Home Sweet Home

We left Ruidoso with 47 degrees showing on the thermometer. Arrived in Tucson to 104!

Two loads of laundry done (more waiting), groceries enough for supper. I have the Sunday newspaper waiting. All is well.

On the way to Ruidoso

This Texas rest stop includes a storm shelter. I took pictures of it a few years ago when we passed through.

 Lots of wide open countryside--so beautiful!

 Our destination today, the Bestways Inn in Ruidoso. It has everything we need, including the Mexican restaurant across the parking lot.

We are in Room 121.

Not as good as what we get in Tucson, but handy!

More Driving--more added on Saturday--look for red font

       After breakfast at the motel we started down the road again, this time to Erick, Oklahoma. Just out of OKC there were two pretty bad accidents, both involving semis and other cars. We were backed up for quite some time; four tow trucks made there way to the accidents.

Just a little while later it started to rain. Within minutes of this picture, it really started coming down. For about 10 or 12 minutes (it seemed like much longer), it was hard to even see the road. We may be the only vehicle that slowed down.

Now we are here in beautiful downtown Erick. At the Days Inn--

 

We had our choice of this or the Motel 6. I wonder if Motel 6 has some outlets available for things like cell phone chargers, computers, Cary's battery charger and the dryer for his cochlear implant device. This one doesn't. The few outlets here are behind heavy furniture and are being used for the fridge, microwave and some lamps. Who would think to bring a power strip to a motel? This is a first. Also Cary could never get the closed captioning to work on the TV. Every motel has had different TVs, and all seem to be smarter than we are!

I hope breakfast looks this interesting in the morning. Both these motel pics are from the Internet. Well, it wasn't! Not that many of the motels have had much to offer. Fruit would have been nice, and yogurt.

Along with this one of an old car by an old motel. Because this place is on the old Route 66, there were/are hopes for a revitalization of the town.

A

Today's Highlight

We spent most of the day in the car, having decided to get as far as Joplin, Missouri. When we got hungry there wasn't a lot to choose from. Just by luck I noticed this place, so we parked and went in to check it out.

The Maple St. Grill is a wonderful find. It has been in operation 35 years, has a great menu and attentive servers. I got salmon with wild rice, sautéed fresh veggies, and a huge salad. Oh, and a piece of homemade looking garlic bread about 6 inches long, 4 inches wide and 2 inches deep! Cary got chicken fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits and green beans. We couldn't clean our plates! But we tried. It made supper plans unnecessary, a good thing, because once we got to the motel in Joplin, we were too tired to think of going back out.

Picture taken from the internet, not my camera

Mark Twain Museum

We drove to Hannibal, Missouri after leaving Springfield on Wednesday, but I knew we weren't doing anything except driving on Thursday, so I saved it for today.

Here I am at the entrance to the museum. Lots of artifacts and samples of his many writings find space in this wonderful spot. There were even 20 or so copies of Huckleberry Finn, each in a different language!

I had never heard of several of these books.

Cary takes a break (we just got there) to pose for me in the stagecoach.

I didn't take notes as we browsed; this looks like Mark Twain reading to Tom Sawyer, or to his son, bringing Tom to life.

We were encouraged to pull the string, making the steamboat whistle sound!

Twain asked Norman Rockwell to illustrate Tom Sawyer in a new edition. Rockwell went to Hannibal (none of the other illustrators had been) to get the feel of the area, exploring the cave (no stalagmites or stalactites) and even buying some old clothes from one of the farmers! Rockwell donated 15 paintings that he used in the final illustrations.

There were other things to see and do here, such as seeing the birthplace and home of Titanic survivor, Molly Brown, but we ran out of time.