Home

We woke up to a foggy morning.  The sun tried to shine through the fog.  We turned our clocks back an hour last night.  We quickly unhooked and closed slides so we could be ready to pull out by 7:00 a.m.

We had thought that it would get down to low 30's last night but when I wrote "Bye" on the front car window, the window was wet not frosty.

We did not realize how much cotton Southern Missouri/Northeastern Arkansas grew.  We saw field after field of cotton ready for picking.  As we were driving I-55 North we run into a stretch of about 10 miles of interstate that nearly shook us off the road.  Carol had to slow down and he even tried to drive in the left lane but nothing helped.  Both lanes were equally rough.  I am amazed that the wheels didn't break off from the rest of the motorhome.  Thankfully, the motorhome and us survived.

 

Crossed into Missouri and stopped for gas at a Flying J in Matthews, Missouri.  Gas was $3.09 a gallon.  From what we have heard, gas will be higher in Illinois so we wanted to get a last fill-up of cheaper gas.

When we see this bridge, we know that Illinois is on the other side.

Once we crossed the Mississippi River, we did see a few more pretty trees.  

We stopped by Don and Peggy's for a bit.  We got caught up from the last seven weeks.  We pulled into our driveway at 3:00.  For the next two hours, we both hustled trying to get the motorhome unpacked.  Traditionally, we have supper at Monical's Pizza with Kara and Family on the day we get home from our fall trip and we did that.

We left on Friday, September 17 and returned Sunday, November 7.  This is seven weeks, 3 days.  Most of those weeks were spent in two states - Florida and Texas.   We drove the motorhome 5,200 miles and the car 3,000.  We visited family and friends and met many interesting people.  This was the first trip we took without Sandy.  Not having her made some changes in the trip.  We didn't take her for at least two walks around the campground.  We didn't meet other dog people and their dogs.  We didn't have her excited greeting when we would come back to the motorhome.  We missed her.  

We discovered that Texas is a great state.  It is a BIG state.  You will find just about any kind of scenery...coastal seashore, mountains, high desert, rolling hills, plains, canyons, swamps.   If you want city life there is Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio.  If you want the rural life, there are plenty of small towns on rural roads and wide open spaces.   This trip was planned last year but we didn't take it then because of Covid.   This year we decided to make this trip because we felt maybe things were better.  We found that things are better in Texas and even Florida.  We felt like we were in a different country.  Except for having to wear a mask and follow stricter protocol on federal property, life was much more relaxed.   It was a nice break.  We are glad that we took the trip.