The Long Trip Home via of Georgia, TN, MS, MO,CO,SD,WY


     As we drove away from Hoover, car packed high, Rosie shed a few tears realizing the mission was past.  Just them Sister Savage called to check on us (she had been home 5 months and was in college in Logan, between classes, headed to ice skating!)  What a delight to take the melancholy down a notch!!
     We drove through Atlanta, Georgia during rush h our toward Loganville.  Matt and Marie Allred (Lane and Jan's) live there with their four kids and he was just made Bishop 2 months ago. We enjoyed Marie's wonderful cooking and games with their boys.  Matt and Maire had taken an Anniversary trip to Chattanooga, TN and showed us photos of Ruby Falls and City of the Rocks.  They suggested visiting City of the Rocks.  Then we went to the hotel.
     The next morning, we toured Stone Mountain in the rain and saw some films about the Monument.

President Jefferson Davis, Robert E Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson

Dinosaur Park for kids with huge insects
Dinosaurs and walking path
 
 As we drove through Chattanooga, TN, we visited Lookout Mountain and City of the Rocks and found it amazing. Trails, bridges, trolls, gnomes, Fairyland Caverns were all fun and surprises!! It was a treat not to be missed!




Steve's favorite sight on the trip home



  

 




Driving north to Bowling Greens, KY to see the Corvette factory museum, sinkhole swallowing 8 cars was interesting, also spent the night. Then Kentucky Downs to look for retired race horses and see the track and Nashville TN for the Grand Ol' Oprey, Wax museum and City bus tour. We spent two nights in Nashville and really enjoyed ourselves taking shuttles instead of driving!





 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                         


 
 







 


When Byron found out we were headed to Memphis (Graceland), he had us stop at the pyramid Bass Pro Shop.  It was a great walk through of taxidermy, Ducks Unlimited and water displays.  Graceland
was amazing to think Elvis was only 22 years old when he purchased the tourist trap of today. We enjoyed the tour of Graceland and his airplanes but shunned how commercialized the whole place is.

 

















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Next we traveled to Branson, MO getting up early so we could attend Church.  A forecast of 5 inches of snow caused all three wards to cancel meetings and there was only a skiff of a storm scare to welcome us!!  We enjoyed an Italian dinner together, Dolly Pardon's "Stampede" dinner show and the Butterfly Museum.  We did an auto tour of many attractions that open up in a couple weeks. 





 The spirited dinner show was a horse, pig, goat extravaganza rodeo type of event while we ate game hen, pork, soup, corn on the cob, roll, apple turnover and lemonade with no utensils!!   Great fun!!
 We also enjoyed visiting the Butterfly Museum for a couple of hours.



 


















Fair Play, MO was right off our way to Denver, so we stopped and gave Kenny's Linda a hug and a 20 minute visit. Jenny Mayor (Ken's youngest daughter's family) has now moved to Branson so Eva can perfect and perform her opera(made a CD), but we found out too late to visit). Ryan and Natalie's family lives on Pearl Street right downtown Denver and we stayed two nights, visited a Fireman's museum with Josiah and Anneliese and Natalie. We enjoyed a peaceful session at the Denver Temple.  Grandpa played Monopoly with her big boys and we had a nice adult visit.






 




Crystal Caves, Crazyhorse & Museum and Mt. Rushmore Monument /Museum were the reasons we went into the storms of South Dakota. Lots of wild game along the way. We stayed three nights at the beautiful MainSuites and attended church on Sunday before heading to Martin's Cove and Wyoming. It was a miracle the cold storms (7 degrees) chased us all the way home, but had clear roads!!

 



 


 



 





 
 
 

 Next we drove to Rock Springs and treated Jennifer (Allred) Roberts family to dinner and a great visit. They have four kids now and we saw them last when they wed.  After a hotel stay, we drove to Afton and visited Elder Townsend's parents and Jan Allred in the nursing home.(She recognized us and is now on oxygen and seems content. Then we made our way to Soda Springs and enjoyed Niki's family for two days.  Finally we visited Bryce's family and celebrated Ella's 7th birthday and Logan's mission call to the Baltimore, Maryland Mission June 4th.(We Zoomed in when he opened it from AL)
















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