Big Red Barn RV Park and A Big Family Dinner

Note from Doug: At this point, I would like to point out that I have not yet driven the motorhome (as of the date I published this blog, September 28). Thanks to Marlon for all the good driving! Keep it up!

Tuesday, September 4-We made our way to Carthage, Missouri in the southern portion of the state. Carthage is the home of Precious Moments and the Big Red Barn RV Park.

Here we are at our RV Site.

We ARE really there. Marlon's there behind the camera...Doug's there inside the RV. And, yes, they DO have a Big Red Barn.

The surrounding area includes Joplin, Webb City and Carterville. Doug has relatives in all 4 towns. And Marlon got to meet them all.

Doug's Aunt Brenda arranged to have a family dinner at her house. This was a huge undertaking! And yet she still managed to look happy after all the cooking. Here she is with one of her four granddaughters.

Thank you Brenda!

And we also need to thank Brenda's husband, Norm, for allowing the family to invade their home. Here he is with another granddaughter.

The whole family thanks God and anyone else who had a part in Brenda and Norm surviving their recent bouts with cancer (Brenda in 2005 and Norm in 2006).

Doug's Aunt Patty came over to Brenda's early and took Doug and Marlon for a drive around town. She took us to Arby's where we ordered 5 for $5.95 between the two of us. She promptly treated us and told us we were cheap dates. Here she is sitting with one of her cheap dates.

Patty is an animal lover, as everyone should be. She feeds and provides a home for many cats and dogs. She recently discovered she was even feeding a skunk!

Patty, Marlon and Doug drove to Carthage to pick up the oldest member of the family currently living in the area. Doug's Grand Aunt Wilma (we looked up this alternative term to Great Aunt and decided Grand sounds...well Grander) is the sister of his late grandfather, Ray Palmer.

Here are Aunt Wilma, age 91, Doug and another of Doug's oldest relatives living in the area, Doug's Aunt Linda.

All totaled, 20 relatives came by and pictures of almost all of them can be viewed at http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/september/dinner-at-brendas/ .

Regrets to Cousin Kim and Aunt Terri. Somehow we missed taking pictures of you at this dinner, but we'll have your pictures on another post!

Before leaving Brenda's house, Sidney, Brenda's oldest granddaughter, entertained us with a song from High School Musical, which her school will be producing this fall. Here's a video of Sidney.

Of course being the animal lovers that we are, we got four pictures of the puppy that was just visiting.

To be continued...

Rest of Independence Visit and Another Friendly Lunch

While we visited Doug's parents, they were kind enough to let us park in their driveway and hook up to their electricity.

We only blew one fuse...oops. We had done that at our own house the first time we rented a motorhome for a vacation.

Here is our RV in their driveway.

In order to park in their driveway, Bob had to move his motorhome over to their neighbor Thelma's driveway. Thank you, Thelma!

Here's Bob's motorhome...it is a classic GMC motorhome. He has put a Route 66 logo on the side of it as he is a member of the Route 66 Association of Missouri. This group helps keep the memory of Route 66 alive.

Saturday, September 1-Doug and Marlon drove over to Leawood, Kansas and had lunch with Carla. Carla was Doug's supervisor when he worked at Lofgren & Company from 1990-1994 in Kansas City. She opened up her own successful CPA practice in 1996.

We stopped by Jean's work to see how the Office Cat, Miss Kitty, was adapting to her new environment. Although cats often have difficulty getting used to a new home, she didn't seem to be doing too bad.

Sunday, September 2-Jean took us to one of her favorite Mexican Restaurants in Independence, Las Fuentes. Phyllis joined us and we all enjoyed the food.

Tuesday, September 4-We got together with Bob and Jean for a final group picture before pulling out of the driveway and heading to Southern Missouri to visit more of Doug's relatives.

To see more pictures of our visit, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/september/the-rest-of-our-ind/ .

To be continued...

Santa-Cali-Gon Days

Today was the opening of Santa-Cali-Gon Days on the Independence Square. It is a festival celebrating the location in Downtown Independence where the Santa Fe, California & the Oregon trails met.

Jean, Phyllis, Doug and Marlon were 4 of the over 200,000 visitors to the festival this year.

We went Friday evening when the crowds were not yet large and the weather was just right, in the 80's.

Phyllis tried on this hat made of paper (I guess that makes it a paper hat). It folds up flat.

Doug and Jean enjoyed the ice cream sundaes sold by one of the participating church volunteers.

After a couple of hours of walking around and looking at the wares for sale Phyllis, Marlon, and Jean take a breather and listen to some of the live music.

To see a few more pictures of Santa-Cali-Gon Days go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/august/santa-cali-gon-inde/ .

To be continued...