A Visit with the Grand Kids and Home

October 22, 2013

Tonight we are camped at Woolly Hollow State Park, in Greenbrier, AR. We will be here a couple of nights to spend some time with son Kevin and his family. Decided to stop by here to see them because, with 5 kids, there is too much going on up here and we have to make appointments to see anyone.

October 24, 2013

We are home!!

We drove over 10,000 miles!!

We stayed in 56 campgrounds!!

We visited 14 states and 2 provinces of Canada!!

We had a wonderful time and it’s nice to be home, looking forward to seeing all of our friends and family. Give us a call, would love to see you!!

A Visit with Dad and His Motorcycle

October 21, 2013

On the road again today. We decided to stop in New Blaine, AR and visit with my adopted Dad. We parked the rig at Shoal Bay, a Corps Park at the west end of Lake Dardanelle.

When we pulled up to the carport, Dad is standing out there with my little brother, Scott, and they are admiring the Harley motorcycle my 84 year old Dad just bought. OMG!! Second childhood or what???

Bella Vista and the Bentonville Library

October 17, 2013

Back in Bella Vista, AR to visit with friends, Tom and Sandy. We have just about come full circle. A few more days, and this trip will be over. I’m looking forward to getting home, but one part of me doesn’t want to go home, I want to go see what’s around the next corner. Alas, home it must be.

Sandy cooked dinner for us tonight and then we played Hand and Foot, girls won tonight!! Yea!!

October 18, 2013

Big craft fair going on in Bella Vista this week end, Tom and Sandy were working it this afternoon, so Phil and I went over and visited the fair. This was one of the nicest we have ever been to. The vendors at this fair are researched, nothing from Mexico here, it must all be hand made by the vendors themselves. There was some really beautiful stuff, could have spent a huge amount of money here, but I watched the pennies.

After the craft fair we drove into Bentonville to try the Mellow Mushroom restaurant, their specialty is pizza. Being a Friday night, the place was absolutely packed, we had to wait about 45 minutes for a table, then another 45 minutes to get our food. Not a good place to go on the week end!

October 19, 2013

Today we went into Bentonville to visit the genealogy section of the Bentonville Library. Phil has ancestors that spent some time in the Bentonville outskirts, so he is looking for information about them.

Had dinner at Tom and Sandy’s, then played Hand & Foot and the guys beat us bad tonight!

October 20, 2013

Phil and I took a drive out to Stonetown which is west of Bentonville. This is where his Smiley ancestors lived for several years. One of them had three 40 acre sections of land, and Phil believes that several members of the family lived on this land.

As we were driving down the hill, we passed the city hall/fire department and Phil stopped to talk to a few guys who were working outside. Turns out that one of these guys was the Mayor of Stonetown and he had the land maps with him in his vehicle, and he knew the current owners. He took Phil’s information and said he would talk to the local genealogist/historian to see if she had any info on the Smiley family. The Mayor said he would contact Phil if he found anything out.

The acreage they had is very pretty, gentle rolling hills with green pastures, even a little lake. No way of knowing if the place looked anything like it does now. Most amazing thing was that to register a claim on the homestead, they had to go all the way to Harrison, AR. That’s about 82 miles, in the mid 1800’s, by horse that would take about 8-10 days. You would have to be pretty determined to make that trip!

October 20, 2013

We went back to the Bentonville Library today to do more research, spent most of the day there. They have a small deli type café for those of us who need to have a little substance during the day.

Tonight we met Tom and Sandy at the little Mexican Restaurant for dinner, then went back to their house for another game of cards, that the guys won again!

Oct 11-16...DRV Rally and back to Independence, MO

October 11, 2013

Today was basically a free day. We spent a couple of hours viewing a couple of new models of Mobile Suites that a dealership in Kansas had brought over. Some of the details were really nice, but we didn’t like the floor plans, or the fact that DRV is following in the footsteps of the motor homes and doing away with a separate dining table. Can’t play cards or have people over for dinner with these small tables. So we will stick with what we have for now.

Tonight was the potluck dinner and as usual at one of these affairs, it was all good and there was way to much!

Sat around in small groups and visited after dinner.

October 12, 2013

Another free day, did some wash and cleaned the rig a little.

Tonight we had a cook out, and finished off some of the left overs from last nights potluck. We ate early because we all had tickets to the musical performance at the Theatre.

There is a regular band that performs every Saturday, and they had a couple of guest performers. It was a wonderful performance; the band was extremely good, as were the guests. The show started at 7:30 and we didn’t get out of there until about 10:30 and they only took one break. I would highly recommend this park and the show!!

October 13 - 16, 2013

The rally over, we headed back to Independence to revisit the library, as we didn’t feel we had completed our search. We had thought about seeing some of the other sites, but the national park was closed due to the government shutdown, so the library won out. All I found was holes in my Baker line that are going to take hours to research out and fix. Near the campground is a most unusual Christ King Church, kind of pretty in it’s own way, but sort of looks like a giant lightening rod. This church is surrounded on all sides by various buildings of a Mormon Church.

October 10, 2013 Steamboat Arabia Exhibit in Kansas City, KS

October 10, 2013

Today we carpooled into Kansas City to tour the Steamboat Arabia Exhibit and Museum. This is a steamboat from the mid 1800’s, prior to the Civil War, that hit a snag in the Missouri River and sank.

The course of the river has moved many times since the boat sank, and was found under a corn field, a couple of hundred feet deep.

This boat was carrying some passengers, that were all rescued, one mule that drowned with the boat, in addition to tons of supplies that were headed to the small general stores located along the river north of Kansas City. The paddle wheel from the boat is on display at the museum and it works!

Because of the type of soil and silt that the boat was encased in, most of the supplies were recovered, in tact. This display is considered to be the largest pre Civil War collection in existence. We watched a film about the discovery and excavation of the boat and afterwards one of the family members that participated in the dig talked to us. One of the things he said was that there is still warehouses full of artifacts off of the boat that still need to be cleaned and cataloged. It was all very impressive!

After returning to the campground we had about an hour to rest and relax before getting back into the truck to drive into Louisburg where we were meeting for dinner at the La Mesa Mexican Restaurant. We took up one whole room, and even though there were so many of us, and it was a little slow in coming, the food was still very good.