Back "Home"

Our new map

Ah, so good to be back "home" after 3 weeks on the road. We journeyed through thirteen states, five Canadian provinces, and paid over $100 in highway tolls in that time; 4,670.4 miles in all.

So much traffic - lots of big trucks

Saw some amazingly beautiful country. Of all our travels my favorite spots were Prince Edward Island, northern Maine, and Illinois/Missouri. I love the open farmland in Illinois.

Mya and Otis in "travel mode".

I never realized how much of the US is agricultural land, lots and lots of cornfields. Except for visiting Washington DC this will probably be our last foray into the eastern part of the US. The traffic is unbelievable. We only retraced our steps once on the way back and that was through St. Louis. Got to see the Arch from a different viewpoint. Got home just as the skies were opening up but it cooled everything off nicely.

Now we are waiting on the boat. The folks who have had it since we left (to fix the trailer wheel/tire) must be procrastinators because it's not fixed yet. Mya and I took Otis down to the lake yesterday for a swim and he headed right for the boat dock. He loves going out on the boat and swimming with us. He had to be satisfied with fetching sticks and swimming from the shore. He's pretty new at this whole swimming thing and he seemed to have forgotten how. But after a little practice he got the hang of it again. We are hoping the boat is ready Tuesday. We'll see. Jeff is missing his fishing time.

Hanging out on a Sunday afternoon.

Jade has started using my kayak. I'm glad she's getting out of the RV more this summer. We walked up the hill to the big pool this morning and swam laps. It was like the tortoise and the hare. She was swimming freestyle and I was doing my breast stroke. Hey, it's all good exercise. Also noticed on the way up the hill that they have put in a dog park here. Yay! Now we can let Otis run without worrying about him running off. 

Tomorrow we are going to go on an adventure and try to find the movie theater in Branson. The girls want to go see The Secret Life of Pets. The only drawback to our location here in the sticks is that it takes about an hour to get to Branson which is on the other side of the lake and the closest "big" (about 10,000 people) town. It's 20 miles one way to get groceries but it takes longer to get there because the roads are narrow and winding. Makes for a peaceful, secluded place but not exactly convenient. You can't have it both ways - lol!

Probably won't have a lot to share about in the blog as we will just be hanging out here for awhile. Looking forward to getting some reading in. Right now I'm reading a biography on the life of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormon faith - interesting, to say the least.

Happy Sunday all!