Swinging Through the Midwest

On leaving Texas June 10^th, we pretty much headed straight north, up I35 to Oklahoma City for a one night layover; then on to Wichita.   I confess Wichita wouldn’t be a favored destination spot for me most times (flat, humid and hot during the summer… TORNADO ALLEY!);  but my Mom and her Mother were both born there, and there are four generations of Mom’s family buried there, some of each generation buried in the same cemetery, Maple Grove, as a matter of fact.   And I also had some of Mom’s ashes with me, intending to spread them in her birthplace.

RIP, Mom, with your Mom and other Family Members!

 Weather was great when we arrived; but that night, after a nice visit to the cemetery in the afternoon, and a spreading of Mom’s ashes in her birthplace, a thunderstorm boomed overhead... thankfully no funnel clouds (tornadoes), moved in. 

 It was mostly clear again the next morning, and off we went toward Des Moines, Iowa, and another rendezvous with Sara, Drew and grandson, Jonah.  They were in town on business, and a little sightseeing, and we enjoyed a great few days with them while staying in a very scenic RV park set in the hills west of Des Moines.  

 

Timberline RV Park near Des Moines, Iowa

 Before this trip, Iowa was one of the few states I had yet to set foot in during my lifetime (more on this later); so it was nice to finally pay a visit.  Saturday we went to a monster Farmer’s Market in downtown Des Moines, it covering 8 blocks of downtown; but mostly we just hung with the kids; a nice mini-family gathering in the middle of our long travels.

 

Jonah and his Grandma explore the Farmer's Market!

Jonah wins the "Great Crawl Off", and gloats in his easy victory over the Old Guy!

Soon enough the Kids were winging back to Colorado, and we were off for Missouri, and, too soon thereafter, an unexpected, short detour caused by structural breakdown in one of our 5^th Wheel tires… aka a frickin blowout!... at 70+ mph, no less, on I35 heading toward Kansas City, almost in the middle of nowhere!  It could have been worse!  Almost all 5^th Wheelers, including ours, have two axles, and only one tire on one side blew; so we still had one good tire on that side, and were able to limp slowly to the nearest exit a mile away to regroup.  

While limping along, however,  I watched in my rear view mirror as the fender skirt peeled away, after being pummeled by the shredded tire; and there was other damage to the siding and undercarriage caused by the blown tire, as we were soon to discover.  But, after spending nearly two hours waiting for roadside assistance at a deserted freeway exit, and then more time heading to the nearest small town to buy two new trailer tires (the spare was almost flat and pretty useless), we were on our way again, adjusting our ever flexible travel schedule for a stopover in Kansas City to further check out the trailer damage.  Thankfully,  the damage was not enough to keep us from traveling on after the unplanned two night layover in KC.  

AFTER the Blowout - New tire on the back, but siding crumpled and wheel skirt gone!

We headed further South to a little town called Stockton, where Lanie had some family history research to do (she has ancestors literally spread all over the Continent).  This is something we both enjoy, the family history research that is, whether it’s her family, mine, or somebody else’s family we’re aware of; but I’m just an amateur in this stuff, while Lanie’s a real pro. 

 In any event, we were off the very next day to explore the renowned Missouri Ozarks.   And we stayed for a couple nights deep in the Ozark region of East Central Missouri in a lonely little, if lovely, outpost called Annapolis.  Here we were camped right along Big Creek, which was fortunate, since the Midwestern weather was turning very hot and humid.  One afternoon we spent an hour or more right in the shallow river, eventually with a portable table and our own little home-made wine bar, set up in the water; quite refreshing!

IN Big Creek, Missouri Ozarks

From there we were off to the lower Lake Michigan area, specifically Portage Indiana, very near the “lovely” (and I use that term very loosely in this case) industrial city of Gary.  Won’t say much about pretty flat Illinois, or Indiana, other than the fact that there were some lovely little towns in that part of Indiana that we visited, all on Lanie’s family history trail, of course.  But we were glad to soon enough depart for Galena, Illinois, in the far NW Corner of that state.  Enroute, we had to endure metropolitan Chicago traffic  for a couple hours, but managed to survive and emerge in due time into the truly lovely rolling hills of NW Illinois and the historic, and very charming, little old town of Galena.    And, lo and behold, the hills around Galena also contain an ever growing wine industry.  Naturally, we took a little time during our 3 day stay in the area to sample the local wines.

Galena, Illinois

An important side trip for us, well me in particular, while staying in Galena, was a very short drive to Wisconsin to the North, which completed my personal quest to visit all 50 states before I got real old and couldn’t remember half of them.  Mission accomplished; Wisconsin was the “BIG 5 – 0” (Indiana, earlier, was #49... uh, can't remember #48).  Lanie is right behind me at 49 states visited so far, she lacking only Alaska. I’m trying to to talk her into a cruise to Alaska sometime; but so far she seems less than thrilled by the prospect.

The "BIG 5 0"

 Okay, that was about it for the Midwest.   Our luck, that is in avoiding really bad things… blowouts are pretty minor in comparison to a big honkin tornado (a Midwest specialty)… had been pretty good.  But by the time we set off from Galena early on a Sunday morning (June 29), the entire State of Iowa was under a tornado watch; and, YES, our planned route from Point A (Galena) to Point B (Golden, CO) led pretty much directly across the entirety of Iowa.  Fortunately, we made it through in the morning hours, and before the really wicked storm clouds had built up, stopping after a 500 mile trek right smack dab in the middle of Nebraska, also a notorious storm center at this time of year.  There was a tornado watch there as well that afternoon, thankfully lifted by mid-evening; and we left for the final leg to Colorado under partly cloudy (but unthreatening) skies.

Sunny skies over Nebraska, Yay!... We were almost out of Tornado Alley!

 It was a mostly routine final leg, slightly delayed by more tire problems on the 5^th Wheel, namely a flat on one of the two remaining “old” tires, discovered as soon as we headed SW from Nebraska into Colorado.  Two hours later, after buying two more new tires for the 5^th, we continued our day trip to Golden, CO and another reunion that evening with the Blass gang (Sara, Drew, and grandson, Jonah).

"Hey, it's good to be back home in Colorado"