We ARE in Kansas...Toto

Well folks we are in Kansas, Junction City, Kansas...
Kansas is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area.The tribe's name (natively kką:ze) is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind", although this was probably not the term's original meaning. For thousands of years, what is now Kansas was home to numerous and diverse Native American tribes. Tribes in the eastern part of the state generally lived in villages along the river valleys. Tribes in the western part of the state were semi-nomadic and hunted large herds of bison.
Kansas was first settled by European Americans in 1812, in what is the now Bonner Springs, Kansas, but the pace of settlement accelerated in the 1850s, in the midst of political wars over the slavery issue. When it was officially opened to settlement by the U.S. Kansas entered the Union as a free state so after the Civil War, the population of Kansas grew rapidly when immigrants turned the prairie into farmland.
Today, Kansas is one of the most productive agricultural states, producing high yields of wheat, corn, sorghum, and soybeans. There is a lot of flat land and some rolling type hills around here, Junction City founded in 1857 is located in the heart of Kansas, Junction City sprang up around Fort Riley, an active duty post known as the birthplace of the 7th Cavalry. Named for its location at the junction of the Republican and Smoky Hills rivers and the junctions of of three railroads, the Kansas Pacific (going east-west); the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas (going south); and the Junction City and Fort Kearney (going north). Junction City is surrounded by history...a lot of the building here show it! We have been having loads of fun spending time with the grandkids....there is a lot of spoiling going on round here!
                                                                 

Elizabeth 

Sammy

   

Missouri

We arrived in St Louis Missouri around 4pm and we stayed in a RV park called Sunset RV Park, it is kinda off the beaten path, and believe me when I tell you...it is in the middle of nowhere! When we drove to it, Pierre and were looking at each other..a little worried...but it turned to be a hidden gem! We took the cats out for a short walk, but they were not feeling it's. Minx is sick with the upper respiratory, so I have been giving her Navi's medicine, as soon as we get to Jordan's and Kristen's house and get Espirt settled in, I am going to take her to a vet!
I did a little studying on the state of Missouri and here is what I found! Missouri is in the Midwestern region of the United States, and in the south of Missouri are the Ozarks, a forested highland, providing timber, minerals, and recreation. The Mississippi River forms the eastern border of the state. When the French established Louisiana, a part of New France, they founded St. Louis in 1764. After a brief period of Spanish rule, the United States acquired the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Americans from the Upland South, including enslaved African Americans, rushed into the new Missouri Territory. Many from Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee settled in Mid-Missouri. Missouri played a central role in the westward expansion of the United States, as memorialized by the Gateway Arch. The Pony Express, Oregon Trail, Santa Fe Trail, and California Trail all began in Missouri. Fun fact about the pony express, it only lasted for about 19 months, but it was the catalyst that launched the high speed mail, the Pony Express didn’t come cheap so regular peeps never used it, the service was mainly used to deliver newspaper reports, government dispatches and business documents, most of which were printed on tissue-thin paper to keep costs down. Despite operating for only 19 months, its riders had successfully delivered some 35,000 pieces of mail and traveled more than half a million miles across the American frontier.
Missouri's culture blends elements from the Midwestern and Southern United States. The musical styles of ragtime, Kansas City jazz, and St. Louis Blues, developed in Missouri. The Kansas City-style barbecue is well known and St. Louis is also home to Anheuser-Busch is the largest beer producers in the world. U.S. President Harry S. Truman is from Missouri as well as Mark Twain, and Walt Disney. Missouri has been called the "Mother of the West" and the "Cave State," however, Missouri's most famous nickname is the "Show Me State. After Missouri we headed for Kansas, Fort Riley to be exact, it is about 2hours west of Kansas City!  It was a long a drive but all four of us made it intact and we are currently holed up at a small RV park called Owls Neat Campground! We will be here for a few weeks to help our daughter! I'll keep everyone abreast of all the cool things to see in Junction City Kansas..LOL

Onward Ho

We left Panama City at 11:41, after the post office didn't deliver our new GPS, oh well.... hopefully we won't get lost, or better yet hopefully we will!...We are planning to make it to Montgomery Alabama and stop there for the night! Montgomery is the capital of the state of Alabama and is the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for Richard Montgomery, it is located on the Alabama River, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. It is the second-largest city in Alabama, after Birmingham, and the 103rd largest in the United States. We stayed at a campsite on the outskirts near the highway we need to take in the morning, Awesome....we are on the way to  Memphis!

Here is a little bit about Memphis, Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the State of Tennessee and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the fourth Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers. Memphis is famous for the influential strains of blues, soul and rock 'n' roll that originated there. Elvis Presley, B.B. King and Johnny Cash recorded albums at the legendary Sun Studio.  Elvis Presley’s Graceland mansion, Beale Street, Arcade Restaurant, which was a favorite of Elvis, are just a few things to see in Memphis. The Yellow Fever nearly wiped out Memphis' population in the 1870's.

Memphis is the largest city in the state of Tennessee, the largest city on the Mississippi River, the third largest in the Southeastern United States, and the 20th largest in the United States. Navi turned out to be the navigator I thought he would be, he did really well today in the RV, he's going to one traveling cat! We stayed the night in the parking lot of a Walmart about an hour outside of Memphis, this will be a first for us...dry camping! Lol
Well after some trouble with the car and the refrigerator we had to stay a couple of days in Memphis, we found a wonderful camping spot, called Tom Sawyer RV park we got a spot right on the river and it had been so much fun watching the tugs in tow go by! After we fixed everything we had an afternoon to see a few things close by! We went downtown to Beale Street It's one of the most famous entertainment streets in America, bringing Memphis' blues and world famous barbecue!

But Beale Street began more than 100 years ago as one of the few places African Americans could shop, then called the Jim Crow South because blacks couldn't go up on Main Street or other areas.

As the business district and number of Black businesses grew over the years, so did the energy on Beale Street, especially after dark. Music brought a who's who list of names to Beale--- B.B. King. Elvis. W.C. Handy, Sam Phillips, Al Green, Ike and Tina Turner and Johnny Cash during the 20th century.
As a major African American street it took center stage during the Civil Rights era.
Martin Luther King Jr. marched on Beale, the last three big moments in his life were on Beale.
Today  Beale Street is one of the largest revenue-grossing attractions in the state of Tennessee, and the sights and sounds around this world-famous street help its story live on.
There is also a huge Bass Pro Shop in the shape of a pyramid right on the river, so of course we had to go there, it is one of the most dynamic and immersive retail experiences ever! It’s more than a store; it’s an adventure! In addition to an incredible assortment of fishing, boating, hunting and outdoor gear, this store includes a 103-room hotel with treehouse cabins, called Big Cypress Lodge, they also have over 600,000 gallons of water all over the store,   filled with over 1,800 fish! They made it look like a cypress swamp with alligator pools and duck aviaries. You can also take the elevator to the the top of the pyramid, which is 32 stories, for a breathtaking view of downtown Memphis! It was fun and kinda scary because the floor of the observance deck was glass!

Tomorrow its on to St Louis!

 These tree house at the Tom Sawyer RV Park were made by the "Tree House Master" the ones that are on TV...they were so neat!

River boat

Tug and tow

Onward ho!

Count down has begun

Pierre and I drove to Atlanta last weekend to pick up a new kitten, we have been waiting for 6 months to get him and we were very excited to meet our new baby! He is a sorrel or cinnamon Abyssinian. Our very first cat was a Abby, Tokyo Joe was with us for 12 years and we loved him very much, that is when we fell in love with the breed, they are very loyal, loving and stay kitten like for their whole lives. Here is a little tidbit about the Abby breed .
Abby's are named  after Abyssinia (now called Ethiopia), the empire from which they were first thought to have originated; more recent research now places their origins somewhere nearer the Egyptian coast. Abyssinians are a slender, fine-boned, medium-sized cat. They have alert, and relatively large pointed ears. Abyssinians are claimed to be one of the oldest known breeds and there continues to be speculation and controversy concerning this history, the claim is that the sacred cats pictured on ancient Egyptian artifacts and hieroglyphics must have been Abyssinian cats and that is why it is suggested that this breed is the oldest in existence. In appearance, Abyssinians resemble the paintings and sculptures of ancient Egyptian cats which portray an elegant feline with a muscular body, beautiful arched neck, large ears and almond shaped eyes. Abby's today still retain the jungle look of felis lybica, the African wildcat ancestor of all domestic cats.The first Abyssinians to be imported to North America from England arrived in the early 1900s, and are noted to be one of the most popular breeds today!

We think he will do fine in the RV being a kitten, Minx is slowly warming to him, she has started playing with him and they take turns chasing each other. But mousers they are not, I was cleaning the bathroom the other day and with both cats, being the helpers that they are, were in there with me when I looked up and a mouse walked by the bathroom door and out into the living room. Minx looked at it then at me and then she laid down! For two days we have chased that silly mouse from room to room, trying to get it out of the house, with both of the cats watching us, secretly laughing at us behind our backs! We finally cornered it in the closet and Pierre took it outside! I sure hope the little one becomes a better mouser, I do not mind the little creatures, but not in my house!
We are getting ready to leave on the trip in about 10 days so we are scrambling to get the last things done and get the RV packed up! Pierre dropped the new Garmin and busted it, so it had to go back to Garmin and they are sending us a new one, then we are waiting on a piece for the engine, hopefully they both will come in next week and we can get gone on Monday the 16th. We are heading to Kansas to visit Kristin, Jordan and the grandkids, Jordan's has to go away for 10 days and I want to be able to be there to help Kristin!