Home Again - Part 3

 Well, we just realized that we didn't finish telling you about the rest of our trip home.  I don't know if we even remember the rest. 😂

 After we left Bennett Springs in Missouri, we drove through Oklahoma.  I don't think we stopped anywhere fun.  I know that Mom wanted to stop at a few Route 66 attractions but Dad said we didn't have time.  We spent two nights at Ray Roberts State Park.  We had planned on just one night, but then the folks decided to add a second night.  We had to move sites to do that.  The first night, we were parked next to a nice paved trail. the trail goes around the entire park.  The only problem was that our site was next to water and the mosquitoes were bad.

This was the paved trail.

Our site.

More of the trail.

Egret at the lake.

The lake is huge!

Me and Dad at the pier.

We enjoyed staying at this park.  The trail is really nice.  The sites were nice, but they were gravel and I don't like walking on gravel.

As much as I like traveling, it sure was nice to see my beach again.  We are back home and back into our routine.  We will be taking another trip in December.

Here are a few photos of my beach:

Yep, I am a lucky pup that I can walk on the beach every day. 

Jaxson,

The Greyhound Who Loves Island Life

Home Again! Part 2

 I forgot to tell you something funny that happened when we were geocashing.  The geocash was supposed to be by a business.  Grandpa went down some steps and yelled "I found it!"  Mom looked and he was holding up a rat bait station.  Mom yelled that it was a rat bait station but he is hard of hearing, so he couldn't hear her.  He started trying to open it up.  Mom kept yelling "NO, NO!"  She then started laughing really hard.  When she got back in the car, Grandma asked if we found the geocash.  She started laughing again as she told Grandma about Grandpa holding the rat bait station over his head thinking it was his prize.  😂

We drove to Louisiana, MO with Grandma and Grandpa the Thursday before we left.  We put flowers on Dad's Grandparents graves.  Grandma and Grandpa also showed the folks where they want their ashes spread when they die.  They thought they had a spot picked out but they said there were too many trees and they wouldn't be able to see the river. They chose another spot that is really pretty and actually where Grandma's sister's ashes were spread.  We ate lunch in that location. The weather was beautiful.

We left Grandma's on Monday and headed to Bennett Springs State Park. Grandpa came along because he likes to trout fish too.  We had a great site our first night.  It had a lot of grass around it.  We had to move the second night because someone else had alread booked the site.  The weather was great!  The evenings and mornings were cool.  Mom and I enjoyed walking around while Dad and Grandpa fished.  

Mom opened up our door because the weather was so nice.

Camping is exhausting.

A view at the river.

Mom always has to take this photo.

We love spending time at Bennett Springs State Park.  It is such a peaceful place.

More to come on our trip in our next post.

Jaxson,

The Greyhound Who Is Happy To Be Back At The Beach

Home Again! Part One

We are home from our trip.  We were gone 16 days!

Our first two nights, we stayed at Eisenhower State Park.  The folks toured Eisenhower's birth home.  He was actually born in the house because back then women had babies at home.  His folks didn't own the house, but rented it.  The furnishings in the house didn't belong to the family because many other families lived there after he left. He didn't remember living there because he left as a small child and moved to Abilene, KS.

President Eisenhower's Birth Home

Old Train Bridge near Eisenhower's Birth Home

Deer at Eisenhower State Park

Next, we drove into Oklahoma.  We stayed at Twin Bridges @ Grand Lake State Park.  We stayed in the part of the park that was near a boat launch.  We thought it would be fun to watch the boats.  There were a lot of snow geese in the water.

Those are not rocks, they are snow geese.

We bought new windshield covers for the van.  We can see out but people can't see in.

That evening we drove into Miami, OK to eat at a restaurant that has been around since the 1960's.  It is called Ku Ku Burger.  The burgers were good and the fried mushrooms were even better according to Mom.  I am not allowed to eat mushrooms, so I can't tell you if they are good.

The next day, we drove to Grandma's house where we stayed for 11 days.  We did geocashing, attended a wedding and we ate way too much food.  I enjoyed spreading out on Grandma's big rug.

I will tell you about our return trip home in my next post. 

Jaxson,

The Greyhound Who Loves To Travel

Getting Ready For Another Road Trip!

 We are getting ready to leave for another road trip soon.  We are headed back to Missouri for a family wedding.

Dad has been the president of our HOA board here at the condo for the past year.  His term is up on Sept 17th and he is not running for re-election.  It has been a very frustrating year and we better leave it at that. He has been counting down the days since January, so that should tell you something. 😁 

Mom's car is in the shop.  Two weeks ago, we went to McDonald's.  We haven't been to McDonalds in maybe a year.  On the way home from picking up a Big Mac, a Quarter Pounder with cheese and a basket of fries, the car acted like it couldn't get out of first gear.  Mom thought for sure that she would get points taken off of her Liberty Mutual RightTrack savings because of our hard shifting.  We made it home and then Dad decided to take the car out and it acted fine for him even though the engine light remained on.  He drove it for a while and then it shifted hard for him.  The folks took it into the shop and it took ten days for them to look at it and as feared, they had to order a part.  We had this same part replaced just two years ago.  The part is on back order and some people have had to wait five months for it.  We don't know when we will have our car back.  Mom has considered just selling it, but that is probably not the best option.  She has been driving the van to do her Walmart pick-ups.  She doesn't mind drivng it but she doesn't like backing up because there are no windows.  She has to use the mirrors and the cameras. She avoid backing up when possible but you have to back-up at a Walmart pick-up.  The van is very tall, so there are limits of where it can go, like no drive-thrus. At least we don't have to have a car since Mom doesn't work.  Can you imagine if you had to have a car and the parts take five months or more to get?

I still enjoy delivering packages and magazines to Mom.

I will try to blog some from the road.  

Jaxson,

The Greyhound Who Is Ready To Leave The Texas Heat Behind

All Is Good!

 Well, we are terrible bloggers!  The last you heard from us, we were on the road.  Gosh, that could have people wondering if we made it home.  Yes, we did.  We have been home for probably a month.  

One of the things that we did on the way home was visit Laura Ingalls Wilder's home in Mansfield, MO.  Mom had never read the Little House books but she watched the TV show.  She started reading the books before we arrived at her home and finished all of them shortly after we returned home.  She found the books interesting because it gave her a really good insight on how people really lived during that time.  There are two homes to tour as well as a museum.  The house tours did not go as planned as the tour guide refused to give the tour as scheduled because she needed a break after having school kids come through. The ticket agent had told her and another couple that the tour would take place after the school kids, but the guide rudely said no.  It really threw off our schedule and Mom had to rush through the museum.  She was not happy.  We had a long drive ahead of us and she was stressed. Tickets are $18 a person.  She debated going because it seemed pricey and then having a rude tour guide did not help. She would love to go back and tour the musuem again especially after she read the books and many of the items mentioned in the books are there, but she doubts she will.

This is the house that Laura and her husband built and loved.

Laura's daughter, Rose, had this house built for their parents. They lived in it several years, but moved back to the farm house for their remaining years.

On our way home, we stopped at Bennett Springs so that Dad and Grandpa could go trout fishing.  Grandpa didn't travel with us, but he came with us to Bennett Springs.

I celebrated my fifth birthday on May 12th!

My folks are celebrating their 36th wedding anniversary today.  Mom made a banana split cake for dessert.  They ate at Soul 2 Soul yesterday. They had fried ribs.  Mom says it was delicious.  I wouldn't know.

Tomorrow is my 3rd Gotcha Day!  Mom said she is going to take me to Petsmart.  I haven't been there in two years!  

That is a quick update to let everyone we are still alive and doing well.

Jaxson,

The Greyhound Who Is Now Five