At last we had made it to the homestretch of the road trip! We pulled out of Pops, armed with sodas of course, and headed to Cecilia’s house.
I forgot to mention this, but at some point in our road trip we figured out how to secure the backpack with the strap of one of our camera bags. The darn bag had been falling on us while driving for most of the trip, but we proved to be smarter than the bag…eventually.
We made it to Cecilia’s! She was awesome and took a half day off from work to hang out with us. We spent the first part of the afternoon playing with the dogs in the house. We loved Peanut! Gem wanted to take her home 🙂
Cecilia fixed us some of the eggs from her chickens and we had an English muffin. Those eggs were delicious!
After a bite to eat, Cecilia gave us a tour of their place. We got to see all of their animals.
One of the chickens had laid an egg.
And Gem got to hold one of the chickens!
Click here to see some chicken holding.
Then she took us to see their horses. I thought I had a few pictures of the horses, but sadly I could not find them.
After we saw the horses, we said our goodbyes and got back on the road. We had to make it to Kansas City before nightfall. On the way there we called up a few friends (Matt and Doug) and met them at Oklahoma Joes for some barbeque. However, the place was packed so we ended up ordering our food to go and went back to Matt’s to eat.
We walked down to the river later that night and Gem played us a song on her ukulele. Kansas City is so beautiful at night. This is a view from a rooftop 🙂
Before heading back to Matt & Kristin’s for the night, we stopped at the Quaff for a nightcap.
Per Andrew’s request, we got a picture of Gizmo with Matt.
I love Matt and Kristin’s kitty. She’s so damn photogenic. That attitude…
The next morning we stopped at Quay Coffee (Doug’s suggestion) for a little fuel. Very good coffee!
Then we made a pit stop at Feruza’s to see baby Mila!
After catching up with Feruza and holding the baby, we made our way to the Shatto Dairy in Osburn, MO. I had told Gem that this was the best milk ever! We didn’t make it to the dairy in time for a guided tour, but we got to see the baby calves in the barn.
Gem liked playing with the dog inside of the store.
We got to sample some of the flavored milks. I think I had already had most of them. All of the flavors are delicious! We took this picture together in the swing outside before we left.
Shatto Dairy is definitely worth a visit if you are in the area.
On the way up to Maryville, we stopped at Andrew’s parents to drop off part of our car load. Gem climbed a tree while we were there 🙂
After visiting with Karen for a bit, we got back on the road.
We made it up to Maryville that evening and met my aunts (Sharon and Janet) at Pagliai’s for dinner.
The next morning, my Dad drove Gem and I over to Sheridan and Grant City so that I could show Gem where I grew up. He even drove us up to Iowa so that Gem could add one more state to her list. We stopped at the Amish store in Redding.
Later that afternoon, we had family over to Mom & Dad’s house for a little get together. It was fun seeing everyone who could make it. Had a good time visiting with everyone, playing hide and seek with the kids, blowing bubbles, and listening to my Uncle Steve play guitar and sing with my Aunt Marlene. Even Gem chimed in with her ukulele. I showed them what I had learned so far, but I have a long way to go!
Andrew called in to video chat with everyone too!
It was so much fun; we really need to get together more often.
The next day, we drove down to my sister’s place. Gem really wanted to ride a horse on this trip, so my sister said she could ride one of her horses. She had Casey saddled up and ready to go when we got there. Gem also showed Tyler a little bit of her uke!
That night we headed back to Kansas City to spend the night at Matt & Kristin’s again (Kristin was absent during both our stays in KC – would have been even better if she had been there!). We met friends at Port Fonda for dinner. Yummy!
The next day, Gem flew back to Orange County :(. I was sad to see her go; we had a lot of fun on this adventure!
So basically we are at the end of the road trip, but I still have a few more things to talk about before we get to France!
Redness Adventures 