Monday, Memorial Day, May 25, 2015

Had a pretty lazy day yesterday, did some wash...whoopee!!

Today, however, we managed to get our act together and get out of the trailer. Made a big difference that the sun was shinning today, whereas yesterday it rained on and off. 

Our destination today was the Remington Nature Center, located on the banks of the (very full) Missouri River.

The Center is surrounded by park land, which includes walking and biking trails, natural ponds with native Missouri turtles in them. There is also a large tank under the building (notice it is on stilts for flooding protection), to catch and recycle rain water.

Shot to the right shows just how full the Missouri river is right now. The ground is soggy, no place for it to go, but into the rivers and streams. More rain coming up from Texas tonight.

This giant Woolly Mammoth greets us as we walk into the Remington Nature Center, he really is huge!!

 This is a live bird display inside the  Remington Center. I don't think I have ever seen such colorful birds before.

    

Aren't they stunning???

In addition to these lovely birds, the center has displays of many of the mammals and reptiles that you will find in Missouri (with the help of taxidermy). You will also find an impressive display of the evolution of weapons as man and his tools progressed through the years.

Back at the campground, our last night in St Joe, we are in line for more rain and storms, hope our luck holds and that everything passes us by.

May 23, 2015


We arrived in St Joseph, aka: St Jo, on Thursday, 5/21. We were actually one day early because we made better time coming up from Bella Vista than we thought we would. 

To back up a tad, we spent a couple of days in BV with Tom and Sandy going over some last minute things with the caravan. We had lunch with some fellow Diamonds, Jim and Ali Rixman, who have been to Alaska before, on their own. They shared some of their wisdom and remembered some things I had forgotten about Canada. For example, in the grocery stores in Canada, in order to get a grocery cart, you have to put a coin into the cart isle (none of us could remember if this is a loonie or a coonie) but you get this back when you return the cart to the correct location.

Back to St Jo...yesterday we headed for the Patee House Museum, which was a luxury hotel built by John Patee. The hotel cost $180,000 and had 140 rooms on 4 floors. It opened in 1858 and is a National Historical Landmark for its role as headquarters for the Pony Express, starting April 3, 1860.  

The hotel was called World's Hotel when Jesse James was killed just a block away on April 3, 1882. Jesse's home was moved to the hotel grounds, and displays artifacts found in Jesse's grave during the 1995 exhumation.

After the museum, we decided to drive around the downtown area and look for the 'Westward Ho' themed art work. We found one of these, then went on to see if we could find some more. Not two blocks down we saw a sign for the St Jo Genealogical Society...need I say more??? Can you guess where we spent the rest of the afternoon??

Today we are sitting in the trailer with the windows open, a nice cool 66*, waiting to see what the glob of nasty weather coming up from Texas is going to do. Right now it looks like it is heading in a NNE direction, straight into Nebraska where I have family in Hastings, York and Lincoln, and of course, St Jo is just east of the Kansas/Nebraska line. Heads up everyone!!

Notice a lack of pictures??? That's cuz we forgot the camera.

Phil did take some pics with his phone and has finally put them on the computer, so I can share them here...

The Pre-Alaska Trip

May 18, 2015


We have embarked on our "pre" Alaska trip. 

I think maybe a little history about this trip might be in order. We first started planning this trip early last year when I heard that our Military RV club (SMART) was looking for a Wagon Master for this years trip. I contacted our good friends Fran and John Kurz because they had been up there on a caravan before and I knew they wanted to go again. We have never been there, but we were really wanting to go. They gave it some thought (lots of responsibility) and decided to go for it and we would be the Assistant Wagon Masters. Phil and I were thrilled and so excited!!

We put our heads together and came up with a plan...Fran would plan the tours and entertainment and I would take care of the campground reservations. Everything was coming along great, we had the campgrounds lined up, reservations made and all but the final details done on the tours and entertainment. We met in Myrtle Beach last summer to bring some details together, hang out and just have fun. After about a week, we headed back home and John and Fran headed for their winter home of the Florida Keys. 

Shortly after they arrived, John started noticing small things that Fran seemed to be having trouble with. Long story short, he took her to the ER and she was diagnosed with a brain tumor, the same kind that Phil's twin sister had. Fran was transferred to the hospital in Miami where she underwent surgery. We decided that it was time to go see John and Fran when she got out of the hospital. They had decided that they needed to drop out of the caravan, and that's how we became the Wagon Masters for this caravan. While we were in Miami, they handed all of the books over to us and we went back home in a daze. 

So, now we are officially on the road to Great Falls, where we will meet with the members of SMART who will be joining us for this wonderful adventure. With our Assistant Wagon Masters, Tom and Sandy, there will be 22 RV's on this trip, 44 adults. We will be traveling through Alberta, British Columbia, the Yukon and of course, Alaska. The caravan is 81 days long, with built in free days to do whatever they want. More to come on the caravan later.

This week end we stayed at Woolly Hollow State Park near Greenbrier, AR where son Kevin and his family live. On Sunday we all gathered to watch Kevin's oldest graduate from Greenbrier High School...with honors...so very proud of Zoe!!! After the ceremony we went back to our house in Little Rock for the Grad Bash!! We decided to do it there because it had rained for 3 days straight and it was hot and muggy. Of course there was lots of picture taking...