Our Summer Vacation - in Many Parts

This summer, for the first time in many years, we took a vacation.  The idea was to drive out to the North Carolina coast and visit our son and his wife; son is a Marine stationed out there.  So after much planning and scheduling -and rescheduling of some things - out we went.

The trip was husband and I, and our three dogs. Our eldest stayed home because she had to work, and she had three different groups of chickens to care for - the main coop, the older babies in the garage coop and Pansy and Tansy (the youngest) in the playpen in the house.

Knowing dog flu is an issue, I tried to plan the trip so that we could avoid states that had enough cases to be on the map.  So half of Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina was the route.  The mapping said 30 hours. Right.

Our first night, after not leaving the Denver area til 2 pm, we stopped night in Witchita, Kansas. Because it was already after midnight, the hotel manager not only gave us a break on the rate, but gave us a suite  - the only non smoking room he had left.  It was this night that made husband decide a king sized bed is our next bed.  He had plenty of room to sleep, even with two dogs on the bed!  Lucky him! Small dog was glued to my side the entire night!

So we didn't manage to get moving until almost 11 am the next morning, going through the rest of Kansas and Missouri, using a back highway.  If you want to see unique things, you go back highways. In the town of Parsons, Kansas, we stopped to eat.  We found this fast food place called Braums - best shakes in the midwest!  But driving into town, we also found this - I stopped to take pictures, and a guy came out to talk to me - apparently his now defunct gas station themed mini golf course and adjacent junk yard was once featured on American Pickers.  I can see why.

Basically, if you were looking for it, this guy has it. Trains, trucks, even huge chunks of glass.

And on we went, almost to Missouri. And more odd stuff. We're not exactly sure what all is there, besides a giant kitchen cabinet and counter in a vintage style, and a fence made up of just about every big thing you can think of. One thing we do know; this was all made by Mary.

On to Missouri. And apparently, the armadillo suicide zone!  I saw more armadillos carcasses from roadkill than ever before. And we never did see a live one.

We gave up on that second day in Cadiz, Kentucky.  Then next morning, we headed into Tennessee. A rest area was made from an old farm, the family cemetery is still on site.  We also saw the hugest Oak tree I've ever seen.  The dogs didn't seem to mind the humidity, but we did at first.

Wild Chicken Update

After a few attempts to get out of the run - she got out and then stood at the gate and complained until let back in, she has settled in with her flock just fine.  In fact, she has gone broody, and is on day four of sitting on some eggs!