August 24, 2019 Wyoming then Outside Boise Idaho and Home on August 26, 2019

Just crossed into Wyoming over 8000 ft elevation. Our Toyota Tacoma truck is saying I think I can I think I can.  And it did....  It has pulled our 20 foot trailer very well across our beautiful USA.  

We stayed at Red Desert Rose RV Park in Rawlins, Wyoming. 

Wowzer- our gas tank holds 21.1 gallons. John put 21 gallons in the tank. If we hadn’t had the 2 gallon gas can in the back,  we would have run out. Too close. Stations are not at every corner. 😩

We usually fill up at the half tank but no stations on this stretch of the highway. 

Stopping in an hour outside of Boise ID for the night. 

We stayed in Mount Home Idaho RV Park.  It was one of the nicest RV Park we have stayed in.  It was very tempting to stay for more than one night with the very clean salt water pool and hottub.  There was a tennis court, fenced - in dog park, playground and very clean bathroom and showers.  The entire campground was level concrete plots with beautiful green grass and picnic tables.  In the short time we were there, we met the nicest people.  

We are back in Washington

But we are only 558 miles from home.  We decided we wanted to return to this area on  another trip.  

Near Snoqualmie Summit where John ski patrols

Overlooking Ellensburg, WA

It was so exciting to arrive home after 4 months and 2 days.  It was a long day arriving home at 7:30pm but so glad we did.  

Alex welcomes us with a bottle of wine

Brian, our neighbor across the street, welcomed us home as did Alex who lives behind us with a cold bottle of wine.  Their family also welcomed us from their deck.  It was a thrill to see everyone and such a blessing as we arrived home.  

This trip to our Grandson Garrett's High school Graduation and party, New England States, have JoAnn, my sister, join us to visit Maugansville, MD,  meet her family in Pittsburg, PA and outside Toronto, Canada, Niagara Falls, Bob and Marion in Maine, Tony and Mary in Rhode Island, Boston, New York and NYC, family outside Washington DC, visiting family in Tennessee, Florida and Mississippi  and more just to name a few highlights was on Daleen's bucket list. It was awesome to see our family in Kansas two times.  We saw so many places that were beautiful, a blessing and such a thrill to see.  I was very emotional when I first saw the Statue of Liberty and Lincoln's Monument.  Like we have heard so much this year.  Freedom is not FREE.
It was a gift from John and I will always remember the 14,100 miles we drove (he mainly drove) and the fun we had.  

We missed some of our friends and family in New York, Arizona, California and Washington but we will hopefully see them another time.  

Thank you John for making this trip possible and getting us home safely.    Love, Daleen

August 21, 2019 Colorado Springs, Colorado

We made reservations in the Garden of the Gods RV Park in Colorado Springs.  Upon entering Colorado Springs the view overlooking the city was beautiful.  There had been thunderstorms around us throughout the day and as we entered the city we saw Pikes Peak Mountain above the beautiful city below.  It was spectacular.  

It was so nice to be able to visit with Steve and Margaret, our niece and nephew, at their home in Colorado Springs.  During the winter they enjoy their home in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  Both areas are beautiful with lots to do.  We had been to Las Cruces but had missed visiting during the summer in Colorado Springs.

The temperatures are 73 degrees today feels like 73 with humidity 36  Hallelujah It was a welcome relief from the 90's with 86 humidity.

 
 Steve and Margaret are wonderful host and hostess.  We saw such beautiful country while here in Colorado.

Margaret took us for a ride to the Garden of the Gods.  Oh My Goodness, Beautiful red rock formations. The Garden of the Gods encompasses 1367 acres of unique wilderness, Great Plains grassland and juniper woodlands.  The most iconic section of the park features a towering ridge of eroded red rock formations and reveal 300 million years of geological history, while the famous red rock formations include Balanced Rock, Gateway rock and the Three Graces.  

It is a must see and spectacular!

We also visited the Garden of the Gods Visitor Center which doubles as a natural and cultural history museum where we learned about the geology, wildlife, people and history of the park through a series of very interesting interactive exhibits.  

One of the highlights is the Geo-Trekker Theater, where we watched a 15 minute video which digs into the park's history while offering amazing views from an aerial drone.  

 On another day, Steve and Margaret took us for a drive to beautiful Helen Hunt Falls.

 

Steve drove us on the Upper Gold Camp Road.  It was a narrow and beautiful road with views that were absolutely incredible.   In most places the road is only wide enough for one vehicle and many bicyclist also enjoying the absolutely incredible road and views, so at times it is a bit unnerving when driving thru the tunnel and narrow curves.

We then walked around Old Colorado City Historic District.  There are such interesting and lovely shops.  We stopped in a Pizzeria Rustica to cool off.  We sit in the outside garden and it was a perfect place to visit and relax.  

We finished off the day at Steve and Margaret favorite Mexican restaurant, Amanda's Fonda Restaurant.  We again sit outside under the beautiful trees with a creek running beside the restaurant. 

The next day, we drove North to Centennial Co, just south of Denver  to see Greg and Rosanne and their babies. 💙💖 Greg is Margaret's son, our great nephew.    We have enjoying their photo share pictures over the years and finally were excited to meet their babies.  Parker 3, Penelope 14 months and Paxton 4 weeks.  

August 11, 2019 Back to Lawrence, Derby and Wichita

We sadly left Pascagoula Mississippi this morning and we are staying at Pecan Grove RV park in Arkansas just over the highway from Mississippi  River. 

It has been so great to see our family across the country that we don't get a chance to see and always hard to say goodbye, so we just say until next time.  

Yesterday there were lots of road construction and stop lights. On a 4 Lane divided but we stop in every town. Ugh.... exhausting...

We will have traveled around 350 miles.  It was a very long day.

Today was totally opposite to yesterday, we had mostly smooth roads and very very light traffic. We had our sons, daughter and grands encouraging us to arrive even if late.  We arrived back in Allen and Diane's driveway and always so much fun to see everyone.  

We finally arrived in Lawrence!

Reed and Julia at work

Playing like they used to

The next 2 weeks are Allen, Diane, Richard and Aimee's one of the most busy times at BarristerBooks.com with colleges starting over the USA. They won’t have a lot of free time for us. We totally understand and hope we can help with meals, errands and maybe at BarristerBooks.com.  Reed's, first year of high school and Ella, her third year at KU  haven’t started school yet so we will see them throughout the day.  Troy, our youngest son, and his dog Hicks joined us in the evening to visit each day.  

We so love and miss this special time with them.  

Ella new home

John, Reed and I had time to see Ella's first house for her 3rd year in college.  

The best road sign in Alaska

We spent a couple days with David and Debi in Derby KS.  David and Debi took a vacation to Alaska and it was awesome to hear about their travels and see the beautiful pictures.      They shared the best road sign in Alaska.  

We also  decided to open the bottle of bourbon  

I bottled at the  Jim Beam distillery.  Fun times.

It was nice to spend special time with both of them, their dogs and chickens.

Ella took a canoe trip too.

Grandpa and Ella 

Joshua and Brittany

Uncle Troy and Ella playing NUTS

Our oldest Grandson, Joshua and Brittany are having their first baby (our Great Grandson) due the end of September.  

It was great to visit with them.    

Brittany wanted to attend a Chief's game!

Garrett worked through the summer.   Joe and Teresa are moving Hannah, her 3rd year of college at OU and Garrett's first year of college at K-State in different states Sat thru Mon. We can't believe Garrett is also in college.  Too fast they  grow up.  

Hannah spent the summer working in Dallas TX.  She was selected for an internship in her 2nd year of college at OU.  Hannah also celebrated her 21st Birthday at Disney World with Alex.  

We have never missed seeing them while in Wichita but knew they would be so busy, we didn't want to get in their way while packing.  Since they will be gone for the weekend we had to tell them we would see them in October when we return for Allen's 50's birthday. 

 While in Wichita, we also enjoyed fun times with my sister Susan and our Aunt Sharon.  It was very special getting together if only for a short time.  

We sadly had to leave Wichita, which was harder than usual but we knew we needed to keep moving north to get home for John's Dr appointment for his hernia.  

August 7, 2019 John, Natasha in Pascagoula, Mississippi

We were anxious to visit with our oldest son, John Jr and meet his wife Natasha.  John Jr. was recovering from his second knee replacement which had some complications when the tendon tore away from his muscle.  It was great to see them both.

Along the way from Jacksonville Florida to Pascagoula, Mississippi, we sadly saw evidence of Hurricane Michael that made landfall in the Florida Panhandle early Wednesday afternoon, Oct 10, 2018, with a direct hit on Mexico Beach, a small sport-fishing coastal town with fewer than 1200 permanent residents.  It had mostly concrete block homes and small vacation cottages that are now nearly wiped off the map.

Hurricane Michael was the first category 5 hurricane to strike the contiguous United States since Andrew in 1992.  In addition, it was the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous United States in terms of pressure, behind the 1935 Labor Day hurricane and Hurricane Camille of 1969. 

It is sobering to see trees snapped off 4 feet from the ground and highway signs twisted.  We live in the Pacific Northwest away from the hurricanes that strike the south and again it was a sobering drive.

We were glad to arrive in Pascagoula Mississippi.  We found a very nice RV campground.  Daleen decided to try her backing skills and after 30 minutes, we finally had the RV set up.  LOL LOL.  Long story.  

John proceeded to hook up the electrical connections and found a Black Widow spider hanging from the inside of the box.  I was reading the pamphlet that all RV campgrounds hand out and #11 said to Beware of alligators.  Lordy Lordy... Our nephew John M. ask us if we should consider moving.  LOL

John took care of the spider and luckily didn't see any alligators while we were there.  Of course, we didn't go swimming either.  LOL

John Jr. had coordinated for us to have dinner at Brady's steaks and seafood restaurant where our grandson Pat was working.  It had been too many years since we had seen Patrick.  He looked great and is now 25 years old.  We also met his girlfriend Joey and later met his new puppy.

After dinner,  we drove over to meet Natasha's parents.  It was nice to finally meet.  We had fun back at the house watching their 3 cats playing.  John Jr. is doing much better and he is ready to be back at work and we are hoping he will be ready by Sept 1 to get clearance from the doctors.

Before dinner, we toured the waterfront and took a walk around.  It is a beautiful area that has had a lot of tender loving care after hurricane Michael and Katrina.  A lot of the old beautiful houses along the waterfront were never rebuilt.

John Jr. recommended the Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum in Biloxi, Mississippi for us to tour.  It was very interesting!!  The Museum was established in 1986 to preserve and interpret the maritime history and heritage of Biloxi and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  It accomplishes this mission through an array of exhibits on shrimping, oystering, recreational fishing, wetlands, managing marine resources, charter boats, marine blacksmithing, wooden boat building, net making, catboats/Biloxi skiff and shrimp peeling machine and numbers historic photographs and objects.


There was a plaque outside which was dedicated to bring awareness to the surge and high water levels of both Hurricane Katrina (made landfall Aug 29, 2005 am)and Hurricane Camille (made landfall Aug 17, 1969 at 11:30pm.

We enjoyed our visit with John, Natasha, Patrick and Joey.
We hope to not make it so long between visits..