Our 2-week trailer trip

Middle of our front yard today

Clarinda, IA 91º   It is hot still.  Here is a picture of our front lawn.  Our neighbor had agreed to do any mowing while we were gone.  Talked with him yesterday and he said he was thinking of selling his mower.  Had not mowed for 3 weeks.  Hasn't rained forever, it seems and things are dry.  I watered the 6 tomato plants we have and added some fertilizer.  They got a little dry while we were gone though neighbor Jan did some watering with some water jugs we had left, but ran out.  We shut off our water when gone to avoid any problem if leak would develop in the house.

Jody & Paul

We pulled out of here with our 2005 Ford Excursion Diesel pulling our 2009 Four Winds Dutchmen 29R Travel Trailer just after noon on Wednesday June 27th.  We had gone to funeral of our dear friend Maurice Rarick and then pulled out.  We headed south and then east on 36 in Missouri.  We stopped near Brookfield, MO and visited briefly with Paul Stockwell & Jody Robison.  Temperature was 102º and crops in that area really looked burned up.
Paul used to own an Antique Store in Brookfield and he had a lot of refurbished antiques.

 At right had pass-through mirrored sliding doors between the dining room and kitchen.  Cut glass enhanced the glass doors.

 At right show two old style cabinets that were used in kitchens.  The one above had a desk area on the lower part.

We had a real good visit with them.  Paul wanted us to plug into his electricity and stay overnight, but we still had several miles to travel to get to the Mark Twain Birthplace State Park and leave time for our planned traveling on Thursday.

We filled with diesel at $3.36, though had paid $3.69 in Clarinda before we had left.

Mark Twain was born in Florida, MO and they have built a museum building over the log cabin he was built in.  We found they did not open until 10:00 am so we only drove around the park  Mark Twain Birthplace State Park  and left early the following morning.  We drove in 107º heat and got to Carl Pingleton & Marti McCormack's place about noon.  After a short visit with them we went to a Chili's for lunch.

Our rig sitting beside their motor home in canopy.

Phyllis, Marti & Carl by their back entry.

We headed out toward Kelo, IL and the temp got a little warm.

Arrived at Jim & Lavin Boozer's place in Kelo and parked our rig beside their garage.  They had 30 amp electricity so we started the AC to cool the trailer while we enjoyed supper with them.

After an enjoyable supper and visiting with them we spent the night in our cool trailer.  Next morning Lavin fed us like we were going to be working on a thrashing crew all day.  We then headed out in their car and they showed us where they were both born, grew up and some of the land they still have.  Their daughter has one 40 acre of original place and has built a nice house on it that Jim has a pool table in

Lavin & Jim Boozer

Jim showing how it is done.

the basement that he and some friends play pool on at least once a week.  Their house is set in the woods and looks out on a vast area of trees.  One of Jim's "Cadillac" deer stands is visible from the house.  He said he and his boys have gotten a lot of deer in those woods.
After a nice lunch we left Jim & Lavin's place and headed for Paynetown State Recreation Area in Hoosier National Forest near Bloomington, IN.

This is set on Monroe Lake and with this being the weekend before 4th of July there were boats, boats, boats along with a lot of kids and a lot of bikes.
The roads were all smooth oiled surfaces and we rode the recumbent trikes all over, during the cooler part of the morning and late just before dusk.  There were a lot of tent campers in this area and this one had their window air conditioner set in their tent.

 There were all kinds of campers -- big Class A, Class C, trailers with fold outs, hi-low trailers, vans, big tents, little tents, all kinds of bikes running around, and all kinds of kids and dogs.

The ramp for putting in boats had spaces where 9 boats could be put in or taken out at the same time.
All kinds of boats were running around.  Small and big, fast and slow.  Several pontoon boats had double decks and water slides off the back where swimmers could slide into the water.





 On Sunday we headed towards Ohio and another State Park.  I will pick that up on another post.  Run out of thoughts right now.
Lynn