heading to Arkansas

We intended to ride the motorcycle straight to Arkansas today. But when Cliff suggested we go by way of Versailles to see his favorite aunt, I agreed that was probably a good idea.

When we got to her house, nobody was home. A few well-placed phone calls, though, helped us locate her at her son, Darryl's, house, which is under construction. So we went there. It was good timing, since we were starving and Darryl was barbecuing hamburgers and hot dogs. It did delay us a bit, but as I like to remind Cliff, "When you're on a motorcycle, it's all about the ride."

I love this picture. Darryl asked his mom, Aunt Gertrude, to say the blessing before we ate. Yes, I did bow my head. Believe it or not, my eyes were closed when I took this shot. By the way, the guy on the right is a real live cowboy; he's very familiar with the Drummond Ranch (you know, Pioneer Woman). He doesn't seem to be really happy that they're a big corporation now, but he enjoyed a couple of stories I told him that Ree has written about on her blog.

This is Darryl's tractor. Cliff can't help himself, he has to inspect any tractor within walking distance.

Why are they closing out? It's quite a while till the Fourth of July.

There were lots of boats on the Lake of the Ozarks. At the time I took this picture, it was a perfectly lovely day.

I really want to go to this festival. I'm not sure Cliff is interested, though.

Oh, and that perfectly lovely day? It deteriorated somewhat. We rode in the rain for at least an hour. On a long, drawn-out detour. I kept telling Cliff, "It's all about the ride", but I think his mind was closed. Hey, at least we finally got to use our rain-gear.

We got as far as Branson and stopped here because they have cheap motels. There's usually a reason a motel is cheap, and I won't go into details about this one. Suffice it to say it's next door to the helicopter ride, which is running constantly. I wonder if that helicopter runs all night long?

Tomorrow, good Lord willing, we'll get into Arkansas. The grandson is house-sitting and dog-sitting. For any who wondered, Sadie is alive and well.