claire (left) and her friend are also ready to celebrate!

We were going to the Mississippi River Museum today and it started pouring and we couldn't get out of the car so we came home and had a quiet day watching it rain.  Around 2:00 the rain stopped and the sun came out shining again!  We got a new neighbor this afternoon in another Phaeton.  When I came outside to walk Sophie, Betty asked me if we were going to or headed from the factory!  LOL  I said headed to and so they spent about an hour filling us in on things at Tiffen!  It was very helpful!

Well, today is Ted's birthday!  I need to stop blogging and make him his birthday dinner!

Celebrating life..."Ain't Life Grand!"

More eating...lots of good home grown food!

To take up where I last left off, Abe's Hideaway was a delight!  Three of us had the bourbon flatiron steaks.  They were so tender and delicious, one of the best steaks I've ever had.  Marilyn had the catfish.  Fortunately the head was cut off, it was a pretty big fish!  When we were finishing our meal we noticed it getting darker and darker and it wasn't because it was getting late.  There was a big storm coming in and it down poured with lots of wind!  Needless to say we ordered another coffee and waited until it was just raining...LOL!  

Friday morning we packed up and headed to Pesotum.  It's a small town south of Champaign.  Ted's cousin Shawna and her husband Todd have a big old farmhouse and allowed us to park in their yard.  They have electricity and water we can hook up to.  Ted maneuvered around the trees, rocks, light pole and clothesline and got us settled in!  We were greeted by Sarge and Miss Kitty, they were on guard duty!

Friday evening we went to their favorite Mexican restaurant in Tuscola.  Their two sons and their families joined us and it was a fun time!  Several of us had strawberry margaritas and they were pretty potent!

On Saturday we drove back over to Springfield to meet up with one of my former co-workers at the CPA firm.  Donna and I worked together for about eight years.  We always had a lot of fun when we were working together and it’s always a kick to catch up with her.  She had us laughing at her stories as always!

Saturday evening Todd barbequed chicken, we had fresh apples from their trees cooked with cinnamon, au gratin potatoes, and home grown tomatoes.  Everything was delicious!  Todd's son Stephen had been working on their tractor for them and got it running.  He took Kara and Sophia (1 1/2 for a ride)!

On Sunday we drove about 50 miles to Clinton, Illinois.  Some friends from Texas, John and Romola, were visiting her sister and some friends.  We met for lunch.  The first place we chose to meet was closed because they served alcohol and it was Sunday, so the government makes them close on Sundays.  We figure it might be their city government law.  Anyway, there was a popular place called the Shack.  It was pretty busy when we got there.  I’m thinking people choose it more for the price than the quality of the food.  The pulled pork sandwich and fries was $3.99, I had grilled cheese with bacon and tomatoes…$3.99!  They are famous for their burger and shakes.  Ted agreed that the chocolate shake was delicious!

Last night Todd barbecued pork loin steaks.  They were really good and we had sweet corn from their garden, some home made applesauce and some Texas toast!    For dessert we had homemade pumpkin ice cream.  It was really good, like eating pumpkin pie without the crust!

Sophie has been pretty mad at us for leaving her all the time so we are hanging out at home today with her.  We are having dinner with Shawna tonight.  Todd switches to the night shift 4:30 pm to 4:30 am, for two weeks.  He works at Cabot, one of the large employers in the area, in 12-hour shifts.  He works two days, has three off, works three days has four off.  Some kind of weird schedule like that!

We will leave here on Wednesday and make a stop in Memphis, Arkansas to get the motorhome oil changed, then to Red Bay Alabama to the Tiffen Factory.

Now for a sweet Sophie picture:

Home grown food..."Ain't Life Grand!"

We are in Illinois

We left South Dakota on Tuesday September 24th headed to Salina, Kansas.  We got there Wednesday afternoon.  We called our friends Katie and Gary and they invited us over for dinner.

Gary is my ex-husbands' Aunt's son!  After our divorce I remained close to Aunt Lucille and got to know her son and daughter-in-law!  They are great people and I'm glad we stayed in touch after Lucille passed away.  We had a fun evening and made plans for Friday.  Katie was having her church ladies over on Thursday night and Gary had a doctors appointment.  Unfortunately he has to have hip surgery on October 7th and wasn't feeling so hot.  For the last two years he was saying his hip hurt and his doctor treated him for a back problem!  Said he was just feeling his back pain in his hip.  He finally went to a new doctor and who knew right away that it was his hip.  Here's hoping the hip surgery will stop all this pain he's been having.

Friday night we went to Katie and Gary's grandsons' football game.  Cade is a Senior and plays on defense.  His younger brother is a sophomore and on the JV team but is Cade's backup if something happens to him and so he goes to the Varsity games as well.  This time they were winning by so much that near the end of the second quarter, the brothers got to play together!  In the second half Cole played Cade's position, as well as a few other second and third stringers!  Their team still won by a lot!

On Saturday we went over in the afternoon for dinner and conversation.  Sophie was happy because she got to go too!  We had a great dinner and an enjoyable evening.

We left Salina on Sunday morning and made it to Columbia, Missouri.  There is a nice little campground there and so we stayed there again.  There is a Cracker Barrel down the road so we went there for dinner because I love to have breakfast there!

We got back on the road on Monday morning and passed through St Louis, Missouri.  We were north of the famous arch but still a nice look across the Mississippi river.  It was sunny in Missouri and cloudy in Illinois...very strange!

We arrived at Lake Taylorville, a State Park.  It is a pretty good size lake and we can see it from our campsite..  We have 50 amp service and water, but no sewer...means I don't have to do laundry...the good news and the bad news!  Our campsite at Lake Taylorville.
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The Lake Taylorville Dam:

We called Ted's cousin Bob and his wife Marilyn and met them for pizza in Taylorville.   They came over to see the RV after dinner.   On Tuesday night we headed over to their house and went to the "Cool Cruisers" car club dinner and meeting.  Bob and Marilyn are into antique cars and do rally's with the car club.  We had a nice dinner with the group, a quick meeting and were even included in their drawing but fortunately didn't win anything!  Wouldn't be good for the guests to win!

Yesterday we met them in the early afternoon and they took us to the Apple Barn.  It was about a half hour drive away in the middle of nowhere.  They had all kinds of pumpkins in all shapes, sizes and colors.  Some even had warts!  They had some beautiful Mums and the prices seemed reasonable.  They also had some home made jams (of which we had to buy some), apple cider, fudge, soups and pastries.  Both couples managed to find some things to buy!

We got back to their house and they barbecued steaks for us and Marilyn had cream corned, asparagus, baked potatoes and a salad!  Needless to say we had plenty to eat!  Tonight we are off to Abe's Hideaway for dinner...I'll keep you posted on Abes!

This morning the rains that were predicted yesterday came!  It poured around 5:45 to 6:45.  A little later the sun and the deer came out!

Must have a picture of Sophie with Dad in the blog!

Also, our youngest nephew and his girlfriend, Marissa, are having their sixth anniversary and this picture was posted on FB!  They are such a cute couple!

Visiting family and friends in beautiful places...    "Ain't Life Grand!"

Sophie Kercher and her traveling companions!

Yesterday was errand day!  We had a nice breakfast out, got new slippers for Susan, new sheets for the bed and some groceries.  We spent the afternoon relaxing with Sophie while the clouds gathered, the lightning started and later the rain...wind...and more rain!  The gusts of wind were really strong when we went to bed with a steady rainfall.

This morning we collected our mail from the mail service and then headed to the Badlands.  They are about 40 miles from where we are staying.  After about 5 miles we caught up to the rain which got harder and harder.  We decided to stop at the famous "Wall Drugs" to see if the rain let up.

What makes Wall Drug famous you ask?  Ted Hustead and his wife Dorothy came to the town of Wall in 1931 and purchased the only drug store in town.  He had graduated from pharmacy school and worked for other druggists and decided he wanted to open his own shop.    They found this town with the shop for sale in the middle of nowhere!    But Wall had a catholic church and the people they met were nice so they bought it.  After five years their business had not grown at all and Ted was thinking about what to do.  Dorothy went out to put the children down for a nap, it was hot and she was amazed at all the traffic on the road and came up with an idea for free ice water.  She even had little slogans made up like the old Burma Shave commercials.   They made the signs and put them up.   Before Ted could get up all the signs, people were coming in for the free ice water and bought other things including ice cream!  By the next summer they had to hire eight employees and Wall Drug was on the map!  On a good summer day, Wall Drug draws up to twenty thousand people and estimate giving away 5,000 glasses of ice water per day all summer!

Ted and I looked around Wall Drug which is a city block long and deep.  They have clothing, boots, books, jewelry, a cafe and lots of tourist stuff!  We had lunch and the rain had still not let up so we headed back to the campground, saving Badlands for another time!

In our mail today, see who got their own mail:

Sophie was sitting with Dad the other morning!  She was wearing her halo and wasn't being the "snapping turtle"!

Tomorrow morning we  are going to DMV to get our drivers licenses address updated and then we will get on the road.  Next stop is Salina, Kansas for a few days!

Sophie and her "traveling companions"..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Home Again!

Saturday evening everyone was on our own for dinner.  We chose to go to the Moab Brewery for wings and things with John and Romola and Les and Ida!  The bar was packed so we ate in the dinning room but fortunately, Ida could still see a tv showing the Alabama college football game and fortunately for us, they won!  LOL  Ida is very into her team!

Sunday we put the crockpot on in the morning and then headed to Dead Horse State Park with Lou and Carol.  The legend is that the cowboys would round up the wild horses and put them out there on the mesa and they put up corrals on three sides because the horses would not jump off the cliffs.  The cowboys would go back later and get the horses they wanted but left the others.  The cliff was several thousand feet high and they could see the Colorado River below but they died from thirst.  Despite the legend, it is a beautiful area.  Carol kept Ted from falling off the rock!

Who are these people at Dead Horse Point???

In the evening we provided two pork loins, one southwestern flavored and one Korean flavored and the rest of the group provided salad, rice, and more.  For dessert the group came over to our grassy area with their chairs and we shared some dessert libation!  It was a nice end to the rolling rally!

Monday morning we all said goodbye and went our separate ways.  We headed to Draper, Utah, a few miles south of Salt Lake City!  We were having our large slide out repaired on Tuesday.  It is repaired and then we were on our way on Thursday to Box Elder, South Dakota (HOME)!   We made it here yesterday afternoon (Friday).

Today we decided to drive some more!  We drove a scenic hour to Custer State Park.  We were beginning to think we were not going to see any animals but Prairie Dogs, when we came up on a herd of Bison.  There were two big guys fighting in the middle of the road.  We were not close enough (other tourists) to get pictures of the fighting but it was pretty exciting to see.  We did get some of the guys meandering around!

  

Next we came to a Visitor Center and found a Pronghorn buck and two ladies lying around the area.  The buck was on duty protecting his two ladies from another guy who got too close. 

We drove on and came to the beautiful State Game Lodge (formerly the summer White House for Calvin Coolidge).  Between busloads we had a good lunch in the beautiful dining room before heading back to the campground. 

I drove so Ted could sightsee and we picked what looked like the shortest route through the park to get out of the park so we could get home to Sophie!  We drove away from the Lodge in time to see some young Bighorn Sheep crossing the road.

Then a little further down the road we came across some people in the road and someone had noticed this Bighorn Sheep up on the rock.  He was spectacular!

We thought we had picked the quickest route out of the park, but we picked the route with LOTS of hairpin curves on VERY narrow roads.  I’m sure Ted was holding his breath in the areas where he was on the side of steep dropoffs!  We did see some beautiful spires and when he wasn’t scared, Ted had a beautiful view!  I was busy navigating the roads!

Seeing wild animals in their natural habitat…”Ain’t Life Grand!”