I loved my time in MO visiting with Stacey and Jeff. They are trying to convince me to move here – hmmmm I may consider it……. maybe as a home base. I am truly enjoying the freedom to go where I want when I want. I’ll admit that I am getting a little tired of moving around so often, but until something comes along to ground me, I’d like to somehow maintain this freedom on some level and continue to get out and see wonderful people and places. It will be interesting to see where my life goes next.

Again, I’m getting ahead of myself. The next two months are going to be crazy!

Stacey did her best to show me some local touristy stuff in MO, and it was so cool! First we went in search of this HUGE field of sunflowers – it was suppose to be yellow everywhere, BUT we were too early in the year and instead, all we saw was green. Fortunately, set apart, some of the sunflowers cooperated and we got some cute pics

We went golfing – I didn’t do too bad for not playing much

Camping at Hawn State Park where it was Christmas in July! Oh and Stacey and I set up this wonderful campsite

We also went to Johnson Shut Ins (look Stace – I finally got the name right!).

You can slip slide your way through the rocks and spend time swimming in some big beautiful pools. It was pretty dang hot, and the water felt fabulous! I think we spent 4 hours here just keeping cool. I had a great moment in the gift shop. I’ve been putting stickers on my tailgate of fun places I’ve been, but I didn’t have my wallet with me. They didn’t take Venmo, and I was about to walk away, when a young lady said “I’ll buy you a sticker!” I thought she was joking and told her no, but she insisted because earlier that day, the same thing happened to her at Dollar General and a random guy paid for her stuff and she needed to Pay it Forward. Totally sweet and now I need to do the same.

Unfortunately, our camping trip was cut short. Poor Stacey hurt her knee and it would have been silly for us to stay. Besides, 4:00 to 9:00 at the camp was super hot and a little miserable, so I think we were all good with leaving early.

I left a couple days later to get to Des Moines for the National Senior Games. I was only there as a spectator, but next year I would love to play! There are all kind of sports: volleyball, basketball, soft ball, pickleball, golf, ping pong, badminton, etc, broken into age groups 50+ 55+ 60+ 65+ and 70+ – How did I NOT know about this sooner!

I am now in Minnesota – catching up with an old friend and seeing new ones. Say hello to Jacqui and did you know there are waterfalls in Minneapolis?!

So wonderful to see her again!

Beware, I downloaded a new app called Atlas Obscura. It’s suppose to show me all the weird things to see as I travel. I hope to see something good, and maybe a little crazy, to share with you soon!

Tip of the day: Always use your stabilizers! I was staying at a winery while in Des Moines, and an ‘almost hurricane’ came up that night. My rig was a rockin and a rollin’! OK, it didn’t roll but it sure felt like I was going to get blown away like Dorothy. I didn’t understand it until the next morning when I noticed I had completely forgot to put my stabilizers down. Ugh!