Crossing the Middle

    According to this sign not too far east of where we spent last night, we are now over half way across the country, but of course this sign doesn't take into account Maine which is further east than New York and to which we traveled from California. We are way more than half way through this incredible journey around the United States, with probably just two more states to visit on our way home to California. And we are a little more than a quarter of the way through this "Retirement Sabbatical Year of Discernment." So, what have I discerned so far? I do feel things "shifting" in me some how, but not sure I can fully articulate that. I am not feeling as "driven" as I often have in the past and I live with less anxiety than I have sometimes experienced when it has felt like there was too much to do. One thing I anticipated before retirement was that once I was retired and we were on the road I might feel regrets and a loss of sense of purpose, but happily that has not been the case. What we are doing and how we are doing it just feels right, though I can sometimes conjure up feelings that I should feel more obligated to be "doing" something to better the world. Those feelings are not real, and I always come back to feeling we are where we belong trying to interact with all we encounter with grace and compassion. Do I have any regrets about the past three months? The only one that I can think of is that I didn't buy a case of birch beer for the journey when we were in and near Pennsylvania. It's very similar to root beer, but I like it better - think I was probably first introduced to it at a family reunion in Pennsylvania 48 years ago. Do I miss preaching and the pulpit? Not much, though I do of course miss the attachments to folks in the church and community. I feel a sense of completion to that part of my vocational history, though I don't rule out the possibility of being called back to serve a church sometime in the future. There is no sense of that call for me right now. We look forward to "settling down" for three months as campground hosts at Samuel P. Taylor State Park near San Rafael in California, but we are not anxious for this road trip to end and want to savor the few weeks remaining.

    On Tuesday, September 29, we left the Cracker Barrel parking lot in Jackson, Mississippi and headed toward Arkansas. We totally enjoyed our short visit with our grandson, but Jackson was certainly not our favorite spot, but of course no cities have been our destination on this trip. As we drove out of Jackson we encountered the roughest driving surfaces of the entire trip on a few blocks of city streets through an obviously poor neighborhood. We commented at the time that the streets were the roughest road surface we'd encountered, and it was proven so later when we both found that the hangers with clothes in our closets had jumped off the rods. We have driven some pretty rough miles on country gravel and paved roads and searching for off the beaten track campgrounds, but nothing can beat the roughness of those poorly kept Jackson streets.

    After spending the night at Willow Beach Campground near Little Rock, Arkansas on Tuesday we went in search again of a place to get LesThora's oil changed. We gave up on finding a jiffy lube type place where we would be able to stay inside with the cats and found an RV service center that promised to keep the door closed while they did the oil change. The cats don't try to escape when anyone opens a door, but if one were left standing open Elsie would definitely take advantage of the situation! After the successful oil change we headed to Hot Springs National Park. We didn't arrive at the first come first serve campground until 4:00 PM so there were of course no sites left. There was KOA very close by so that's where we decided to spend the night before trying to get a spot in the campground the next morning so we could spend the day enjoying Hot Springs National Park. We did explore a bit in the park that night by driving by the historic bathhouses and coming to the end of a two way street with no place to turn around in 26 foot LesThora. The street went one way to our right and had a sign that said, "No vehicles over 30 feet." Good thing LesThora is only 26 feet. We wondered how longer vehicles would have managed with no place to turn around. The one way road was a switch back road up and over Hot Springs Mountain where there is an observation tower at the top. We were happy to have been forced that direction!

The parking lot style campsite of Hot Springs National Park KOA. Actually it was a very nice campground for a KOA and I got some much needed laundry done.

I wondered just what this tower was as we approached Hot Springs National Park on Wednesday, September 30. Was it some kind of "beefed up" cell tower? No, it was the observation tower at the top of Hot Springs National Park that we were "forced" to drive to. We were glad we did. We did pay to go up in the tower. We had the choice of walking or taking the elevator. I would have preferred to walk up, but we didn't have much time before the tower closed. It was neat to view the surrounding area and the park from that vantage point, but I left my phone/camera in LesThora so didn't get any pictures from up there. We did take the stairs down.

    On Thursday morning, October 1, we arrived at the Gulpha Gorge Campground at Hot Springs National Park around 9:00 AM and took the only empty campsite available. We only saw one other site become available that morning and it was quickly taken. It was really a pretty location with some nice trails to explore. We hiked into town where the visitor's center and historic bath houses are located. This is definitely an unusual National Park, but boasts of being the first land set aside by our nation to preserve a natural resource, the springs. Most of the historic bathhouses have been turned into other things, like the National Park visitor center, since hot spring bathing for health has lost it's draw. We were glad we visited this park, but it's not one we feel we have to come back and spend more time at in the future.

Turtle or Tortoise? 

When we encountered this on our hike it's head was completely tucked in. We had to back away for the head to come out - didn't ever see the feet before we moved on.

Looking down a very steep portion of the trail into town.

Looking up from the same location at the very steep portion we'd come down.

On a sign at the bottom of the steep decline we learned that this steep trail was part of "The Terrain Cure" implemented by Dr. William P. Parks in 1915 - a scientific system of mountain climbing called the Oertel System of Graduated Exercise. We kept thinking about what it was going to be like to climb back up on our return to camp - it turned out much easier than we'd anticipated.

A Hot spring coming out of the ground. We touched the water - yes, it was very hot!

Part of the half mile long bricked surface Promenade above the old bath houses.

    Our next National Park destination is Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, and I wanted to drive the whole length of Kansas before getting there so we decided to drive north from Hot Springs National Park on Arkansas Scenic Byway 7 through the Ozark Mountains toward Missouri. It was indeed a beautiful drive, complete with the beginning of fall colors.

Rotary Ann Rest Stop on Hwy 7

We wondered about the name and there was a sign to explain it. It the 1930s the wives of local Rotarians, known as Rotary Anns decided that this beautiful byway needed a rest stop and the Rotary club sponsored its construction. It was the first official rest stop in Arkansas.

One of the observation decks at Rotary Ann Rest Stop

Another beautiful Army Corps of Engineers Campgrounds - 

this one just across the lake from Branson, Missouri

    We didn't spend much time in Missouri - just camped for the night and walked around a bit by the campground before heading on to Kansas where we found a nice city park for $10 with electricity in Parsons. We walked into town from the campground and enjoyed the tree lined streets, and found a good Mexican restaurant for dinner. Our first impression of Kansas was very positive.

A tree turning color in Parsons, Kansas.

    Sunday, October 5, being the first Sunday of October, was World Communion Sunday, a day when Christians all over the world celebrate communion in a rare experience of Christian unity across the denominations. In Eureka there are three churches that have had the tradition for many, many years of coming together in the street to celebrate together. I admit to a bit of nostalgia as I thought about the past eight years of celebrating World Communion Sunday with our United Methodist Church, the Baptist Church across the street and the Nazarene Church a block or two away. After we left Parsons on Sunday morning we saw a sign for Eureka, Kansas, just a mile off our route so we made a detour and even found the Eureka United Methodist Church. We head on west and north to Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve where we enjoyed a hike amongst the prairie grasses and the bison. We found a wonderful, free, campground on a fishing lake to spend the night before heading west across the windy Kansas prairie to last night's resting place in Dodge City, Kansas.

Rob and I celebrated communion in LesThora on Sunday morning.

There is more than one Eureka in the U.S. 

Actually there are over 20 Eurekas. We have also been to Eureka, Nevada in the past.

Eureka United Methodist Church, Kansas.

The Kansas state flower. 

This was very near the end of these sunflowers' growing season, 

but I did manage to catch this one in a picture.

The prairie and a bison on our hike.

Cottonwoods at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

A killdeer sitting on one of the rock fences at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.

There were thirty miles of fences like this built by the rancher who originally developed this area.

Chase State Fishing Lake near Cottonwood Falls, Kansas - a nice spot to spend the night.

The waterfall near Chase Lake - there wasn't much water in it, but it was pretty.

An historical marker along the journey.

    Since Dodge City was really not far out of our way we thought we needed to make a stop here. We decided to stay in the Dodge City KOA instead of a free camping spot a few miles east right on the highway on the windswept open prairie. We're glad we did. It wasn't very expensive because they have begun winter rates and it was just a short walk to town and the historic section of town around Boot Hill. We walked into and around the historic section, read lots of historic signs and found it all interesting, especially how the history is told rather "slant." For instance, there were often references to Dance Halls and Dance Hall girls, but no brothels were mentioned in the wild and crazy old west days of Dodge City. I was struck by the fact that Dodge City was settled in 1872, 22 years after Eureka, California.

Rob riding a "cow" at the entrance to Dodge City

Our Campground was less than a mile from Boot Hill.

On arriving at Old Highway 86 campground in Missouri there were lots of red squirrels running around outside LesThora. The cats got quite animated when they saw them. Here is Straus as if to say, "Can't I go chase them?"

And here is Elsie, "You sure I can't go out and catch one?"