It’s not what you think! Neither Judy or I have suffered any injury. I am writing about a damaged rotator cuff on the TV antenna. You see in an RV you have to have an antenna that folds flat against the roof when you travel. A couple days ago we were preparing move on a chilly morning. The antenna was frozen solid. I returned periodically to try moving it as we worked through our pre-flight check list. At long last I put a little more muscle into trying to move it, and I broke it. I had to get the cold aluminum ladder out and climb on the icy roof and rotate it into the proper alignment for lowering by hand.
Category Archives: Travels
I am Thankful:
Judy and I are currently traveling in “The Heartland of America.” We tend to like the state parks and the back roads over the big cities and the interstate highways. Occasionally that gets us in a pickle. We stopped in a small town called Parkin Arkansas and visited an archeological site where the Spaniard, Hernando de Soto met the natives at Casque, a fortified village some 465 years ago on the bank of the St. Francis River. It was interesting to walk around the village site which had been enclosed in a man made mote and see the man made hill in the middle of the village for the Chief’s house. Quite a feat for a people whose best tool was a stone adze made of chert mined in the hills about 25 miles away.
Missouri
We have spent nearly the whole month of November in Missouri. We explored my ancestors in Seneca. We visited with our Alpine Coach Owners Association in Branson and took in two of the really big shows there. We traveled the length and breadth of the Missouri Ozarks staying at Corps of Engineers parks at Pomme de Terra lake and Lake of the Ozarks. We then toured the Missouri capital building in Jefferson City and rode a ten mile segment of the Katy trail. It follows the railbed of the MKT, the Missouri, Kentucky and Texas Railroad. For a swan song we traveled to the eastern edge of Missouri to St. Louis and we attended a performance of the Paul Taylor Dancers and watched Neil’s sister Julie perform. Paul Taylor and his Dance Company were performing the “world premier” of a new dance, “Beloved Renegade.” We had a wonderful day with Jerry and Janene, Julie and Niel’s parents. We visited the Transportation Museum and then attended the dance performance.
Ancestral Tree
We have made a four day stop in Neosho, Missouri, the county seat for Newton County, MO, the county where my mother was born in 1913. We went to the court house and immediately found the marriage license for her parents, William Madison Cook and Della Williams for July 12, 1910. What a rush to see the actual recording document that was hand entered in 1910.
Top of the Dome
We have been enjoying some fantastic weather in Topeka Kansas. We have ridden our bicycle over fifty miles in three days exploring Topeka. We are camped at beautiful Shawnee Lake. It boasts a complete loop bicycle/hiking trail just over seven miles long. There are other bicycle trails in town also and we have ridden most of them. We did get onto one trail that is not yet complete. It is a rail to trail conversion and we walked Path across a trestle that is still an open lattice of railroad ties. We also came across a homeless camp, so we returned to the streets for the rest of our ride to the Kansas Capitol Building.