Traveling with the Laughlins

At about 11:30 this morning our daughter Kristin called to let us know that we have a new grandson named Adam. He was born at 11:28 AM (Atlantic Daylight Time), weighs 8 lb, 13.6 oz and is 21" long. She reports "He's perfect and I'm doing fine." At her request I made the calls to the rest of our family and all of us are excited and very happy. We hope to be able to See conditions for free shipping and reduced promotional shipping rates that apply on the Holiday Shipping Promotion. them in a few weeks.

I tried to call our other daughter to tell her about the new baby but got no answer. It turned out that she was doing a benefit appearance as a clown and couldn't answer. Afterwards she called back on her cell phone while walking down the street in downtown Wolfville, Nova Scotia. She was still in her clown costume and she gets some interesting reactions when she is out in public dressed that way. Children especially will do a double take, start tugging on their mother's arm, and say "Mommy, Mommy, look!)

I worked on my business this morning and ran errands this afternoon. Sherry's niece Nicki came from Lincoln, NE with her three young children to spend the weekend here. She is involved in the decision making for the estate since she inherited her dad's share when he passed away (her father was Don, Sherry's other brother.)

We had ham, Rice-a-roni, yams, salad, and broccoli with carrots for dinner tonight together with home made onion bread.

Our niece Nicki and her three little ones left right after lunch and the rest of us discussed what we want to do with some of the real estate still in the trust (including a 160 acre farm in eastern Nebraska.) The farm has been rented out for several years and the current renter might be interested in purchasing it.

This afternoon we spent visiting with family. Burt and Karen left about 4:30 PM to drive back to Lincoln, NE from where they will catch a plane tomorrow back to Florida.

Fireworks are legal here and the neighbors must have spent several hundred dollars on them. They were shooting them off until quite late and they were pretty but very loud. I didn't get to sleep until after 11 PM.

While I was driving today the check engine light came on again. It is getting to be a real pain in the behind. I'll try to get in touch with George the mechanic.

Dave has been busy this afternoon and evening installing a new condensing unit (the outside part) for his central A/C system. The old one had been in service for more than 25 years and he decided it was time to retire it.

Today I picked up a weather tight electrical box with cover and used it to mount the outside temperature sensor under the trailer. I've had the combination clock/thermometer/humidity display for several years and finally got around to providing a safe way for the outside sensor to travel with us without getting messed up or forgotten somewhere.

I spoke with our friend Tiffany in South Carolina today. She is thinking of starting a small scale catering business delivering quality dinners to busy families, shut ins, etc. I think it's a great idea and she is going to start experimenting with recipes to See conditions for free shipping and reduced promotional shipping rates that apply on the Holiday Shipping Promotion. what works.

When I was at the checkout stand at WalMart they had a display of large Hershey's milk chocolate bars so I picked up one to use as a surprise for Sherry. I gave it to her when I got back to Dave's but she said that she was trying to stick to her diet so even though it was very thoughtful of me to have bought it for her she wasn't going to eat it. I said "Okay, no problem. I'll just put it with the rest of the chocolate that we got for Joy (our youngest daughter) and she can have it." Within a couple of minutes she was back and said that since I was so nice to have gotten it for her she wouldn't feel right about turning it down so she was going to go ahead and eat it anyway. Wasn't that considerate of her?

Later in the day I had a look at a couple of the Army Corps of Engineers public campgrounds here at the lake. They are much nicer than the typical campgrounds that we have See conditions for free shipping and reduced promotional shipping rates that apply on the Holiday Shipping Promotion.n and are really well kept up. As a bonus their rates are about half of the commercial campgrounds and if one has a senior pass (also known as a Golden Geezer card) you get half off of the already low price. A typical price for a senior would be $8 a night compared to $25 - $35 at most of the commercial campgrounds.

Sherry has been very busy helping Dave in the house with repairs, cleaning, prep work for painting, etc. She fixed us chicken salad sandwiches for dinner and a salad made with apples, raisins, walnuts, and mayonnaise.

I went to the cemetery here and located the family graves. We are probably going to purchase burial plots there as well.

I called my brother in the evening. He commented that this travelog is mostly about vehicle problems and eating. He's right - welcome to my boring life! The purpose of the travelog is two-fold. First it helps me to remember where we were on a given date and what we did. Second it is an easy way for friends and family to find out where we are and what we are doing. I don't include all of the small details - just the major stuff (such as it is). For instance a trip to the post office usually wouldn't make it into here. Most of the days of our trip are pretty routine. It is the exception to that when we get to go off and be tourists.

This afternoon Carol and Sherry had a ladies day out and went to Kearney, NE.

Dave and I ran errands and went to Holdrege, NE for dinner. As we were coming back there was a Nebraska State patrolman that had a vehicle stopped on the right shoulder. I tried to move over as I went past him but couldn't get as far to the left as I wanted to because another car chose that moment to pass me at high speed. I think that must have irritated the officer because when last we saw the patrolman he had left the first car and was pulling over the one that had passed me.

In the afternoon I went for a drive to Franklin, NE (about 15 miles east of Republican City) where I bought some yummy just picked sweet corn. I then returned on a gravel road on the south side of the Republican River. The valley floor is very productive farm land now growing mostly corn, wheat, soy beans, and hay. In 1935 there was a terrible flood on the river resulting in much loss of life and property. I had read some of the history of the flood including a first hand account from a lady whose farm was just a few miles east of here. On my drive back I went right past what had been her farm. I noticed that on the south side of the valley there are about 30 foot high bluffs that over the centuries have been carved away by very high water. The pioneers in this area should have realized what those bluffs signified and not have built their home on the valley floor. They had also been warned by the local indians not to do so because of the "big water".

Afterwards Dave and I went past the Corps of Engineers headquarters for the Harlan County Dam and noticed a sign saying "Dam Tour 2 PM." We waited a few minutes and a ranger ushered us in to the office where he showed us about a 15 minute video about the need for and the construction of the dam. He then took us inside the center of the dam where he showed and explained to us the control mechanisms for the various gates and answered our questions. We started at the bottom and worked our way up until we were just on the underside of the roadway that crosses the top of the dam. It was very interesting but required climbing up more flights of stairs than I managed to count. I was rather worn out by the time we were done.

After lunch we met with the president of Commercial State Bank of Republican City. He is also the president of the cemetery board of directors. We went with him to the Republican City Cemetery which is where Sherry's mother, father, and brother Don are buried and where her brother Dave has already purchased a plot. We selected grave sites next to theirs. Back at the bank he drew up the papers and we paid him. The cost here is $150 per plot which I believe is much less than back in San Diego. Not the sort of thing that one wakes up in the morning and says "Let's See conditions for free shipping and reduced promotional shipping rates that apply on the Holiday Shipping Promotion.. What do I want to do today? I know; I'll go buy cemetery plots." We wanted to get this taken care of so that our son wouldn't have to deal with it when the time comes.

The temperature here this afternoon was 102° F with 60% humidity. Ouch ! ! !

We decided to delay our departure until after an ENT (ear, nose, and throat) doctor could check her. The nearest one is 60 miles north of here in Kearney, NE. Fortunately they were able to See conditions for free shipping and reduced promotional shipping rates that apply on the Holiday Shipping Promotion. her today so we went up there. There were four full pages of forms to fill out before she could be See conditions for free shipping and reduced promotional shipping rates that apply on the Holiday Shipping Promotion.n. When we finally got to go in the doctor came right away, took one quick look, and said "There is a zero chance that this is cancer." It was a great relief to hear that. Most likely she had bitten her tongue a couple of times without realizing it.

7/16/10 Friday  We are on the road again. We left Republican City, NE this morning and headed east on Hwy. 136.  Along the way I saw a crop duster at work over some fields just off the highway. He was flying really low, barely clearing the power lines. I guess they have to do that to be able to effectively apply the chemicals.

 As we were coming into Deshler, NE there was a sign that said "Free Camping at Deshler City Park". We were hot, tired, and ready to stop so I pulled into town and went to the park. It is a nice park with electric and water hookups. The outside temperature was 97° F and it took several hours to get the trailer cooled down. We are going to spend the night here.

Around sunset the city clerk (a very nice lady) stopped by to give us a welcome packet. Sherry was having trouble locating her toothbrush so I was going to go to the considerable work of unhooking the trailer from the van in order to be able to go to the store to get one for her. Instead the lady gave me a ride over there and brought me back which really helped me out. I plan to make her a loaf of bread tonight and drop it off at her place in the morning.

From the above link to Seneca I found an interesting story about the founding of the town.

We then headed east on Hwy. 36 and soon crossed the Missouri River and entered St. Joseph, MO. In 1860 this was the eastern terminus of the famous Pony Express mail service.

We continued on east to Cameron, MO where we went south 6 miles on I-35 to Wallace State Park. We checked into the campground there for the night.

We left there and took Hwy. 36 to Hannibal, MO where we checked in to the Mark Twain Cave and Campground complex.

I showed the following cartoon to Sherry and she suggested that I post it here. Hope you enjoy it.

The rain stopped completely this afternoon and the flood waters receded. In the late afternoon we went up to the top of Riverview Park to See conditions for free shipping and reduced promotional shipping rates that apply on the Holiday Shipping Promotion. the river. As we were looking at the river a towboat came by pushing a total of 16 cargo barges. They were going upstream (north) at a slow speed since they were having to fight the considerable current. That one 'tow' carries enough cargo to equal a line of trucks 35 miles long.

We then went for a nice drive around the area including some of the country roads on the Illinois side of the river.

I came back across the bridge, went to downtown Hannibal where I parked near the levee and walked up the stairs to the top where I could See conditions for free shipping and reduced promotional shipping rates that apply on the Holiday Shipping Promotion. the river. The town has the flood gates closed on the roads going to the east (river) side of the levee so one can not drive to the parks next to the river. There are lots of large trees and other debris floating down river. I visited with a man who lives here and he said that during the flood of 1993 the river was within a few inches of the top of the levee. The crest of that flood was 31.8'.

I looked up the data showing the water flow at various levels at Hannibal and calculated that there are currently more than two million gallons of water per second going past here. That is a lot of water!

At 3:00 PM I went over to the campground offices to See conditions for free shipping and reduced promotional shipping rates that apply on the Holiday Shipping Promotion. a one hour show where an actor impersonates Mark Twain and delivers a monologue in Twain's style. It was quite enjoyable.

Sherry and I went to the Riverview Restaurant here in Hannibal for a nice dinner and view of the Mississippi river going by. The restaurant is probably 40' above and 300' from the river. We ate outdoors at a table on their balcony facing the river. We then went for a drive south of town to Saverton, MO to Dam and Lock #22. In places the only thing between us and the river was a double set of train tracks and in spots the water was lapping at the base of the rails. Trains were still running however.

In the afternoon we went up to Lover's Leap, a high point at the south edge of Hannibal where there is a very good view of the Mississippi river (See conditions for free shipping and reduced promotional shipping rates that apply on the Holiday Shipping Promotion. the panoramic photo in the paragraph labeled Education in the link just given). There are relatively few high places to See conditions for free shipping and reduced promotional shipping rates that apply on the Holiday Shipping Promotion. the river since the country is heavily forested and one can be quite close to the river on the highway and still not be able to See conditions for free shipping and reduced promotional shipping rates that apply on the Holiday Shipping Promotion. it. According to legend a young man and woman from indian tribes that were at odds with each other fell in love and when they were not permitted to marry they jumped off of the point to their deaths. I don't know if the legend is true but a jump off of there would certainly not be good for one's health!

 This morning I called in Rx refills to the WalMart in Carlyle and we stopped by there first to pick them up before heading over to the campground. I sure to like how easy WalMart makes it for us to get our medicines wherever we are.

We are checked in to the US Forest Service Tipsaw campground about 5 miles south and 3.5 miles west of St. Croix in the Hoosier National Forest. Our pad is not level and it took us a lot of work and sweat to level the trailer sufficiently to use tonight. I'm worn out from the drive and setting up the trailer.

On our drive we stopped at the city park in Greenup, KY. The park is at the river's edge and has a 'back water' that comes into the park. Sherry fed some ducks and geese that gladly came up onto the lawn there. They argued with each other over who was supposed to get fed but she tried to spread out the bread so that all had a chance to get some. There were 4 geese and a gander and he was really haughty and bossy. It was impossible to accurately count the ducks as there must have been a hundred of them. There were even five very small ducklings and they were oh so cute.

We went to WalMart in Ashland, KY and bought some things including a new pair of shoes for me as mine were falling apart. Joshua also needed a memory card for a digital camera that he had gotten that did not have a card with it. When we got back to his apartment I was able to get it installed and to verify that the camera was working properly.

First was the Heritage Farm Museum where they have quite a number of log buildings as they must have looked when the pioneers first came to this area. Please look at the photos on the museum's home page as they cycle through. They really do a good job of showing what the place looks like. They had a couple of family reunions going on on the grounds and they were setting up for a 3 PM wedding in the chapel.

We then went about a mile away to the Museum of Radio and Technology which greatly interested me as I have been involved with both amateur (ham) and commercial radio since I was a youngster. We were given a guided tour by one of the volunteer staff there who was very knowledgeable about the exhibits.

Afterwards we got to meet and go out to dinner with Joshua's sister and her husband. She is a retired nurse so we got to tell each other a few 'war stories'. We had a very good day.