May 23 – Lindsborg, KS – Ken and Sarah Moburg

Ken and Sarah are cousins on my mom’s side. They live in a log home that they built on 80 acres about 1 hour north of Wichita in a small Swedish town called Lindsborg. We enjoyed the opportunity to visit them and enjoy their rural homestead. For dinner we broke out the provisions that we brought from Maine including fiddleheads and brown bread. The rural setting provided another great opportunity for the dogs and kids to cut loose and spend some time outside. The next day we all made the 2 hour drive to Topeka to visit Sarah’s mom, Glenna, and her sister Susan and Susan’s kids Hannah and Jackson. We spent some time visiting and then headed to Bonkers, a Chucky Cheese equivalent, before we started driving north late in the evening.



The gang at Bonkers with Susan, Hannah and Jackson




Elizabeth on the Kansas prairie




Nancy, James and I with Glenna, Susan and Jackson





Ken, Sarah and the gang





I love this shot - the kids are helping Emily feed the chickens. This is a happy bunch!



May 20-22 – Wichita, KS – USI RV Park

We made it into Wichita in the late afternoon and found our way to a spot in the RV park that family friend, Pastor Mike Nolan, had reserved for us. We spent a couple months in Wichita about 4 years ago and were excited to make our way back here to check out some of the places we visited. While in town we ate at Texas Roadhouse – our favorite kid-friendly restaurant, hit the Gander Mountain store and took in a movie at Warren Theatres. We also went to The Alley where we did indoor go kart racing, bowling and a laser maze. Nancy and the kids also visited Tanganyika Wildlife Park - this is a small zoo where they allow you to actually pet some of the animals. The kids got to touch the giraffes and rhinos and they got to feed lemurs. Pretty awesome experience. We also had a great time in Wichita catching up with Pastor Mike who has been a great friend to our family. While in Wichita, I noticed that one of the front tires on the RV was wearing unevenly. I had it checked out and found that a ball joint had failed. A few hours later we were back on the road. Aside from a flat tire in Utah, this is the only equipment failure we’ve had on the trip – not too bad.









Luke inspects the Rhino's horn




Elizabeth feeds the lemurs








Pastor Mike and the kids



May 19 – Bentonville, AR – Walmart Flagship Store

Today was a travel day as we made our way toward Wichita. We managed to make it to Bentonville, home of Walmart, and spent the night in the parking lot of the flagship Walmart store. I tried unsuccessfully to locate a Walmart magnet to add to the collection that we are gathering from the various places we’ve been. We’ve got a pretty cool display put together in the RV that should serve as a reminder of our trip for years to come.

Check out the logo below. You really do "Live better" at Walmart...

May 17-18 – Paducah, KY – Auben and Darlene Goode

Auben and Darlene are good friends of Nancy's family and they welcomed us to their home in rural Paducah. We parked our RV in their driveway for a couple of days and got a chance to visit and stretch our legs a bit. The dogs got a rare chance to be off leash for an extended period of time and they loved it. We got a great tour of the town while we were here. Paducah is a river town located right on the Ohio - the riverfront is really nice and the town has done a lot to revitalize the downtown area in recent years. We also enjoyed some Kentucky barbeque from Starnes that Auben claims is the best you can get. I didn’t argue with him. We don’t get to see Auben and Darlene very often so Nancy and I spent most of our time out in the yard talking with them while the kids played yard games and canvassed the property looking for bugs, insects and animals to pester. We’ve found throughout our trip that the weather has been near perfect everywhere we’ve been. Kentucky was no exception – we enjoyed the 80 degree weather which was tempered with a nice breeze both days we were there.

James, Lucas and Zach on the riverfront

Auben, Darlene and the gang



Zach and Elizabeth playing in the yard



May 16 – Nashville, TN `– Seven Points Campground

We stayed the night at an Army Core of Engineers campground. Like state parks, these tend to be inexpensive but they lack some of the conveniences of modern, full service parks. This one was on a reservoir and offered huge campsites with mature forest all around. Pretty nice – we would have liked to spend a few days here.

Our first stop in town was the Country Music Hall of Fame. We are country fans and felt right at home here. There were displays and a lot of information from early country musicians all the way through today’s favorites. The museum was fantastic but small. A large addition is currently under construction. Next we walked the few blocks to Broadway which is lined with honky tonks and souvenier shops. Even at mid-day all the bars along Broadway had live music on stage. Pretty cool. We ate at Puckett’s Grocery which is evidently a local’s hangout a couple blocks off the main drag. After a quick stop at the Ryman Auditorium we headed north of town to the current home of the Grand Ole Opry. The night we were there it was hosting high school graduation. Fortunately there was a mall next door that had, among other things, a Bass Pro Shop so we went shopping.

The tribe on Broadway in Nashville

Lucas and Elizabeth goofing off

Jim with "Arfie" the dog. Nancy and the kids thought he needed a dog too.

May 15 – Morgantown, WV – Walmart

Today was a travel day. We made our way down through West Virginia and Kentucky towards Nashville. We’re definitely taking our time to enjoy all the beautiful scenery our country has to offer. I think the kids have had their fill of historic sights for a while. They’ve all had great attitudes but we hear a chorus of questions like “Is this another park/fort/battlefield?” as we approach each stop in our journey. We answer and then the next question is “Will we be able to ride our scooters?”

May 14 – Lancaster, PA - Walmart

At this point in our journey, we have finally started moving back west. Although we still have another several weeks on the road we are having such a good time that it’s a little sad to think that it will soon come to an end.

We spent the night in Lancaster – home of the Amish/Mennonite communities – and spent some time during the day driving around and seeing the countryside and the farms - very picturesque. We continued to make our way west driving into Gettysburg in the afternoon. Much of the Gettysburg battlefield is part of a national monument today with tributes of all shapes, sizes and types included to honor our forefathers and the men that fought and died there. There is a fantastic visitor center that we enjoyed. It has a 19^th century cyclorama that displays scenes of Pickett’s Charge which was Lee’s final effort to defeat the Union Army in the battle. They say that there were over 50,000 men either killed or wounded in the 3 day battle at Gettysburg. We visited the national cemetery that is located on one of the battlefields which was the site of, among other things, Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. It’s startling to see so many unmarked graves. Like many of the other battlefields we’ve seen it’s hard to get your head around the historic battles and the related death and bloodshed contrasted with the beautiful countryside that we see in these same places today. The visitor’s center and museum at Gettysburg are perhaps the best we’ve seen. Between the cyclorama which was originally painted in the 1880’s and restored several years ago and the first rate museum which showcased all sorts of things related to the Civil War and the Battle of Gettysburg, we really enjoyed the stop here and feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit.

Row's of largely unmarked graves. The remains of soliders were taken from battlefield graves and reinterred here in a national cemetery.

Monument near the site where Lincoln delivered the Gettsburg Address