50th Anniversary Trip - Day 1: A New Way to Travel

Here we are all ready to go.  This is our new way to travel.  With a new way to travel, we decided to change what has been our travel routine for most of our camping career.  Used to we would be up at the crack of dawn and plan to get 500 miles behind us before we made our first stop.   This morning we were up early (I can't help it that I'm a morning person) but we did not get on the road until 9:30 a.m.  We read the paper, walked the dog, ate breakfast, leisurely packed some last items, and  talked to neighbors before we started the motorhome and pulled out of the driveway.

We pulled into Shoemaker's RV and Campground near Macon, Missouri at 2:15 p.m.  We drove 225 miles in a little over 4 hours.  After we got things set up we sat outside and relaxed.  It is much cooler today with a nice cool breeze blowing.  This campground is older but clean.  We have a spot long enough that we didn't have to unhook the car so tomorrow morning (no earlier than 9:00 a.m.), we will pull out and head west to our next stop which is Nebraska City, Nebraska.  This is a trip of about 250 miles.  Wow!  That will be two days in a role of low miles of traveling.  This could become a habit!
I hope that Sandy will settle in.  She has been very restless and unable to find a spot in which to relax.   Hopefully, each day will be better for her.

It should be quiet in the campground tonight.  I am sure our neighbors won't be loud.  In fact, they probably won't even say a word.   This is a first for us...we are camped beside a cemetery.  After supper we walked through it.  It is an old Catholic cemetery.  We saw stones of people who were born in Italy and England in the mid 1800's.  This stone was erected to honor a local priest.

We haven't turned on our air conditioner in the motorhome.  It seems cool enough.   The people in the cemetery to the south of us will be quiet but the four-lane highway on the north side has been very, very busy and we can hear the traffic.   I am glad neither Carol and I are sleepwalkers.

On this date 50 years ago, My mom and I packed up my 1961 Chevrolet with wedding presents and my belongings and drove to the  Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska.  It was quite a trip for a 19 year old girl who had not driven on any interstate or father than St. Louis.  We drove through St. Louis and Kansas City and thankfully, everything went smoothly and we arrived at the main gate around 4:00 p.m.  Of course, we couldn't get on the base so we had to wait there until Carol got off work and came to the gate to get us.  He drove us to the trailer that would be our first home as husband and wife.

This picture was taken by my mom in the "living room" of this very small trailer.  We both look so young (and much smaller!).  50 more years together would follow.