Home at last

Thurs Oct 17 
Up and out of the Super 8 and on our way. We stopped at the town of Fort Scott, Kansas, where the actual fort is also a National Monument. We didn't end up visiting the fort but I took a walk around the town which was a typical old downtown area of about 2 blocks square. It was early and not many places were open but some of the restaurants looked good. Maybe next time.
Using the same route, off the Interstate, we by-passed Springfield and ended up eating in a little town called Lebanon, MO, which is on an Interstate and had an Italian restaurant that was in a mostly empty strip mall with a Mexican place. DaVinci's Italian Restaurant was not only delicious but also very inexpensive. Will had a huge plate of pasta with a meatball, a sausage, and meat sauce with grilled mushrooms on the side for $11.99 and the most expensive thing on the menu was $16.50. I had the ravioli combo which was amazing. Light as a feather, and perfect marinara sauce. Many places we ate in over the last few months would never make it on the Cape. This place would be packed every night. So lucky to have found it. We were also the only people there. It was the middle of the afternoon.
We continued on about another hour to Mansfield, MO, home of Laura Ingalls Wilder as an adult. We stayed in a campground in Mountain Grove, MO, Missouri RV Park. Another nearly empty campground and we had a spot right near the bathroom.
We had a quick camp fire before bed.

 Fri Oct 18 
Today we visited Laura Ingalls Wilder's home and museum.

 We were part of a large group that toured her home. No pictures inside. Across the property is another home 'Rock House' which Laura's daughter, Rose, built for them and where they lived for several years before moving back to the farmhouse. I took the short, but somewhat uphill, walk over to the Rock House. Will met me there with the van. We toured that house and had a nice conversation with the guide inside.
We also visited the new museum which is near the farmhouse and is quite large. It included dozens of items from Laura and Almanzo as well as other members of both of their families and some other people from the books. It was all very well presented. Finally we visited the cemetery and saw Laura's and Almanzo's graves.
We didn't think Mansfield had much in the way of restaurants so we headed up to Mountain Grove's Santa Fe Mexican Bar And Grill which was one of three 'nice' Mexican places in town. All three had good ratings so I guess we couldn't go wrong. It was good.
We did laundry back at the campsite and had another camp fire.

Sat Oct 19 
We drove all the way across Missouri and enjoyed the lovely rolling hills and scenery that included trees. Lots of bucolic beauty. I was intrigued by a place called 'Land Between the Lakes' at the western edge of Kentucky and we pushed a little to get there.
We went to the Visitor's Center to get help finding a camp site and the woman there called several places but none had a level site for us. Finally she asked 'Are you allergic to horses?'. We were puzzled by this but said no. I was wondering how many horses are we talking about? The woman called 'Wranglers' and they had a site for us so we headed off. It turns out it was only 6 miles away.
We wound our way down a relatively small road and found ourselves in the middle of a horse camp! Dozens, maybe hundreds of horses and their owners having a blast. Here's the van in our not very private site. There's the bathroom on the right. At one point I looked over at the porta-potty and there was a horse in front of it with the reins going inside!

It was very minimal but clean and convenient. There was a bathhouse somewhere but not near us.
The number of horses was amazing. Some sites had 4 or more horses. Folks brought big and small horses. Donkeys(mules?) too. Some had carts and did laps around the campground in the evening:

 Here's a guy hauling two trailers. The second one is a cart they hitch the horses to and then ride it around camp. Sometimes with LED lights underneath and/or music playing. Guys sitting in there drinking beer and riding around together(I presume they were drinking, although the camp 'rules' clearly stated Kentucky's law against public drinking. I think the rule is so they can kick out the unruly. We didn't see anyone being unruly. I suppose we could have gotten a ride as everyone was incredibly familiar and friendly.

 Another view showing how big this place was. That road goes off into a space with dozens more camp sites. Off to the left of that black horse was a long row of horse stalls which were very close to us. I thought they might keep us awake but eventually everyone settled down.

I wish we'd had more time to explore this very large park(Land Between the Lakes) but now we have an excuse to go back there.
We had a camp fire and a visit from another camper looking for a good cell phone signal. She said our camp site was the best place in the campground, but I actually didn't have much of a signal, cell phone or wifi.
This place was incredible. so many people enjoying their horses. I didn't know such places existed.

Sun Oct 20
Since the sinks were far away we got up early and drove up to the Visitor's Center to brush our teeth. This got us off to a good start.
The wind was blowing making driving tense. We made it most of the way across Kentucky to the KOA campground in Corbin, KY.

Mon Oct 21
Another long day of driving to get to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We got to the Boone KOA campground but it was quite remote so we ate the leftovers from the Italian Place in Lebanon, MO. Still very good.

Tues Oct 22
Awoke to fog and rain. Nothing to do but get on the road.
Blue Ridge Parkway was so overcast it was as if the view had been wiped clean.

 Nothing but white. (Actually this picture is from slightly later when it had lifted a little)
It seemed silly to continue so we pulled into a rest area while Will napped and we waited to see if the weather would clear.

It did and turned into a much nicer day.

We got to Hillsville, VA and ate at a place called 508N Brews and Co. and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express.

Wed Oct 23
Back to normal, brilliant sunshine. More Blue Ridge Parkway. Amazing foliage.

But although lovely, it seems very slow. We stopped in this nice picnic area. Almost completely deserted.

Nice for relaxing but we want to get home to avoid additional rainy weather. Turns out it isn't very fun to drive in. We were so lucky to see so little of it for so long.
We managed to get to Charlottesville, VA to the KOA for the night and ate at the Timberwood Taphouse.

Thurs Oct 24 
We're on Interstates now, just focused on getting home. Guess we stayed a little too long as we haven't been hiking or anything.
Hops Fogelsville Hotel Restaurant bar was loud and food was only so-so but it was close to the campground, the Allentown PA KOA.
The office was closed and we had to use self check-in, it was almost dark when we got there.
There was a cute covered bridge over the stream to get to the bathrooms.
We had the shortest camp fire ever. Just more into getting to bed early and getting on the road.


Fri Oct 25 
 Slept in a little in the campground. It was very quiet. Although our self check-in offered only a few available sites, we were pretty much alone in our section with at least a dozen empty sites all around us.
We got on the road without incident. Ate at the Que Whiskey Kitchen
because it was very close to the Southington, CT HIE. It was an interesting barbecue place. Funny after so much barbecue out west we'd end up eating our last 'cue in CT!

Sat Oct 26 
Alternating between hotels and campgrounds is making us wake up in the night wondering exactly where we are. We woke up in the Holiday Inn Express and got on the road by 9:30 and went directly to the Stop and Shop then were home by 1:00.
We unpacked some, opened some mail and started to make lists of what needs to be done. The dryer is broken but fixable(a broken belt). The wood stove is not drawing so we'll need to call the chimney sweep. The credit card got replaced so I have to change all the autopay information at various vendors.
So it is great to be home but life sure is going to be different from now on!