Branson, MO

An easy drive today from Pittsburg, KS to Branson, MO with our friends from KS.  Checked into Tall Pines RV park. It is a very hilly wooded park, but nice wide road and level sites. We are kind of tired and decided to just stay home tonight. Praying for God's will to be done in the election.

Big Brutus

This area of Kansas is apparently famous for at least two things, a history of coal mining, and fried chicken. We sampled one of the chicken restaurants on our first night here and today our friends here came over for lunch and then took us out to see Big Brutus. It is a big electric shovel left from the coal mining days here. It operated from 1963 to 1974 and was left in its final strip mine. In 1984 it was donated to be a museum and a memorial to the coal mining industry in southeast Kansas. Approaching it from the museum building, it is an imposing structure.

Here are a couple of pictures to give you a little perspective on the size. Note Janice standing in one of the tracks. It is taller than a 15 story building.

And the cute old couple in the scoop. The scoop will hold three railroad cars of material.

Best part of all was that you could actually climb through the machine! Here is the rear of the operator's cab.

The operator's cab with Janice and our friends in it.

Bob "operating" the machine.

The cable and winch used to raise and lower the bucket.

Bob standing in one of the tracks.

Our Kansas friends.

Some of the other machines there, it started to rain so we didn't get to see them all up close.

It was a real enjoyable day and a big thanks to our friends for taking us there and sharing it with us..

Our rv park here has about 12 sites, all of them pull through with electric and water. There is a sewer dump at the end that we will be using tomorrow when we leave for Branson.

Pittsburg, KS

On Thursday we drove from Eagleville, MO to Pittsburg, KS. We are staying at a small city RV park here. Our friends from the refuge in Texas live near here in Girard, KS. We met them at a restaurant called Chicken Annies for supper on Wednesday. Thursday morning we drove around Pittsburg to see what was here and stopped at a pet store and a flea market. In the afternoon we headed over to our friends' house and had supper with them. Today they were having a garage sale so we went over and visited them during the sale. They were able to pick up their repaired RV on Friday, so they are making plans to go over to Branson with us next week. We have never been there before and they have been there several times, so we are glad to have them along. Should be a fun time. We have reservations there starting Tuesday night.

Heading South

The month of September went by fast in Bismarck, ND. We always enjoy spending time with our kids and grandkids there and this year was no exception. The time always goes fast though. We stayed at a KOA while we were there and had some pipeline company workers for neighbors. They kept us updated on the current events with the protest, and we enjoyed their company. We have always met the nicest people in RV parks wherever we travel. I was able to enjoy visiting with my daughter there while running the grandkids to school and other events and sharing time in the kitchen. One weekend was yard sale day up there and I spent some time with my son and then future daughter in law and one of the grandkids checking out the sales. We hated to leave, but at the end of the month was my son's wedding in Fargo, so that was our next stop. All of the kids and grandkids came up for the wedding and we had a great celebration. We now have a beautiful daughter in law added to the family and I think that she will add a lot of fun to the group!

Here a shot with Grandpa, Grandma, and most of the grands.

Now I have five daughters!

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We spent an extra day in Fargo to relax after the wedding before heading back to Sioux City. Back in Sioux City for a few weeks in October we finished up some projects there and helped one of my sisters clean out her house in Cherokee and have a yard sale there. One of the projects that we completed there was putting new slide covers on the motorhome. The last week of the month we headed to DesMoines to have a quick visit with the kids and their families there and now we are headed south. We stopped for the night at the Eagle Ridge campground at Eagleville, MO. We are going to head to Pittsburg, KS next to visit some friends there that we met in Texas last year. We have had a very nice fall this year and the weather is still nice, but we are anxious to be further south since it is November.

On the Move Again

We had a busy two months in Sioux City. Did quite a few repair and improvement projects on the house, Jeep, and motorhome. Made a short trip to the Mayo Clinic at the end of July with one of our daughters from DesMoines. We left Sioux City this morning and are overnighting in Fargo, ND on our way to spend a month visiting our son and daughter in Bismarck, ND. At the end of that month we will be celebrating our son's wedding!

Last Day of Work Here

Today was the last day of volunteer work for me here at Saylorville. I couldn't have asked for a better day, the weather was perfect, most of the day was spent planting out on the prairie, and the group that I work with took me out to lunch. We have really enjoyed our stay here and hope to return next spring. The Corps of Engineers are a great outfit to work for here. A few more days with the kids and grandkids here and we head for Sioux City on Monday morning. We are looking forward to watching the fireworks again from our hilltop backyard Monday night and seeing our family members there.

Getting Ready to Move On

Time has flown since we arrived here at Saylorville on April 15. This is a very comfortable place for us to be. We have our favorite camp site here at the end of the row, so our patio looks out toward a grassy area and the woods. They leveled and paved the campsites since the last time we were here. We have the bird feeders out and are enjoying a variety of birds, squirrels, rabbits, and deer passing through our "yard". My volunteer work consists of outdoor equipment operating for the most part and keeps me busy from 7 to 3 Monday through Wednesday and the rest of the week is ours. We spend part of our off days visiting our two daughters' families that live near here and the rest of the time just relaxing. Two new grand babies were born while we were here so we get to spend some time getting to know them.

We are doing a little repair and maintenance while we are here. I cleaned out the roof units on the air conditioners which had collected a lot of cottonwood seeds. The refrigerator started leaking ammonia so we had to replace the cooling unit and now we have a nice cold refrigerator again. My grandson helped me replace a front wheel bearing on the Jeep, and one of my son-in-laws is going to help me change oil and antifreeze in the motorhome and generator this weekend.

Once again time to move approaches again. We seem to get very comfortable wherever we stay and hate to say good bys and leave, but we know that there are family, old friends, and new friends waiting at the next stop so we look forward to that. We plan to leave here on July 3 and return to Sioux City for a few weeks before we head to North Dakota.