Rogue Squash

Hre is some produce that I think you will find interesting:

Thisis Frank's butternut squash. Things are getting out of hand.

The Daily Beast: Hold The Rye, Ctd

Hold The Rye, Ctd
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Last day of the Journey

What was going to be the second to the last day of our journey became the last day of the journey. Plan A was to stay on the Mississippi somewhere and return to Lake Mills on sunday. However, it didn't quite happen that way.
We did get up and visit the farmers market a couple blocks from the campground. There we purchased a blueberry scone, a blueberry fritter and a bag of peanut butter dog biscuits for Charlie.
We followed many, many motorcycle riders that were on their way to Sturgis for the Ralley that starts on August 8th. Frank talked to a guy from Germany that had been riding around on an old Harley through Canada and the United States and was going to end up at Sturgis. He had a little tent and was gone by morning from the campground.
We drove to the Mississippi and to LeClaire, IA. This is a river town north of Davenport a few miles. I lived there while my father was principle of schools there. I was 5 and 6 years old at the time, so over 50 years ago. I asked Frank to humor me and go find the house I had lived in back then. I hadn't been back there since I moved all those years ago. It was amazing that I found the place with relative ease.

This is the humble house that my Mother, Father, older brother, myself and younger sister lived in. This is where I learned to ride a bicycle, took ballet lessons, attended kindergarden and first grade. My Dad planted the big trees in the yard.

Here is the school, that no longer is a school, that I attended. I very nice new elementary school is now in town. Like all river towns there is a large hill that goes from the Mississippi to where I lived. I remember of being so frightened to ride my bike to school for fear of now being able to stop my bike on the big hill and ending up in the Mississippi river.

And here is a picture of the Mississippi taken from a potential campsite we chose not to stay in. All of these had been flooded recently and still showed a little ware and tare. We chose to head on home instead. After 4300 miles, we pulled into the driveway of our home. Home sweet home.

But look, nature has taken over. In the two short weeks we have been away weeds have encroached the flower beds, the squash plant is taking over the yard,and the tomato plants have become monsters. Nothing stands still.

And finally, it is my oldest daughter's birthday today. She is 25 years old and we had a great time helping her move and having her accompany us to Cape Cod. Happy Birthday, LeAnn.

Tollbooth heading West

August 5, 2011
Not much to say about today except we drove west. It was a beautiful drive through the Appalachian mountains in Pennsylvania. It was a foggy morning and the vistas were moody. We entered the Ohio turnpike and blew through the state. Next is the Indianna turnpike interstate 80/90; childhood home of Ab Lincoln (so the sign says). We are staying at another KOA tonight in northern Indianna. There is suppose to be a farmers market a couple blocks away which I hope we can look at tomorrow before we get on our way.

Going home

Tonight we are at a KOA campground. They are not our first choice. We prefer state parks or county parks. However, after an hour of stop and go traffic on Interstate 80 in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains in Pennsylvania we were burnt out and took the first thing we saw after 450 miles of driving. This morning we drove LeAnn to the bus terminal near the bottom of Cape Cod. For $20 she could get back to her apartment and save us to drive into Boston one more time. It saved us a lot of time. We drove through Massachusetts, Conneticut, New York, and now we are in the center of Pennsylvania. I took a rather poor photo out of the front of the car window to show you the scenery around here. It is actually a video, I thought it was a photo. There was a pickup truck on our tail so I couldn't compose as well as I wanted to. It reminds me a lot of Missouri sans the mountains. There is piped in music in the KOA bathroom. Early 60s. I can tell I am getting closer to the Midwest because the humidity has increased significantly. There are cicadas, a steady drone of some kind of insect, and a single bird chirping out it's bedtime song.
Tomorrow we plan for a marathon drive of a minimum of 500 miles. That will leave us a final 500 for Saturday. Otherwise we might break it up and get back on Sunday. I'd like to stay on the Mississippi River one night. We shall see.

LeAnn on the beach

Frank and Caryl in Provincetown MA