Sunday October 16- We finally got on the road at 11 a.m. We waited for the fog to lift. Next stop Keokuk, Iowa. That is our old home town. We have made this journey many times. It made the trip fairly easy. We arrived at Hickory Haven campground around 1:30. It was really warming up. We set up on site #13. It was a pull through so easy. When we first hooked up the 50 amp service it wouldn't work, the water hook up sprang a leak too. Then when Jeff went to hook up the dish it wouldn't hook up either. They all seemed to work out after a while. Then we went down to see my sister at the Elks. We had a nice visit there. When you are from a small town and come back you never know who you will run in to. We did just that here at the Elks. It is super warm, I would even go as far to say hot. We got back and made supper. Jeff's brother just lives across the street from the campground so after eating we went over to visit them. We had a lot to catch up on. It was a really nice visit.
Monday October 17- It's laundry day. They have facilities here for that. Jeff had some stuff to take care of here, I wanted to go in and visit someone at the nursing home. She just lost her husband of 72 years this last year and I wanted to stop and see her. At the last place I worked we took care of there bills for them. They were the sweetest couple ever. She was happy I came and so was I. I printed off some pictures of the kids to replace the old ones too. I went back to the campground and we had lunch. After lunch, back in to town, Jeff needed to take care of some things at the bank. He also wanted to stop at the fire station. He had a nice visit with the guys on shift. We had one more thing to do today....wanted to see Teri and Matt. I worked with her. They invited us to dinner. They live really close to the campground too. Went for a nice dinner and a great meal. It was nice to get together with them..nice folk. I miss working with her.
Tuesday October 18- Another busy day of visiting ahead. We have a lunch date planned. I spent the morning putting together a baby quilt for my niece. It is a easy pattern so it didn't take long to put together. She brought me the fabrics she picked out.
We are meeting Barb and Ron in Ft. Madison at noon for lunch. They are our friends from Jonathan Dicknson, that live close to our home town. They won't be there in Florida this year. We will miss them. We ate at Chandlers and it was really good. Everyone liked what they got. We had a really nice visit. If I got paid for talking I would be rich.
We got home and had someone waiting for us at our site. Mike and Sue came out for a visit. Jeff worked with him at the fire station. We had one more event on our agenda. We met my best friend from grade school at the Pizza Hut for supper. Coy and I were attached at the hip all through school. Her birthday was on the 14th of this month so I decided to surprise her with a gift. I gave her one of the quilts I made and I think she was surprised and happy. I know it made me very happy to give it to her.
Well that was our visit to Keokuk. When we get home like that all we seem to do is eat out and visit. Things could be worse. We never have enough time to see everyone but we cram as much visiting in as we can. Our next stop is St. Louis area.
Wednesday October 19-Traveling day.....we didn't have a lot to pack up and the temperature had really dropped. We were on the road by 9 a.m. and the weather was cloudy and gray. Again we have made this trip a lot so no guessing there. Jeff did notice a bit of a problem with the tire monitors on the way. It sprinkled a little on us on the way there. We pulled in to Ed Babler State Park, found our site #5, and backed in. We had some trouble, I guess we are rusty, sitting too long. After setting up it rained on and off the rest of the day. I used the time to get that quilt finished up. I finished the front panel and the back panel. I need to get more safety pins to get it ready to quilt. We had leftover pizza for supper.
Thursday October 20- It rained all night long and was still cloudy to start the day. This is the only day we have here and I knew I was running in to get some safety pins. We did that first and then went in to The St. Louis Zoo. We love this zoo. It's free and it's awesome. They have done a lot of improvements through the years and it just keeps getting better. The weather even improved for us. The sun showed up and it was a perfect zoo day.
As you can see the critters put on quite the show. The sea lions seem to take special notice of the kids. The polar bear was just showing off. He was up on the rocks to start and he literally did a cannon ball in to the water. Then he continued to play with every ball and barrel in the water. He would toss them at crowd. It was hard to walk away from that show. The gorillas were the exception. They weren't putting on any show. It was a good thing that my new camera has a good zoom. We stayed a couple hours and headed back. We made one more stop to eat at The Cheesecake Factory. We got us a piece of cheesecake to take home for later. Oh and we had to fill up with fuel for tomorrow.
Friday October 21- A bit chilly this morning. we wanted to get an early start. Went to put the slides in and had a problem with the slide on the door side. When Jeff brought it out it didn't seem to drop down right. When he brought it back in it didn't seem to seal up at the bottom right. Going to work on that when we land. On the road at 8:45. We had our path mapped out pretty good. Today we are going to a new park for us. It's Tom Sawyer's RV Park, in West Memphis Arkansas. It located right along the Mississippi River. We were really happy with the choice. Jeff had read a lot of people like it. Our site was #88, and a pull through. A guy in a cart drove us right to it. When we set up....good news the slide came out like it's suppose to. It's sunny and warm. They have benches up and down the river to watch all the barges. There are quite a few.
Saturday October 22- This is our only day here. We planned on going to downtown Memphis. The last time we were here didn't have enough time to see all we wanted. Jeff wanted to take a tour of the Gibson Guitar Factory. Before going in to town we stopped at a Waffle House, we love them but this one was a bit sketchy. We drove in and our first stop was at the big Bass Pro Shop. They have a huge parking lot so that's where we parked. It's quite the place.
We walked to the visitor's center and got a map of the city. There was a few things to see there...like Elvis and BB King.
We made our way downtown to The Gibson Guitar Factory. Jeff wanted to sign up for a tour. The lady was nice enough to tell us that there wasn't any workers there today. Jeff didn't want to do it if you couldn't actually see someone making a guitar. That kind of dampened the day,
Since the tour was out we just did some walking around town. We did go to The Peabody Hotel to see the resident ducks that live there. It's a very fancy hotel with ducks living in the fountain in the lobby.
We think Beale street is probably a lot more lively at night. It was a pretty day to walk around. We got back and enjoyed some time outside by the river. I started quilting on that baby quilt.
We got back in time to watch the Iowa Hawkeye's get beat. Our son Seth and grandson Ashton are in Chicago to watch the Blackhawk's play tonight. They have awesome seats. Seth found this picture on the Blackhawks snapshat page. The kid holding the poster up is our grandson. He manages to show up in the most unusual places. They won, not in overtime but in a shoot out. Very exciting game.
Sunday October 23- Good bye Memphis, hello Mississippi. Started the morning with a real pretty sunrise. It was an easy pack up and on the road by 8:30. A short stay at this wonderful park but would recommend it to others.
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