bobanddenisewanderlust

Saturday- I did my power walk, we had breakfast, then headed back over to the Mid-west Genealogy Center. Bob needed to pick up some Revolutionary War information on a Patriot member of the family. This information was on the microfilm at the center. They also have a $20 access card which gives you internet access to their databases which I purchased for us to use for the next 6 months.

Around noon, we drove into the town of Independence for lunch at Square Pizza. There was a small farmers market, but nothing we wanted to buy. The pizza was good, not quite Ledo’s, but not bad!

From there we went to the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. Today is National Free Museum day. We had gone online and printed out tickets for the museum, and  saved ourselves $16 dollars. That paid for lunch!

The Truman Library is the first Presidential Library under a 1955 bill which allowed the Park service to take over the Presidential Libraries. It was built in 1959 using private funds. Truman visited there everyday until almost before he died in 1972.

The tour started in the lobby with a mural on the wall and some of the Truman family keepsakes. Our first stop was for a 12 minute film on the life of Harry S. It was interesting. There was a second movie starting at 1:30, around 20 minutes later, so we started through the exhibit hall, following the Truman presidency, from the death of FDR.

At 1:30 ,we went to the auditorium for the second movie. The first part of the movie was basically a re-hash of the previous movie, but the rest was new.

One thing I can say about Harry S., he was a very strong man. Wouldn’t it be nice if the yo-yo’s we have around now had the guts to do what Truman did? Harry S. took over at an extremely difficult time in our nations history and pulled us through a lot of different situations, not caring about poll numbers. A lot of the criticism of Harry S sounds just like what is going on now in our political process.  Yet history has shown Harry S to have been a very strong President.

The Library has a garden courtyard in the middle, where the graves are located. Margaret and her husband Cliff Daniel are buried directly across the sidewalk from Harry and Bess. I have read almost all of Margaret Truman’s books, and was sad when she passed away in 2008.

Bess Truman is on the left and Harry S is on the right. Both of the tombstones have their accomplishments etched in them. Here is Harry’s.

Just past the graves, is Harry’s office that he used until almost before his death. He would come daily to the Library to work. Some days he would even just come out of his office and take people on tours of the Library!

There was also a replica of the Oval Office, in the main building, with Harry giving a tour, in his own voice.

After the Library, we ran home to take out the dogs. Then we were off to downtown Lees Summit for their Oktoberfest. Interestingly, there were signs about the festival, it was advertised on the radio, but all the directions we had were to go to downtown Lees Summit. I guess they assumed that everyone knew where downtown is located. Unfortunately, we and the GSP did not know! There are six exits on I-470 for Lees Summit, and we had difficulty finding downtown. We finally found it around 5:15.

Fortunately, it was fairly easy to find a parking place. The festival went all day, until 11 PM. It was about 8 blocks in all, plus a carnival with rides, covering all of the downtown area. We wandered through the crafts, then to the ‘beer tent’ for dinner. We had an option of a beef dish, which was meatballs in gravy, over noodles or bratwurst or wiener schnitzel. The meals came with red cabbage and German potato salad. ( Awesome German Potato salad, hope I can find a recipe for this, it was cubed potatoes, small bacon pieces, and a sweet vinegar dressing, yum!) Plus a two bite piece of apple strudel for dessert. I had the wiener schnitzel and Bob had the brat. The cost of each meal was $10, and worth every penny! Bob also had an HB Oktober fest on draft in a 24 oz. plastic souvenir mug.   Sometime I am going to remember to take pictures of our meals before we start eating! Here is Bob’s brat and beer.

My wiener schnitzel.

And the family dancers who performed during out dinner.

We wandered through the rest of the craft booths.

I bought a ‘coin art’ charm. it is different. It was a toss up between one with an eagle on it or one with a tree. Since I am here doing Genealogy, I decided on the tree as a souvenir of our visit to Lees Summit. Bob had a second mug of beer, this time a Boulevard Brewing Bob’s 47 Oktoberfest, which he also liked.

On the way home from the festival we spotted this hot air balloon. flying off to the east.

We returned to Blue Springs Lake campground for the evening campfire, Genealogy discussion, and dessert.  There is joke about what Escapees do best, and it is eat!

Sunday-  I work up early and worked on the blog, although, for some reason, neither of us have internet access today.  We went to breakfast with the Genies and to say good-bye to everyone.

We were in no hurry to leave, as all we were doing is moving to west of Kansas City. Check in a Basswood RV Park is 1 PM, so we took our time. We did our usual Sunday stuff, paying bills, loading our pill boxes, etc.

We did not connect the car today, as it is only a short drive and not worth the effort. Basswood, is not one of our favorite parks, but it is sort of convenient to friends and family. When we arrived, we found that they had fixed the entrance to Basswood, so that raises our opinion of the resort. It used to be at the entrance, there was a dip, so that we dragged our hitch coming and going. They leveled this area out and the hitch did not drag while entering the park.

We set up, walked the dogs, took a short nap, walked the dogs, ate dinner, watched TV and went to bed.

Monday- After my powerwalk,  I worked on the first article and now am letting it sit overnight. I will review it again tomorrow, make changes, and have Bob proof read it before sending it in to my editor.

We went out to lunch with Tom and Juanita Schnelle.  I was not feeling well, so I returned to the motor home. Bob went with Tom to the Schnelle’s home and spent some quality time with his college roommate.

I returned a call from the Travel Nurse Agency and made some other phone calls and took a nap.  I walked the dogs. I was still not feeling well, so Bob went to dinner with Tom and Juanita. I stayed home and watched TV.

Tuesday-  Basswood is a great place to powerwalk, so I have been doing that in the morning. I updated article number one, Bob proofed it, and I submitted it. I started on article number two.

After lunch we made dog food, then took a short nap. At 3:15 we left for Atchison to meet up with Bob’s brother Joe. We went to dinner at a Chinese buffet with Joe and nephew Aaron, wife Casey, and great-niece Rory(3) and great-nephew Jack(2). The kids are growing like weeds! Joe’s girlfriend Bonnie was in class this evening, taking a mid-term exam. I forgot to take a picture of the kids, so this is from Aarons Facebook page.

We returned home, fed and walked the dogs, and went to bed.

Wednesday- Happy 60th Birthday Bob! Love you!

We opened our mail which had arrived at Joe’s house. We voted, using our mail- in ballots. We went out to lunch at Granite City Restaurant and Brewery. Bob had a great beer, the Broadax Stout ,( which he says compares favorably with Guinness Stout)  and shrimp tacos. I had a 1/2 turkey sandwich and a small crock of French onions soup. They gave Bob an 8” cookie with ice cream for his birthday( we took most home and will eat it for several days). The waiter was great. He listened to us about Bob’s bell pepper allergy, and went the extra mile to make sure that there was not bell pepper in anything. The food was excellent!

We met Joe and his girlfriend Bonnie and niece Brandy at Cheddars in St. Joseph MO for dinner. Bob was born in St. Joseph, so it was a 60 year return! Here are Joe and Bonnie

Here is Bob and  niece Brandy.

We had a nice dinner with the family. Bob and Bonnie,both had a birthday hot fudge sundae. Bonnie’s birthday is in 3 weeks, so the waitress said okay, here is one for you also!

Thursday- We hooked up the car and the tire pressure monitor went off again. The left front tire was really low, and 2 other tires were low. None of them showed up on the tire monitor in the CRV. Not sure what is with that.

So we unhooked the car and I drove it to the front of the motor home. Bob added air to the tires and we re-hooked up the car. In the past, we have had to hook up at the QT in Platte City. Basswood has fixed the entrance, so we were able to hook up and leave. We drove south on I-435, then started west on I-70.  The first part of I-70  is a toll road to Topeka. Cost us $4.25. Then we continued west on I-70. There was a heavy wind from the north, so Bob had difficulty keeping the motor home on the road. He had to slow down. The speed limit is 75 mph, but the most we do is 65 mph, we were doing 55 for a number of miles. I took over for about an hour, when the wind had decreased.

We stopped for the night at our favorite little town, Ellis, which is about mid-way to Denver. We were able to get site #1 in Lakeview RV park, which allows us to get satellite, so we could watch TV.  There was not much of a lake view this trip, since the lake had hardly any water. The drought has really taken a toll on the mid-west.

We walked the dogs. The sheriff is supposed to come around and pick up our payment for the night. No show, so we will have to drop our payment off at the Town Hall. Yeah, we could probably take off an not pay, but we are too honest for that.

Friday-  Bob walked the dogs over to the Town Hall and slipped our $7 payment through the mail slot. We checked the tires and Bob added air to one of the tires on the motor home. We left Lakeside Park at 8:15, with me driving. We cruised along, noting the sky to the north appeared really dark. Around 9:30, I noticed that all the vehicles coming east had their headlights on. I said that to Bob, and he started checking his smartphone; while he was pulling up the radar,  I notice that it had started to rain. Before he had the radar fully up, it had changed over the snow. None of this was in the forecast when we checked it this morning!

Bob could see on the radar that there was ‘rain’ where we were and ice behind. So he checked our book that shows what is at each exit and in 12 miles there was a truck stop. Here is what the windshield looked like! It was a very long 12 miles!

We pulled into a Pilot. Since the number of cars and trucks, heading eastbound had diminished to next to none, we were getting worried that we would not find a place to park. Fortunately, the parking lot was mostly empty. We pulled into a parking place, and pretty soon, most of the lot filled up with trucks.

Bob turned on the generator and the heater. The temperature kept dropping. When the temp hits 40 degrees, our electric heat stops working and we have to switch over to propane, so at this point, Bob had to go out and turn on the propane. We do not drive with the propane on, as that is a safety issue.

So we put on sweatshirts and the dogs winter jackets to stay warm, until the motor home warmed up.  I am taking the ACLS ( Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support) class next week, so I have some preparation to do… so this was a good time to do that! We waited about 2 hours for the storm to clear out before we started back on the interstate. We bought diesel at the Pilot before we left.

After lunch, we continued our journey following I-70 to Denver. Near the Denver Airport, we pulled into a Flying J to top off our diesel and the propane. We had half a tank of propane, but if the temps are going to be so low, we may need the full tank to stay warm!

Since it was awkward trying to maneuver the motor home up to the propane tank for filling, we disconnected the car, and I drove the rest of the way to Westminster, behind the motor home. The temp was in the low 40’s with a wind! What a change in the weather! Traffic was awful, but we finally arrived, just prior to 4 PM. This was a long day, especially since we gained an hour, just before we left Kansas and entered Colorado.

All of the 50 amp sites were taken, so we are in a 30 amp site, up on the hill. This is the first time we have been in a 30 amp here. It is okay, but we prefer the 50 amp. Ernie and Marianna told us that they were full all summer and turning people away. They also has some not very nice folks, so they were glad to see us return. We don’t give them any trouble!

We settled in and Bob went to take the dogs for their walk. He stopped by Ernie’s motorhome to pay, and a woman answered the door, holding Daisy, Ernie’s dog. Bob was confused!

I asked Marianna about it and found that it was Ravella, who we had met in 2010. Ernie had lost his wife, Leona over a year ago, so we are happy for both of them that they have found each other. They seem to be very happy!

At 5:30, we met up with Marianna, Fred, Ernie and Ravella for dinner at the Lodge. The choices were Rocky Mountain Oysters, Ribs, Cobb Salad or Tilapia. I had the ribs, and Bob had the Tilapia, since we were not sure that there was not bell pepper in the BBQ sauce. We sat talking  and catching up with our friends until 7 PM. We returned to the motor home and watched TV until bedtime.

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