MidWest Tour (Day 7) - Carbondale, Illinois


We wanted to see a movie (Avengers)  - this theatre wasn't open




We wanted to see a movie (Avengers) - this theatre was open




Todd and Rebekah's Business




Mom tried to take a nap in the wrong place at the wrong time!



Todd and Rebekah - proud gardeners



MidWest Tour (Day 5) - Today was Mo Med day.  John joined us for breakfast at the hotel (a Pyne family tradition) and then we toured Fort Leonard Wood.  We first went to the US Army Engineer Museum.  John had a promising conversation with a Lt. Col while I asked around to see if anyone knew my big brother Ron when he was here in 1970 - no one did.  For lunch we went to Mama Mia, a mediteranean restaurant and had gyros (pronounced  heroes by Dad, yearos by Mom and euros by John).  We then traveled to Rolla (pronounced Rawla by the locals) and visited a route 66 gift shop (not much different than the one in Clines Corners, NM) - just 1200 miles away.  After driving around this attractive town we settled on Mediteranean food at Gordoz - which was excellent.  It was a Mo Med day because we had More Mediteranean food -of the Missouri [MO] variety - in one day than we have ever had in our lives. At day's end we all crashed in the motel bed.

MidWest Tour (Day 4) - We left Aaron & Erika and Junction City this morning and headed southeast to see John at Fort Leonard Wood.  On the way we took a little detour to see the new Kansas City Missouri Temple which will be dedicated tomorrow.  It was nice and quiet around the temple which gave us a chance to tour the grounds in solitude.  We had favorable weather while we traveled through Missouri and arrived at John's just in time to help him with laundry.  Since John was up at 3 am and went on a six mile run (with a 35 pound backpack), we decided to make it an early evening.

MidWest Trip (Day 3) - We spent a wonderful day today with Aaron.  His new hobby is geology and "salvage ops" - most of his work is conducted at Fort Riley.  Then we strolled the trails around Millford Lake with Zoe.  Next we toured historic downtown Junction City and found some fabulous shops - and they have "green" here.  We capped off the day at Olive Garden (in Manhattan, KS) with Erika.

Mid West Tour (Day 2 continued) - After Liberal, Kansas we had lunch in Dodge City. 

MidWest Tour (Day 2) - After an "aromatic" overnight stay in Dalhart, Texas (stockyard capital of Texas), we continued our journey eastward.  As soon as we crossed the Kansas border we found Dorothy's home (from the Wizard of Oz).  When I posed "under the house", one of the workers was afraid that I fell down.  I just assumed everyone that visited Dorothy's house posed as the wicked witch of the east - guess not. 

Mid-West Tour (Day One) - heading east toward Kansas we stopped at Clines Corners, New Mexico.  We hear about this place everyday when they talk about New Mexico weather - it is usually windy here.  Today we explored the "World Famous Travel Center".  My assumption is, that anyone with a website can call themselves "World Famous"  Here we are in the travel center's vast gift shop.