June 20, 2021 Home to Witchita

 

June 20, 2021

MEOWT!  MEOWT!  I am sitting in my chair looking cute and waiting for my humans to hook me up and let me out and they are not doing it.  MEOWT!

There is a creek behind our RV park.  Since we are at Turkey Creek RV park, I will assume it is Turkey Creek.   To access the creek, Spouse and I had to walk up to the street and around and back down.  The creek flows to the Taneycomo Lake.  To me, it looks like a river.  Although the city of Branson does nothing for us, the location is terrific. The lake offers all sorts of opportunities for recreation.  This morning, there is a mist over the water.  A few fisherman in boats look like they are floating on the fog.  As we walk around the park, we are greeted by a gaggle of geese of various ages.  Across the lake, we see the landing, marina, an RV park (it was full), and beyond that is the city.

While Spouse walked back, I headed up the road and around the corner.  It is a modest neighborhood, but many of the homes have the lake as their backyard.  Nice, nice and more nice!

We readied Hannah, and headed south on business 65, then onto the scenic highway 86.  There is a Bass Pro resort there for fishing and hunting.  The highway has gentle ups, downs, and curves.  Ranches with rolls of alfalfa here, woods there.  A home here, and Table Rock Lake everywhere.  IT is a huge lake maybe 30-40 miles long with several fingers stretching about.  Jet skis, boats, kayaks… you would be crazy not to have some type of floating device in this area!  And yet the countryside is so rural.  There are marinas, and boat yards scattered about, but nothing seems close together.  A home on a hillside here would be pretty nice!  I apologize to all the cars that got stuck behind us.  I don’t think the state of Missouri has a single pullout on their rural roads to let traffic go by, but we tried as best we could.  So sorry!

Yes, Lady Gagarmin and I had a disagreement, but I am much better at getting Spouse to see my side of things now.  There must be a setting on her that indicates to take the longest route possible.  We stopped in Cassville at a family restaurant for lunch.  I think it is the only real restaurant around and it was packed.  The menu was diverse, the food was decent but not the best, but it fit the bill.  As we left Cassville, we left the hills, and entered the flatlands.  Farms, big farms with silos, and more farms for as far as the eye can see.  But there are still trees.

We fenagle ourselves around Joplin and over to highway 400 in Kansas.  We plan to take 400 all the way to Colorado.  It is green, it is farmland, ranchland, trees and it still has some mild ups and downs.  There are no trucks to speak of, but there is an occasional farm vehicle hugging the shoulder.  The speed limit is 55, 65 and whatever the town you are passing through might want it to be, but because there are not a lot of cars, it moves easily and is stress free.

We ended up making it all the way to Witchita, Spouse’s home town.  He speaks the language fluently.  After we got an RV site, we went to his old stomping grounds.  His old house is gone, but some of the other houses are there, not that he remembers them, but you can tell by looking at them they are ancient.  The school across the street has had a facelift.  The house that is standing where his house was is not the same address and it looks like it may have been a small commercial building.  It doesn’t fit in with the rest of the neighborhood.  The lot next to it was a house and it is just a lot now.  So maybe a fire, maybe a tornado, but his corner as he once knew it is gone.  We went down to the canal where he used to play.  The canal is still there, but not like it was when he was a kid.  The freeway is now above.  There are bike trail and walking trails.  Amazing what 65 years can do to a town…

And don’t even think of trying to go out for dinner on a Sunday, even if it is Father’s day.   CLOSED!

Oh, did I mention that it is hot?  104?  HOT!  Our air conditioner keeps kicking off…  And it looks like the rain is coming…  At least they have a tornado shelter here at the park.