Last Leg of our Journey

Mom is really tired. I hope she remembers what she wants to say....... (Donna)

We spent the night in Hannibal. We took a trolley ride through Hannibal and saw a lot of the sites from when Mark Twain was growing up. They pointed out Turtle Island, and we went to where the caves were, but we did not go into them.

Next we stopped in Marceline, MO. This was the place of Walt Disney's boyhood home. He lived here from 4 years old until he was 10. He based Main Street USA on the downtown of Marceline. There is a really nice museum in town, and we also saw his "Dreaming" tree, and a reconstructed barn. They are are the farm where he grew up. We signed our names on the inside of the barn. He had the barn built for a movie, "So Dear to My Heart", and it is like the barn that was on his family farm.

We have now arrived at Kansas City, MO. Tomorrow we will see some of the sites and then head home. I understand that is is hotter in Seattle than it is here. We have a "cold front" that has moved in here, so it has only been in the 80's here.

T-Mobile says "No Dropped Calls"

In case you were planning on going to the mid-west I want mention cell service. I think that I am doing a commercial for Verizon. I had no service on T-Mobile through most of Minnesota and all of South Dakota. Of course we had been traveling through small towns and on the nowhere prairie. So yes, T-Mobile says no dropped calls, but you can't have a dropped call if there is no service. I am very impressed with Verizon, as there was service everywhere we went.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that Donna got to actually see lightening bugs. She said they were a greenish-yellow. Donna, being my servant on this trip was taking garbage out of the car at night and got to see them, which must have been fun for her. She said they were fun to watch, as they suddenly showed up in the air and then disappeared.

We stayed in a motel in Keokuk last night. Keokuk is near Nauvoo. We went to the temple today, then saw a few sights in Nauvoo. We had lunch in Carthage, and then saw the Carthage jail. Tonight we are staying in Hannibal, MO. Tomorrow we will be going to Kansas City and that will be our last night to stay in a motel. We will see a few things in Kansas City and then we will be flying home Thursday evening. We are having a great time seeing a lot of sites. I will have pictures when I get home.

Today we started off with Laif joining us here in Omaha. We are heading to Nauvoo today. Laif will be doing most of the driving to give Donna a break. I still get to be spoiled and get the front seat. We stopped in Des Moines where Donna got a manicure and I got a Pedicure. Since it is Monday, most of Nauvoo closed early, but we looked around town a bit and had dinner. After we checked into our hotel (yes, I got a handicapped room), we returned to Nauvoo and saw the dress rehearsal of the Pageant. It was really wonderful. We sat under the lights with lots of moths. Tomorrow we are planning on going into the temple. After that we will see the rest of Nauvoo before we head off to Carthage and then Hannibal. I am still enjoying the beautiful scenery in the Midwest and all of the wonderful warm weather.

NO ROOM AT THE INN

Sorry I did not write last night but it was 1am before we got in bed. If you will notice my caption says "No room at the Inn" We spent Thursday night in Kadoka and left bright and early on Friday morning. We went to Wall Drug, Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse. That was going to be our longest driving day. All these places were great to see and I will tell you more when I get home and I have pictures, of course. Poor Donna ended up driving about 600 miles Friday.

Afterward we started on our way to Omaha and planned to spend the night in Chamberlain because that was part way. We had dinner and started looking for a motel as we usually did. We had never had a problem. We didn't want to go all the way to Omaha because we would not get there until around 3am. Chamberlain had no vacancies anywhere. Well, like my mother used to say "there was a fly in the ointment". (Meaning things were going wrong). What we did not realize there was this huge motorcycle rally going on in Sturgis plus the Laura Ingalls Wilder pageants going on in Walnut Grove, De Smet and Spring Valley. We knew about the pageants which draw hundreds of people but we did not know that there were going to be thousands of bikers. We called all the 800 numbers for all the hotel chains. There was not a vacancy anywhere till you got to Omaha. We saw a rest stop not too far up the road and if we couldn't find a room somewhere we would have slept in the car. Getting cold was not a problem. By this time it was getting near 11pm our time in the midwest. Donna said she was going to call Laif to rescue us. I said right--what can he do to help us when he is in Denver. Well, it turns out that his daughter, Laura, has lived in this area for quite a few years. Between Laura knowing the area and the miracle of the Internet, she found us a room in Canistota which put us a lot closer to Omaha. The motel was old and it was what we used to call cabins years ago. It was very clean and the bed was very comfortable. Donna and I had to share a bed. It had everything but the Internet. It just happened to be the handicapped unit so it just had a shower and the water was really cool. I guess they are saving energy. I really needed a shower so Donna was listening to me holler about the water. She said I was so funny. Also there was a warning about lead in the pipes but I brushed my teeth anyway.

The really funny part is that we didn't check in. Laif said Cabin 9 would be unlocked and just leave $50 in the refrigerator. I left a nice note thanking them for the room and said we really appreciated how clean the room was.

Thanks Laura and Laif, you saved us from sleeping at the rest stop which was all that was left.

Another brief update. Today we were in De Smet where the Ingalls family and the Wilder family spent a number of years. We saw the Ingalls homestead which has been turned into a living museum. The grounds are just beautiful and I can see why Pa Ingalls decided to build there. Donna drove us around the farm in a golf cart so we could see the different sites. We rode in a covered wagon to the school house and had "a lesson". It was so great. In town we saw the Ingalls home built in 1887. We saw the Loftus store and two buildings next to it. These are the only three original buildings left in town. Tonight we are staying at the Rodeway Inn, a motel in Kadoka, SD. Kadoka is called the "gateway to the badlands". Tomorrow we are heading to Wall Drugstore, Mt. Rushmore and Crazy horse. It will be another very full day. Look for updates again tomorrow, assuming we get internet at night.

Just a few more notes to let you know we are having a good time even though we are pretty exhausted by evening. Today we saw the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum in the church Laura and Almanzo attended in Spring Valley. We went to Walnut Grove and saw the museum there and drove out to Plum Creek. It was a beautiful place and it was so neat to realize we were walking on the same ground the Ingalls had walked. We left Walnut Grove and got as far as Brookings, SD. We are staying the night here. More to come......

A little about our trip. We flew into Minneapolis yesterday, the 21st. We checked into our room and then spent the evening at Mall of America. Today we covered nearly 300 miles. We took off for Pepin, WI and stopped at a lot of Historical sites. I will go into that when I get home. We continued on to Burr Oak, IA, with a lot more stops. After that we drove to Spring Valley, MN. We are staying in a nice hotel room. We ate dinner at a family restaurant named Tooties. Tomorrow morning here in Spring Valley we want to see the Historical church, a Methodist Church were Almanzo and Laura Wilder attended. It is now a museum.

Just one more post before I leave. Today we celebrated that my car has 10,000 miles on it. Actually 10,001 when we went down the driveway. Donna fixed a nice dinner and we had cake and icecream in honor of my car. My Kia is 5 years old, actually it will be 6 years old in October.

Beautiful flowers from Buchard Gardens in Victoria.

I thought I better write once more before Donna and I take off. Tomorrow, Monday the 20th, Donna will be over bright and early. We will do our last minute checking.

Donna is going to fix dinner tomorrow. We will have one last homemade meal before we start our trip. Heather will be staying a few days at Debbie's. She is doing some training for her job. Kyle will be coming over for dinner too. There will be 8 of us for dinner. That should be nice.

Today was Sophie's Birthday so we were able to see the festivities on Skype. What a wonderful thing to have.

Tuesday morning we have to leave the house at 5:15am. I guess I can sleep on the plane.
I am really excited. It just doesn't seem real yet. It sure will be a different kind of vacation.

I love Scenic pictures. This is another one from Hurricane Ridge. I am planning on taking lots of pictures on our trip. My cold is pretty much over now and I am not coughing a lot, which is good, because there are only four days left until our trip. We have to be at Sea-Tac at 7am on Tuesday, July 21st. Donna is coming over Monday morning so that will give us a day to be sure we are ready. We will be living out of our suitcases as we will be staying at a different hotel every night. We are not exactly roughing it as we will have Donna's "baby computer" and her GPS and our cell phones. Also I have pretty well got everything in a notebook of the places we are going and what we are seeing. I have directions to different towns that we going to that I took off the Internet. Also we have good old fashioned maps that we got from Triple A.

My son, Richard, came over and visited for a while yesterday. I always love it when any of the kids stop by. I talked to another son, Darrell, for almost an hour today. Jennie called from Salt Lake to ask what day we were leaving and to see how I was feeling. It is so nice to have family.

I have a card in my wallet from Budget Rental cars that will give us a free upgrade for our car rental. We are hoping to get a bigger car like Donna's. We are going to be traveling a lot of miles and we want a comfortable car for driver and passenger. Also it is nice to have a roomier car for our luggage. Also I am taking my walker and that takes up room too. By taking my walker it is easier for me to get through the airport and we will get priority boarding. I didn't take my walker when we went on our Mexican Rivera Cruise and I was not sure I was going to make it through the airports. The Los Angeles airport was the worst. I made it dragging my suitcase all the way. I wasn't sure for a while whether I would or not.

I will try to put some things on my blog while we are traveling.

Six days now before "Our Great Adventure". The picture above is from the Washington DC trip that Debbie and I took. This is near Gettysburg. A lot of people gave their lives there. Today it is just beautiful countryside and very peaceful looking.

I haven't anything really interesting to write about. I have been doing more studying of the places we want to see. Donna and Debbie are both at Girls Camp at the Ensign Ranch. I still have my cold or whatever it is. I had a horrible night last night. I just coughed and coughed and I did not get to sleep until after 3:30am. I woke up about 8am still very exhausted. Things always seem worse at night. I had made up my mind that I needed to go to the doctor but when I finally got up, I felt OK except for being tired so I couldn't see any reason to bother the doctor. I am still coughing some but not bad. I needed some things at the store this morning so I took Erik to help me as I still felt like a walking zombie. Erik is so good at helping people. I took a nice nap after lunch so I almost feel like myself again.

I trust that everything will be fine by the 21st. I am really getting excited now. I never in my wildest dream imagined I would ever see the places we are planning on seeing.

Summer! Summer! What a beautiful season!

Some sunrise pictures. The top one is from Merrill Gardens. Our apt. was on the East Side. Sunrise from the house we had by Lindberg High School.

Last picture was another sunrise picture from Merrill Gardens. Mother Nature paints beautiful pictures.

Our trip to the Midwest is in nine days. I have managed somehow to catch a summer cold. Right now I feel really icky. Hopefully my cold will be gone by then. Cold or no cold, we are going and we will enjoy ourselves. It is in the nineties there right now. That kind of heat should kill any kind of germs, right.

I have been putting together our basic travel plan on the computer. One good thing is that the only time schedule we have will be catching planes. The rest of the time we will just do whatever works out. If we don't see everything we planned on seeing, it will not be the end of the world.

Things we really must see are----Mall of America and the Science Museum of Minnesota, both near where we are staying the first night. Our other must sees are--The Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota; Wall Drug Store near Rapid City which is on our way to another must see--Mt. Rushmore. Two other must sees are the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museums in DeSmet South Dakota and in Walnut Grove, Minnesota and the must see for me is Modale, Iowa where my mother was born and raised.

It will be fun to put pictures on my blog of our trip.

Everything looks great printed on paper. We will see how it all works out in reality. I am looking forward to the trip. I don't plan any more trips until I go to Alaska again next May to see David and Debby.

I just loved taking pictures of the sunsets from Donna and Laif's deck. The very top one is the one I took on July 2nd when we stayed out on the deck until dark. Every sunset and also every sunrise is so beautiful to see. I also took another picture of the fence that Laif put up. It really adds to the beauty of their yard.

Ann and Mark left on the morning of July 3rd. Before they left, we all went to the radio station so they could see where Donna volunteers . The people there are so nice. Actually someone had called to see if Donna could volunteer but she had to say no because she had company. After Ann and Mark left, we went to Costco and to Safeway to get food for the Fourth of July Barbecue. (People sure do a lot of buying and eating of food).

Kyle came over on the Fourth to celebrate. Laif went to get Marge Otte because it was going to be dark when the Fireworks were over and like me, she doesn't drive in the dark. We had a nice barbecue and again the weather was just wonderful. After we ate we all went over to Donna's neighbor, Marge, and we had dessert there.

After we were stuffed from dessert, we went back to watch fireworks. Laif had bought fireworks and Kyle helped his dad with them while we ladies sat on the deck to enjoy them. We could see beautiful fireworks lighting up from all over. It was just a great Fourth of July. Kyle took me home on the fifth. Last year Kyle brought me to Donna's on the fourth so that I could take care of her after her knee surgery.

I really enjoyed my visit. It was nice to visit with both Marges too.

Just relaxing after a very nice meal. Donna made some of her rolls with wheat she grinds herself. They are so good.

Donna and Laif's house. They had a rock wall put in and Laif put in the fence. Laif worked hard on the fence. It certainly looks very nice. It does not obstruct the view at all. Ann and Mark relaxing after our barbecue on the 2nd. The 2nd was the warmest day. We all stayed out on the deck until it was dark. It was so warm and we were enjoying the sunset and watching all the lights go on below.

Ann and Mark came over on the 2nd of July and spent the day and the night at Donna and Laif's. We went to Hurricane Ridge. Laif, Ann and Mark went on a lengthy hike. Donna and I stayed on the trails near the lodge. It is quite high where we were. Donna's Asthma was bothering her. It is harder to breath up higher. I guess a lot of her problem right now is her swollen tonsils. Anyway the closer trails were plenty for me. We did see a deer.

Mountains, grass, trees. No matter where you look the view is spectacular.

Donna made me climb over rocks and roots so she could take a picture of me by the snow. It might not look like it in the picture but I am on a hill and I kept feeling like I was going to fall over. Donna and Debbie both are always making me do things. I know if they didn't I would just live in my little comfort zone.

A lady walking the trail offered to take a picture of Donna and me together.

Laif, Ann and Mark were in one car and Donna and I were in her car. We left before they did. We stopped and had lunch and then went shopping for food for the Barbecue we were planning. It was fun to go to Hurricane Ridge. I like little outings like that. I don't get a chance to do that very often.

I was gadding around again. July 1st was Kyle's birthday. Donna came over from the foreign country of Sequim to celebrate. Laif had a business trip to Portland so he celebrated with his grandson, David, whose birthday is also on the lst. It turned out that we had a lot of people for Kyle's birthday. Jennie, Mike and Sophie were there because they were in Enumclaw for a few days celebrating the Beairds family reunion. So we had Mike, Jennie, Sophie, Kent, Debbie, Erik, Donna, Debbie and Kent's Scott and Kyle's friend Scott and myself. We went to the Cheesecake Factory. It was a nice birthday for Kyle and for all of us. I will put the ages on so that I will remember them later on. Kyle is a young 32 and David is 7. Kyle's friend Scott insisted on paying for my dinner. After dinner Debbie took Donna and me to the ferry. It was my first time to be a foot passenger on a ferry. It wasn't so bad. The walk wasn't very long on either end and Donna's car was parked close by the ferry. It was late when we got home. Laif was very late getting home from Portland because there had been a bad accident. He didn't get home until almost 2 am. Picture of Mike Beaird & Scott Olson.
Kent, Debbie and sweet little Sophie.

Kyle and Erik below.

Donna and Kyle's friend Scott and Kyle and picture of Kent, Debbie and Kyle.

Group picture at the Birthday Party


The weather was absolutely gorgeous. I spent from the night of the first until the 5th of July with Donna and Laif and the whole time it was just so nice. Ann and mark came on the 2nd so they could hike on Hurricane Ridge. There is certainly so much beautiful scenery everywhere. I will put more pictures on tomorrow about what we did on the rest of the days I was there.