WHERE IT ALL STARTED!

About ten years ago, my wife (Linda) and I started thinking about retiring. What did we want to do? A place at the beach..........NO, A place in the mountains........NO, Move out west...........NO, Move to Florida............NO. What then? How about something where we can go to all these places, meet great people, and yet live in a place that would be like home. The answer for us was a motor home. NOW, if you had told me ten years ago that I would own a motor home, I would have told you that you were crazy. But one fact stood out and that was we had two dogs(Willie and Molly) that was very much part of our family. We certainly were not going to leave them every time we traveled and no way were we going to give them away, not even to our best friends. The answer to our problem was a motor home. With a motor home, they could go were we go and feel at home. Being small dogs, they do not take up much room and love to travel.

Willie and Molly have been from the south east coast to the west coast and most place in between. They know more people that most humans. They are friendly and love humans. Everywhere we go, people get to know them before we can introduce ourselves. It is really something. Buying a motor home is not an easy decision to make. First, you have to consider cost, size, will it do or have everything that is needed to make your life comfortable. We still have a home in South Carolina and a place in Florida so buying a motor home was going to be a big step for us. At any rate, we finally got a 36 foot, gas powered motor home and found that we were not happy in several respects. We finally settled for a 45 foot diesel pusher with a 600 hp Cummings engine. Now we are happy !

This is our home, located in South Carolina. It is very comfortable, maybe a little large for just Linda and I, but we enjoy it. My Daughter(Cindy) and her husband(Jon) take care of it when we are traveling. Don't know what we would do without those two. They are a blessing and allow us to travel. Cindy is an accountant with the state government and she takes care of the books for the mortgage company which allows us to travel and not worry about business. Oh Well, back to traveling.

This is the most beautiful country in the world and have the nicest and friendliest people anywhere. No matter where we go, it is like being at home. We are so lucky to have been born in the United States. Last Summer, we decided that we would visit our friends, Al and Charlotte who live in Cody, Wy. At this point, I should mention that Linda is from Missouri and grew up on a farm. The reason that I mention this is that was our second stop. The first stop was Lexington, Kentucky because that is where my son(Mike) and our two grandsons live. (Owen and Jack) Willie and Molly are always happy to see Owen

and Jack. We stayed in Lexington about a week and really enjoyed the boys. We stayed at the Kentucky Horse Park which is very interesting. It has a great campground and museum. There is always something going on and there was a horse show while we were there. We spent most of our time with the boys and really enjoyed it. We left for Missouri and decided to stop in St. Charles, Mo. for an RV rally. We had many friends from several states that were going to be there. It was on our way to the farm, so what the heck! This is some pictures from the rally.

We had a really good time at the rally. We saw a lot of old friends and made a lot of new ones and of course, Willy and Molly let their presence be known. A good time was had by all. I won third place in the Golf Tournament, went to Grant's Farm (this is where they breed the Clydesdale's for Budweiser. A Beautiful farm where they take in injured animals and nurse them back to health. Of course, the beer was free. Also, we went to the Arch in St. Louis. I will continue tomorrow.