April 30, 2008 Des Moines, IA

Ashley

Ashley and Chase
John and Chris looking at pictures of "the lot".
Ashley and Chase and I went down to the park.
Chase on the merry go round.
Ashley

We made it to Des Moines and Chris and the kids came and met us at PF Changs' (yes Jan, we have discovered it and been there about 5 times now!) Jen is sick so couldn't meet us and we couldn't go over there to see the changes they have made in the house. Maybe next time.

After we ate we came back to the motor home so they could see it. We talked until about 9pm and they had to get going...kids are still in school.

John and I are watching "Boston Legal".

.

Yes, tomorrow we head home. I think we will go to Cannon first...dump what belongs there...then go to the lake and dump what belongs there. We would like to see the lake...haven't been there since Christmas.

.

It has been such a good ride, and we have mixed feelings about going home. We have gotten so used to being together 24/7, that a normal "at home" routine will feel different. On the other hand we totally did what we had intended to do. Mission accomplished!!! We met so many fun and interesting people and hope to be able to see them all again. We missed our friends at home, although, we think they did just fine without us. :)

.

Until the next writing...which I am not sure when it will be.

Everyone that is still traveling......travel safely, and to everyone..................

Regards.

Tuesday April 29, 2008 Kansas City, MO

No, didn't have any trouble getting into this park.

Worlds of Fun RV Park
New site

Got the Kansas City, Mo around 2:30. Since we have been here before we didn't feel too motivated to go and "site see". So, we pulled out "Lonesome Dove" and watched part 3!

We went to dinner at Arthur Bryant's for dinner. They are touted as a very good barbecue place, however, John wasn't too impressed. We like different barbecue's but it was good to try it.

Next stop, Des Moines! We are truly inching our way home. We will be able to see brother Chris, Jenny and Chase and Ashley. Haven't decided if we are going out to eat...or grilling!

Stay tuned.

Sunday & Monday April 27 and 28th 2008 St Louis, MO

Pat and Al are on the far left...(picture was taken at the conference in Orlando.)

Open these pictures up so they are bigger.
I believe that these purple flowers are called Red Bud's????
Driving
Driving.....

We arrived St Louis on Sunday afternoon. Sunday night we went out to dinner with a business associate of John's and his wife. Turns out both Al and Pat used to work at Airborne Frt in St Louis. The world keeps getting smaller and smaller. On the way to the restaurant we saw all these beautiful purple flowers (trees) all over the sides of the roads. I believe Pat told me they were called Red Bud. (Don't quote me on that.) They sure were pretty and we saw them all the way driving to Kansas City too.

Monday we took the coach into Byerly's RV dealership where we bought it and got some warranty work done. They couldn't do the dish washer because it would void the warranty so we will get that done by Fisher Paykel in Minneapolis. There was some paint they wanted to re-do also but there wasn't time for that. So they took pictures to log it and we'll get that done in Minneapolis as well. We left the dealership at 0900 and went to breakfast and they to a huge mall and walked the entire mall. I had my makeup done in some makeup shop....John says I owe him for that one...1 hour! We went to a movie at 1:30, "Leatherheads" and when we got out the coach was done.

Had a little dinner and watched a little TV an hit the hay!

April 25 through April 27, 2008 Cape Girardeau, MO

Wall of all the famous people from Missouri.
Look at all the water.
New bridge over the Mississippi. See how high the water is?
Missouri wall of fame.
This section of the wall tell all the history of Cape Girardeau.

I promised you pictures and pictures you get. I made John drive all the way back downtown to

take these pictures. The wall that you see is actually a dyke. There are sections that do open and you can walk out to a levee and right now the water is right at the edge of the levee and rising. I suppose they shut the section when it gets too high. All along the wall is the history in pictures of Cape Girardeau. It is called the Mississippi River Tales. The other wall further down is pictures of famous people from Missouri. I have to say it is very unique. The town of Cape Girardeau is right there on the river and the town looks like it is either abandoned or on a resurgence. Hard to tell. Lots of empty business'.

We are leaving in the am for St Louis and if we get all the warranty work done on the coach in a couple days...we should be home by the end of the week. We think we might go to the lake first because so much of the groceries etc... came from the lake house when we started this trip.

I have two P.S.'s....

1. When President Bush came to New Orleans last Monday, we were in the traffic that was stopped and got to see his motorcade go by....exciting right???? Reminded me of the time he came down Hwy 52 and I saw him then too!

2. When we were in Memphis, some type of bird chirps in the night!!!! I couldn't believe it. Then, it stopped at sun rise. What bird does that????? Needless to say I didn't sleep very well there.

All for now.

April 24, 2008 Mud Island.....Memphis

OK, I said we were going to Mud Island today and we did!!!! However, do you see any pictures???? No, that is my husbands fault...he forgot the camera.
Mud Island was pretty cool. It was a place over the Mississippi that is just a little island that they did a 5 block mock-up of the Mississippi River. (Jane you would have loved this as a field trip except you would have been pulling wet feet out of the river all day!) They took the Mississippi and made made a model...to scale...of the Mississippi all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. They didn't show the river too much from Minnesota, Iowa or Missouri, but did talk about how it starts in Itasca and then comes down....they really did in detail the last 200 miles or so of the Mississippi. It kinds of started in Cape Girardeau (where we will be tomorrow) and Cairo, IL....then down to the Gulf. It show the depths, the rivers that run into it, the history along the river that formed the now existing river. It was very original and very interesting history of the Mississippi. The river is full down here and every drop of rain that is falling up your way will affect the rise and flow of the river down here.
Basically we did nothing today until we went there....it rained until 2:30 this afternoon.
I am going to get our "fried chicken fix"....not sure if it will be KFC or what.???
Will catch up in Cape Girardeau.

Wednesday April 23, 2008 Memphis, Tennessee

Sun recording studio where Elvis was discovered.
Peabody Hotel...the crossing of the ducks.
Graceland
Elvis' grave
Elvis' airplane "Lisa Marie"
Beale Street

We had a busy day. First, we toured Graceland. We have lots of pictures of the inside if anyone is interested...let me know. Too many to put on the blog. We then, toured his airplane and the museum. Then we took a bus out to Sun Records to see the place Elvis first recorded a song and was discovered by Sam Phillips. The studio is now a historic building so is exactly as it was when he recorded. After that we took the bus down to Beale Street. Had a "big ass beer" and listened to some jazz. We also saw the Gibson guitar store...Jane, they had Baldwin pianos in there that were blue and one that was bright red! Wonder how much they got for those?

After we got home we decided to go eat bar-b-q ribs and ended up at Marlowe's and it was pretty good. We both had a hankering for ribs.

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot...when we were downtown we went to the Peabody Hotel because they have these ducks that swim in a little pond/fountain inside the hotel. The deal is, at 11:00 each am the duck master goes up to the elevator to ? floor where the ducks are swimming....and he leads them out of that pond, to the elevator, down to the pond in the bar/lobby area. At 5:00 each evening the duck master comes back and leads the ducks back into the elevator to the other pool for the night. John said he saw this on the travel channel. It was hilarious. You might have to zoom in on that picture to see it better. I thought they were so cute!

Tomorrow we are going out to Mud Island. I will let you know what it is when I see it.

Sunday April 20, 2008

St Louis Cathedral

The Garden District

This am we went to the famous breakfast place called Brennan's on Royal street. It took us 2 hours and cost us 120.00!!!!! Dinner last night at Antoine's took us 2 hours and cost us 200.00!!!!

Guess we spent our wad in this town!! However, they were both fantastic. John bought me the cook book from Brennan's...and I swear there is nothing that is low calorie. I will have to try some of the recipes. After breakfast we took the trolley and went down through the garden district. We passed the campus' of Tulane and Loyola. There were some beautiful homes there that either never got damaged or all have been fixed. The trolley car just started running this year. We decided we weren't hungry to go out for dinner so just went home and had hot dogs! Tomorrow we leave and start heading north.

I think both John and I are in agreement that we are ready to go home. Seems like we saw and did everything we have wanted to. (Especially felt that way when we hit the light pole!!! Our computer also has been doing some strange things and we lost a lot of pictures.)

Saturday April 19, 2008 New Orleans, LA

OUCH!!!!!
French Quarter RV Resort (notice downed light pole)
Walking the streets.
View from window of our RV site.

Arrived in the French Quarter and checked in. When we checked in they gave us our site number but no one escorted us in. John was in front of me and I was following in the car.

He stopped to tell me he couldn't see the site numbers and neither could I. Then he spotted them and went ahead. He figured he could back in on his own...I still didn't see the site number...and when I realized he was backing in and hitting the light pole...I just honked my horn. Too late! We knocked it over...that we didn't even care about, but we did some body damage to the coach. Pretty much ruined John's trip. Then, I get out and try to upright the light pole and it fell on my foot. I can't begin to tell you how that hurt. What a way to start this journey. Oh well, I slipped on a sandal and we started to walk. We had dinner at a place called the Alpine because some couple at the Rally said they had great crab cakes. Yep, they were good and John got his Jambalaya. I had to go home....my foot was throbbing. We went home and I soaked it in Epsom's salts.

Saturday am we walked to Cafe Du Monde and had chicory coffee and beignets. They were awesome! Met a couple from Houston just down for the weekend and he was in construction and had some interesting facts about the Katrina hurricane and the effects on Houston etc. We then took a 3 hour bus tour of the Katrina disaster. It, I guess, is much better than it was but let me tell you...it's not pretty. Sad that the government sunk all that money into that disaster and not much of the money went to the people that needed it. The sad part is that the dyke is only repaired and if there is another category 3 or better storm it will happen again. Too much info to go into on a blog but truly amazing!

Tonight we will go to the restaurant "Antoine's" which is New Orleans' oldest restaurant. Will let you know how it is tomorrow.

Friday April 18, 2008 Leaving Robert, LA

Pat and Ronald Thomas on the Natchez boat trip.
Dinner!!!!!!

Well, we survived a week in Robert at the rally. We got most of our items addressed. If they didn't fix them, we got the parts ordered and have an appointment set up in St Louis at the dealer where we bought the rig. So, we felt pretty good about that considering we met many people that had much more serious problems that didn't get solved and they were heading for Red Bay, Al where Tiffin is produced.

We met many nice people but seemed to hang with Pat and Ronald mostly.

We are leaving for New Orleans today. Will write later.

Monday - Friday April 14-18th, 2008 Robert, LA

Can you see all the Tiffin products?????

Ronald and Pat Thomas from Charlotte, NC

We are at our first Tiffin rally. The Allegro club has rally's at various times of the year in different part of the country. When you come you receive all sorts of little perks. One of the biggest perks is that the techs from Red Bay, AL...where Tiffins are made...come and fix little things that are wrong with your coach. It really is kind of comical...everyone has a list a mile long...I heard one woman describe it as "birth defects" when the coach comes off the assembly line. We have heard many stories about Bob Tiffin (owner of Tiffin) and how he has helped out people with really big issues. We are pretty lucky considering some of the problelms some people have had.

Today we spent mostly all day in lectures about one thing or another. Tomorrow we go for a boat cruise I think on Lake Pontchartrain for a lunch cruise.

We met Pat and Ron while we were in Navarre, FL and found out they were coming to this rally and had an Allegro Bus just like ours. They are from Charlotte, NC and weird as it seems, Ron knew my first husbands cousin Gary Earnheart. He used to take his trucks there to be worked on by him. Isn't it a small world? Pat is a nurse and just retired last fall. They figured if they were going to travel they should do it now while they are able. Their daughter died at 21 from leukemia and they have no other children. Say they are willing all their belongings to St. Jude's Hospital.

Life stories?????!!!! We have met so many people with very interesting lives. One lady who sat at our dinner table the first night, is from Alabama and about 75...at least.., she said her grandsons were "coon-asses". I almost died laughing and she was quick to tell me that that was what they call people from Alabama. She was a hoot! Another woman wanted to know if I ever drove the rig...I said no but I probably should know in case something happened. She said if her husband died she was going to put him on the couch and head home!!! She wasn't burying him in another state. There are some real characters out here. It sure keeps me laughing.

Until tomorrow.

Navarre, Florida April 10, 2008

And you thought you guys had snow!!!!????
New site that looks like all the rest!!

No, it is not snow, but is sure looks like it doesn't it?? The beaches up here in the panhandle are to die for.....it is just that it is still too cool here for us. The last couple days we have gotten a little sun but it is a transitional time here in Florida as well as the Midwest. Mostly the temps have been in the 70's which is fine, but it has been mostly cloudy.

Today we drove across the bridge to Navarre Beach. There is a lot of building going on and a lot of condos and houses for sale. Ivan hit this area pretty hard and then they got hit again the next year by Dennis. That hit wasn't as bad, but still recovering.

I spent a good deal on the phone getting caught up with sister Jean's health and hospital stay...she is still in North Memorial and not doing very well. I also talked to sister Sharon who is going in for a total knee replacement next Tuesday. I know she will do well...and am glad she is finally taking care of the problem.

I did a little grocery shopping and then tonight we went to dinner with a couple we met from Lake City, MN. Funny eh? Gretchen and Dennis. He also is retired IBM like our friend Brian from Vermont. We went to a restaurant that we were told had great seafood. We all had shrimp and it was all very good. We also had Key Lime Pie that the owner's wife made...the crust was graham cracker with pecans! It was great.

All for today.

Monday April 7, 2008 Destin, Florida

Looking at the park from the ocean
Up on a hill and notice the tires are off the pavement!
Can you see it here???
You get a flavor as to how "tight" we are packed in.
Beautiful beaches!!!

Destin, Florida!!!! The beaches are beautiful! It is spring break (somewhere) and this beach picture is at sundown....you should have seen the people this afternoon. It was packed. Kids, teens, parents, grandma and grandpas....unreal the people. We lounged in the sun for a couple hours, and then went exploring in the town of Destin. This is a gorgeous area...very neat and clean and relatively new. If anyone wants to go to a beach destination...come here. However, December through March it is a bit cool. The average temp that time of year is a high in the low to mid 60's. It was only 76 today. Would be a great place to come April, May, October, November. This area is about 8 to 10 degrees cooler than the Ft Myers/Naples area....about 5 degrees cooler then Orlando. The beaches are beautiful, sugar sand!!

We thought that with the cooler temps the cost of property and building would be lower. From what I have seen this is not true especially Gulf front, that type of property appears to be twice as high as in Fort Myers, Sanibel area.

We grilled steak and salmon and it was wonderful. Now just catching a little Dancing with the Stars!

Sunday April 6, 2008 Panama City Beach, Florida

See the water!

They all start to look the same, don't they?

He doesn't like his picture taken, can you tell????

Since we got to Panama City Beach, we have had tons of rain.. 5-6 inches in some areas around here. We really haven't done or seen much due to the weather.

Tomorrow we leave for Destin, Fla. Only about an hour away...hopefully it will be sunny so we can get a flavor for these beaches. Can you believe they are still having "Spring Break" around here? They say 250,000 students are here during spring break. MTV takes up headquarters at one of the main hotels on the beach and issues free beer. Can you imagine 250,000 college students, free beer, half naked girls??

We will keep you posted.