Glamping Days

About an inch of snow fell overnight just as it did last year. The same friendly folks in the farm market sold me some lovely salsas & other items to take to a Christmas party, & reminded me that I-70 west to Indianapolis is quite rough with lots of construction. Taking the parallel US-40 through a half dozen old mid-western towns suited me just fine.  First up was Richmond where my brother-in-law met his wife when they were college students there.  This mural in the town of Pershing is presumably of the WWI General Pershing for whom the town is named, though I couldn't find his connection to the town.  This lovely mural is on the Lakeview Restaurant on the edge of Cambridge City.  About an hour east of St Louis near the town of Vandalia were a group of active oil wells. I don't associate Illinois with oil, but there they were.  Tonight finds me camping behind a Cracker Barrel Restaurant in Columbia, MO. 

After getting a shot in my knee late this morning, I drove west on the first leg of my trip to Kansas for Christmas with my daughter, her husband, & his family.  Packing the last items inside the truck this morning was most interesting. Besides the usual camping-related things that fill quite a bit of the back seat area, I had the following for this trip:     - a large box of Christmas presents      - the "works" for the tall clock that  was shipped to KS last month along with said daughter's piano      - a pillow that goes with the loveseats that also shipped to KS, but somehow didn't get  packed     - 2 violins & a viola going to KS (I think her old student violin & viola will be donated to the program  at the high school where she teaches. She's just been playing her fiddle, but now will have a proper violin as well.)    - a mounted wheel from my trailer (It was the second spare that I took to...

I'd planned to spend today here at the rally visiting around and taking in the southwestern VA fall, then spend tomorrow in Roanoke visiting my old stomping grounds there, before going home on Tuesday. It's a bit more of a story than I want to put here, but I'll be heading toward home today.  The group photo on yesterday's blog post was taken by Jon Vemilye, & I failed to give him credit. He also took this photo of his friends Anne & Don. I'm guessing that Anne took the next pic of Jon & Don. I've enjoyed getting to know all of them at the Niagara Falls & Hungry Mother Rallies, & one winter seeing Jon in Arizona as well. 

Saturday is the main day of the rally. It kicked off with coffee & assorted sweets hosted by one of our members.                 After the pot luck dinner this evening, most of us posed for a group photo.  The evening was capped off with a campfire surrounded by the sounds of the forest at night.

I'm not sure what I did all day today, but I surely didn't spend time taking photos. The one below was taken about 9:00 a.m. at the coffee hour, which actually stretched to about 2 hours. One of our group used to come in a trailer, but he now comes and stays in the yurt in the background. As can be seen in the pic, the sun rises behind a big hill & doesn't reach the campground until late in the morning. It's been mostly sunny, but pretty chilly here this year. The rest of the day was spent visiting around, taking a nap, walking a bit, & more visiting around. 

The founder of the rally is undergoing cancer treatments & is unable to attend this year, but we all came anyway. We couldn't decide if today was the day before the official start or the first day of the rally. Either way, folks braved chilly weather to mosey around the campground & meet other attendees. Most have been here before, but a few are new this year. I was here 4 years ago & 2 years ago, & know some of the people from other rallies too.