Hello from Garden City, KS

Hello from Garden City, KS

Sunday evening October 10, 2010 (fourth travelogue of this trip).

We are at a - drum roll please – Wal Mart (map). We left Carthage this morning about 8:30 and drove a bit over 400 miles. We have about 350 miles to drive tomorrow. Under normal conditions we would probably take three days, but we need to get home tomorrow so that we will be ready to help on Tuesday when our youngest daughter (Judy) has back surgery.

Yesterday we went to the Apple Butter Makin' Days Festival in Mt Vernon, MO. I mentioned this event in the last blog. Unlike the last time we tried to attend this festival, we did not have a medical emergency {grin}. Mt Vernon is a small (population 4017) town about 30 miles east of Carthage on I-44. During the festival, it is said that 40,000 people will attend the event. We have no doubt that at least that many folks attend, as the crowd was huge. They close down all of the streets around the court house square and there are a huge number of vendors. Most of the vendors are craft type products. The “must do” stops are the ribeye steak sandwich cooked by the Cattleman's Association and the apple dumpling (with ice cream) booth. While we were enjoying the dessert, we saw them put the Mrs. Smith dumpling boxes in the trash behind the booth {grin}.

At the festival, we spent some time talking to one of the people cooking apple butter in a huge copper kettle over an open wood fire. In the “old days” they used to spend many days peeling and coring the apples. Recently they discovered the vendor that furnished peeled sliced apples to McDonalds. Of course, we had to buy a couple of jars to take home.

Last night we had another great barbecue dinner. After dinner both nights we all sat around a large fire and had great discussions.

Guess that is all for this trip.

Hello from Carthage, MO

Hello from Carthage, MO

Saturday Afternoon October 9, 2010 (third travelogue of this trip).

We are currently at a bus rally in Carthage, MO (map).  This is a small very informal rally that is held each year to coincide with the “Apple Butter Makin' Days” in Mt Vernon, MO (http://www.mtvernonchamber.com/mt_vernon_applebuttermakindays.php). We were at this rally two years ago and were walking to the Court House square when Pat twisted her ankle on a rock in the street and broke a bone in her foot. As a result we did not make it to the fun event. We plan to go today.

Yesterday I went to Colaw RV Salage (http://www.colawrvsalvage.com/). It declares itself the largest RV Salvage yard in the US. I walked through acres of motorhomes that are being parted out. It was amazing how many were fire damaged vehicles. That is really scary. They are pretty “proud” of their parts and I came away empty handed.

Last night the hosts of this rally served a wonderful dinner of smoked ribs and chicken. Attendees brought side dishes. It sounds like we will do the same thing tonight.

When we get to the bus rallies, we are so busy having fun that I don't have time to post a blog. So, I will try to catch up a bit on things that have occurred since my last post.

In the last post, I mentioned that we were going to detour to go to a cemetery. The cemetery is located close to El Dorado Springs, MO. That was not a big detour from our direct route to Springfield. However, that detour was “interesting”. Pat had found a map of the cemetery location, and I put the coordinates in our GPS system. Looked like a pretty straight forward trip – NOT. First of all, the GPS took us on some very narrow highways. Then when we got close to the cemetery location the GPS told us to make the last turn to the left off of the narrow road we were on. Turns out that it was a very narrow, rutted dirt road. We had to continue without making the turn, but that road turned to a dirt road. We had to unhook and turn the bus around at a “T” in the road. We then drove a round about route to El Dorado Springs and left the bus in a shopping center. We were then able to drive to the cemetery in the truck. It was a neat setting and we were able to find Pat's great grandparent's graves. In addition we were able to somewhat recreate a photo she found of her grandparents standing by grave with her standing in the same location.

We then traveled to Springfield and stayed in a Wal Mart. We unhooked the truck and drove to some very long-term friends. Jack and I went to high school at roughly the same time, but did not meet until we were both working at Gates. Jack left Gates and went to work for a competitor (Dayco) but we stayed in touch. Indeed, we see them whenever we get to Springfield or when Jack and I go to Bonneville together. As usual, we had a great visit.

Tuesday we traveled to Branson for the Eagle Bus Rally. This rally has been held every other year for several years. We have been coming since 2002. It is held at the Branson Lakeside RV Park (map). I think there were 30 Eagle buses at the rally. The rally is somewhat low key. We had a barbecue dinner Tuesday evening and a pot luck dinner on Thursday evening. Wednesday evening the group split up and went to various restaurants in the Branson Landing area. We went with a group to a Mexican food restaurant that was OK, but expensive. Wednesday the group went to the afternoon Pierce Arrow show. They have an extremely funny comedian.

I have posted a couple of pictures that were taken by one of the Eagle's International members (Paul Lawry).  They were taken  from a scenic train that tours the area. 

 Branson Lakeside RV Park from a scenic train on the bridge

 View of some of the Eagle Buses.  Ours is in the lower center behind the trailer

Friday, seven of the Eagles headed in a caravan to this rally.

That is all for now.