the great Odyssey begins!!! we traveled to Chicago an there met up with mike and kristi. as we passed thru down town and traveled beneath the L and near the old dental school a tear rolled down my cheek. i recovered quickly to enjoy reminiscing with sharon about our early pioneer homestead on wood court. the red door has been replaced by a blue one but most everything else seemed the same. we traveled north into Wisconsin and as promised by or companions saw sights that stirred the soul.


















the jelly belly factory was a grand tour ( actually it's just an warehouse) but they have a lot of cool free sample to try like puke, dirt, earthworms and ear wax and it all taste so much like the real thing!! we saw museums, aquariums, factories and tons of historical sites. In dubque Iowa we were cast into the street by masses of people attending two college and one high school homecoming and were told that the nearest inn was 60 miles away but we were taken in by a nice old Indian couple and given the best rooms in the house. ours rivaled any anniversary inn suite. did you know that in the near future catfish will be produce in larger quantities in the USA than beef? we visited the field of dreams where mike stole corn from left field to bring home and plant. he kept saying "grow it and they will come" or something like that. we stood in awe looking at ball fields and stadiums that are legends to most sports fans. circus world was amazing, standing among the spectacles, circus wagons and side shows of years past. the farms and fall leaves were gorgeous and i was inspired to come home and mow my fields. we toured mich tech university in houghton, michigan, grandpa anderton's alma mater (at least it was for several months.) i never realized just how big and beautiful the great lakes are. it looked like an ocean of fresh water. you could not see land on the other side. as we worked our way thru upper michigan we visited the soo locks that seperate the US and canada and crossed the mackinaw bridge, toured the ford truck plant and the ford presidential museum, and finally arriving in columbus ohio were we had a joyous reunion with jami and brett.
we spent a couple of days in their lovely home and had the great thrill of the ohio state and michigan state football game. it was a great trip but always nice to get home and fall into a familiar bed. thanks mike and kristi for a great trip

Wenatchee, here we come!! The often planned but never happens trip to get mom and dad up to see Mike and Kristi finally gets on the road. The motor home gave us the opportunity to have a place to sleep, eat, potty and work crossword puzzles all while on the move. Actually things went really smooth and the drive didn't seem too bad at all and everyone survived rather well





Things were pretty comfy inside and plenty of opportunity to visit and watch the scenery. Mom spent a lot of the time resting on the bed in back but sleep was hard to come by. It seems that every bump in the road was multiplied and she bounced all over the place.







Mike and Kristi have a beautiful home and Wenatchee is a beautiful place to live. They are surrounded by groves of fruit trees in every conceivable corner. The peach season was over, the pears on the last leg but the apples were everywhere. No matter what direction you traveled you were surrounded by trees full of apples and trucks loaded with them heading to the storage and juice facilities.




We spent a couple days of R&R in their home before heading back.











We met the
Duke and toured his personal museum





We peered into the world of collecting and organizing. And to think that at one time trading cards use to decorate bubble gum packs.










And to top it all off we had a visit from Elvis. No wonder he was so famous!!




Just up the street from Wenatchee is the town of Leavenworth. It reminded us of some of the
towns we drove through in Europe All in all we had a great trip and mom and dad were happy to finally see Mike and Kristi's home. We feel we were blessed to all do so well.