Day 4 - Destination: Springfield, Missouri

You will never guess who was at our campsite this morning and followed us all the way to our Springfield campsite.... uhh, ummm, who could it be...... hmmmm,  could it be Mr. WIND?!?!!? Oh yeah, it was. I won't rant about it but once again... it was horrible. Poor Don had a very tough drive but he handled it well, as usual. It's just very tiring.

We were on the road by 7:40 and headed for the John Kilpatrick Turnpike. Today, was toll day. Before we were done, we were $26 dollars lighter. I never! I remember family trips when we were kids and we threw a quarter in the basket. Those days are long gone. Two of the tolls were $9.75 each. Now here's funny thing... the first toll was interesting. Neither of us has been on a toll road in decades. So the first toll came up and we dropped in 2 dollars bills and a quarter and 5 pennies. The light did not turn green and as we left, the alarm went off. We are expecting a citation in the mail. The $2.30 toll was to be paid in coins only and no pennies.  The next toll operator said we'd be ok, they'd have to sort out the dollars. :-) Hey, how were we to know? So, I'm hoping we're ok on that one. After that we handled them well and in fact the rest of the booths were manned. At least those road were well maintained!

We went through a bunch of reservation land each with their own nation names such as Kickapoo nation and Sac and Fox nation... The landscape was wonderful. Rolling hills, trees, green pastures, cows, horses and homes. Homes with barns. Beautiful homes, like you see on tv. The homes surrounded by their land, and white railing fences with cows and horses and even some goats. Just beautiful. Some really huge, awesome looking homes. And ponds.. ponds everywhere, one after another.

Don saw double 53 foot Hobby Lobby trailers being pulled and a triple trailer UPS truck. He was impressed.

There are beautiful flowering trees at the sides of the highways here in MO. The trees are native redbuds. They have the best pink flowers. I'd love to have one of these trees but I don't think they'd be able to take the tremendous heat.

Sis did well again although a bit restless. I think she's tiring of the routine. And she definitely hates the wind, probably as much or more than I do. We stopped at one of the toll booths after going through and she got blown around again. It was awful, poor Sis.

I took some pictures but cannot get to them right now as my phone is charging. I'll try to add them tomorrow if any are good.

Lastly.. thanks to my brother Les and sister-in-law Jo for the traveling snacks (all gluten-free) they sent along with us. They have been magnificent. Thanks to Jo for the help in naming my blog from a conversation we had years ago. Thanks to my brother Bob for checking on the house for us. And firstly, thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ for keeping us safe on this trip.

Time for bed. Next stop, Springfield, IL

Good Night everyone. Love from us!