GrandGirls!

So...Like I said, we brought the grandgirls with us when we came to Arkansas.  Yes, I know "grandgirl" isn't a "real" word.  But it should be.  "Granddaughter" just never looks right to me.  Those 2 d's in the middle.  They bug me.  Plus, it's just too long and formal sounding.  Plus, I don't have any grandsons.  So grandchildren sounds wrong, too.  So, "grandgirls" it is.  Because they're girls.  And the are grand.  So there.  Glad that's settled.  

But while we're on this subject (words) my autocorrect keeps changing ya'll to y'all.  I understand the reasoning - You + all = y'all.  But in Texas, we don't say "how are you?"  We say "How are ya?"  It's not that we can't speak correctly when the occasion calls for it. It just sounds friendlier our way.  So... singular..."How are ya?"  Plural..."How are ya'll?"  Thank you.

Back to Arkansas.  The girls made the 6 hour drive from home with barely a whimper.  Around the Red River there was one sort of whiny "How much longer?"  But when I said about 20 minutes, there were cheers!

The next day we went to Historic Washington State Park.  Cowboy and I have been there before.  I wrote about it here. ( http://myblog-grammykay.blogspot.com/2013/06/historic-washington-state-park.html )

 I've been wanting to take the girls ever since.  It was a wonderful day.

Lovely medicinal herb garden behind the Purdom House, where one of the town's doctors lived.

This is the 10 year old carding wool at the Sanders Home and Farmstead.

Then the docent, Keshia, showed us how to turn the carded wool into thread.

The old newspaper office was fascinating, with printing presses from several different eras.

She loved playing "judge" in the old courthouse.

Huge Catalpa tree outside the courthouse.

They say this pine tree was grown from a seed that went to the moon with our astronauts.

This magnolia tree was planted in 1839.  It is huge!

Cowboy and the girls.

Pretty little red flowers.  I don't know what they are.

I don't know what these are either.  But there were fields of them on the way to the park.  Pretty.

The rest of the time the girls were here was spent swimming, eating and playing games.  Oh, we also went to Hope one day and toured Bill Clinton's birthplace.  I just love people who work in our national and state parks and museums.  They are always so friendly.

It is very quiet here now, since the girls have gone home.  We are really looking forward to our friends from church arriving on Saturday.  That should liven things up a bit.

For now, I'll leave you with this prayer...

"The Lord bless thee and keep thee:  The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:  The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace."  Numbers 6:24-26.

The Plan

So, here's why I'm so excited about this particular trip - we are having company!!!   Lots of company!

So, here's the plan:

First stop, Ocean Canyon's Millwood Landing RV Park, near Ashdown, Arkansas.  (As members of Ocean Canyon, we stay for "free" at any of their RV parks throughout the southeastern U.S. - that is, it's free after a hefty buy-in and annual maintenance fees)

 We left home a week ago, but we didn't leave home alone...we brought our two beautiful grandgirls with us!  They stayed with us four days, then we met their parents halfway, and they went home to begin home school this week.  We had such a good time.  I adore those precious girls.

But wait...that's not all.  Before we leave Millwood Landing, we have more friends coming to visit.  Some friends from church are coming this weekend to stay for 3 nights.  The guys will play golf and us women-folk will do whatever we want.  

Soon after they have to leave, we will be heading  to a lovely Corps of Engineers park a little farther north where we will stay 3 or 4 days.  We hope to see some of Cowboy's family in Mena, Arkansas on the way.

Then, we will head to Ocean Canyon's newest park, Compton Ridge, near Branson, Missouri.  We love Branson, and we are so excited that OC finally has an RV Park there.  But we are even more excited that our BFF's from home are meeting us in Branson for a whole week!  These folks really are our Best Friends Forever - we have been friends for nearly 40 years, which is real close to forever.  When we travel, I miss them 'bout as much as I miss family.

AND, speaking of family - when we leave Branson, there is a very good chance that our daughter, her husband, and those two precious grandgirls will meet us in Grove, Oklahoma at Ocean Canyon's Bear's Den RV Park.  That's not a sure thing yet, but I have high hopes.  Our son says he can't make it, but I haven't completely given up on him, either.

Cowboy wants to stop a few days at Lake Tenkiller after we leave Grove, then we will be heading home.

So there you have it...five stops on this trips, with company from home at the three major stops.  This is what I've always dreamed of...being able to travel this beautiful country, and bringing my family and friends with me!

So, there's the plan.  We did some fun (and educational) stuff while the grandgirls were here last week.  I'll write more about that, and post pictures, tomorrow.

The Rest of the Story...

Wow.  Busy Summer, I guess.  I haven't done too well at this "catching up" thing I said I would do.  Well, here's the rest of our trip in a nutshell.  Enjoy.

In many ways, this trip wasn't nearly long enough. About three weeks.  We saw so many wonderful things, and traveled to so many places where neither of us had ever been before.  This is only a tiny fraction of the pictures I took.  But, this trip was spent in hotels except for the week in Blaine, where our dear friends generously shared their two bedroom condo with us.  It's hard to sleep in a bed that who-knows-who has slept in when you get used to sleeping in your own bed in your own home-on-wheels.  So, we were thrilled to get home.  

Actually, we are always thrilled to get home.  We love to travel, but we missing family and friends is a constant ache.  That's why I'm so excited about the trip we are on right now!  Can't wait to tell you about it!  Maybe tomorrow....

We got to visit with missionary Suzanne Perry in Vancouver, British Columbia.  Here we are in Vancouver Rain Forest.  L-R, Cowboy, Suzanne, our friends Rita & Jim.

Garden on the Vancouver University campus.  Gorgeous!

The Cowboy was so excited to find a real old fashioned phone booth!

International Peace Arch

Under the Peace Arch.

View from our condo.

Jim and Rita flew home after our week in Blaine, Washington.  And the Cowboy and I hit the road again.  We saw buffalo at Teddy Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.

We saw Mount Rushmore in South Dakota....

Carhenge was in Nebraska...

The largest copy of a Van Gogh painting I've ever seen was in Kansas...

And, our last night on the road, we stopped at Shamrock, Texas.  This is the old filling station on Route 66 that inspired the station in the movie "Cars".  Recognize Mater?