A long day of driving, but punctuated with a couple short stops at Forts along the old Sante Fe trail in Kansas and Colorado. First stop was Fort Larned National Historic Site, near Larned, KS. This fort had original buildings from the fort built in the 1860's. No stockade or outer wall was ever built due to wood shortages on the prairie, so it seemed a bit odd to call it a fort. In contrast, we stopped at Old Fort Bent National Historic Site near La Junta, C...

We got an early start from Kansas City and headed straight to Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, located in the Flint Hills of Kansas. We were out for a hike in the prairie "backcountry" on a beautiful windy day. I got a feel for how the prairie would have looked back before extensive settlement by us non-Native Americans. The highlight of the hike was when the buffalo herd blocked our only route back, and we had to call for "rescue" by th...

Spent the morning in the Cahokia Mounds visitor center, really cool life size mock-ups of how the village at the site would have looked almost 1000 years ago. Then dropped off Aimee and the kids at the Gateway Arch in downtown St. Louis. I found what is by far the calmest place in downtown to park the RV while I wait... the stables for the carriages that run downtown. Next stop... ice cream at Ted Drewes, on the old Route 66.

Today we drove from a campground near Cave Run Lake, KY, stopped at Lincoln Boyhood Home National Memorial, and are finishing up in Illinois, just east of St. Louis. We made an attempt to stop at the Woodford Reserve Distillery on our way through Kentucky, but were thwarted by the fact that it was Sunday morning... The close of Day 2 of our trip was rather dramatic with a line of thunderstorms moving through the St. Louis area. Lots of lightning and wind, but...

This is a pre-trip blog entry.