We headed for home weary from so many days of driving over the last six weeks. We stopped in Joplin on the way home and arrived back in Cresson around 4:30 on the 16th. We were so happy to be home again! Kiera was very happy to be home and able to run around her yard! Be it ever so wonderful, there is no place like home!
Monday, July 20, 2026
13-14 July 2026 Visiting June
On the 13th we drove from Springfield to Indianapolis. I-70 in Indiana is still a horribly bumpy road. We stayed at the Drury hotel on the Northside. It’s the first time we have stayed at a Drury hotel. They did not charge us a pet fee! We had dinner with our friend June and caught up with her life since her move to Indianapolis last year. On the 14th we finally had a chance to sleep in and catch up with ourselves. After lunch, we went down to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and toured the museum before joining June and her son Joel and daughter in-law Dee for dinner. After dinner we went back to June’s apartment to visit for awhile before heading back to the hotel.
11-12 July 2026 Visiting our Nephew
On the 11th, we stopped by our Cousin Amy’s house and visited with her and Beth. She seemed to be doing better in her recovery form surgery. We continued on to Springfield Ohio and checked in to our hotel. We found a good Mexican food restaurant in downtown Springfield. In the morning, we drove to Jason and Michelle’s house in Wilmington and spent the day visiting with them and having a great Birthday dinner with them (Jason’s Birthday was only a couple of days later). It was great to catch up with them and hear about their upcoming move to Omaha.
8-10 July 2026 Happy B-Day Veronica
On the 8th, we went over to Veronica’s Apartment, took her out to lunch and then visited for a while. She is looking better than the last time we visited almost two years ago. We heard from our cousin, Amy, that her surgery had gone well the day before but that her daughter had to go home early. We found out our cousin Beth was flying in late that night to take care of Amy, so we arranged to pick Beth up at the airport and take her to Amy’s. The 9th was Veronica’s 89th Birthday and we took her to her favorite restaurant, Twisted Olive, where we were joined by her other step son Bob and his girlfriend Darlene. We had a fun meal. The morning of the 10th, we picked Veronica up and went down to Bergholz to visit with Aunt Joyce. We had lunch with Aunt Joyce and stayed to visit for several hours. The old family Apple Tree is looking pretty good for being mostly hollow inside. Aunt Joyce reminded David he had a couple of things stored there (Heart shaped medicine cabinet, iron rabbit) which we loaded up to bring home with us. She is still doing a lot of weaving for fun and she gave many pieces to both Veronica and Leslie to take home. Keira got a chance to run around off leash and work through some zoomie’s. We got a late dinner at Pappa Bear’s and dropped Veronica back at her apartment and said our goodbyes. It’s always hard to leave her.
 |
| Veronica's Birthday Dinner |
5 - 7 July 2026 Heading out to visit Family
We left home in the morning on the 5th to Little Rock (a 6.5 hour drive) where we stayed overnight in Lonoke. We found a great Mexican Food restaurant, Mariachi Grill, within walking distance of the Best Western. The 6th we drove from Little Rock to Nashville (a 6 hour drive) where we stayed in North Nashville at the Salt Ranch. The Salt Ranch is a remodeled 1950s era motel but the central building was a hospital during the civil war. The remodel was done very well and the central building housed the bar and restaurant where you check in. The street the hotel is on looked pretty sketchy but the areas just a block off the street were nice neighborhoods. We went down to the Five Points area of Nashville where we had great BBQ at Edleys. The first room they assigned us resulted in David getting stung by a couple of wasps which had a nest at the front door. Our second room was good. Only complaint we have about this hotel was that they refused to honor the Booking.com price we had made our reservations through (Difference was about $8). On the 7th we drove from Nashville to Canton (a 8 hour drive).
1-4 July 2026 Happy 250th Birthday America!
We spent these four days getting ready for our next trip and prepping the property for us to be gone for 10 days. On the fourth of July, we cooked some beautiful steaks for dinner and sat on our back patio to watch the fireworks. We could see and hear over 3 dozen firework shows across the Brazos River Valley below us.
24 - 30 June 2026 Good Bye Betty.
On the 24th we left for Maryville Tennessee. We drove 9 hours the first day to Memphis and then 7 hours the second day to arrive in Maryville. We traveled there to attend the funeral of the mother of our friend John Johnston. Betty Johnson was a wonderful woman who adopted John’s friends as her own sons. We were always welcome to stop in and visit. She passed in May at the age of 98 in Waco but wanted to be buried next to her husband in Maryville. She moved to Waco several years ago to be closer to John and his family. We met up with our friends John, Cheryl, Davis, their friend Gala and Darrel for dinner the night we arrived. The memorial and interment were held on the 26th. On the 27th we all met at their AirBNB, drove over to Smoky Mountains National Park and drove the Cades Cove loop before heading back to Maryville for Lunch. On the loop we saw some deer and black bears. The 28th, after dropping Gala and Davis off at the airport, we had lunch and went over to their AirBNB and just hung out, watched movies and caught up. The 29th we headed back for Texas but took the southern route. We traveled along with Darrel for the first half, but he peeled off after lunch and we stopped at Jackson for the night. We arrived home in the late afternoon of the 30th. It was our first trip with Kiera staying in hotels rather than the RV. Every hotel had different pet restrictions and most had an additional pet charge which we had not been informed of at the time we made the reservations. Kiera did really well with only a few incidents of barking at noises in the hallways late at night.
 |
| Dinner in Maryville |
 |
| The Smoke in the Smoky Mountains |
 |
| Grist Mill in Cades Cove |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)