Day 100 ~ Wide Open Spaces Tour 2012 ~ IL to Michigan !!!

Wide Open Spaces Tour ends 100 days 10,000+ miles

Limestone

Covered a lot of ground in 100 days!!

Day 99 ~ Wide Open Spaces Tour 2012 ~ MO to IL

Long couple of days driving now . . .

 

We drove through a lot of the "Fly over States" that Jason Aldean sang about in this song

Couple guys in first class on a flight from New York to Los Angeles 

Kinda making small talk, killin' time,

Flirtin' with the flight attendants

Thirty thousand feet above what would be Oklahoma
Just a bunch of square corn fields and wheat farms,

Man it all looks the same

Miles and miles of back roads and highways

Connecting little towns with funny names

Who'd wanna live down there, in the middle of nowhere

 
They've never drove through Indiana

Met the man who plowed that earth

Planted that seed, busted his ass for you and me

Or caught a harvest moon in Kansas

They'd understand why God made those fly over states

I bet that mile haul in Santa Fe freight train engineer's seen it all

Just like that flat bed cowboy stacking US steel

 on a three day haul Roads and rails under their feet,

Yeah that sounds like a first class seat

On the plains of Oklahoma

With a windshield sunset in your eyes

Like a water-color painted sky

You'll think heaven's doors have opened

You'll understand why God made

Those fly over states

 
Take a ride across the Badlands

Feel that freedom on your face

Breathe in all that open space

And meet a girl from Amarillo

You'll understand why God made...

You might even wanna plant your stakes

In those fly over states Yeah

Have you ever been through Indiana

On the plains of Oklahoma

Take a ride

Missouri River

Capital Building near the Missouri River

Nice Bridge

NOT Nice Bridge !!  Too narrow!

One state closer to home !

Last of our "Wide Open Space" pictures

Joliet IL ~ Reminds us of when Joe & Barb lived here

BUGS !

Coal

Watching Game 4 with a view of the lake we camped on in Joliet

Day 98 ~ Wide Open Spaces Tour 2012 ~ California, Missouri

WOW !!!  How time flies ~ I can't believe it has been 37 years since I was here last (7-14-1975)

So many of my favorite memories were clearer today!  The table where I learned how to play Pinochle; the chicken-coop I had to get eggs in the morning; the cow pasture I remember feeding the cows off the back of the pick up. . . one week with my Mom's Aunts and Uncle 37 years; great memories . . . 

Jefferson City Capital Building in the distance

Pictures of downtown California Missouri

 

Motel ~ that's an old one!

 

 Aunt Geneva's HOUSE !! 

My mom's grandma's clock ~ doesn't work anymore

 

 WE FOUND Aunt Kathyrn's house too!

Only thing I could see from the front door; all the shades were drawn ~ Michael said he has not changed a thing in the house

Rose bushes along the front walk

The pasture is still beautiful ~ just missing the cows

 Chicken-Coop

Barn is still standing too!

Drove into Jeff City too