The Clampets are home!

Friday the 10th of July we headed back home. In one stop to pick up fresh vegetables for a cure for road food, we also, picked up a hand made wooden rocking horse and a child's table with two chairs for our house. We just stuffed it in the last bit of space we had in the truck and rolled on home. We arrived in time for a dinner left in the refrigerator by our house sitters and then went to bed. Saturday, we played all day long with our Ethan and ate our garden vegetables. Sunday, after church, we rested. Monday we washed clothes and unpacked and Tuesday was a day with our little girls, Bella and Scarlett. My honorary grandgirls are moving to Florida. We are looking forward to catching up with our friends and getting more rest. We don't have a favorite place that we visited, for those of you who haven't asked. And both of us agree to another road trip...just not so far next time. 7800 miles in less than two months was a retirement wish #1. We will let you know when #2 comes up. Thanks for following the blog.

Wolf Laurel,NC

Mike and I came in weary to visit with the Potts, but were soon up to speed and enjoying our time together. Golf, hiking (yeah) , roasting hot dogs and smores, and good wine, but our favorite activity was sitting out on the porch in the rocking chairs and looking out over the smokey mountains. What a great vista! It was hazy and evening thunder storms, but it was all good.

Des Moines Iowa

We just keep trucking on. Here we are in Des Moines visiting with a dear friend JoLynne Meskimen. She is enjoying her new house and it is beautiful. We had a chance to visit and rest from the road. We met her grandson Tanner and watched the fourth of July fireworks from her Club's lawn with his parents, Brent and Mary. It was a pleasant evening and it was fun watching 2 1/2 yr. old Tanner enjoy the fireworks. We are not looking forward to getting back to the GA summer heat. After the fourth we hit the road and are staying outside of Indianapolis, Indiana. We are back on eastern standard time!

Des Moines

We left Rapid City, SD enroute to our overnight destination in Sioux Falls, SD. It's a big state! We visited Wall Drugs (similar to South of the Border),the Badlands National Park, a very interesting automobile museum in Murdo and lunched at Al's Oasis in Chamberlain, SD. Mike introduced Bonnie to the Corn Palace and Cabella's in Mitchell, SD. We finally arrived in Sioux Falls about 7:00 pm. and after a dinner at Sonic Burger we turned in.

The Dawg gypsy truck pulled into JoLynne Meskimen's driveway in Des Moines shortly after lunch on the 1st of July and we will stay over the 4th. I hear they shoot fireworks in the shape of corn. We passed miles and miles of corn fields. In the restaurants the vegetable of the day is CORN. Sorry, JoLynne! We were welcomed into her new home and it is open and lovely. I don't think she down sized too much. We had dinner with the Gahans (Martin Marietta friends) and I enjoyed my first walleye fish dinner. We are taking advantage of a place to wash clothes, hair, etc. We will visit with her grandson Tanner over the weekend. Aunt JoLynne has seen all of our baby pictures already. Later we will bore her with our trip pictures. have a good day!

South Dakota

We are bunked in here in Rapid City, SD and spent the last two days roaming the Black Hills. The area is noted for Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Custer, Wild Bill Hickock, Calamity Jane, and Harley Davison Rallies. The carvings of both the presidents and Crazy Horse, which we saw yesterday, were very impressive and we can now cross it off our list of things to see. Today, we toured Ft. Meade, and walked the streets of Sturgis and Deadwood. In Deadwood we took a tour of the area and heard all about the early days and how Hickock died in a Saloon in Deadwood and about Calamity Jane's request to be buried next to her friend.
The trip continues tomorrow as we cross SD and circle our wagon in Sioux Falls for the night. All is well with the girls. Krystal is driving home from her visit with Todd's parents in Oregon. Maverick got an A for traveling! Heather is chasing Ethan around the house as he is a mad crawler now. Well, time to mosey on...g'd night.

South Dakota Bound

It was hard leaving Jackson and our friends there, but we headed out yesterday to cross WY and today we crossed over into SD. There are a lot of stories that could be told about our WY experience, but you would have had to be there for it to make much sense. I will let the pictures tell another story. We will use the rest of the day in Rapid City to wash the truck, restock at Wall Mart, and hopefully get pictures down loaded and the blog up to date.