By this Author: phylisej

Today we drove to Baton Rouge. There were several interesting places to see (lots of plantation homes). We did not go to much as we are expected at my nephew's place in Lake Jackson, Texas on Friday.

However, while Jeanette was on the computer looking for a shop that could repair our propane connection, I went to the Enchanted Mansion Doll Museum. The ladies there were very sweet and had delightful Louisiana accents. A big (4') tall teddy bear introduced me to the museum and a talking clock also welcomed me. I passed through a my size doll house front and door into a room full of glassed in cases of dolls, big and small. Then there was a small room of story book dolls; Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, etc. Then I went into a room of President and First Lady dolls. There was a room full dedicated to African American dolls because February is Black History Month. The last room had a large collection of lovely, old dolls.

The gift shop was full of more beautiful dolls. Very expensive. I got three post cards for the school and we drove on to Lafayette and stopped for supper. Then we drove to a campground on the road to Avery Island, where we will go tomorrow.

Day 33

We are in a very nice, quiet campground in Eastern Massachusetts, Wompatuck State Park, about 2 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. We have crossed the US in 33 days! And I'm still feeling fine. There is so much to see. Even in the small towns there are historic places that are fun to visit and see. The leaves are changing. We saw many beautiful trees in N. Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. Now that we are on the East Coast, the trees are lovely and as we go north thru Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine we expect to see many more. Yesterday we toured the Fairbanks house. It was built about 1638 by an ancester of ours. My brother-in-law printed out a "pedigree" for me so I took it into the visitor's center. The man was impressed.

Day 35

We are "camped" in the visitor's center in Vermont. We drove north through Massachusetts and into New Hampshire. Camped in Keyser Pond campground. It was a 'family oriented' campground. Much to do as families and for children. We went to the pond and picked up sand for Kathy and saw little fish swimming. The Loons that live there were in hiding. Did our laundry and drove northwest to a Shaker Village. Interesting & on to Vermont where we are now.

Thought I'd display all of Mom's pictures of flowers in one blog entry here. As she takes new ones, I'll add them at the top and change the Updated date. I don't have any captions for these yet, will try to add more later, time permitting. In the meantime, if you know what these are please feel free to add comments! (ps - these are Thumbnails, you can click on them to see a larger version):

Day 16 - Well, here we are in Minnesota, State 7. We came to the headwaters of the Mississippi. Jeanette crossed the river on foot. I went out a little way on teh rock dam. Last nite we camped here. In the evening we heard scratching and mewing. Jeanette shone a flashlight out the window and saw the tail of a racoon skittering under the RV. Yesterday we were in Bemiji and saw Paul Bunyon and the Blue Ox (statues). Driving thru North Dakota I was impressed by how wet it was. There were lots of sunflower fields and hay. Minnesota is more farm like and towns are closer togeher.

We've seen many reconstructed villages. Some of the things there in the houses, stores and schools I remembered suing when? We had a nice visit with daughter Penny. She gave us a tour of McLaughlin and nearby communities describing their needs and successes. It was interesting.

Day 16 (evening) - We are a few miles from Duluth, one of the largest ports in the US. We are at Saganaw Campground. We stopped at Judy Garlands home (moved to it's place in Grand Rapids, Minnesota). We didn't tour it as it was expensive and we were tired. I bought a few cards and Jeanette bought the "yellow brick road" so we should be in Oz soon. We we stopped for gas, a doe and two fwn were walking in a field across the road.

Day 17 - Last nite spent in the city park of Bayfield, Wisconsin. We are right on Lake Superior. It rained hard yesterday. No rain this morning. We can see the Apostle Islands. The sun is trying to shine. The fog is gone. We drove on the Hwy 13 which borders the lake. Picked up sand at a nice beach. Hope to get to Michigan today. The trees are getting very yellow and red in places.

Day 21 - Haven't written for some days. We are sitting in the RV in front of my borther-in-law's house in Berrien Springs, Mich. We traveled about 200 miles today, mostly on the interstate, so we didn't stop much. The colors on the trees are nice, but not as spectacular as farther north. It was raining hard in Sault St. Marie, but I could see the boats coming and going thru the locks from inside the building & Jeanette went outside on a covered elevated walkway to get pictures.

Fort Makinac & the bridge was nice. Last nites camp was a primative campsite, but I slept will. My foam pad was about 5 inches longer than my bed so I cut it off and pade a pad for my front seat. Comfy! It is nice here - lots of trees - quiet, a bird or two twittering.

Day 8 (9/9/07) - We are at the Little Big Horn Battleground having lunch. After lunch we'll take the driving our. We took a picture of a hawk on a pole (or rather leaving a pole).

Yesterday we went from a parking lot next to the "Manlove cabin" in East Helena - near the road we saw a prong horn antelope, and drove on to Billings. We stayed in a campground on the Yellowstone River. We did our laundry and took pictures of the old farm machinery. There were plows, harrows, hay rakes, manure spreaders, etc. I have ridden some similar ones behind a tractor. I remember making a straight windrows with a hay rake and getting very dusty using a harrow - long ago. We have been across the great divide in the Rocky Mtns. It is raining here this afternoon. We went to the Wheat Montana Bakery near Bozeman, MT. We bought a nice loaf of bread, some of which we had for lunch today with some Choke Cherry jelly we bought last night. We also bought a loaf of banana bread (which I ate with some of the Bavarian Cream we got in Leavenworth. We also bought a big apple - raisen cinnamon bun which we shared. We've picked up sand for Kathy here and there. Some places are hard to get to and some have rocks and no sand. We still hope to get some on the Little Big Horn River. Sometimes I write little because I'm tired.

Day 11 - Went to the Little Big Horn and spent quite a lot of time there. We decided to take the side trip to Devil's Tower. It was worth it. I've been there before, but still enjoyed it. (We did not climb it.) We went to a nice overnight park near Mt Rushmore. When I went to Mt Rushmore 20 years ago there was very little there except the mountain. Now there are shops, café's, the row of state flags & more, quite spectacular. We went to Custer State Park and saw a big herd of Buffalo and some wild donkeys, including a little one, and some white tailed deer before we got to the Wildlife Loop Road - so we skipped that and drove on to the Badlands. We camped last night in a wilderness camp in the park, but outside the "bad" lands. We took a side road (red gravel) for miles and miles.

Day 12 - We camped last night beside the Missouri River in a nice city park in Fort Pierre. Across the river in Pierre, is the state capital. Today we will go to McLaughlin, SD where my daughter Penny lives. The last twoays we drove through the Badlands Nat'l Park. We took a back road to the upper loop road (It looked shorter on the map). It was gravel so we couldn't go more than 15-20 mph. It was a lovely drive and we saw buffalo, etc. We camped at a primative camp, no electricity, water etc., but nice covered table areas. It was lovely and we could hear the buffalo lowing and took pictures of their footprints. The Badlands were awesome and massive. There were little grassy places among the rock structures. We saw some buffalo & deer sometimes and a humungus prairie dog town.

Later we went through a homestead and a 1880's "town". The buildings were brought to the place. It was terribly windy in Fort Pierre. Howled all nite & shook the RV.