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

Still On The Road

 This trip isn't really exciting, so we haven't posted any updates.

We spent the first night at a Camping World in Tulsa.  We didn't get there until after 7 p.m.  We didn't have electric hook ups, but we were able to watch TV because we have a battery that can run our lights and TV. The next day we headed towards Grandma's house.  We stopped in Lebanon, MO at the Russell Stover Outlet and guess what?  It is closed for good.  Mom was really sad.  The folks decided to stop at a Stuckey's to pick up a pecan roll to take to Grandma's.  It wasn't as good as they remembered.

We arrived at Grandma's on Friday afternoon.  The next day we drove to my Dad's sister's house.  We had a small family reunion.  Dad's nephew is in the Navy and he and his new wife were in town.  Also, another nephew was in town from Florida.  They hadn't seen the Navy guy since he entered the military four years ago.  

On Sunday, we headed to Hawn State Park which is in Ste. Genevieve, MO. Mom's great grandparents settled in that area when they came to America from Germany.  She had been wanting to find her great grandparents graves and she succeeded.  They were really hard to read but Mom had been given directions from a cousin on where they should be and he was correct.

Theresa and Frank Baumann. They died in 1898 and 1899.

Hawn State Park is nice but there is no cell service or TV reception.  It was a very quiet time.

I am not as bored as I look in this photo.

We spent two days at Hawn and then we went back to Grandma's house. We have been here since.  We have done a lot of eating.  We have seen almost all of Dad's family.  We leave tomorrow and we are headed to Bennett Springs to do some trout fishing.

This is a park that I walked around by Grandma's house.

This mural was painted by someone that the folks went to high school with.

The weather has been rainy and colder than home.  It is steamy at home, so we are not complaining too much.

Jaxson,

The Greyhound Who Is Enjoyig His Trip

Roadtrip Time!

 I know, it has been a while.  Mom seems to forget to post anything unless we are traveling.  Well, we are on the road again.  This time, we are headed to see family.  We will be staying at Grandma's for about a week..  I love staying there! We just left this morning and it is a two day trip, so we will be there tomorrow evening.

We were supposed to go to Gulf Shores, AL in February for Mom's birthday, but I got hurt.  It wasn't a serious injury but the folks thought it was best not to travel with me.  It is rather embarrassing to talk about my injury.  You see, I fell off my folks bed and when I tried to stop myself and climb back up, I scraped my leg on this board on the side of the bed.  I ended up going to the vet. It was $155. 😒 He couldn't stitch it because greyhounds have very thin skin and he said it would just tear more.  My wound was the size of a quarter but it bleed every time I walked.  I wore a bandage that the vet put on me for 48 hours as required.  Boy, did I scream when he put it on my leg.  I don't like anything on my legs.  It took three weeks for it to heal which is better than the last time when it took two months.  The folks have baby proofed that board, so I shouldn't get hurt on it again.

My damaged leg.

I am still busy carrying packages for Mom. I think it is fun and people laugh when they see me.

Waiting for the elevator doors to open.

Oh, the other big thing going on is my corns.  I have corns on three feet.  I have some feet with two corns and one has three.  It is driving Mom crazy.  She is trying all sorts of things to remove them.  I don't like wearing boots, so don't even tell her to do that.  Joey had one corn and she thought that was terrible, so imagine how she feels with a dog with six corns.  Joey wore a boot.  I think we are making some progress but it will be a life long problem for me.  

It is almost time to stop for lunch at a rest area, so I will end now.  Talk to you soon!

Jaxson,

The Greyhound Who Travels In A van