"Today is a Good Day to Drive!" .....Van-Go

June 24 2008 Kathy got up earl and made a few loops around the large parking lot of the South Fork Access to the Mark Twain Lake. The area is sponsored by the Civil Corp of Engineer and a ranger stopped Kathy as she returned to the Roadtrek. Ranger Alex was very polite as he informed her that there is no overnight parking, pulled out a brochure and showed her where we could park for the night. He suggested we go to the State Park for the morning rather than stay in the lot. Ranger Alex said the Mississippi River bridges are closed due to high water; the Hannibal bridge is open. Will got up and we readied the Roadtrek and drove over to the Mark Twain State Park and Historic Site. It was now sprinkling. We checked it out, but then continued north changing our route to cross at Hannibal. We did a drive-by of the Mark Twain Memorial Shrine built near the birthplace. The sky was getting dark. Then we drove to the actual site, a two-story frame house. In Monroe City we walked into Peggy Sue’...

June 23, 2008 We woke to another beautiful day. We have graduated to shorts and short sleeves. The sun is already hot here in Richmond, MO, the mushroom capitol. We turned on to US24 and east of Dewitt we turned on a small road, crossed the railroad tracks and kept goint to what we thought was going to a boatramp on the Missouri River, it went into a corn field and on the levee instead. This is pecan area. We came into Brunswick, found the city park and had breakfast then we drove through town. Lewis and Clark were camped here June 13, 1804 at the confluence of the Grand and Missouri Rivers. We past James Pecan's Farm where we saw the world’s largest pecan weighing in at 12,000 pounds. Some people like covered bridges, we favor metal ones like the one coming into Keytesville, MO. Signs: Pecans, Pecans and Produce, Pecans and Cattle, Pecans and Buffalo Meat. In Moberly we pulled into the Scholastic Packaging Facility. Now anyone who has anything to do with education has heard of Sch...

June 22, 2008 This morning is again sunny and warm in Atchinson, KS. We wanted to stay for the best fireworks in KS and Amelia Earhart Festival but…. We did some shopping and went over to Amelia Earhart Earthworks for coffee and down to Warnock Lake for breakfast. We watched the dragonflies and saw an Eastern Kingbird, Great Blue Heron, Red-winged blackbirds, robins, sparrows, geese and dragonflies. Time to depart KS. We made our way to town and crossed the Missouri River over to Missouri. At Lewis and Clark SP we had some lunch and drove through Lewis and Clark Village, a bison summer home sort of place then took a short-cut road tht started as a real road, but soon turned into a narrow gravel road. We made it over to route 116.The country side is very Pennsylvaniaish with tiger lilies, queen Ann’s lace and tall grassy weeds, trees and brush. The difference was the cuts through solid sand wind and water worn. Corn fields are about knee high or just planted. We had our own car show wit...

June 21, 2008 Kathy was up early so went into Walmart and tried on a bunch of clothes thinking about what to wear on our Russia trip. When Will got up we headed over to the Forest of Friendship for the World Friendship Event held each year by the Ninety Nines, a group of women aviators started by Amelia Earhart. The Parade of Flags started about 10am. The boy and girl scouts of Atchinson came out to carry the flags; we watched as they marched around the forest to the proper state or country tree where they placed the flag. Everywhere there is a chapter of the 99s in the world, there is a tree to represent it. After the parade and opening came the introduction of distinguished guests and Memory Lane Honorees. Time was taken so that each honoree was presented with an award and posed for pictures. We would suggest they get a drama student from the local college to read the bios or maybe the sponsors so that one person is not responsible for reading all of them. We drank lemonade, watched ...

Hawaii Mimosa Trees June 20, 2008 We got up to a beautiful sunny breezy day and drove to Amelia Earhart Earthwork, a one-acre portrait of Amelia Earhart on the berm of a hill overlooking Atchinson’s Warnock Lake. The all-natural earthwork is composed of a mixture of rock, wood and permanent plantings. The tall native grasses create the illusion of Earhart’s scarf flapping in the Kansas breeze. The best view is for pilots; GPS coordinates are: Lat N39 degrees 32.243/Long W93 degrees 08.820. The International Forest of Friendship is a living, growing memorial to the World History of Aviation and Aerospace; it was a gift to America in 1976 from the city of Atchison and the 99s. The Moon tree was grown from a seed taken to the moon by a Command Module pilot Stuart Roosa in Apollo 14. Will cut the vines growing up the PA Eastern Hemlock. Kathy pointed out the Mimosa tress from Hawaii. We pressed a few leaves of the Siberian Sourwood Tree. Texas Pecan PA Eastern Hemlock Moon Tree We made o...

June 19, 2008 We found the comedy channel on our Sirrius radio and so we laugh and laugh going down the road; people probably look over and think we are crazy, but it sure feels good to laugh-good medicine. Clifton, KS had an interesting display of cars along main street! The rolling grasslands now have fields of corn about knee high and the grass is now in windrows ready to be bales or rolls of hay already. The wheat looks so golden, ready to reap. Little patches of trees fill in between separating the land. In Waterville we stopped at the city park for breakfast. Kathy had her breakfast sitting on a Model B John Deere tractor. The town has a few murals done on metal buildings. As we drove through Frankfort we admired a few classic buildings. Whiting is another little one-street town along route 9 with classic buildings along with an old gas station that would be fun to fix up. Atchison, KS is on the Missouri River. It is here that Amelia Earhart was born in the home of her grandpare...