Last blog this year

We were staying in Bartlesville and drove the 30 miles to Pawhuska to see the Merc.  There wasn't a very long line to get seated for lunch so we waited the 30 or so minutes.  We were in the shade and people were friendly and we chatted most of the time.  We park our car about two blocks away and as we were walking up to the line the Drummond's oldest son, Bryce walked by.  I said hello and he greeted us.  I didn't want to bother him. so no picture.  But I got a picture  of the boarding house.  Fancy

There is a mural across the street and a tiny statue.  This is the best part of town.  The Drummond family has prettied up this block of town.

As you can see the Merc is on a corner.

The entrance to the store.

The famous column

We ate in the café.  The food was yummy.  I had spicy pork and grits.  Your dad had chicken Parm.  The portions were enormous.  We had a whole other meal the next night. In fact there is still some of your dad's meal still left.

Back behind me is the store.  After we ate, we went shopping.  There wasn't that many people here the day we were there.  We were there on a Friday, and  school has started.  Weekends are probably awful.  The store has a bunch of really pretty things.  It was a little overwhelming for me.  I did get a cook book and some pastry cutters.  It was a nice afternoon for us and we have seen some new parts of Oklahoma we haven't seen before.

We should be home sometime Sunday.

Love, Mom and Dad

Aunt Bev's and Branson

These are the teenaged Millers except the middle one, she's only ten.

Bo, Kimmy and Aunt Bev

Uncle Marvin

Sterling is taller than your dad, and the little one is almost as tall as me.  We didn't do much at Bev's except visit as soon as she got home from work.  It was a nice visit.

We drove down to Branson and the first night we were there we went to Dolly Pardon's Stampede.  This is one of the actors.

We ate chicken (with our hands) and watched a cross between a rodeo and a revue.  Really nice

And as you can see it was very rah rah America.

The next night we went to the Million Dollar Quartet.  We couldn't take pictures in the theater, but the show was really good.  It was about the night in December, 1959 when Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis got together in Sun Records.

Sunday night we went to the Clay Cooper Show.  It was the best.

Clay Cooper shook your dad's hand while singing his number.  That is really up close and personal.

These three had amazing close harmony.  I forget their name, but they sure can sing.

Clay and his wife, Tina

We saw one more show while there.  It was The Irish Tenors and The Celtic Girls.  Of course we couldn't take pictures.  It was pretty good.

That's all for now.  We are in OK today and are going to drive to Pawhuska to visit the Pioneer Woman's store.  Tomorrow we head for home we'll probably be home in about ten days.  See you then.

Love, Mom and Dad

Now we are in Missuori

We had these taken at the Walter Cronkite Museum at the end of our tour there.  I don't know how to get them down to the pictures I took there.  So here I am posing like Walter at the news desk during a commercial break.

Dad waiting for the commercial to be over.  This was fun for us because we used to watch Walter every night.

We stayed in St. Joseph, and that is where the Pony Express started.  The riders could get mail from here to Sacramento in 10 days.  It only lasted about 18 months because the railroad came together and telegrams were soon available.

The well is still in the building from when the Express used it.

The next day we went to the Walter Cronkite Memorial.  He was born in St. Joe in 1916.

The space race is represented big time.  Walter was very interested in NASA.

He interviewed Captain Kangaroo.  He interviewed almost everyone.

The one day it wasn't raining we got a picture of the Pony Express Monument.

We drove into Jefferson City yesterday from our campsite to see the capitol.  As you can see it is under wraps to restore some of it.

Everything is up and down hill here.  My Fitbit said I climbed nine flights of stairs yesterday

The capitol dome

There is a monument to the Lewis and Clark trip.

We drove back up toward the I 70 to Fulton.  At Westminster College is a Winston Churchill Museum.  He gave his " Iron Curtain" speech here in 1946.

His desk from his home in Great Britain.

One of his paintings  He was quite the artist.

This museum has eight panels of the Berlin Wall.  His granddaughter got these donated to this museum.

Churchill's statue outside the OLD church where the museum is.  It had pails inside to catch rain water that was dripping from the holes in the ceiling

This is what Jefferson City looked like in 1855.

We did the last two things while camped in Columbia.  This morning we went to a farmers market in town.  We got some farm fresh eggs, tomatoes, watermelon, and corn.  Feast tonight!  

We leave for Bev's in the morning and Branson after that.  I don't know how much time I'll have for pictures, but we'll see.

Love, Mom and Dad

Iowa

First we went to visit the Amana Colonies.  They were a German  Religious Group who believed in communal living.  They came to America in about the 1850's.  Religious freedom is what they wanted.  The colonies ( seven of them) lasted until about 1930 or so.  

This looks like one of the buildings that held a communal kitchens.  We ate lunch in one that day.  Good German cooking.  

Now most of the buildings are shops now that sell hand made stuff or ice cream and candy or wine. Most of the wine is sweet fruit wines.  Ugh 

The next day we drove up the I 80 to revisit the Herbert Hoover Museum.  We spent a lot more time there this time.

I hadn't realized that he was a geologist who studied at Stanford.  I think he was in the first or second class there.

He did all kinds of charity work after he made his millions just like Gates is doing today.

More good works

He was in the White House for only a few months before the Wall Street Crash.  Of course he was blamed for it.

After FDR passed away presidents looked to him for advice on things he had worked on before.  He was in public service until he died in 1964 at 90 yrs. old.

He and his wife Lou are buried here on top of a hill overlooking the prairie.

Iowa has left this plot of land to look the way it did in the early 1900 century.

We're in Newton, Iowa now.  Today we went to the Maytag Cheese factory and took a tour. I didn't take any pictures there because I couldn't inside and the building wasn't all the interesting.  We think the tour was better than the last time we were here.  The blue cheese tastes just as good.  We got more crumbles to bring home again.  They're in the freezer as we speak.  

 We head for Missouri Monday morning.  There are some things we would like to see there about Lewis and Clark that we missed last time we were there.  We should be at Aunt Bev's by the 19th.

We'll send more pictures next time.

Love Mom and Dad   

Indiana

We spent the day in Shipshewana, an Amish town.  We had lunch here and have enough leftovers for two more meals. Amish food is rib sticking.

There is several buildings similar to this one that has little shops inside.  The Amish shop at these shops and sell some of their home made things as well.

Today we went to Elkhart to the RV/MH Museum.  MH means Manufactured Home.

This is a new Retro Shasta.  Look at the wings in the back.  It's like our Shasta class C from 1971.

This is the oldest trailer ever.  It was made in 1913.  It is being pulled by a Model T.

This is the smallest Airstream ever made.  Maybe one adult could stay in it.

This trailer was made about 1958.

A Teardrop from 1959.

This was Mae West's house car while she made movies in 1931.

After visiting the museum we went to lunch here.  Again we had enough food for another meal ,but it was yummy.

Now that we are out of Michigan, I can say that indeed the roads are awful there.  There is a lady running for governor that had part of her platform to "fix the damn roads."   The freeways aren't as bad as the little roads.  I feel sorry for people that have to drive there day in and day out.  We were only there for six weeks and it was like we were on washboards all the time.  It was worse that dirt roads. The little roads here in Indiana are delightful.

Okay, I give.  Who is the person who wants to see old RV pictures?  I don't know the "voice" of the responder.  Who are you?  Are you someone we know or are you someone who just stumbled on to our blog?

Well that's all for now.

Love, Mom and Dad