Paws and Friends

Millbrook, IL Jellystone Park Currently 67  Cloudy    High 70  Low 57   Humidity 87%  Dew Point 63 We have been dodging severe storms:  rain, hail, thunder storms, since leaving Arizona mid April. Well, our dodging effectiveness continues, but this time it was plenty close! The Weather Channel described the storm as a super cell, spawning the 9 tornadoes. Based on this article from the Chicago Tribune , Lindy created the map below.  You can see the path, going south east, going south of the Riders. Click on the picture to make it larger. We had our phones and tablet out, each of us following the alerts we received on our phone from WeatherCall and Weather Channel Alerts. Lindy was tracking radar on the tablet, making it larger to make a better determination of location, confirming that each on-coming wave would not be a "direct hit".....  But that didn't make us feel any better! Doesn't a warning mean to take immediate shelter? The she...

Chatham, IL  76    Low 70     Rain showers.... Cape Girardeau, Missouri, lots of history, great historic section of town, nice murals on the flood walls built to control flooding, and the world's only inland cape! Oh, and Andy's Custard, which we liked better than Culver's! (our humble opinion only...) There is much more--the above stands out from our recent brief visit. We were attracted to the historic part of town, the flood wall, and the murals painted on the flood wall. While there, Lindy discovered an EarthCache, Cape Girardeau Floods . (Create a log-in, it is  Sunday 6-14-15 free!). This type of cache is a challenge, as you have to find answers to a series of questions about a unique geological feature or aspect of the Earth from the area of the cache. This one was fun, if not a bit scary regarding the history of flooding of the Mississippi into the city. The day we were there, the river was at the "bottom" of flood stage, 32 feet. You ...

Currently in Horn Lake, Mississippi 86 degrees, feels like 94....   (dew point 69!)   High:  90   Low:  72 New bus, Memphis Jellystone Horn Lake, MI Frequent readers of this blog will remember that a month ago we traded in the Phaeton for a 37 AP Allegro Bus at Davis Motorhome Mart in Memphis. A month of travels has raised some issues best addressed by the selling dealer so we returned to Memphis to have these issues repaired. We spent all day Monday of this week in the waiting room of the service department, and due to a problem, returned yesterday for another stay while the repairs were completed. But never fear, we are now ready to move on down the road! We are sporting a new shower frame, sealed to prevent any and all leaks! We should be good to go there! No more leaking shower! The on demand water pump failed in its understanding of "on demand". Instead, it remained on....until manually shut off. We now have a new on demand pump installed, which ...

Click here for a photo story on our travels along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Paws and Friends, enjoying SWIRVIN around this country! Later!

How about a visit to one of the best small towns in America! And it comes with the only presidential library in Virginia! Let's go to Staunton, Virginia ! Enjoy the perspective of the old streets as we explore the historic section. Walk with us..... Cool buildings...Rupert, are you looking? Oh! Look up! What do you think, Rupert? We remember these kind of suitcases...!  Historic Bank, where all of us were invited in, Rupert too! The stained glass ceiling of the bank, inside.  Above the entrance door of the bank. Signing of the Federal Reserve Act, December 23, 1918 The Wilson Museum and Library were special, even though it is not an "official" Presidential Library, it held rich pieces of history and insights into the kind of man Wilson was, and of the politics of the time.                                             ...

White Plains, NC (just south of Mount Airy--aka Mayberry, NC) Mostly Cloudy, 81--feels like 83 (!)  57% humidity    Low 63 Thunderstorms early, chance of rain 100%.......!! What a fun day we had! We drove the 14 miles out to the Blue Ridge Parkway (approximately mile marker 200) then down to the Blue Ridge Music Center, mile marker 214. We expected lots of cars on a Sunday--NOT! There were a handful of cars at the Center, and as local musicians arrived we were the only ones sitting in rocking chairs in the breezeway waiting! Wow! We were about to be part of the sharing of traditional music of the area--Virginia's Heritage Music Trail: the Crooked Road and the Blue Ridge Music Trails of North Carolina! At first there were three--unpacking their fiddles and tuning them. Then a true, washtub base showed up! Yep! A washtub, attached to a beautiful wood sounding board, complete with a cup holder! Along came a guitar player, then another fiddler, another guitar player, th...

Near Mount Airy, NC (Actually White Plains) Partly Cloudy - 81 degrees - feels like 83  Low tonight 62    Humidity 57% We drove by Graceland on our way from our RV Park in Horn Lake, Mississippi to Davis Motorhome Mart in Memphis, so of course we had to stop! We did not take the tour, but did explore the shops across the street from Graceland. Rupert was happy for he could go with us as we walked around a bit. However, we did not have much time to play tourists, other than eating BBQ, as our time was occupied by another interest... While the repair on the Phaeton went very well, we discovered a 2015 Allegro Bus 37 AP on their lot. We became consumed with options, with paperwork, but with a mind set that we would walk away if all did not click into place. All clicked into place! If you hadn't noticed before, that is our new coach in the banner. Here is the floor plan: Our coach had the recliner and the fold out coach, listed above as options. Since we have the tw...