Fall Trip Wrap-Up

I need to wrap up this blog even if it is several weeks late.  This blog will wrap up the final few days and weekend that we camped at Turkey Run.  On Saturday of the last week, we got up early to drive to Warrensburg to pick up Hunter so he could be with us this last weekend.  He had to work the first weekend so he was unable to be here with Keegan.  He is the photographer for the Warrensburg-Lathan football team and they had a final game Friday night which meant we could not pick him up until Saturday morning.

We were on the road headed west early enough to enjoy a nice sunrise.

The leaves have really begun to change making the drive to and from Warrensburg much prettier than two weeks ago.

The Amish were out in the fields and on the roads

On Saturday we went to Bridgeton and ate festival food for lunch but on Sunday we drove to Danville, Indiana to the Mayberry Cafe.  This is a tradition that both the boys like.

Hunter was the lucky boy to eat lunch at the Mayberry Café this fall.  He can see by his face that he is happy with that decision.

In the parking lot of the café we found one more Jeep with its window filled with rubber duckies.

During Hunter's weekend, he and Papaw played a couple game of chess.  Each won one. The three of us played three games of Crazy Cards and again, each won one.  Papaw learned to play chess while he was in the Air Force.  His roommate was an avid chess player so he and Carol would play a lot.  I am not a chess player and have absolutely no desire to learn the game so Papaw is happy that Hunter likes to play.

This weekend  Jason and Kara didn't have to drive to Turkey Run 

to pick up Hunter like Jason did last weekend.  Hunter drove the car back to our house.  That way I could ride in the motorhome with Carol back to Decatur.  Hunter camped for the first time at Turkey Run with us when he was four years old and now he is 18 and able to drive.

There he goes!

Sunday evening the moon created a beautiful view for our final night at Turkey Run.

The first pictures I took two weeks ago showed lots of green leaves on the trees.  Today the leaves have turned colors and it looks like fall.

Here is the motorhome all packed up and waiting to pull out of the camping spot.

  It looks sad.  Leaving will wrap up over 15 years of coming to Turkey Run for two weeks in October. 

This is Gobbler's Knob.  Getting ice cream is another tradition of our time at Turkey Run.  Each weekend we stopped here for ice cream.

    

We made it back to Decatur Monday morning and immediately began the clean-up, clean-out, winterizing process for the motorhome so we could put it in winter storage.  I also wipe down everything and shampoo the carpet.  I want it to be clean and ready to go when we need it next year.   It has been another good year for the fall trip.  We drove the motorhome 3500 miles and the car 2500 miles. We finally made it to Key West and Dry Tortugas National Park.  We spent three days in the Everglades which we really enjoyed.  Part of that enjoyment came from the camp spot we had.  It was the best!  We returned to St. Augustine and Cape Hatteras.  We visited with family and friends.  The motorhome ran well and we managed to load the car and find gas (my biggest time of stress) without any problems.  It was a great year. 

 In January I usually begin the planning stage of our next year's trip.  We know that our Granddaughter Katie graduates from high school in May so we will be going to Florida in May and driving the car.  We don't plan to return to Florida in the fall.  Where will we go???  We don't know.  Maybe we will only go to Turkey Run and stay closer to home, shorter trips along with Turkey Run or not.  We just don't know. We have even thought about selling the motorhome and no longer camp as we travel.  We don't either one like that thought but know that there are phases of life and it may be time for another phase of our life.  We have camped in tents,  a pop-up, pull-behind trailers and finally a motorhome since our first trip in 1973.  It has been great and we have many, many memories.  We have been in 49 and 50 states. Our son described our trips as "an adventure."  That is a great way to describe the last fifty years of trips.  No matter what we decide, we will have the memories, photos and have seen the beauty God has bestowed on this country.

A Week in Pictures

This post will contain comment and pictures from the last seven days at Turkey Run.  We did lots of driving rural roads, viewing beautiful fall trees, spending time with visitors at the RV, and visiting a sister.  Here we go....

On Tuesday we had a nice visit with Carol's sister Jean.  

We took her out to lunch.  Her son Miles joined us for some good conversation.  Jean's birthday is next week.  Happy Birthday, Jean.
 

In the last few days the trees have really begun to change into there fall colors  The rural roads are so pretty and around each curve the scene changes.  

Friday evening we drove to Warrensburg to pick up Keegan so he could spend the weekend with us.  Hunter had to work so Keegan brought a friend.  Saturday we went to Bridgeton to the Covered Bridge Festival.

Can you spot the boys?

Keegan and his friend Malachi brought sunglasses and posed at each of the windows of the bridge.

Tuesday morning as we were headed to Danville to see Jean, the sky was filled with the jet streams of Air Force jets.

On Sunday, we took a short hike on one of the canyon trails.

The three guys are just beginning the trail.

These boys love to pose.

Sunday evening we had our first fires.  Jason came over to Turkey Run to pick up the boys and we had hot dogs and s'mores....very good!

Hunter always loved to chop wood and now Keegan is following in his big brother's footsteps.

At the end of a long day.

Wednesday we traveled on some rural roads that we have never  been on in the 15 years we have  been coming here.  We were surprised to find this marker in memorial of two Army Air Corps pilots who  crashed in a field a mile from the marker.  I googled their names and found out that on September 7, 1941 they were in a B-17 flying from Scott Field (Scott AFB) to Patterson Field (Wright-Patterson AFB).  A vicious storm crashed into their plane sending their plane nose first into the field.  Both men died.  LTC Davidson is buried in Arlington.  They died exactly three months before Pearl Harbor so they never took part in WWII.  All of this happened 80 years ago and a man put up this marker to keep their names and the crash in the community's memory.

We found Big Foot on the same road.

 

In the parking lots of the festivals we saw several Jeeps with rubber duckies in their windshields.  I was curious to find out why.  The above Jeep only has a few.  Some of the windshields of some of the Jeeps were covered and in two layers.  I googled and found out that this practice was began by a woman in Canada during Covid.   She brought a big bag of rubber duckies and began putting them on Jeep windshields with a note saying "Have a good day.":

She said that it felt like everything was falling apart for lots of us and the ducks were a simple way to say: "Hey, you are not alone.":  Now three years later there are several Facebook
 groups and hundreds of thousands of social media posts from Jeep owners around the world who take part in the trend.  Now three years late it has finally found it's way to rural Indiana.  This is called "Jeep ducking" or "duck, duck Jeep"

It is hard to believe that we only have four days left of our two weeks here at Turkey Run.  It has been an interesting time.  We haven't been to Rockville so we plan to go there tomorrow.  Friday, we will go back to Warrensburg to pick up Hunter so he can spend the weekend with us.  Keegan may be here as well.  Then our six week adventure that began September 11 will be over this coming Monday.