As many of you know we originally planned this trip for the winter of 2017-18, but Tom began to experience heightened pain in his ankle (a 30-year-old skiing accident), so the decision to have ankle replacement surgery was made. He spent the winter recovering, and I planned our trip, adding a month and a half to the front end we were on schedule to leave on July 29th. Of course, as the date came nearer things began to build up to stop us. The automatic steps on the MH stopped working requiring Tom to spend hours on their repair, we had problems with the new front door installation on our house, the air compressor we carry in the MH quit working, Tom had trouble with the new Break Buddy, then I awoke one morning feeling like I had been punched in the face. I checked with Tom and Gracie, and no neither of them had hit me. So it was either a ragging sinus infection or a bad tooth. It was the tooth, the same one that ended our trip to the Northwest. With two root canals in its past, this required a different approach. Pull it out, stay on antibiotics for the duration of our travels or an apicoectomy. We went with the third choice, I will not describe the details, you can google if you feel a need to know, except to say with only a week till take-off I had oral surgery. At 8 AM on July 30 the stitches were pulled and at 10:30 we were on the road to the Southwest and California only one day late.

Travel, so far, has been pleasant. We stopped this first night at a Cracker Barrel near Indianapolis for dinner with friends, Janet and Dennis, then arrived the next day in Springfield MO for a 4-night stay. Tom went to visit the Bass Pro Shop Gun Museum for a few days and Gracie, and I relaxed in the campground. We had dinner at Lambert’s Home of the Throwed Rolls, I had a delicious pot pie, and Tom had a ham steak. They have traveling servers that throw the rolls across the room as patrons wave for them. Also, additional servers bring “add-ons" around, fried okra (my favorite), fried potatoes, black-eyed peas. It is fun to watch the other customers lunging for the rolls.

Friday we checked out an RV junkyard for, well anything that we could use on the MH but it turned out there wasn’t anything. Back at the campground we walked Miss Gracie, put all the stuff away in preparation for leaving in the morning and I took a nap. For our evening entertainment, we went into Springfield. I found a Polish Pottery store, so I had to visit. So many new designs! Of course I “needed" some new mugs and a few small bowls. https://www.thepolishpotteryshoppe.com Then off to Bass Pro Shop’s home store. It is enormous, waterfalls and stuff animals everywhere, food, clothing, and hunting and fishing equipment.

The most interesting was a portion of the Gun Museum dedicated to President Theodore Roosevelt and the Antiquities Act. Passed in 1906 and written by Iowa Representative John F. Lacey, the purpose to the act was to preserve and protect Public Lands of historical, natural or scientific interest. Teddy, a man who loved nature, hunting and well as science, signed the law and quickly used to create the Devil’s Tower National Monument, and the Grand Canyon National Monument (now a national park) and 16 other National Parks and Monuments. We owe so much to these men of foresight who protected our public lands from destruction. http://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Learn-About-TR/TR-Encyclopedia/Conservation/The-Antiquities-Act-of-1906.aspx

Friday we are moving on to Oklahoma City, OK.