August 13-14: Missouri to Arkansas

We stayed in Pontiac Park on the Missouri/Arkansas border for a couple of nights before heading to our second home, Mountain View, Arkansas.  We had a really nice site up on the hill and by itself.  Another plus is that it has electricity and water.  Not all sites had water.

Home again in Mountain View.  Fred and Kathy (yellow and pink shirts in the background) came to visit for a few days.  That's Galen playing his washtub bass in the foreground.  After six weeks of moving around quite a lot, we are happy to be settled again until the first of November.

August 11: Amazing Omelets

We took the Amazing Omelets recipe, the one we got from Sonny and Crys, and introduced them to Ron and Donna and their grandson.  The recipe:  Two eggs smooshed in a ZipLock back.  Add bacon, cheese, veggies, whatever you like.  Put into a pan of boiling water and boil for 13 minutes.

The finished product.

August 10: Columbia, MO: Ron and Donna

This is a view from the door of our RV.

We are parked right behind our host's RV.

Our hosts:  Ron and Donna.  This photo was taken at Bandana's, a yummy place for barbeque.

This is a home in their neighborhood.  We liked the creative flower gardens.

But even better was the barbed wire fence covered with stuff!

August 6: Parade, Cemetery Walk, Reunion

There was a lot going on in Toulon besides the reunion because it was also Old Settlers Days.  The Class of 1961 had a float in the parade.

We went to an interesting talk in Toulon Cemetery before the parade.  This woman told a fascinating story about a terrible train wreck and is holding a piece of the train in her hands.

The reunion dinner was held in the evening and Galen and I provided a bit of the entertainment.

The songs Galen sang were a huge hit and several people told me how surprised they were that he would be such a good showman because he was so quiet and shy in high school.  I didn't graduate from Toulon High School, but really enjoy Galen's class.  They are a great group of folks.

August 5: Toulon, IL

We stayed at a private RV park, thanks to Larry, Galen's high school classmate.

Our site.  There are four or five lakes in the park and you can spot one of them in the background.  This whole area is a reclaimed mining area.

The reason we are in Toulon:  Galen's 50th high school reunion.

We had lunch at Connie's Restaurant in Toulon and this basketball photo was part of a collage of high school photos.  Galen is #30, second from the right.

Connie's Restaurant.

 

The Toulon Methodist Church

Toulon had a population of about 1200 when Galen was growing up there and the farming community is still about that same size today.

August 4: Normal, IL

After some serious tree trimming, we parked in front of Vanita's house in Normal, IL.  Vanita is Galen's younger sister.

Galen and Vanita.  We spent a couple of nights here and had a nice visit with Vanita and her two little dogs.

Miss Daisy - A very sweet little dog.

Miss Molly - More reserved but a sweetie, too.

August 1-2: Sheldon, IL

Crys trying out my trike.

Sonny's turn.

We parked our RV in Sonny and Crystal's front yard for the night and the next morning we had our first but not our last experience with amazing omelets.  They were amazing and delicious.

After polishing off our omelets we went and found a few geocaches, including one at a seriously haunted house!  It was hot out so we stopped for ice cream and then went back and had a fish fry!  We didn't think we could eat again so soon, but it turns out we were way wrong.  Everything was so good:  Onion rings, home made potato chips, zucchini, and fish caught and cleaned by Sonny.  In addition to all this, they sent us home with luscious blackberry jam and veggies from Sonny's garden.  I didn't get any photos but we had 1.5 games of Mexican train so I we'll have to go back one day and finish up that half a game.