Summer 08 Road Trip
Hello from Gallatin Missouri
Thursday July 24th..Frankie, Neely and I are on the road again. After docking Gato Loco back in Puerto Penasco for the summer, Frankie and I enjoyed a few weeks in Cholla doing fun home improvement projects before the hot weather slowly rolled in and ran us out of town. We returned to the Phoenix compound for a week to get things in order before heading to Gallatin. We lucked out while in Phoenix with monsoon weather cooling things down and even
raining over 2 inches one night when Frankie, sister Toni, Gill & Sylvia drove across town to Marilyn’s house. Wednesday July 16th we headed east on a 3 day trip to Gallatin. Our first day we drove to Santa Fe NM where it rained most of the night and clearing for our day 2 drive to Kinsley a small town near Dodge City Kansas. Like clock work it rained during the night and 
most of the day as we drove in to Gallatin on day 3. It was foggy our first day and it’s rained about every other day since we arrived here and as I write this today weather was rainy and the temp never reached 80 making it a good escape from the hot Phoenix weather.
Wednesday July 30th.. We continue to enjoy great family company as well as perfect weather. Over the past week and half we’ve attended two family reunions and were able to see most of my family living in the midwest. Click links to see slide shows. Files are large and for fast internet connection only.
McCulley/Hill Family Reunion …. Worley/Whitt Family Reunion
Weather has been rainy and cool with the exception of a couple of warm days. As I write this today we’re visiting with cousin 
Phyllis & Rex who live on Lake Viking near Gallatin. Yesterday afternoon we were able to take a long cruise on the lake before rain set in for the evening making for a perfect dinner on the patio with gentle rain still falling at mid-night as we gave up for the night.
We don’t want to give up this weather so we’ve decided to take a northern route back to phoenix. our plan is to drive up along the Mississippi river into Wisconsin then over to Lake Michigan, maybe north to Duluth on Lake Superior and then drive west through Minnesota, North Dakota & Montana before heading south down through the Rockies. We need to be back in Phoenix around the 20th of August which should give us enough time to see some sights along the way.
First view of the Mississippi river complete with sailboats. Tomorrow we should see a lot of it.
Sunday August 03.. We’re camped in Rock Island Illinois near the Mississippi and Davenport Iowa heading to La Crosse Wisconsin to visit my cousin Jane Houlihan tomorrow. It was pretty hard to leave the Gallatin area where we were busy with one family activity after another and finally looking at homes for sale and getting the bug to buy a summer home in Gallatin again. The photos below give you a glimps of the past week. We should be sending updates as we figure out how we are driving westward.
Where the road leads us…. Lowell, Frankie and Neely