Backroads Across Ohio

We spent the night at John and Patsy Frylings home in Ironton, Ohio.  John is taking care of his wife Patsy who is terminally ill.  We were able to see and talk with her for about 10 minutes before she fell asleep.  John says she sleeps in her hospital bed for 23 of the 24 hours in the day.  He is tied to the house as care-giver unless the hospice people are there to give him a break.
We woke to a semi-cloudy day of 61 degrees.  We said a tearful goodbye to our good friend, John.  Then we found a Ford dealer in Ashland, Ky. to get the 3000 mile oil change on our little new Focus.  Got in first thing and we were back on the road by 10:30am.  Crossed into Ohio over the Ohio River Bridge which is so beautiful!  It reminds us of the "Sundial bridge" in Reading, CA.  Then we headed north toward Lake Erie and Sandusky, Ohio.  The weather cleared and the temperature already bounced to 75 degrees where it stayed the rest of the day.  As we traveded along the Ohio, we watched barges being pushed along by huge tug boats.  It was a lovely drive with a little bit of color appearing in roadside trees.

The bridge at Porsmouth,Ky. to Ohio.

And old country cemetary.

Harvesting corn.

Emptying the corn into the hopper.

As we travel, the rolling hills appearing and also rolling highways.  Lots of color now, but not quite brilliant yet.  Later the hills even out into nice level farms of acres and acres of either corn or soybeans or both.  We pass very old beautiful homes and churches.  And we see many old cemetaries...many of which are little family plots with large lovely headstones.  There are many huge silo type storages near the highway.  We are hoping to actually see a corn harvest in progress.....and finally we did!  It was amazing, they combined the entire corn stalk and out came the little individual, yellow corn kernals into the combine hopper.  Then it emptied into a holding hopper, then it was transfered to a semi truck which waited for the load right in the field.  Gased up before Sandusky and got 40.1 miles per gallon on the Focus.  We are now holed up in a lovely new comfort Inn for only 59 dollars per night.  And there is an Applebee's Restaurant right next door where we ate dinner.

St. Lewis to Louisville

We had the pool all to ourselves.

And the spa felt sooooo good!

The colorful blue and green bridges at Ironton, Ohio.

It was another lovely day with clear skys!  The temperature this morning is 58 degrees and nice.  We departed Troy Super 8 Motel a little late today as Dick's heart went into a-fib.  We gave him the magic pill and in 1.5 hours his heart kicked in again and he was good to go.  To get some exercise last night we walked the long hallway in our motel, then we swam in the pool and soaked in the hot tub.  Dick doesn't know whether the medicine cured his a-fib or the scary St. Lewis freeways.  We passed the Arches, but couldn't get a snapshot of it because of all the many "cramways" interlaced and traffic going every which way!  We crossed over into Illinoise, and then Indiana, and finally Ohio where we are now with our friend, John Fryling and wife Patsy who is terminally ill.  We were able to have a nice visit with her for a few minutes before she fell asleep.  In Ironton, Ohio, where John and Patsy live, it is 78 degrees and lovely weather.  Will make this a short one today as we want to visit with John as long as possible before we have to leave tomorrow.

Crossing Missouri

Another simply beautiful day!  It's 59 degrees at 7:30am.  We gased up in Council Bluff where we stayed and our little focus gave us 38.2 miles per gallon even at 70 mph speeds and running the air conditioner.  We headed south on I-29 for Kansas City, Mo.  Lots of road construction on I-90, assigning our speed 55 mph. on a 1-lane hywy.  We entered Missouri, the "Show me State" at 8:45am.  The State bird: Bluebird, St. flower: Hawthorne, State Motto: The welfare of the people shall be the supreme law.
Black-eyed Susans line the roadsides and Cornfields surround us on both sides and go on and on.  Some fields have started combining the dry, yellowed, crisp stalks.  We notice all creeks and rivers are muddy.
We took a short side trip to the J.C. Penny Museum in Hamilton, Mo.  "Jimmy" started his company in 1902.  He called it the "Golden Rule Store".....High Quality and Low Prices!  He also raised champion Angus Bulls to show as his hobby.
As we crossed the Grant River at Chillicothe, there is much evidence of recent flooding with mud deposited in fields as the waters subsided.  Many crops were ruined.
Later we stopped in Marceline, Mo. to have lunch.  While there we visited Walt Disney's Museum as this was his hometown.  His museum was the restored Train Depot for the Santa Fe.  While we were going through the museum a train came thundering through within 30 feet of the museum.  The rumble of the engines made us feel like we were "goners"! 

Dick and J.C. (Jimmy) Penney in Hamilton, MO.

Walt Disney Museum in Marceline, Mo.

In Hannibal, Mo. along the Mississippi.

In front of the "Mark Twain" sternwheeler.

Then we traveled onward to Hannibal, Mo.  And there in front of us was the Huge Mississippi River.  We went to the riverfront through the town's flood gates to where the "Mark Twain" sternwheeler was anachored.  We are bedded down for the evening in a brand new super 8 in Todd, Mo. 

Murdo to Mitchell to Council Bluffs

Dick at the Corn Palace.

The Missouri River

Dick at Cabela's

Lovely sunrise this morning, 61 degrees, slight overcast sky at 7:45am.  After a continental breakfast at the Best Western, we headed east on I-90.  We came to the Huge Missouri R. and examined an old keel boat of long ago as we crossed the Missouri at a historic Lewis and Clark Rest Area.  We gased up when we got to Mitchell, S.Dak.  The little focus did well.....38.3 mpg.  We also went to the Cabela's Store and to the Corn Palace Venue.  Then being tired of the freeways, we headed south on Rt. 37.  On the back roads we saw lots of farmland raising crops of corn, maise, rye, soybeans and Milo.  We learned that Milo is a crop that looks like corn, but has a very large cluster of seeds at the top.  It is cut for silage and the farmers feed it to the cattle.  We again crossed the Missouri into Nebraska at Yankton.  We had a picnic of fruit and nuts at the top of the hill overlooking the Missouri.  We crossed the Missouri again at Sioux City into Iowa.  and followed the River all the way on I-29 South to Council Bluffs where we bedded down for the night at a Best Western.
Today is my Sister, Gayles's Birthday!  Happy Birthday Sis!  We love you!

Devils Tower to the Badlands

It is Sunday and 46 degrees at 6am.  There is a big Morning Moon in the western sky, waning, and the speed limit is 75 mph which is way too fast for mama....65 is plenty on cruise control.  We see rolling hills covered with yellow grasses that go on and on with frequent Angus herds scattered around and intermittent antelope herds.....but if there is green grass the herds of antelope are thick.  Lake De Smet is a surprising and deightful change after endless miles of barren landscape.  Thankyou Dwight D. Eisenhower for this wonderful I-90.....great highway and no traffic except us.  We gas up in Gillette and get a 39.2 mpg measure.  We pass a huge open pit coal mine near the road and opposite from it is the coal refinery and generating plant, and a railroad on which hundreds of coal cars are loaded and shipped out.  We counted several different trains....full ones coming out and empty ones going in. 

Dick and Devils Tower

Prairie Dogs at Devils Tower

In the Badlands

Next we took a side trip to Devil's Tower Nat. Monument.....that golden age card is soooo valuable!!!  Then we retraced our steps to the interstate, but instead drove southerly on Rt. 16 E.  toward Rapid City.  We passed the Osage Oil Fields with many pumpers going and storage tanks.  Down the road a piece we came to the refinery for the Osage Fields.  Later we passed by the National Monument, Jewel Cave, but decided against it as a forest fire had recently passed through and there were smoking hot spots still active.  Then it was on to Custer for a Buffalo Burger....very good!  (We split one of course)  Then it was to the chief Crazy Horse Monument to check on the progress of the carving....will be years to complete it.  Then passed Mt. Rushmore and through the Badland National Park....Amazing!  95 degrees in the Badlands!

Cody and the Big Horn Mountains

This morning we had breakfast with the Elders, Justin and Katie at the "Main Street Over Easy".  Good breakfast and good visiting with these two remarkable young people.  Then we left Bozeman and headed for Cody, WY.  We observed a herd of Buffalo just out of Bozeman.  The rolling hills were so nice and green and as we headed east, we thought," How beautiful is this big sky country!"  It was 63 degrees and no wind as we left on our today's leg of travel.  We saw many, many antelope herds in the fields along side the road and an occasional coyote looking for its breakfast.  We left I-90 at Laurel and headed south toward Cody. 
In Cody, we visited with some dear friends who've had some health heart problems.  Sharon just had open heart surgery and Buck just had a mild attack.  Both are doing well now.  We didn't stay long as we didn't want to tire them out during their healing processes.
We passed an oil refinery as we turned south so close we could smell it and almost touch it.....many cracking towers were busy separating the many oil products from the crude. 
We pushed on and observed some weathered mining equipment along side of one hill.  The sign by the road was a historical site that described this as the Smith Mining disaster from early years.  This was just outside of the town of Red Lodge.
As we drove we saw the Beartooth Mts. in the distance bordered on the front by deep green alfalfa fields.

With Justin and Katie Elder

The Smith Mining Disaster site.

         The Bear tooth Mts.                                                                                    

Then it was across the Big Horn Basin and up through the Big Horn Mts.  The Aspen tree glowed bright orange and yellow indicating that fall had already arrived in the Big Horns.  The pass level was 9033 Ft. at Granite Pass.  And after about 25 miles of 8 percent grade, we were back on I-90 and Sheridan, WY.

The Tetons and Yellowstone to Bozeman

As we drove north from Jackson Hole, we were excited to see the magestic Teton range.  At the gate we produced our Golden Age Card and were given the map of the park and told to have a good time.  Along the road we saw evidence of new forests covering the history of devastating fires not too many years ago.  It was encouraging to know that Mother Nature is stronger than this horrible catastophe.  We thought we saw a beautiful buck along the road, but discovered it was only a "bait" deer to catch unlawful hunters.  We saw Buffalo herds and wild horses.  Since this was all open range, we had to drive very carefully in order to not hit any animals.  We drove by Jackson Lake and beautiful Lewis Falls.  It was very windy as we drove.  We had a picnic lunch by Lewis Lake and the wind was whipping it up so badly that there were 3 foot swells with white caps.  Our lunch of fruit and nuts was very pleasant behind a windbreak in the sunshine.  One of the most exciting things was a buffalo herd right next to the road, and a bit further was a very regal Bull Elk wading in the Lewis River with his herd of perhaps 15 cows and calves.  We then headed into West Yellowstone and on North to Bozeman where we visited with Newlyweds, Justin and Katie Elder.