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.
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. 
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