Beautiful Oklahoma sunset at the entrance to daughter's home our first night in Broken Arrow.
We left Tennessee (and the Walmart parking lot with the yummy White Castle burgers) behind on a Friday morning and continued our road trip south and west. We drove across portions of Kentucky and Illinois and landed in Fulton, Missouri. Fulton is consort's hometown and where we picked up Fulton the cat about a year ago. We met up with longtime friends and were treated to a wonderful Italian dinner. The husband in this dynamic duo was consort's best man at our wedding 40+ years ago. The wife owns and operates Backer's Potato Chips, a local potato chip manufacturing company established by her great-grandfather in 1931. The potato chips are delicious! She also maintains the Auto World Museum in Fulton, a fantastic collection of vintage automobiles. If you're ever in the area, it is definitely worth stopping to see. We spent one night in Fulton dry-docked in a remote, auxiliary parking lot of Backer's. It was heavily treed and quiet, a welcome respite from the Walmart lot north of Nashville!
From Fulton, we continued west driving through St. Louis. The above pictures are of the iconic St. Louis arch and an IKEA. We did not stop at IKEA, but only because I couldn't think of anything I wanted to buy that made the pull off of I-70 and the time spent browsing worthwhile.
As we headed west on I-70 toward Kansas City, we began seeing signage for The Cheese Store in Sweet Springs, Missouri. We had been on the road for a couple of hours and decided to make a quick stop in Sweet Springs to check out the merchandise. This is a really great store offering over 100 varieties of cheese all made locally. They also sell locally produced jams, jellies, sauces, and salsa mixes. They offer an abundance of wines from regional vineyards. We left with two different flavors of cheese curds, Morel mushroom cheddar and bruschetta cheddar cheeses, buffalo summer sausage, and Amish butter. I could probably have spent more time (and money) in the store, but consort came looking for me once he finished walking D.O.G.
We passed right by Arrowhead Stadium, home to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Win or lose, WE LOVE THE CHIEFS!!
From Kansas City, we headed south down to the small town of Osawatomie, Kansas, where we saw some beautiful leaves. The most colorful leaves we encountered in our drive were in St. Louis. It seemed the entire city was covered in bright red Maples. Kansas City was a close second with lots of yellow and orange foliage.
Our purpose in stopping in Osawatomie was to visit a dear little lady who is now 95 years old. She was my Sunday school teacher when I was ten years old, the wife of the pastor who married consort and I 40 years back, and the mother of our friend D out at Roan Creek, Tennessee.
D has a brother in Osawatomie who also owns a campground. We had talked to both brothers about dropping our trailer at the local campground and then driving over to the assisted living center to visit Miss T. Consort and I decided that to save time unhitching/hitching the fifth wheel, we'd just drive over to the assisted living center and see if we might fit in their parking lot.
Big mistake. Huge.
We pulled into the lot. I thought I saw an exit drive on the opposite side of the lot which would allow us to simply pull through the lot and then exit. Consort did not see any exit drive, but thought we could pull under the awning in front of the center, then make a turn to drive back out when we were ready to leave.
We were delusional.
Consort pulled up past the small parking lot to the awning in front of the facility. He put the truck in park and suggested I go out and check to make sure we had enough height clearance to pull under. I am terrible at judging things like that. I told him I thought we could probably make it. About that time, a FedEx delivery van pulled up. I asked the driver his opinion. The driver said, You'll be fine until you get to the rear of your trailer, then you're going to rip all your vents off your roof and probably take out the center's awning.
So began the first slow back up.
We were about 20 hours into our road trip when we reached Osawatomie, and we were both more than a little tired, causing us not to communicate as well as we normally do. That proved to be unfortunate. Without going into a lot of conversation and hand gestures that still make no since, we found ourselves pulled into the very small, onsite parking lot, sideways, where there were a handful of randomly parked cars. Realizing we would not fit even sideways in the lot, I told consort to just give it up and pull on through to the exit drive. That's when consort pointed out there was not an exit drive.
So began the second back up. Forward and backward, then forward and backward again jockeying the trailer at severe angles to maneuver us out of the lot without hitting the already parked cars.
Being the masterful driver that consort is, he did manage to get us out of the lot. We were both able to get through the trying ordeal without losing our tempers or causing a scene. In fact, after getting ourselves out of the lot and onto an actual road, I hopped into the truck laughing about our stupid mistake. Consort, however, was white knuckled and didn't immediately see the humor. When we were able to go forward without obstructions, we decided to drive a couple of blocks down the road and park in a wide open high school parking lot and hoof it to the assisted living center.
After a short walk, we arrived at the assisted living facility. We checked in and then I approached one of the staff to inquire as to Miss T's room number. She gave me the information then said, By the way, thanks for the entertainment. I asked if she had been watching us in the parking lot. She motioned to the open living room area and said that the whole room was packed with people watching us. I wonder if bets were placed...
Despite the craziness in the parking lot, we had a lovely visit with Miss T. It was time well spent and made us smile.
From Osawatomie, we continued south to my hometown of Neodesha, Kansas. Mom and D had not yet left for Brownsville, so we caught up with them for dinner. We dropped the trailer, then the four of us drove about ten miles to Altoona, Kansas, for a delicious dinner at the Prairie Nut Hut. This was my first time visiting the Nut Hut. You may be able to guess, based on the picture of the bull on the menu, what their specialty is. I thought the nuts were quite tasty; consort had a burger.
This is where we dry-docked in Neodesha, Kansas. Those of you from Neodesha will recognize the buildings in the background. I called the high school and got permission from the principal to park overnight in their lot. Luckily for me, this was not the same principal who was well-acquainted with me from my senior year and our frequent visits in his office.
After a short two-hour drive this past Sunday, we are once again ensconced in our first-love campground, Bluff Landing. (Notice I did not add a link to Bluff. We want to keep it obscure and off the beaten path.) We're backed up to the Verdigris River. The pictures above are the view from the bedroom windows. It is dark and quiet and very restful.
No trip to Broken Arrow is complete until Mammaw, that's me, makes deep-fried chicken tenders and mashed potatoes for the grandsons. It was an all-day affair!
So there you have it. We're anchored in Broken Arrow for another week before we start our two-day trip down to Brownsville. Our days are spent catching up on business, checkups with our local vet, and the few odds-and-ends maintenance/repairs that come with owning and living in an RV. Our evenings are filled with the joy of being with family. Broken Arrow, we love ya!
Quote of the day: I just can't get past Let's go Brandon!!!
