Getting There

Jo's peeps are congregating in Falls City, Nebraska for a family reunion. We load up and head out. It's a 14 hour drive (with a 2-hour detour to grab an RV in Lawrence, Kansas). On the first day, we drive to Wichita, Kansas. Vivian travels well.

After we check into the hotel, it starts raining hard but I desperately need to find a Barnes and Nobles - and this town is my last hope. I find the store using Google maps on my phone. Alas, the patriots are shut for the Fourth of July.

I decide to make do with the super-duper Walmart across the street. Big mistake. There are two aisles of books. The first is all Bible related. I should buy one and pray for a better bookstore. The second aisle is even more specific. It contains romance and soft-porn novels with pictures of scantily-clad African American women on the covers. Weird. I rescue the only three books in the store that don't fall into either category - "Son of a Witch" by Gregory Maguire, "Night" by Elie Wiesel, and "1776" by David McCullough.

Jo meanwhile uses her time much more wisely and goes down to the hotel pool with Vivian.

The next morning, we pick Karen up from Topeka, Kansas. Levi asked her to marry him the previous evening - and she said yes. Congratulations, Levi and Karen. By the way, Karen caught the bouquet at our wedding - and what a catch that was!

We then go to Lawrence and get our RV. From Lawrence, Karen, Jo and Vivian take the car, and my dad and I ride in the RV the rest of the way.

We drive through Hiawatha (pop. 3237), Kansas - where Jo and Karen went to high school. A random fact - it's the home of the "Oldest Halloween Parade in the Nation". Yep.

We reach Falls City (pop. 4186). A sign proudly announces "Falls City - New and Progressive". Another tells us that we are at the "Childhood Home of Artist John Falter". We park our rental RV at Stanton Lake Park - in front of a nice sized pond. Vivian breaks out in a heat rash. Can we go somewhere cooler, Daddy - like Texas? It is hot - 95 in the shade. My main activity for the next few days is to move my camping chair to follow the shade of the tree by the lake. Sure it sounds easy, but try that with a beer in one hand, a hot dog in the other, and Vivian on your lap.