Travels in the Sunlight: 2016 July / Aug -- Travel to Iowa and family pics

We left Florida July 8, 2016 with our F150 Ford Truck and 27 foot Air Stream --

Leaving VIR -- Good-bye Palm trees....

First stop - Lake City Florida -- 328 miles -- $34 per night. We have been here before. It was 99 degrees; with humidity lower then Florida. Our pad had a nice tree for shade. -- Next time we'll get a pad that has asphalt. - the one we choose was bigger but had grass / gravel pad.

Next stop - July 9th -- Cordele KOA in Georgia - 141 miles. I choose this RV park, as we wanted to not go through Atlanta during eve traffic. We were in Gnat Alley; but we mostly stayed inside as it was 98 degrees with mild humidity. The people in the office were very helpful - I thought I had asked for full hook-up; but I did not; so the first pad she sent us to did not have water or sewer; so we moved to a full hook-up pad, and she did not charge us any more - cost $38.
Power Voltage was slightly low @ 109. OK stop for one night.

Steve hooking up -- trying to stay cool

A bug we found at a rest stop

July 10th - traveled 254 miles -- Chattanooga Holiday Trav-L- Park in Rossville Ga. -- just across the river from Chattanooga Tn. Cost $38.70. Very nice park, lots are level, good power, The park is on top of a Civil War battlefield - how awesome is that !!! We plan on coming back to explore the area some year - Civil War history, Look Out Mt., Ruby Falls.

Sunset

July 11th - traveled 354 miles -- Whittington Woods RV Park in Benton, Ill. -- $35. - tall trees, Rocky the squirrel, snoop and live chickens -- lovely park, friendly managers.

July 12 -- 116 miles and stopped in Sundermeier RV Park, St. Charles (suburb just north of St. Louis) where we met up with Barb and Charlie - This was a nice RV Park, smaller then most of them, cement pads, no trees, quiet, good power and water pressure. Cost $50. Ate at Mom-in-Law's restaurant - good food, nice atmosphere -- here we saw the young people gathering and doing the Pokemon thing..
We took a walk on the Katie Trail which went along the river.
-- Will plan on coming back here esp. if Barb and Charlie are here. We want to go up the Arch and explore the area.

Out to eat with Barb and Charlie

Cardinal Bird on a wire

Mississippi River

July 13 -- took off around 10 AM - we ran into a thunderstorm with fairly high winds about 120 miles east of St. Louis -- I was driving and did not feel pushed around on the road, so I slowed down to 40 miles per hour / followed a semi down the interstate. Several semis had pulled off of the road and were parked; and it appeared that the clouds ahead of us were lighter then the ones above us. We later found out that there were tree branches down at Sundermeier RV Park, so the storm was worse as it moved west. We arrived at John & Michelle's in Hiawatha Ks around 4 PM. Travel was good, some construction as we by-passed Kansas City. Hwy 36 into Hiawatha was 4 lane most of the way and little traffic. We parked the Air Stream in John's driveway for our stay here in Iowa.
--- John and Michelle

One of their children's family -- Ben, Conner, Elizabeth, Abby, Katie (Their daughter) and Declan.

Kyle the dog...

Happenings in Iowa:

Home town Earling Iowa Church picnic July 16 / 17

Pic: Brother Dale and his family - Julie (wife) and 2 of their 3 children - Jessica and Michael. We had fun eating all the good food at the picnic and playing bingo.

Pic of Julie, Dad and Ginny ( Dale & Julie's youngest)

My good Girlfriend, Susie Russel and her husband Bill's oldest daughter Megan married Ben Claypool on July 30th.

Here's a pic of Megan with her sisters Sarah, Katie and brother Joe. It was such a fun wedding!!!!

My Brother Jerry married Pat on Aug 6th. His 4 daughters were in the wedding. The ceremony took place in their backyard, and the reception was at the Westside in Harlan. This was a fun wedding -- all my Brothers & Sisters were there except my baby brother Ron.

Jerry - Allison - Meghan - Michaela - Hanna

Pat and her Dad

Zane - Grandson - joined us for the celebration ..

my Siblings - and Dad --- Lori, Jim, me, Dad Jerry, Bob, Jerry, Dale, Pat, Chris, Peg

Dad and Jerry

And off they went on their Harley -- They both have a Harley - today, Pat agreed to ride along

Cake made by my sister-in-law, Mary (wife of brother Bob)

I spent time with my Dad going to Bingo - he loves this activity -- and usually goes 3 times per week to the local church event. I drove Dad and two ladies to Slone Iowa to WinnaVegas Casino and Dad won $130 on slots within the first 20 min., then it was time to play Bingo - I ended up being the only one who won at Bingo -- won $400 (which means I was $380 ahead) :)

Zane went with us to Bingo one night - he won $15.

Zane spent 2 weekends with us -- We so enjoyed having Zane with us - he learned how to play Pitch and we had many games of Euchre and he enjoyed being partners with his Great Grandpa Jerry (my Dad is an excellent card player - no matter what game).

Zane & I at the Sidney Rodeo

We spent hours putting this puzzle together -

- Steve and Dale helped

Here we are at Bob and Mary's playing cards - we ordered Deep Dish Pizza from Chicago and had a grand time . Pat & Jerry joined us -- also in the pic is Dad, Bob, Zane & Jim

Doug (Bob & Mary's youngest and the farmer in the family), joined us for pizza - Son Brooks enjoyed the evening.

And their new baby, Sawyer, mostly slept....

Mary is a baker, so we cooked all 6 pizzas at one time in her 3 ovens.

My Aunt Sal and her 3 daughters came to Dad's for lunch - Sally, JoAn, Pat -- this was a good time with food and stories. Brother Bob and Nephew Doug joined us for lunch.

Cousins Sally, JoAn and Pat (Aunt Sal's 3 daughters)

joined the party

Hamburgers and Brats --

Jim, Doug and Bob came over for lunch

We had some fun gatherings: Met some cousins in Harlan at the Pizza Ranch -- Left to right: Mary (sister in law), Dad, Dale (brother) Lola (cousin), Jim (Brother), ME, Janie (cousin) Bill (Lola's husband)

Another party at Dad's house: lunch and card party with girl cousins at my Dad's house: Lola / Bill Royal, Rose / Dave Sternberg, Angie Wingert (I failed to get a pic this day .... ahhhhh )

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We took Linda (Steve's Mom) with us to Des Moines Iowa to a Baptism of a great niece --

Great looking Iowa Clouds