Well, crap!

We arrived at Tom's and Julie's on Friday, September 4.  It has been a nice visit but, a noisy one.  Whitney is here with her three young'uns, Pepper, Kade and sweet little Emree.  Pepper and Kade are growing fast and battling it all the way.  I mean that in the truest sense.  Kade is all boy and pushes Pepper to the limit every chance he gets.  It's been a riot, but mostly fun to watch.  There were several times I pitied poor Whitney, but she is taking it in stride and has managed not to leave any lasting marks.  But, then there is Emree.  Emree is the happiest little baby I think I've ever seen. If she is not smiling or cooing you'd better feed her because she's hungry.  She was demanding her dinner so often, Whitney said she was getting sore.  So, she tried giving Emree her first solid food.  Emree took to it like she had been eating solids for weeks.  It took no coaxing or even teaching.  She gobbled it up beginning with the first spoonful.  It was a real treat to watch her eat.  And, Whitney got her needed break.

We were there over the Labor Day weekend and Tom, Jr. had a great schedule.  He managed to get off Friday through the following Tuesday.  Saturday, Chris Koeneman dove up from Boston and spent the night.  That Saturday afternoon we all went to the river bridge just up the road.  Tom had taken the kids there several days earlier and they had built a dam and channeled the water across a big flat rock to make their own water slide.  Tom wanted us to see them in action at the "slide".  So, Tom, Chris, Pepper and Kade walked up while the rest of us drove up in Julie's minivan.  Julie pulled down the little dirt lane that dead-ended at the river very near the special spot where the "slide" was.  There were small saplings and willows along the edge of the river blocking my view, but Julie, sitting in the driver's seat, had a pretty good view of the "slide"...where a guy was squatting with his pants down, obviously taking a crap right in the river, right near the "slide".  Julie let out a yell, "He's taking a crap in the river!" or something to that effect.  "I can't believe he's doing that!", she said loudly so the guy could hear.  Then she inched the car up for a closer look.  "I can see his nuts!"  Now that's not something Julie expected to come out of her own mouth, but it did.  I guess the sight was just too much.  With the car noise and some woman shrieking, I guess the guy lost the urge because he jerked up his pants and just sat down on a rock nearby, never once looking our way.  After a while he moved to another bigger rock and sat down, still never looking our way.  Finally he got up and waded upstream to his two boys who were swimming in a pool there.  Tom, Chris and the kids arrived about then.  Julie told Tom the story and Tom and the kids waded out to the "slide".  Tom looked around and eventually turned to face the guy, now upstream out of my sight.  "Is this where you crapped?", Tom yelled at the guy.  The guy, of course, denied it so Tom told him Julie had seen him doing it and asked the guy again, "Did you crap here?", Tom asked, pointing at the "slide".  I don't recall the exact response Tom said the guy made, but it was a very incriminating response and then he gathered up his boys and trudged to his car and left...still, not once, looking in Julie's direction.  But, the water was swift and the water was clear and no crap was to be seen, so the kids played on their "slide" and soaked each other with super duper water guns and the rest of the afternoon went fine.

Ditto and I walked home with Tom and Chris and Pepper and the rest rode back with Julie.  On the way back, Pepper made an obvious effort to be on the opposite side of the road as we walked past a small telephone equipment shack.  She was a bit frightened of it and Tom explained that a few days earlier when they walked along the road by the shack, he had convinced the kids there was a cranky mean old man named Att that lived there.  His name was on the door - "ATT".  Pepper just knew the old man would jump out and get her if she disturbed him.  At the time, I was holding Pepper's hand while traffic went by on the road.  So, I talked Pepper into going over and knocking on the door and running.  As we started gingerly across the road, Tom came with us.  Pepper knocked real hard and then tried to run, but Tom caught her and said no one had come out...maybe he wasn't home.  Tom led Pepper back to the door and lifted her up where she found a peephole in the door and was convinced "Att" was in there peeping out.  We all ran.

Chris spent the night and after a nice visit, left Sunday afternoon.  Monday was IT day so Tom and I worked on his computers and movie server.  Then we tested our work heavily that evening.  It passed.

Tuesday...huh!  I don't remember what we did Tuesday.  Wednesday through Friday Tom went back to work and I mostly just goofed off either with the computers or with the kids my favorite time being when I held Emree...until she got hungry.

Saturday was a dreary day, weather wise.  The girls all went to town shopping while us men all stayed home.  It was once again movie time.  Kade wanted to see his favorite dinosaur movie (some animated thing), so we watched Jurassic Park.  Kade decided to do something else.

Saturday night was "feed the missionaries" night, so the two young men on their mission service came to eat taco soup.  And eat they did.

This is our last night here.  Tomorrow we'll head for Idaho...the long way, no doubt.

End of Leg One

Well, we did not stay at Twin Lakes campground after all.  I got tired and we decided to stop sooner.  By the time we finally settled on a place, I had driven almost as far as I would have had we continued on to Twin Lakes.  But, we wound up at Buckaloons national campground...again!  We really like this campground.  It is usually quiet and always secluded.  However, with the Labor Day looming only a day or so away, the "early birds" had about filled up the campsites.  We found one, though, so we nested in Buckaloons once again.

Tomorrow we'll hit Altmar.

What The Heck Day Is This?

We lose time on these trips.  If it weren't for my laptop, I'd be totally lost.  But, ye ole laptop says it is Thursday, September the 3rd.  Coulda fooled me.

We left Versailles State Park yesterday morning about 11 am...or was it 10?  Dang time zone change along there somewhere.  Anyway, as we arrived at Versailles campground, we drove across (though?) another covered bridge.  It was getting late so I didn't get any pictures, but I stopped for a photo shoot on the way out yesterday morning.

I was surprised the bridge had enough clearance for Lil Pumpkin (abt 10'), but it actually was 13' 6".  I wonder why they would built a bridge that tall for horse drawn wagons?

The day or, at least, the route plan for the day went well until we got just past Washington Court House on Hwy 22.  Suddenly, Hwy 22 was totally closed and we were sent off on a detour.  Actually, this is not bad.  We like traveling "where no man has gone before" and when you subject the GPS to a route it does not prescribe, things can get interesting.  So, we zigged and we zagged through some interesting country.  We finally got back on Hwy 22 just before Zanesville and it was then the GPS really made the trip interesting.  Following "her" instructions, we took Hwy 60 south a ways from Zanesville then caught Hwy 78 at Malta over to Hwy 83 north.  My original campground goal was Barkcamp State Park just west of Wheeling, but the day was getting long and we had to cut it short.  I chose Wolf Run State Park just off I-77.  The GPS did not care for my choice.  So, it led us up Hwy 83 to Cumberland where we caught Hwy 340 south east to Wolf Run.  Now that, in itself, seems rather mundane, just rambling around the countryside, but Hwy 340 was not to be out done by any road.  The speed limit was 55 MPH and turns were generally mild enough to permit the use of the cruise control.  However, it was like a rollercoaster ride.  If any of you remember the old Hwy 65 between Nixa and Highlandville, Mo., you probably have some idea what Hwy 340 was like.  There were not just a few, but many hill toppings where I swear we would have left the ground if I had not slowed down.  It would have been a fun ride in my earlier days in my old '48 Plymouth, but in a RV full of "stuff", it was not so entertaining.  But, it was still fun to watch Joyce's reaction as she grabbed handles and the dash and anything else she could hang on to.

So, we're here in Wolf Run this morning.  Joyce is poking on her laptop and I on mine (today's camping is not quite the same as yesteryear).  Hey!  Where's breakfast?!!

We're not going to make it to Tom, Jr's today like my original route plan.  Naps in the middle of a day's journey do take their toll.  In fact, we have a couple of five driving hour days left which is a push for up.  But, I do want to get off the road before there is too much holiday traffic.  Next stop (planned) is a National campground called Twin Lakes near Kane, Pa.  That's about 50 miles south of the New York State line on Hwy 6.

Birthday Done!

Today was a bit different in that I usually settle on a campground for the next night and set a course for it.  Today, I opted to just point toward Cincinnati and then look for a campground when I start getting tired.  The problem came when I got tired way too soon.

We poked along Hwy 50 in the direction of Cincinnati.  My intention was to take it easy, but it seems the truckers had a different idea.  After all, with Labor Day looming, most would want to get home for the weekend.  Most of Hwy 50 in this area is two lane and the trucks began stacking up behind me and I just could not let myself be the bottleneck.  So, I stepped it up until I spied a sign about an old covered bridge off the highway a piece and I grabbed the opportunity to pull off.  It turned out to be a nice side trip.

About 4 miles off Hwy 50 is the little town of Medora and it's where the Medora covered bridge is...can you imagine that?  The bridge crosses the east fork of the White River just southeast of Medora.  And, they have a very nice quiet shady park and picnic ground there.  Hey!  Now that's what I'm talking about.  The bridge even has its own website.  We stopped and I took Ditto out for a walk and to take some photos.

Of course, the photos on the website are better, but these are mine.

After Ditto and I toured the bridge park, we ate a light lunch then I took a short nap...for about an hour and a half.

While I was napping, some guy came along and was telling some other visitors all about the history of the bridge and the bridge support group.  He wasn't talking to Joyce, but she said he may as well had as he was quite vocal.  The guy said the bridge had been set fire by vandals three times in the last five years so members of the support group volunteer their time to patrol the bridge.  They're hoping to get a surveillance system installed one day.  Be sure to check out the bridge website.

Here I am after my nap, listening to Joyce tell about the "tour guide" who had told the entire park about the bridge.

After the bridge break, I was much more conditioned to handle the stress of the truckers.  So, we worked our way back to Hwy 50 where I fueled up and jumped in line.  We made it to Versailles where there is a large State park with a large campground.  It was nearly empty, but nice.  The agent that came to collect the fee said the park, with over 225 campsites, was fully booked for next weekend (Labor Day).

Okay, it's time for Taps.

Good Morning

I'm sitting here in Ouabache Trails campground waiting for Joyce to get up and moving.  It was a nice sleeping night.  Once it got dark, it cooled off and we were able to sleep without the droning noise of the air conditioner (RV air conditioners are made purposely loud so you wake up early).

I'm not sure where we're heading today.  Probably somewhere up around Cincinnati...or not.

Ah.  We're parked right across from the shower house and I just finished spiffying myself up.  Nice clean shower house, it was.

Oh, hey!  Today is my birthday!  Happy birthday to me.

Good morning, Joyce (she finally got up).

Nothing more for now.  After all, it is only 10:30 am.  Maybe I'll amend this post when we stop this evening.

Amendment #1 - Our neighbor at the campground has set out several hummingbird feeders and it is migration time.

As for further amendments, I think I'll just create a new post.

Wabash Cannon Ball

We got away from home just before noon on Sunday.  We made our "drop dead" time somehow.  Christian and Laura arrived a little later than we expected, but Laura had breakfast all ready with a delicious spinach quiche (I think that's what it's called).  I had finished loading most everything and Joyce was putting the finishing touches on putting the groceries and "stuff" away when they arrived.  We ate, turned over the house keys and hit the road.

We made an intended-to-be quick stop at Joyce's mom's in Rogersville.  I say it that way because she stayed a little longer than planned, but she needed to say "bye" to her mom.  Traveling on, we grabbed a McDonald's at Mt. Grove and continued on east on Hwy 60.

Our first night was going to be Trail of Tears State Park on the river near Cape Girardeau, but a family crisis required good cell phone service, so we opted for a campground in Cape Girardeau.  It was a nice and convenient place to land, although a little more expensive than we normally shoot for.  But, the crisis abated somewhat and this morning we hit the road, crossing the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau, angling across the extreme southern end of Illinois and into Indiana.  It was a nice quiet drive, although we still were concerned with the family crisis.  Eventually though, news indicated we could continue our trip.  But, the stress had played on us somewhat, so we opted to stop a little sooner than we had planned.  After a couple of mis-steps for a campground, we settled on Ouabache (Wabash) Trails Park on the outskirts of Vincennes, In., right on the Wabash River (well, on the banks of the river).  However, the GPS, as usual, chose it's own path there.  It was a fun path, though.  It took us through St, Francisville, Il and onto the Wabash Cannon Ball Rd which crosses the Wabash into Indiana.  We didn't expect it, but it turned out to be a toll bridge.  But, it was only $1.25.  What we really didn't expect was that the Wabash Cannon Ball Rd was built on the old Wabash railroad bed - including the railroad bridge across the river (thus the name of the road).  There were two bridges, one crossing a swampy area leading up to the main bridge over the river.  Both were one-lane bridges as they were the original railroad bridges.  The main bridge was a heavy looking steel bridge and the smaller one built on huge piles driven into the swamp - after all, they used to handle freight trains.  We had to stop and wait for oncoming cars at both bridges, so I took that opportunity to take some photos.

Just crossed the swamp bridge.

Approaching the main bridge.

Because the Wabash Cannon Ball Rd ran on the old railroad bed, the road on the Indiana side was like a Taney County backroad.  Running through the tall ready-to-harvest cornfields made it difficult to figure where we were going.  The GPS wanted to send me back home, but I endeavored to persevere, and here we are at the campground...somehow.

Joyce is fixin' some supper.  Ummm.  Brisket, baked potato and fresh tomatoes.

Oh.  We passed the Indiana Military Museum on the outskirts of Vincennes.  Here's a couple of shots.  I would have liked to have toured it, but it was after hours.

Leaving tomorrow

Here's the "plan".

But, plans are made to be altered.  We might decide to go get some fried clams in Delaware and we might decide to tour the USS Midway in San Diego.  We hit the far NE, SE and NW corners of the lower 48 last year.  I'd like to show Pumpkin the SW corner on this trip, however that's a long ways.  But, the price of diesel is probably as good as it's going to get.  So, we expect to log anywhere from 6000 - 9000 miles...if Pumpkin's wheels stay on and our butts hold up.  One thing...no, two things that will likely determine our direction out west, the weather and the forest fire smoke.  Either one could send us further south and the later it gets in the mountainous areas, the fewer campgrounds remain open.  Mid October is about their limit. some even sooner.

Laura and Christian will be holding down the fort at home.  They needed a landing spot for a while and we needed someone to watch the house.  So, all our backs get scratched.  Ahhh!

Aloha!