Last day in Montgomery City, MO.

Today is our last day in Montgomery City, Missouri.  Beautiful weather again today. 

Tonight we all gathered for a dinner of grilled salmon, quinoa, Caesar salad, and French bread.  Everything was delicious. We sat outside until dark so I was able to snap a picture of the sunset or, I guess I should say, a picture right after sunset.

Tomorrow we will be heading to Branson with our friends Mike and Leslie.

Laugh everyday.  Happy trails.  Stay safe.

Afternoon in Hermann.

Another warm sunny day.  Late afternoon found us in the town of Hermann again.  This time we stopped in at The Chocolate Box to sample some chocolate.  It is a little pricey so we bought one piece each.  Well, that is really all we need to be eating of that stuff anyway. LOL   Very tasty stuff.

After enjoying the chocolate we drove over to the downtown area and walked the riverfront then made our way over to more shops then finally stopped in the Hermann Wurst Haus.  While at the Wurst Haus we enjoyed sampling several flavors of brats and sausages.  We ended up purchasing several items.  I guess you know what we would be having for dinner. LOL

Jannel, Leslie and I at the riverfront.

John, Steve and Mike looking at the scenery at the riverfront.

As soon as we got back to the campground John cleaned the grill to get it ready to grill some brats for dinner.  Jannel, Steve, Mike, Leslie and John and I all enjoyed our tasty brats we purchased from Hermann Wurst Haus.  We had a delicious meal.  Thank you Jannel for the potato salad and Leslie for the baked beans and watermelon.  

Laugh everyday.  Happy trails.  Stay safe.

Touring the town of Hermann, MO.

Beautiful weather today, all sunny skies and warm temperatures.  Just the right weather for an outing.  Steve, Jannel, Mike, Leslie and John and I  drove over to Hermann, MO and visited a couple wineries, a brewery and a German meat market.  The leaves in the area are starting to change so the scenery is beautiful.

The view from the Stone Hill Winery.

John

A house at the bottom of the hill.  Just had to get a picture of the leaves changing.



This cat, named Orange, lives on the grounds of the Adam Puchta Winery along with 17 other cats.  Several people stopped to pet him and he continued to sleep.  He finally woke up and walked around before we left.  He has such a tough life. LOL
After leaving the Puchta Winery we stopped in at the Hermann Wurst Haus.  They have over 39 flavors of link sausages available.  They hand out lots of sample to try while you are there.  Very tasty stuff.
Our next stop was the Tin Mill Brewery where you can buy a sample platter of six beers.  I tasted a few but beer is just not my thing.
Don’t know yet what we will be doing tomorrow.  The brat festival we planned to attend has been cancelled……bummer.  
Laugh everyday.  Happy trails.  Stay safe.

Mike and Leslie have arrived.

Wednesday
John and I went walking in the park and stopped by to meet Mike and Leslie’s friends, Steve and Janelle who are also staying here.  They are from Kansas and have just started traveling full time.  Very nice people.
The leaves on the trees have started to change here.

Thursday
The weather has been overcast all day long.   The sun was supposed to be shining today.  I think the weatherman got it wrong.  Where is the sun? LOL 
Later in the afternoon Mike and Leslie pulled in and are parked right across the street from us.   Leslie brought me my favorite wine from Michigan.  Thank you Leslie.

Gato Negro Muscato.  It is so tasty.


Mike and Leslie’s site.
After dinner we settled in to play a round of golf and a round of 10 Penny.  Leslie won the golf game and John won the 10 Penny game.  Oh well, I guess Mike and I will have to get them on the rematch. LOL
Laugh everyday.  Happy trails.  Stay safe.

Happy Birthday Savannah.

Happy Birthday to our niece Savannah.  She turned 16 years old today.  We hope she had an awesome day today.

Savannah

Woke up to gray skies this morning.  As the day progress we heard the sound of thunder.  Oh no.  Fred doesn’t like thunder at all.  He was not a happy camper.

Later in the afternoon we heard a knock on our door.  Our visitor turned out to be Sue, fellow Escapee Member, who was also traveling from Sedalia to Branson.  She invited us for happy hour at her site.  We visited for a couple of hours sharing travel stories and such before light rain started to fall. 

John was able to grill some bacon cheddar brats for dinner before the heavy rain moved in.  Around 10:30 p.m. thunder, lightening, rain and hail began.  Fred was really freaking out.  The hail didn’t last long but the thunder, lightening and rain remained until well after midnight.  Tomorrow’s weather forecast shows an 80% percent chance of rain.  Poor Fred he won’t be happy about that either.

Laugh everyday.  Happy trails.  Stay safe.

Montgomery City, MO

Today was travel day for us.  After saying our final “see ya laters” to friends we had breakfast then hooked up the Vitara and headed out for Montgomery City, Missouri.  The ride was uneventful and we arrived and were set up before 1:00 p.m.  We are staying at Lazy Day Campground; a park we stayed at last year when we were on our way to somewhere.  It is a small park but very nice.   They have a large fenced in dog park that Fred is enjoying.

Our site.

Mike and Leslie will be here sometime Thursday.  It will be good to see them again.

Laugh everyday.  Happy trails.  Stay safe.

Bratwurst

Up this morning and off to Belton, MO to McBee’s to buy some brats.  We tried these brats last year when we were near Amsterdam, MO.  They have over 30 flavors to choose from.  We have tried several and liked them all.  John looked online and found McBee’s had opened another store in Belton, MO which is an hour and a half from Sedalia.  Yeah!!  We took the large cooler and purchased several flavors for several folks.  Tonight we had grilled pineapple brats for dinner.  They were very tasty.


Since this is our last night in Sedalia, we made the rounds saying our “see ya laters”  before we hit road tomorrow.  We have enjoyed the rally and meeting up with friends.
Laugh everyday.  Happy trails.  Stay safe.

Fellow RVer has a mishap.

The morning started out with the men loading Big Red (the 18 wheeler that transports the Escapades supplies).  After John got back he went to fix Andre’s back-up camera then he went to help Bob Chuck with the front shade on their motorhome.   While John and Bob Chuck were working they heard a loud crunching sound.    You know that is never good.  Unfortunately, a fellow RVer was pulling out when his motorhome clipped the water hydrant post and pulled the rear cap off of his motorhome.  Ouch!    John, Bob Chuck and several other men ran over to help pull the end cap off of the water hydrant post.  Shortly afterwards the back end was duct taped and rachet strapped and they were on  their way.  Hopefully they will find a good fiberglass repair shop down the road.  It was like deja vu to us.  Just last year we clipped a boulder and tore the cap off of our 5th wheel. We feel their pain.
Barb W. and I went to lunch at a local Chinese restaurant called Fortune Palace.  The food was delicious and I enjoyed spending time with my friend.  Thanks for lunch Barb.  As we were leaving the restaurant we noticed a large number of motorcycles at the cycle shop next door.  The Hog Rally is in Sedalia this weekend so there are lots of bikes on the road and at the fairgrounds.


Tonight we went to dinner with Roger, Barb M. , Bob Chuck and Barb W.  Roger and Barb will be leaving in the morning so we all went for one more night out together.  It was still early when we returned from dinner so we decided to play a round of golf.  John was the winner this time.

Barb and Roger

Bob Chuck and Barb
Tomorrow will be our last day in Sedalia.  We plan to ride over to Belton, MO to pick up some brats at McBees.  We tried these last year and really liked them. 
Laugh everyday.  Happy trails.  Stay safe.

Chili Cook-off

Today is the last day of Escapades activities.  One of the events of the day was the Chili Cook-off.   All proceeds from the cook-off went to CARE.  We were all excited when we heard over $3,000.00 was raised during the cook-off.  John, Bob Chuck and Mark manned the Firehouse Chili table.  They had a gallon and a half of chili, some mild, some hot.  By the end of the cook-off only two small scoops remained.  Yeah!!

Bob Chuck, Mark and John wearing their fire department shirts.

Firehouse Chili table

Bennit and Bea at their Hillbilly Chili table.

Bennit and Bea

Bennit

Donna and Marcia in their Hawaiian costumes.

Ms. Kay at her table.

A view of the crowd.

Another view of the crowd.


Glenn and Slyvia

Molly and Bob.


Mark and Dortha.
The Chli-Cook-off was monitored by the Chili Police.  As the police made their rounds whistles were blown and fines issued for various reasons.  I was fined when bending over to retrieve Fritos to replenish chips for the Firehouse Chili table.  The Chili Police said it was for mooning the police. LOL  It was all in fun and the proceeds from the fines went to CARE.

Keith being fined by the Chili Police. LOL


Another victim of the Chili Police. LOL

Ms. Kay receiving her apron for winning 1st place. 

Brenda sporting her jacket for winning second place.

Chili Cook-off winners, Marcia pulled out a third place win.
After attending the closing ceremonies of the rally John and I went out to dinner with some friends then ended the night with a game of cards.  Lots of fun and laughs.
Tomorrow the Escapees will meet for an early breakfast to visit one last time with friends before they hit the road.
Laugh everyday.  Happy trails.  Stay safe.

We met Glenn & Sylvia.

Woke up to a chilly 48 degrees.  I am not liking that.  Luckily, it warmed up nicely before lunch.  John and I walked through the market areas and attended seminars then made a run to the grocery store to purchase items for the chili cook-off on Thursday. 
This afternoon we finally got to meet fellow RVers Glenn and Sylvia.  It was so good to finally meet them in person.  A little later in the afternoon we attended the Class of 2007’s Happy Hour gathering.  There were several Escapee Members adopted by the Class of 2007 tonight. 

John and I with Glenn and Sylvia

Fellow Escapee members adopted into the Class of 2007.
Later tonight a group of us went out for dinner at Applebee’s then to Freddy’s for and ice cream dessert. There was lots of laughing going on.  We all had a great time.

John

Don, Bob Chuck and Jesse.

Ginger, Barb and Susie.
Laugh everyday.  Happy trails.  Stay safe.

Fred meets Riggins.

Today fellow RVers Sam and Donna along with their dog Riggins, stopped by for a visit.  It was great to finally meet them.  Fred finally got to meet a fellow canine RVer. LOL

Riggins.

John saying hello to Riggins.

Riggins, Sam and Donna.
Tonight the parking team gathered one last time for a potluck dinner.  We enjoyed working with all of them.  Such an awesome group of people.

The parking team.
After dinner we attended a performance by George Dyer.  He is a very talented tenor.   Unfortunately, the music just wasn’t my cup of tea.  If you like opera you would probably like him.
Laugh everyday.  Happy trails.  Stay safe.

Last day of parking.

Up early to 60 degrees and sunny skies…..just perfect weather for the parking team’s last day of work.   The RVs started coming in slow and steady for a while then picked up heavily in the early afternoon. 

Barb getting ready to take a team of workers to their posts.  (front: Barb and Al, back: Fran an Sharon)

Barb and I making a coffee, donut and water run to the team.  (sorry the picture is blurry)

Front gate where all RVs check in.
At 2:00 p.m. the gate was closed and the parking team’s task was completed.  We were blessed to have such a great team of people to work with.  
The remainder of the day consisted of:  opening ceremonies at 3:00 p.m. and the entertainment at 7:00 p.m.  Our entertainer for the evening was Yakov Smirnoff.  We were pleasantly surprised at how funny and entertaining we was.  The most interesting thing  about him, to me, is how much being an American citizen means to him.  He shared his story of coming to America in 1977 and later realized his dream of becoming an American citizen.  He described what being an American citizen means to him and how the events of 9/11 affected him.  Before he came on stage a short film was shown about his early life and about his painting which later transformed into the large mural used in the memorial service on the first anniversary of 9/11.  His painting was inspired by his feelings about the event and  based on an image of the Statue of Liberty. 
John and I will not set the clock tonight and plan on sleeping late in the morning.  I know Fred will be very happy. LOL
Laugh everyday.  Happy trails.  Stay safe.

Another day of work for the Parking Team.

Up early again today.  Temperatures were still a little chilly.  It was 59 degrees at 7:00 a.m. and windy.  The parking team was supplied with coffee and donuts for breakfast and a box lunch from Subway for lunch.  Thanks Bob and Molly from everyone on the parking team.   The parking team had a very busy day getting RVs parked.  I snapped a few pictures of some of the parking team at the end of the day.

Peg and Earl.

Roger

Peg, Earl and John.

Parking Team and Customer Service waiting for the last few RVs to come in.

Front gate.

Bennit and other Parking Team members waiting for the next RV to park.

Linda waving her directional baton.

Betty with her directional baton.

Over 100 RVs were parked today. The remainder of attendees will be parked tomorrow.  It will be the last work day for the Parking Team.  We have such a great team of people to work with.  We work hard but we also take time to laugh and have a good time.

Tonight a group of us went to a Kehde’s BBQ restaurant for dinner.   As soon as the twelve of us were seated we were greeted by our server who entertained us as we dined. She had us all laughing. 

Barb, Susie, Janet, John C., Don and Bob Chuck.

Jesse and Ginger.

Roger, our server Karen and Jesse.

Since tomorrow will be our last day to work I don’t plan on setting the clock anymore.  This getting up early is killing me. LOL

Laugh everyday.  Happy trails.  Stay safe.