What a trip

Cindy and Connie. and Charlie and Calvin

At Uncle Howard's. Can you tell which one is 92 yrs old? He is so proud of this wagon.

Calvin at Mt. Rushmore and Animals auditioning as Charlies replacement.

This has been an absolutely great trip. The weather has been perfect. We are reluctantly on our way home. These are pics I wasn't able to add earlier. We have so many good pictures.

Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse

Made it to Rapid City Saturday, mid afternoon. Charlie is a super traveler. Wish he was this good at home. Everyone wants to pet him and of course he expects the attenetion. Hmmm Maybe that's why he gets it. He gets what he expects. I think there is a lesson here.
We drove out to the Mt Rushmore memorial. If you've seen the pictures you have pretty much seen it. However, the Crazy Horse monument was very interesting. Very impressive and I really liked the idea the government is not involved. Very insightful planning.

Nebraska

Leaving Uncle Howard was sad. He sincerely wanted us to stay. He gave us some momentos and made us promise to come back next year. He is amazing to be 92 years old. He works everyday. He was getting ready to do 'some welding' when we left.
The drive was good and arrived in Bridgeport about 5:00. The population is around 1500 but seems larger. Stayed in a remote park. Only one in this area for RV's. We saw at least 7 trains loaded with coal as we entered town. Around 150 cars on each. Apparently hauing coal from Wyoming.
There are a lot of old trails that intersected here. Mormon, Oregan - California and several others.
On to the Black Hills and my great grandmother's stomping ground. Oh yeah. Guess we'll see Mt Rushmore while in the neighborhood.

Back home in Kansas and no sign of Dorthy

We left Andrews Tuesday morning - late- and made it to Canadian Texas for the night. Dull and drab country until we reached Miami and it has been beautiful since. I forgot how pretty this country (Okla and mainly Kansas) is this time of year. The last part of harvest but still enough crops waiting in the fields to offer a good contrast. We went through Woodward and visited with Cindy for a few minutes, then on to Kansas. Arrived in Smith Center late Wednesday evening. Uncle Howard was knocking on the door shortly after we got set up. One thing I wanted to do when we got here was help Uncle Howard find his grandfathers grave. Success. We did it. Also ordered a tombstone. Visited some off beat places where some of the Ellis/Wall bunch lived and worked. I'll post pictures and descriptions of the places when we get better connections. I love this country. It is clean and the people are lovers of the land. Nuff said. One major regret for me is my children did not live in the country when they were growing up. I used to feel sorry for people that had to live in towns. I am reminded of why.......