May 29th (Springfield, MO to St. Charles, MO)

We had a fairly short drive today of less than four hours so we left a little later than usual.  We really enjoyed our stay at the Springfield/Route 66 KOA in Springfield, MO.  Here are a couple of picture of the office and park sign.

As we were leaving the park, we spotted this sign  --  Don't forget your WIFE.

As we've been traveling, we've noticed a lot of the Truck Stops flying large flags at half mast.  We didn't know about the shooting in Texas when we saw the first one and wondered what had happened.

 Most of our drive through Missouri has been on straight roads with lots of greenery.

We arrived at the RV park for the start of our tour and almost immediately, the Tail Gunner was up on a ladder adding the sticker with our rig number to the windshield.  Unfortunately, the only available spaces were of the back-in variety so we had to unhook both the car and the tow dolly.

After registering, we decided to tour the town and see what we could find for dinner.   We drove through Old Town with it's streets and buildings made of brick.  Brick is really popular in Missouri.  

For dinner, we found a Texas Roadhouse.  Since there aren't any near us at home, we try to look for them on the road.   The food was very good  and I had the best Caesar Salad ever.  David's steak was really good, too.  We've definitely eaten well on this trip.

She's in High School Now

Kyleigh graduated from St. Paul's Lutheran School (K-8th grade) tonight.  Unfortunately, we were unable to be there because of our trip, but both sets of parents and her paternal grandparents were there to see it.

Janice sent me the following pictures:

Grad Photo

Kyleigh and her best friend

Ky and Lindsay with the Joy (the DCE)

Getting a hug from Joy

 Kyleigh starts her first high school sometime in June.  It's an online health class, but she has to attend in person on Mondays to take the tests.

Kyleigh also made the High Honor Roll with a GPA of 3.94.  Not bad for a kid who's dyslexic and has ADHD.

Monday (5/23) - Goodyear, AZ to Las Cruces, NM

Today was another long day of driving.  We started off by having breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  Then headed out to get gas, propane and the loose weather stripping fixed.  We managed to get all three done within about 100 yards of each other.  

While at the Pilot/Flying J Truck Stop, David bought some gorilla tape and on our way out of the parking lot, he spotted an Air Conditioning & Heating truck with a ladder on the back and asked the guy to help us.   He offered to do it for free and stripped off the old weather stripping, used Windex to clean the area and applied the Gorilla Tape and we were on our away--across the street to the Tractor Supply Store to get propane.

We traveled on I-10, US 60 and US 70 to Las Cruces, New Mexico arriving at the Pilot/Flying J Truck Stop just after 8:00.

 

Since the Subway at the truck stop had closed five minutes before we got there and David had his heart set on it, we found another Subway in a Walmart parking lot, so after eating our sandwiches we parked at the Walmart for the night.  We've decided we prefer Walmart to truck stops since there aren't as many potholes or generators, but it is harder to find a place to park.

Sunday (5/22) - Anaheim, CA to Goodyear, AZ

We had hoped to leave Anaheim by 11:00 a.m. or by 12:00 p.m. at the latest, because we were supposed to meet friends at the Cracker Barrel Restaurant in Goodyear for dinner.  Unfortunately, we didn't manage to leave until 2:30 due to having to rewire the lights on the tow dolly, and didn't arrive in Goodyear until after 8:00. 

The drive took about five and a half hours and was fairly boring and very noisy because it was mostly desert and a strip of weather stripping had detached itself from the front of the RV and was banging around.

Our friends, Gary and Melanie Armstrong did join us for dinner and brought us presents!  There was a book for David, manicure tools and a candle for me and Pink Himalayan Salt and Black Pepper, Honey and Four Red Fruit Jelly for both of us. (I apologize if I forgot anything; I'm doing this from memory).

We had a good meal and good conversation, catching up after several years apart and managed to close the restaurant and talked more outside.  We don't see each other very often, but it's the kind of friendship that picks up where it left off.

We then spent the night in the Cracker Barrel parking lot so we were only steps from our bed.

May 25th (Ruidoso, NM to Amarillo, TX)

Today we continued onto  Rosswell and visited the International UFO Museum there..  There were lots of exhibits here as well as video excerpts and a movie about various sightings.  

We pulled into the Amarillo KOA Journey a little before 8:00 and when I asked about Mexican Restaurants (David had a craving), they suggested Braceros, which was just around the corner--about 7-8 miles away.  It looked like a dive and I hesitated about going inside, but it was much better on the inside although I found the chairs to be uncomfortable.  The food was really good though.  

This is just in front of the office at the KOA.  I think it's made of heavy paper or lightweight metal.

Tuesday (5/24) - Las Cruces, New Mexico to Ruidoso, New Mexico

 After doing a little shopping at the Walmart, we headed west to see the Recycled Roadrunner at a rest stop just west of Las Cruces.  It originally stood at the city landfill and was made exclusively of recycled items.  It's been refurbished and moved twice and now sits in a rest area on I-10.

We were headed to Rosswell, New Mexico and the UFO Museum, but our plans changed when we had a blowout on one of the tires on the tow dolly just past Ruidoso, New Mexico.  We were able to limp to a very nice RV park (River Ranch) just a mile or so away.  We unloaded the car and disconnected the tow dolly and some nice men stopped by and moved the tow dolly off to the side and removed both tires for us.

Fortunately, there was a Big O Tire in Ruidoso that had the tires we needed.  We did some exploring in/around Ruidoso and discovered these horses that were wandering loose near the road and looking for the watering spot.  

After picking up the new tires, we had a delicious dinner at the local K-Bob restaurant, a steakhouse with great food and the best, most complete salad bar we'd ever seen.

Back at the RV park, a father and son team helped put the tires back on the tow dolly so we'd be ready to go in the morning.

Time to Resurect My Blog

 I know I haven't been around for a few months (except for my Easter blog post).  With two cataract surgeries, a bunch of dental work, a bout with depression and more pain than usual, I haven't felt like stitching much at all.

But, I've decided it's time to start posting again.  First of all, I've started stitching regularly again.  My current project is the Stocking Kitten from the Christmas Kittens kit by Design Works.  

In addition, we left on Sunday, May 22nd for a long vacation.  We're currently headed to St. Louis, MO where we'll join an RV Tour Group traveling the Lewis and Clark Trail west to Oregon and several friends and family members have asked for updates and pictures as we travel. 

I also haven't been reading blogs, partly for the reasons mentioned above and partly because of trying to get ready for the trip.  The last time we traveled in the RV was in 2017, so it needed a lot of TLC.