November 5-6

We left out from the Wilson's on Thursday morning. By this time we were kind of hoping to just make a long day of driving (14+ hours) and be home by Thursday night. However, the wind came up and made the driving really difficult. It was not a fun time to be in a high profile vehicle. We had a couple of places that we were planning to stop, but with fighting the wind, we just kept pushing on. We got to Kearney, NE and were worn out. We found a campground still open and after a quick supper we crashed for the night.
Friday arrived with beautiful weather and NO wind! We made it home by early afternoon and started emptying out the motor home and getting it cleaned up, ready for our next adventure.
This trip has been all that we could have hoped for with our friends and family welcoming us with amazing hospitality, nearly perfect weather for 99% of the trip, lots of history and beautiful scenery. It's going to be hard to top this one!

Lu and Roger and their lovely home.

Nov. 3-4

We made our way to Muscatine, Iowa to our jeeping friends, Roger and Lu Wilson. This is the third of the trilogy of jeeping friends that we have visited on this trip. We started with the Russell's in Missouri, met Tom and Tena at her brother's in West Virginia and then brought the circus to them (our mini family reunion) at their home in Baltimore.

As we have experienced with all of our "jeeping family", the Wilson's have treated us well! They have a lovely home and shop. I could see David's mind working with ideas of what he could do with his shop when he gets home and catches up on a few projects!

They live very close to the Mississippi River which is a new experience for us in itself. We watched a tug boat pushing nine barges carrying grain go through a lock. I can't imagine being a tug boat captain. It was a tight squeeze!

We drove along the river going up to Davenport and Le Claire. We stopped at Wild Cat Den State Park and saw the Park Creek Mill. This is the fourth old mill that we've seen on this trip and this one was the largest and also was rigged so that it ran by water power through a water wheel when there was enough water and by steam power and a turbine when the water was low. From there we went on up to Le Claire and visited Antique Archaeology, the business where American Pickers is filmed. Of course, there weren't any of the main characters at the shop, but there were some things that we recognized from the show. Three fourths of the things in the shop were not for sale, but display pieces that they had collected. We didn't find anything that we needed to bring home with us, but it was fun to see it in person. We spent some time exploring the fun shops there in Le Claire (and yes, I did spend a little money shopping).  From there we went to the I-80 Truck Stop in Walcott. It claims to be world's largest truck stop and it is huge! I certainly don't have any reason to question their claim. One of the cool things at the stop is a truck museum. I like old trucks, at least the smaller ones, and they had an awesome collection. They are even expanding the building to add more trucks and the museum is free!

Bridge over the Mississippi

 Lock and Dam #16

Muscatine County Courthouse 

Pine Creek Grist Mill in Wild Cat Den State Park 

Antique Archaeology in Le Claire 

This is the Indian motorcycle that they dug up in someones back yard 

We had an interesting tour of a distillery in Le Claire 

A freedom rock in Le Claire 

The Truck Museum 

Nov. 1-2

On Nov. 1, David and I headed out early toward home. Chuck and Marlyn headed for home a little later. We spent a long day of driving that day. We had reservations in a campground on the western border of Ohio. When we got there, we found out that they had actually closed for the season the day before, despite the fact that we had made reservations several months before and had already paid for them. They graciously let us stay the night even though the bathrooms had already been closed down, The next day we stopped at several antique stores. I always have fun looking and David humors me by going along. I think I almost have him convinced that he enjoys it too! That night we had our first experience of "camping" in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Most of the campgrounds in this part of the country closed on Oct. 31st. It was a rather noisy night with 18 wheelers coming and going, starting and stopping their generators, starting and stopping their trucks to run the heater, etc. but we did have a free place to stay.

Fun bridge and impressive railroad trestle 

Cool Barn

Look, our youngest grandson already has a town named after him!

Big, big cross

Oct. 29-30

Joe and Darlene headed for home Thursday afternoon. Friday morning saw the rest of us out of Tom and Tena's hair. T & T are amazing hosts. We owe them for so much! They made this trip to Baltimore and DC possible for all of us.

Chuck and Marlyn took Jim and Paula to the airport and Tom and Tena took Aunt Colene and Aunt Marva to the airport, after feeding us once again. David and I headed down to get the camper ready to go. We headed north with Chuck and Marlyn following to Intercourse Pennsylvania. Intercourse-where two roads cross-'nuff said.
I love this part of the country. The farms, Amish and otherwise, are so neat and picturesque. I love the big barns, the clothes hanging on lines, the barn quilts, etc. I didn't get many pictures because we were driving around in the Jeep with Marlyn and I in the back. Pictures don't take very well through the plastic windows!

On Saturday we did some shopping and went to Gettysburg National Battlefield. Here are some pictures from these two days

One of the quilt patterns that I especially liked. The star wedding ring. 

This is on the side of the office at Beacon Hill Campground. I love this campground in the middle of Amish country. This is our second stay here, the first time being over 12 years ago.

Gettysburg National Battlefield 

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