On the way Home

We finally made it to Belleville, Illinois. We stayed with my husband's parents for a few days. My father-in-law was nice of enough to take us to some small towns which included antique stores, quilt shops, and one rug hooking store. If you are a rug hooker or just like working with wool and you live near Lebanon, Illinois you must visit the Calico Moon. The downstairs is full of primitive decorations. Upstairs is full of beautiful wool, fabrics, patterns and many other primitive items. I wish I would have had more money. I did buy a rug hooking frame and a book. While visiting Illinois we also went to check out the giant catsup bottle water tower in Collinsville. We saw a story on the PBS tv channel one night that talked about the water tower and since we were going to be nearby we had to check it out.

I am sure many of you heard of the tornadoes in Joplin, Missouri. While we were staying at the in-laws house we experienced bad weather and the tornado sirens went off three times one day. It was scary to me since I have not ever heard them before. I kept a close look on the weather outdoors and on TV.

We enjoyed our visit and we really enjoyed mom-in-law's cooking. We had missed home cooking while on our trip. We hated that we couldn't spend more time with them but we wanted to get home before all those people took off for the Memorial Day weekend.

We traveled through the bottom portion of the state of Indiana.
Next state, Kentucky. Included is a photo of the city of Louisville, KY.
On through West Virginia. Getting closer to home.

This was a very long tunnel we had to travel through. I think it must have been at least a mile long through that mountain.

One more state!
Made it to North Carolina. We know when we see Pilot Mountain we are getting close to home.
We drove 7236 miles on this trip. We traveled through seventeen states. The most expensive gas we bought was $4.19 in California. The cheapest we saw gas was in Utah for $3.55.

Before we left home we got Roadside assistance which we never needed. We also took the car in for routine maintenance before we left. There were some things our mechanic caught and recommended we have done which we did so that we would not break down on the "loneliest road."

The trip was worth every penny we spent. I enjoyed the simpleness of living in the tent or cabin and not having to worry about a thing except getting to our next camp site.

We went to our public library before leaving and checked out audio books to listen while we drove those thousands of miles.

I took magazines and a book to read but only read one magazine. We were so busy seeing all the sights that by the time we set up camp we were ready to relax and go to sleep. I took embroidery with me but did not do a single stitch. I enjoyed spending 21 days with my husband.

We had the best time on this trip. God gave us great weather when we were scheduled to see the sights. He kept us from harm on the road. He kept our car running well too. We saw His hand in this whole trip and I am thankful for that. God is good!

I have one more post to share with the kids and the next one will be about some quilt shops I got to visit while on our trip.

Yesterday I caught up reading all the comments and checking on your blogs. Thanks so much for coming along on our trip with us.

Until the next post,

Carrie P.