Palo Duro Canyon (Thurs.)

Today we headed out to Palo Duro Canyon State Park, which is where the show that we came to see will be held.  It's about 30 miles out of town.  Our first stop was at the visitor center, and they have a nice CCC exhibit.  We didn't know there was a CCC flag or a hat.

"The Canyon is 120 miles long, as much as 20 miles wide, and has a maximum depth of more than 800 feet. Its elevation at the rim is 3,500 feet above sea level. It is often claimed that Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in the United States. The largest, the Grand Canyon, is 277 miles long, 18 miles wide, and 6,000 ft. deep."  I am particularly partial to the Grand Canyon, and I don't think this one eis anywhere near as beautiful, but the main difference is that you can drive to the bottom of this one.  However, it is pretty and has some wonderful colors and rock formations.

We checked out the amphitheatre where the shows are held.  Looks like it will be comfortable, weather permitting.  They offer a chuckwagon steak dinner before the show but I don't think we are going to do that.  We prefer eating inside in air conditioning and without bugs.

Apparently they offer hayrides too, and Mazie was ready for that. I was really surprised Joe didn't hop on the tractor and take her for a spin.

As we continued our drive, Dave told Joe to stop and back up.  He had spotted a little tent, with an air conditioner in the window.  None of us had ever seen that before, but it made good sense.  The campgrounds here in this state park have electric and water at the sites, and it looks like these campers  figured out how to make camping a little more comfortable.

There are also cabins to rent here, in the cow camp.  Looked like they had electricity, but no A/C.

We finished our tour and headed back to town.  Joe stopped at McDonalds for ice cream cones but their machine had broken just as we got to the window, so we left without anything.  It rained during the evening, a little thunderstorm (it rained the night before as well).  We are in tornado territory so we are keeping any eye on the news.  We are hoping that the show at the canyon doesn't get rained out.

Arriving Amarillo (Wed.)

We got a later start this morning than we had planned.  By the time we had breakfast, had a couple of phone calls, and got decamped and fueled ($3.499)  it was 10:30.  Joe drove 292 miles, but it was all interstate and we made good time.  We crossed the Texas state line about 1:30 and got to the campground about 3:30 where we met up with Dave and Mazie.

We saw some wind damage as we drove across I-40 through Oklahoma and this part of the Texas Panhandle.  In Groom, Texas, we saw a water tower that had a severe lean to it.  Right across the road was a white cross, however, that was standing straight and proud.

 

We are staying at the Fort Amarillo Resort, which is on the west edge of Amarillo.  We had a nice visit with Dave, Mazie and Ar'gent, then went to dinner together.  Joe was pretty tired, so we had an early night.  The clouds were moving in when we got back from dinner, and we had some light evening showers.  They told us when we checked in that there might be some "weather" coming through late tonight, so it sounds like we might get a thunderstorm during the night.  We seem to bring stormy weather with us wherever we go.

Our grandkids started back to school today in Arizona.  I talked to Kaylee about her first day of 7th Grade, and she said she made it to all her classes on time.  I think she was a bit worried about that.  Cody had football practice but I talked to him briefly just before we went to bed.  His first day of Senior Year went well.  His first football game is Aug. 30, so we will be home for that.  I think they are both glad to be back in school.

On to Oklahoma (Tues.)

We pulled out of Branson about 9:15, leaving the forests and rolling hills of Missouri behind.  We took 65 south to 412 into Springdale and picked up I-540 there (which originates in Bentonville [home of Walmart], so I'm assuming Walmart had something to do with the building of this short interstate, or maybe converting what looks like US 71 into an interstate from Bentonville to Ft. Smith).  We connected with I-40 in Ft. Smith, and headed west.  It was cloudy when we started out, in the 70s, and we were able to drive with the windows open for a while, but the temperature kept creeping up, so we had to turn on the A/C. 

Joe found a convenience store to pull off at for his soda, and there was a pick-up selling melons next to it, so I walked over and picked us up a cantaloupe and a little watermelon.  Across the street was a chain-saw carving shop, so while Joe was still inside making friends, I walked over there.  It reminded me of the town in Canada, Chetwynd, where they hold the Chetwynd International Chainsaw Carving Championship every year.  This shop had a wonderful mushroom carving, as well as a few other interesting ones. 

 And beside it was a concrete art shop (for lack of a better word).

We are in Razorback country here, and there is a little one on top of this birdbath (I guess that makes it a hog-bath).









We stopped in Salisaw, OK to fuel ($3.339), next to Walmart, so I picked up some groceries while Joe had a little rest.  It has really heated up now, and we are missing that beautiful Ft. Wayne weather we enjoyed there. 

We saw lots of dead armadillos along the highways in Missouri, which surprised me.  I didn't know they were that far north, so I looked it up.  Apparently they have invaded Missouri.  We saw some dead ones in Oklahoma too, so they are spreading out all over, probably heading to Arizona for our dry heat.  As many as we have seen, though, I don't think they are doing too well up here.

I have added a new animal to our traveling zoo, in honor of our hitchhiking frog in Tampa.  I've named this one "Camaro" because a camaro exactly this color passed us today, and it was so bright it caught my attention.  We haven't added to our zoo for quite a while and we are a little behind.  We really need an armadillo because we finally did see a live one in Louisiana two years ago, but I haven't found a good one yet (I saw a nice one in the gift shop at Big Bend National Park in Texas (same trip but before we got to Louisiana, but I didn't buy it because we had not yet seen a live armadillo at that time). 

We stayed in Shawnee, OK at the Grand Casino, about 30 miles west of Oklahoma City.  This campground offers free camping (20 spaces), and has electric and water hook-ups.  We had stayed here before, so we were hoping we could get in (their sites are first-come, first-served).  We got off the road about 3:30; Joe put in another hard day, 309 miles.  It was about 100 degrees when we stopped, so we were happy to call it a day.  Of course, I went over and checked out the casino while Joe rested for a while, then I came back and fixed dinner.  We finished off our Indiana corn-on-the cob, which was delicious.  After dinner, I persuaded Joe to go back with me to the casino, and he was the lucky one.  No big wins but he came out ahead enough to cover my losses and still be up $15.  This casino has Mazie's favorite machines, Bombs Away, so I told her to tell Dave to start driving.  They are already in Amarillo and we will hook up with them today (Wed.).

Last day in Branson (Mon.)

After our day of rest yesterday, we thought we would drive up to Silver Dollar City today, which is sort of on the northwest end of Branson.  We didn't really know what Silver Dollar City was about, but after hunting down the post office on the east end of town, we headed across town.  However, when we got to Silver Dollar City, got parked and waited for the shuttle, it started to rain.  When we got to the ticket booth, we learned it was $56 each, and it was still raining.  We could see a roller coaster, but nothing else -- we think it is a miniature Six Flags type place, and lots of shops, and a 90-minute show, but we decided not to spend the money to enter.  Joe needed Cody for the roller coaster, and he wasn't sure how much walking he could do, so we left there and drove on past it out to Indian Point, where there is another marina and campground.  We learned the campground is federal (U.S. Corp of Engineers), so it would have cost us $11/night there, but they only had electric and water at the sites, and it is further from downtown where we spend most of our time because that's where most of the shows are.  However, it's something to think about next time we are here, and we will probably come here again.

On our trip to town, we came past a great overlook of the town, the valley, the river and in the distance, the dam.  It's very hilly in this part of Missouri, but also very pretty.  But when the sun bursts through the clouds, it heats up in a hurry.

On our way back to camp, we stopped at a little restaurant for lunch, and Joe had one of the best breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches he ever had.  It quit raining about the time we got back to the RV, so I decided to do some laundry.  This campground is really nice, we are in a full hook-up spot, we have wifi (but the signal isn't very strong), and it even has a couple of laundry buildings.  State campgrounds have come a long way over the last 10 years.  There is only one washer and one dryer in the one beside us, but I did make use of it.  And I got to use my laundry cart for the first time!  It was perfect, exactly what I needed.

Tonight's show was the Rankin Bros., the show we came for.  And it was wonderful.  Of all the shows we've seen here both times, the Rankins are my favorite.  It was quite a bit different from the show we saw 2 years ago, but it was excellent, and they are very talented singers.  I spoke to one of them after the show and told him they need to come to Arizona. 

Hitting the road in the a.m.  Tomorrow night we should be somewhere in Oklahoma.

Boat Cruise/Sunday in Branson (Sat. night & Sun.)

To pick up where I left off, we did the dinner cruise on the Showboat Branson Belle paddle wheeler last night, and it was very entertaining.   There was a good crowd and it took just a little while to board.

 A nice, relaxing evening, good food, and great entertainment, which included a comedian/magician/MC (Christopher James), and a very talented aerial violinist/pianist/vocalist/acrobat (Janice Martin) who did an amazing act with her violin while climbing the silks (instead of ropes) hanging from the ceiling.  There was also a young male group of 5 (The ShowMen) that sang a wide variety of songs and also served as waiters.  All in all, a very enjoyable evening.

Sunday it rained most of the day, and we took the day off.  We read, watched the race, and rested until it was time to go into town for our show, which was The Legends in Concert.  It was good, covered a variety of music interests -- Johnny Cash, Celine Dion, the Blue Bros., the Temptations, and Elvis.  Each act had 4-5 songs, and Elvis had a few more than that, including audience requests.  They all were very good. We weren't familiar with Celine Dion or the Blue Bros., except recognizing their names, but they did a good show too.  A lot of the theaters are dark on Sundays so this one had a good crowd last night.

One more day here, then we hit the road Tuesday morning.

First 2 days in Branson (Thurs./Fri.)

We knew we had some miles to make today if we were going to make Branson before too late.  We want to stay at Table Rock State Park, and when I called, they told me it was first-come, first-serve (I later learned that they take reservations up to 48 hours ahead, but it was only about 24 hours out when I called).  So we were on the road by 9:20 a.m., looking for fuel.  We wanted to wait until we got into Missouri to fuel because gas was cheaper here than in Indiana or Illinois.  We were below 1/4 tank, which we don't like to run that low, but we found fuel for $3.499, and we needed a lot -- $197.77 worth! (56.52 gallons).   We took a wrong turn when we crossed the bridge and had to go north a few blocks before we got turned around, but other than that, we got out of St. Louis fairly easily.

Other than the Mississippi River and the Arch, it was just a pretty drive through Missouri green hill country.

 We did pass a moving truck loaded with a pick-up, which was loaded with a riding lawn mower. 

We got to the campground just before 3:00, after fueling again in Springfield, Mo., when Joe spotted gas price at $3.399.  We were lucky because we got the last full hook-up campsite available.  Good thing Joe put the pedal to the metal today.  He put in 273 miles today.  This campground is right on Table Rock Lake.  We had scoped it out when we were here 2 years ago and knew we wanted to stay here if we ever made it back to Branson.  It's a little bit of a drive into town, but the campground is very nice, and the price was right ($26/night).  There were a few other empty campsites (probably being held on reserve), but it filled up completely by the Friday night.

We settled in and I called the ticket broker we used last time and got on their web site to see what shows were available.  We had thought we would not go to anything tonight, but once we started looking at the shows, we succumbed and booked reservations to the Clay Cooper show, which was very entertaining.

Friday we had an afternoon show, "Rock, Roll and Reminisce,"  which of course was 60s music, our favorite.  We really enjoyed this show.  After the show, we drove downtown and walked into some of the shops.  For dinner we decided to take Jim's recommendation and go to Mel's Hard Luck Diner, where the waiters and waitresses also sang.  While we were in here, a guy came by handing out coupons for his show, " the Doug Gabriel show, at 8:00 p.m., so we just decided we might as well take that one in too.  It was very good, had several members of his family involved, and of course there was some audience involvement.  For this one, Joe ended up on stage as a member of the horn section (he was one of 3 kazoo players).  Joe's kazoo was defective, imagine that.  But he ended up with an autographed kazoo as a souvenier.  I didn't take my camera into the theater this time, so I had to copy these photos from emails the wife of the other male kazoo player took (she had a better seat than I did so her phone pix were better than mine).



Anyhow, that was fun, and it was a great show.  We found our way back to the RV in the [very] dark, but didn't sleep well.  We had a 10:00 a.m. show on Saturday morning so we were on the move early.  Traffic here is a lot like Gatlinburg, TN -- the main street just crawls.  This morning's show was the "Good Ole Boys," and was the same guys who did our first show.  We made a Walmart stop for some groceries when we left the show, then headed back to the RV and took naps.  We still have another show today, the "Showboat" dinner show at 8:00 p.m. (see why we took naps). 

It stormed during the night and was raining when we headed into town this mornng, but it stopped while we were in the show and now it is just very hot -- probably in the 90s.  We are thinking the boat ride (paddle boat) should be very enjoyable at sunset.

Ft. Wayne to E. St. Louis (Wed.)

Forgot a couple things I meant to post yesterday.  On Monday, Lucille, for some reason, did not put her hearing aids in, and while we were sitting out on the porch watching the kids play, Joe told her she needed to go inside and put her hearing aids in.  She immediately responded, "why, I can see them [the kids playing] pretty good."  We didn't quite compute that one!

The restaurant we went to last night had a very nice lake in the back, and two beautiful white swans apparently live there year-round.  You can eat on the patio and watch the swans and ducks, but we didn't do that.  (Joe never wants to eat outside, I think it comes from all his years of eating his lunch in the shade of the truck at work.)  

Our days in Ft. Wayne were full and went very quickly.  Joe intended to get the oil changed in the Explorer and also get it washed, but he didn't get worked in, nor did I get to the grocery store.  Nevertheless, it was time to leave on Wednesday.

I had intended to wake Joe up at 8:00 a.m., but I slept until 8:15 so we were off schedule from the beginning.  But we did get on the road about 9:20, Joe dumped our tanks while I drove over to McDonalds for breakfast sandwiches and sodas.  We watched the price of gas jump dramatically, and Jim had warned us that is what usually happens when their local station drops it suddenly a few cents.  But about an hour of of town, Joe spotted a station that hadn't got their prices raised yet, so he took advantage of that ($3.389).  We were finally, FINALLY, heading toward home.  Our GPS Lucille showed that we were going SOUTHWEST.

We were traveling in style, with Lori's roses and a Vincennes watermelon. I tried a couple of different places for the flowers to ride, but finally decided the sink was the safest.  Life is good.

Joe mentioned that he needed to use the bathroom, so I volunteered to drive for a while.  I was going to switch with him at the next stoplight, but suddenly we heard a strange thump and Joe felt something that wasn't quite right, so we pulled off the road to investigate.  PROBLEM.  The return spring on the front leveling jack had broken again, and the foot of the leveling jack had fallen off when the spring broke.  Joe said we had to have that foot (we actually have spare springs with us), so after debating about unhooking the car, he decided just to turn the motorhome around and backtrack a mile or so (we were on a 4-lane highway at this point).  So that's what we did.  Fortunately, he spotted the foot in the middle of the highway, so he pulled over and I ran out and grabbed it while he crawled underneath the RV and took the second spring off.  After we got that taken care of, he still needed to go to the bathroom, so I took over driving for the next 60+ miles, through road construction, several small towns, misty rain, and the highway changed back to 2-lane (I even passed a car while I drove on the 4-lane).  But I turned the wheel back over to him at just the right time, because we ran into a detour that took us about 21 miles out of the way, and the county roads were much narrower than the highway we had been on.
 

We took U.S. 24 across Indiana to Illinois 54, then at Springfield we picked up I-55 into E. St. Louis.  We know our gas mileage isn't as good because of all the small towns and lower speed limits, and it takes longer, when we use U.S. or state highways rather than the interstates, but we get to see so much more of the countryside and Joe really enjoys looking at all the crops.  We are definitely in the farm belt, and came upon more than one wide load.  It's always interesting to see what is being moved down the highway.  This was a dump bed for the trucks they use in mines.   We saw these in use in the copper mine in Utah a few years ago.

With our little mechanical problem and the detour, it made for a long day.  We arrived in E. St. Louis about 6:30 p.m., which is 5:30 local time now, so we gained an hour.  Joe, and I, together drove 401 miles.  As soon as we got parked, we had to replace that spring, which takes all the strength we have together.  Joe crawled under the RV, and I tried to help apply pressure from the outside.  After several attempts, and a variety of tools, we finally were successful.  Joe exerts 95% of the pressure, and I throw in about 5% to get the foot back on the hydraulic jack.  It only took about 20 minutes, but we were both hot and tired when we got it done.  After a short rest, while he took a shower I fixed dinner, using some of our Indiana produce.  Then we went over to the casino for a couple hours (yes, we are at the Casino Queen in E. St. Louis again).  Just as we were about to leave, on my last pull of the slot machine, and with 21 cents left of my gambling money, I hit a jackpot and won $97.70, so we left there happy.  Winners finally (I think we came out about $20 ahead for the night, but we will take it.)

The weather was a mixture of clouds, misty rain and finally sunshine. but it was in the 70s all day.  It was nice not to have the air conditioner on much as we drove.   Tomorrow we are going to try to make Branson, Missouri!

Visit from Vincennes Nieces (Mon.-Tues.)

Monday we were blessed with a visit from some of our Vincennes relatives.  Rachelle drove up with Jaclyn and their 4 kids, to see us and to see Grandma whom they have all missed since she has been staying with Dixie.  Lucky for us, they brought Knox County produce with them -- tomatoes (none better), corn on the cob, cantaloupes, watermelons and fresh peaches.  Dixie had fixed a great lunch of ham and beans for her brother Joe, and when the produce arrived, she whipped up a great dinner with all this produce.  We brought in chicken, but the rest was Dixie's doing (she retired from cooking when she retired from nursing, so this was above and beyond).  She even bought a birthday cake for Clayton so Grandma and Uncle Joe could share in his birthday since we missed his party on Saturday (he said, "Grandma never misses a party.")  Angie brought Sonia over to play with the girls and she stayed for dinner, but had to leave immediately after so she could get some sleep before her nursing shift started at 3:00 a.m. on Monday.  Lori also stopped by a couple times, and joined us for dinner.  She even brought me and Joe a beautiful bouquet of a dozen roses to travel with.

So we got to spend some more front-porch time with all of them, while Jaclyn and Adalyn helped Dixie shuck the corn.

It was a nice day, a little cloudy, but Joe and I wore our jeans all day.  The kids played outside, burning up some energy after their 4 1/2 hour ride.

 A little jump rope.

 Jayden, a bit unhappy.  He got hit by a ball shortly before this.

 Sonia, one busy gal.

Mallory, the fashion princess.














Eventually, the girls took the kids back to the motel for swimming.  It was not very warm today, and the water was freezing (apparently not a heated pool), but they braved the water for a little while, until they came out shivering.

Adalyn tried out some goggles for a while, but she never did get her hair wet.  Mallory and Adalyn were the heartiest, they stayed in the water longer than the other kids.

When the kids started turning blue, Lori mercifully offered to take them to her house to play ping pong, and give Rachelle and Jaclyn a tour of her house, so Joe and I headed back to the RV for the night.

Tuesday morning we got to Dixie's to find Lucille already on the front porch, waiting for her fans to show up.  She thought the girls would have to check out of the motel by 8:00 a.m., so she got up early.  However, they didn't get over there until almost 11:00, just after Joe and I showed up.  It was another lovely day (Joe and I didn't wear our jeans today), so we spent more quality time on the porch.  Rachelle introduced us to another time-waster on the SmartPhone -- "Dice Buddies" (same as yahtzee), which is just what we needed.  Dixie fed us lunch again, and Lucille mentioned a couple of times that maybe she should ride back to Vincennes with the girls, but Dixie managed to convince her to stay for another few days.  Goodbyes were said, and they headed south about 3:30.

I promised Dixie that we would eat out Tuesday night for dinner, after her marathon cooking this week, so we eventually made our dinner plans.  Dixie thought Lucille might enjoy stopping by the RV to see the campground, so we went on over and they followed shortly thereafter.  We showed Lucille the baby pictures and videos on the computer screen (thought it might be easier to see than the smartphones or the Notebook), and we even showed her the video of Andrew rolling over, with sound effects.  We had a nice dinner at Triangle Park, one of their local favorites, and then said our goodbyes.  We intend to pull out first thing in the morning (before Dixie and Lucille even are out of bed, hopefully), so this was our last visit for a while.  We really enjoyed our time here in Ft. Wayne, and especially appreciate Rachelle and Jaclyn driving up so we got to see them again.  They arrived back in Vincennes around 10:00 p.m. (after stopping in Indianapolis for a short visit with Rachelle's grandfather), so it was a quick trip and lots of miles for them. 

It was great visiting with everyone and seeing first-hand that Lucille is on the mend from her bronchitis.  Even though we had to chase her down clear to Ft. Wayne, it is always a blessing to get to spend time with her.  But it is time for us to head west, and when we leave here tomorrow, we will finally be heading toward home.  And would you believe -- gas prices jumped almost 40 cents today in Ft. Wayne, from $3.36 to $3.75.  How do they know when we are ready to hit the road???????