We stopped in El Paso, Illinois to attend Mass. The church was St. Mary’s and the sign in front of it said that this was the church that Archbishop Fulton Sheen was baptized at.
We drove on through Missouri to Joplin and cut down on I 49 to sleep at my middle daughter’s house. Her family lives in Northwest Arkansas. The drive down I 49 was beautiful, although hard to see in the dark. We would get another chance to see it the next morning on our way to Wichita, Kansas. I had never thought of Kansas as very appealing. It always seemed to be just flat land that went on forever. But eastern Kansas is nothing like western Kansas. There are rolling hills and lots of stockponds. The wind was very strong. After picking up a dog in Wichita, we headed due south on I 35. We went through Oklahoma City, the Arbuckle Mountains and Turner Falls area, Ardmore and Marietta. Then we crossed back into Texas. We spent the night in my house, and I got to sleep in my own bed!!
The next morning we continued our reverse of the areas we had driven and finally got back to Michigan. Even this far north, the leaves have not started changing except in very small patches. We picked up a Mastiff puppy and headed to Wisconsin. At first, it was just very windy, but then the rain started. It was not too bad for most of the trip, especially when we were sitting in traffic for about an hour because of a wreck ahead of us. But once we were alongside of Chicago, the rain got really bad. We could hardly see the markings for the lanes. We pulled over once, and when it finally let up, we continued our drive to Plymouth, Wisconsin. The puppy was very happy to be out of the cage, and he seemed to enjoy his new home and owners, who were very happy to see him.
There was an event going on in Plymouth and we couldn’t find a motel for just one night so we drove to Sheboygan. We were all tired and slept really hard. We woke up to a sunny, cool day. We needed jackets for the first time on the trip. Today was a rest day. So we checked out what there was to do, and we found Deland Park. It was amazing! As we drove up, we could see huge kites flying above the park. There were all sorts of kites. There was a marina right near the parking lot, and near the outer banks of the marina, there was a real lighthouse. There was also a beach with one person sitting there in his swimsuit after walking out into the water. Everyone else in the area had on jackets and coats. The park had three playgrounds in the area and a Lao, Hmong and American Veterans Memorial to commemorate “the service and sacrifice of the Hmong people of Laos who fought for the United States during the Secret War from 1961-1975, part of the Laotian Civil War”, according to Wikipedia.
After leaving Deland Park, we stopped and ate at Harry’s Diner which was reminiscent of the 50s. We thought it would be more lunch food, but it was actually a breakfast place. At first, the prices looked high, but when they brought out the food, there was so much that we were glad that we decided to split the meal three ways.
After eating, we were back on the road. We stopped for the night in Minock, Illinois.
I decided to go on this trip with my daughter somewhat at the last minute. Usually, I plan things out well in advance. This time I thought about it and pretty much just decided to go. So after posting pictures for my challenges, I packed up and left. The first day, we left about 10am. We ate lunch at Steak and Shake in Mc Alester, Oklahoma and continued to follow the same road through Muscogee and on to Missouri. We picked up a precious eight week old Cane Corso puppy who was really scared. She shook a whole lot but actually was very good.
The next morning we got up early. We drove through St. Louis and took pictures of the Arch through our bug-studded windshield. We crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois, and immediately the traffic seemed to ease up. One thing that I noticed is that there are lots of semis with Canadian license plates on the road up here. Later that day we drove through Indiana, where the time zone changed, and into Ohio. It was getting late so we stopped for the night.
St. Louis Arch
Tuesday morning, we drove to a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. As you drive into the city, there are numerous oil storage tanks and refineries. We got a glimpse of the “Bridge to Canada.” Unfortunately, I don’t have a passport or card; so we couldn’t cross over into Canada. I have actually been there before, when I was a child. My daughter and granddaughter have never been there yet. We continued our drive passing through Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, and Grand Rapids. We crossed back into Indiana and found a nice spot to pull over to see Lake Michigan. Then we went into Illinois and Iowa . As we are driving I start taking pictures of this gorgeous sunset. As beautiful as it was, I had a strange feeling that this was not a good thing. My daughter’s map app locked up, and we missed our exit to deliver this cute little Cocker Spaniel, who had been so nervous that he got car sick. We noticed our mistake as we passed the exit. So we took the next exit, which took us down several dirt roads with deer all along the sides of the roads. It was dark by now, and we were getting very concerned about the weather. We dropped off the puppy and began looking for a safe place, because there was a tornado warning, and they were expecting dollar-sized hail. The first place we came to was a small gas station. We parked under the awning and the gentleman inside came running out. He told us if we wanted to protect the car from the hail, we should park on the other side of the pumps because of the direction the storm was coming from. So we moved the car and went inside. He proceeded to tell us that the station wasn’t a very safe place because of all the windows, and that we really hadn’t picked a very good place if there was a tornado. So we asked where the nearest town was. It was seven miles away. Since nothing was going on yet, we drove there and found a Walmart. At least it wouldn’t have many windows. At first there were very few people in the store. But as the minutes ticked by, people started trickling in to seek refuge from the storm. Several drivers of fully loaded cattle trucks came in and said the wind was shaking their trucks so badly that they had to get off the road. We stayed there about an hour until there was a break in the weather. We drove across the street to a motel where we got the very last room. Someone came in after us and said that there was flooding down the road, and they couldn’t get to the only other motel in town. Unfortunately, they didn’t get a room.
Granny Shot It 