The Great Lakes

From Duluth, we took the high road across Wisconsin to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  It was a peaceful, colorful fall drive.  Along the way we caught glimpses of Lake Superior, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.  We camped on the shores of Lake Michigan just south of the Mackinaw Bridge.  It is a beautiful area and well worth a return trip on a future summer.  It is definitely off-season in this part of the country.  We are having an increasingly hard time finding RV campgrounds that are opened past October 15.  But, we are getting creative!

On a very rainy night in Grand Rapids, we had a great meal with friends from Williamsburg, Brian and Kari.  It was good to catch up and see their growing girls.

Next, we checked in with nephew Logan in Goshen, Indiana.  He served us a made-to-order meal at the darling 100-year-old Olympia Candies soda shop.  Asa had a sarsaparilla phosphate which Logan translated to him as an old fashioned root beer.  It is good to see Logan adjusting to life after college.  

We made a pit stop at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway next and really enjoyed the grounds tour that took us on the track, the winner's circle and the media buildings.  The 2 1/2 mile track dates back to 1909 and the cars in the museum were really cool to see.

The temperatures across Ohio reached into the low 80's but we didn't take the time to do much exploring.  We stayed at our 3rd Walmart of the trip and stopped to see the Longaberger Homestead.  And…gasp…Amy didn't buy baskets!

Cousins

This past week we had the pleasure of catching up with several cousins in Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota.    After visiting, we again realized that going 5 to nearly 20 years is TOO long not to see each other.  As the boys said "the only problem with visiting is that we have to leave again."

Warren and Coleen were great hosts and Warren took off the day to take us to the highlights that Jerry remembered from his visits to southern Illinois.  We had lunch at Wally's and had a tour of the Ski bottling company.  He took us to see Bob who has singlehandedly built a fort and reconstructed log homes that have been given to him over the years.  He had an amazing collection and we know that someday we'll be paying admission to see it.  Lastly, we went to the "ground" (their 60 acre hunting retreat) and the boys had a blast riding four wheelers.  We had some time with Aunt Loretta, Linda and Glen.  It was fun to watch the Cardinal games with the family!  Thank you for your amazing hospitality.  We walked out the door with an armful of food and pecans the boys collected.

We stopped at Lincoln's home (the only one he ever owned) in Springfield, Illinois on the way to Iowa.  It was good to learn more about this amazing man.  He hung strongly to his convictions despite much opposition.

We only had a little over a day in Iowa but really enjoyed our time with Merridy and Allen (and max!). Merridy took us on a driving tour of Wellman (so sorry we missed your parents, Sarah!) after a must-stop at the cheese factory in Kalona for cheese curds.  The highlight of our tour was Hickory Grove school.  Mom and Merridy's dad attended this one-room schoolhouse.  It is now a private residence and we pulled in the driveway for a picture.  Much to our surprise, the owner came to the door and invited us in for a look!  It was amazing to see how she has preserved the look of the main school room.  There are still names carved in the wainscoting and the original floors are intact.  Merridy and Allen made us feel so comfortable in their home.  Let's not wait so long for the next visit!

Next, we thought we should take in the Mall of America near Minneapolis.  The stores weren't so different, BUT, there is a huge amusement park and aquarium on the main level.  That was a sight!  The boys bought each other Christmas presents.  We'll see if they can stand the suspense for another 2 months.  We then traveled up to Duluth, MN to see Jerry's cousin Carl and family.  Duluth was a neat little town.  It sits on a hillside overlooking Lake Superior.  We managed to park George and spent a wonderful evening catching up.  We have it on our radar to return soon.

Farms, Elephant Rocks, and Orchards

We headed into the heartland stopping at Amy's Aunt Rachel and Uncle Don's farm in Newton, Kansas. The boys obviously had fun as evidenced by Jackson's journal entry… "Aunt Rachel and Uncle Don were awesome! We got to fish, catch a black snake 5 ft. long, look at his airplane, go to a kids' dragster racing place and a huge college, and even play with their Legos!  I was sad to leave them." Amy's highlight was hanging laundry on the line.  With their signature hospitality they generously hosted a bon fire/hot dog roast where we got to visit with cousin Karl and family.  In between all of that activity Don helped troubleshoot a slow kitchen sink drain in the motorhome. What a blessing they were to our family. We stopped in Independence, Missouri next to check out the jumping off point for the Oregon and Santa Fe trails.  Independence kept coming up in our studies, so we thought it was an important stop.
As we headed east Jerry was recalling some of his more fond memories of growing up in the St.Louis area and three things came to mind.  They were the Gateway Arch, Elephant Rocks State Park and Eckerts Orchard.  About 60 miles south of St. Louis is an old granite quarry with some uniquely large, rounded granite boulders.  So unique that they did not blow them apart, they created a State Park around them instead.  Jackson and Asa had as much fun as I did as a kid crawling around on the massive rocks.  The fall colors were spectacular with the hardwoods of the Ozarks turning brilliant reds, oranges and yellows.  We then drove downtown to the Gateway Arch and managed to find RV parking.  We arrived in the afternoon only to find out that they were sold out of tickets to ride to the top.  We were on a bit of a time crunch so it actually worked out well…on to Eckerts.
Much has changed with this seventh generation orchard since I was there as a kid.  It is a big operation with a restaurant, store, kids' amusement area, pumpkin patch and of course the orchard.  It is the largest u-pick farm in the United States so we joined the fun and picked some fuji apples.

The Land of Enchantment

All told, we spent 17 days in New Mexico, our record thus far.  It really captures you.  Even if you are not looking for any jewelry, you soon feel like you can't leave the state without a piece of turquoise!  The boys were not the only ones learning history.  We were reminded that the Spanish were in Santa Fe just about the time Jamestown Settlement was established.  Growing up on the East Coast, I remember thinking that we had all the "history."  Our favorite museum was the New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe.  It is connected to the Palace of the Governors, the longest continually occupied public building in the United States.  If walls could talk!  It has seen Spanish, Mexican, Ancient Puebloan, and Anglo occupants.   We also enjoyed the many mission churches in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos.  Thanks to a great tip from one of the moms of Jackson's classmates, we thoroughly enjoyed the Explora kids museum in Albuquerque.  Change is inevitable, but it was sad to go to Taos and find out that a bed and breakfast we've stayed at twice has closed because the couple became too elderly.  We tried in vain to find the house, but it's been too many years.  Also, the Taos Pueblo was closed on the afternoon that we were there.  We did however enjoy the old town shops and the beautiful drive on the "high road to Taos."
An event we had been waiting for since April came while we were in Albuquerque.  We finally saw the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.  I say finally, but we haven't been waiting as long as my sister Betty who says she's been waiting 30 years to come!  Betty and Philip joined us from Virginia for a long weekend.  It was fun to have them along.  We started our time in Santa Fe then joined the hundreds of motorhomes in a big dusty lot for the weekend.
Unfortunately, a cold front came in on Saturday from Canada (thanks a lot, eh!) and the winds proved too strong to fly the balloons.  We were back at the motorhome very early in the morning with a whole day and no plans.  We decided to take the motorhome back North to the Bandelier National Monument near Los Alamos.  It was a great choice and we really recommend it if you are in the Santa Fe area.  You are much more free to explore the cliff dwellings than you are at other National Parks.
The scenery was amazing and the ladders were a blast. We were in a big wind storm on the way back, which blew us all over the road and caused some minor maintenence for Jerry and Philip.  We saw some fireworks that evening and said our prayers that the Lord would kill the wind the next morning.  Meanwhile, the forecasters were predicting greater wind speed than the morning before.  Our prayers were answered, and the wind was practically dead.  The balloons took off as scheduled and what a show that was.  Every time you looked, there was a new balloon in the sky.  It's a wonderful time because you are allowed on the field right where the balloons are being launched; you really feel like you are a part of the action.  Sadly, Betty and Philip had to catch a plane but got to see a majority of the launching.

We also took off that afternoon and made our way East.  Over the next few days we were able to see the Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo on the Texas Panhandle and see the sights of Oklahoma City.  Yes, I too was surprised that there were sights in OKC.  But honestly, we had a hard time choosing which things to take in during our day there.  We decided on the Oklahoma City National Memorial, which was a sobering, beautifully detailed memorial of the events of 1995, and the National Cowboy and Western Museum.  Definitely, definitely stop at this museum if you are ever traveling through.  It contains amazing western art, displays of all things cowboy, Old Western movie history, a kids' dress-up area and a mock 1800s town.  And soooo much more.  Most importantly, it has the best buffet we've ever had with home-made southern cooking.  In fact, someone asked for the recipe for the pineapple spoon bread while we were there and the waitress called out for the back staff to call "grandma" for her recipe!

Oklahoma has the most remaining miles (over 400) of Route 66 that is still drivable.  We really enjoyed stopping at the Route 66 Museum in Clinton, OK and learning about the history of the "mother road."  It was even more enjoyable to drive the road and imagine how it was for my two grandfathers and Jerry's father to travel possibly this same stretch of road so many years before.  I have renewed interest in digging up some old pictures and stories.  And we realize that our travel bug comes honestly!