Monday & Tuesday October 8 & 9, 2007 Sedalia, MO

We are having fun. It rained quite a bit this morning after a pretty sunrise but cleared up early in the afternoon. Monday afternoon was the intro for new rally attendees and the opening ceremony was at 7:30. We attended both and went to a nice Mexican restaurant with 2 other couples from the NuWa Owners Forum. Good food and talk. We came home at 9:15 while more socializing was going on at the auditorium. We also checked out the 12 or 13 new HitchHikers that are inside the buildings. There are about a dozen vendors but all we bought, so far, was a shirt for Judy and a hat for me. Guess what NuWa gave out? A hat.

Cooler Tuesday, it was 50 when we got up at 7am. So far Tuesday we attended the opening, a SkyMed presentation (emergency get ya to a hospital and wherever else you and your RV gotta go when you are sick on the road), and the NuWa forum. Judy and Susy went to Curves and the post office. This afternoon I'll attend one more presentation and skiped another couple. We are playing beanbag baseball this afternoon. I have to say we are getting weird.....last night's entertainment was 2 ladies whistling. Weird but OK. One was the national woman's whistling champ in 1996 & 1997. She was good! This rally is not as well organized and professional as the Life on Wheels or Escapade was. It is A LOT more social! Tonight several of us are going out for BBQ.

WOW, we were told that Whitman Air Force Base is 15 miles out of town and they are the home of the 509 Bomb Wing and the B2 stealth bomber. One just flew over about 2000 feet up, that was IMPRESSIVE!!! I wish I had my camera!!

Sunday October 7, 2007 Sedalia, MO

I was up early and got some sunrise pictures of the row of trailers we are in, we also went to a local grocery store and restocked our supplies. I washed the bugs off the front of the trailer also. The trailers have continued arriving one or two at a time and groups of five or six as a group so they stay together. There must be almost 200 in here now. We are having a relaxing afternoon, I'm watching the race at Talladega while Judy reads the paper outside. We just talked with Devyn, she's excited about spending yesterday at Cedar Point and riding the real roller coasters! We are meeting a group at 6:30 for a social evening, they are all members of the NuWa Owners Forum that I've been communicating with since last Christmas. The rally officially starts Monday afternoon and we have been doing what we wanted to since we arrived......socialize!

Saturday October 6, 2007 Sedalia, MO

Judy and I were leaving for some local sightseeing with Suzy and Steve but we ended up meeting Dave and Trish Wood. They are NuWa Owners Forum members and this is the first we have been able to meet them in person. Dave has a nice chopper he carries on the back hitch of his trailer, maybe something I should consider. We talked with them and others for almost two hours before we left again for Bothwell Lodge, a local 31 room mansion built between the late 1890s and the mid 1920s. It sits on a 120 foot bluff overlooking farmland and the stones used to build the home were taken from the bluff. I got a picture of Judy and Suzy rocking on one of the breezeways, Judy and the boiler in the basement, and the "modern" electrical power system. Off to lunch, then we registered for the rally and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening chatting with several new friends until 9pm. We emptied 1 wine bottle and 1 rum bottle.

Friday October 5, 2007 Sedalia, MO

We made the 70 mile trip to the Missouri State Fairgrounds in a little over an hour arriving at 12:15pm. We spent the morning in Columbia chatting with new friends, Ron and Lois, who also own a HitchHiker and are from Grand Rapids. It's hot, high 80s. When we finished setting up we noticed our neighbors one trailer over....Ron and Lois. Suzy and Steve Billings (from KC), who we met at Life on Wheels in Bowling Green, called and we went out to supper with them to catch up on what's happened since May. I'd estimate there are 50 HitchHikers here so far and they are steadily arriving all afternoon.

Thursday October 4 Columbia, MO

A travel day. We went about 240 miles to Cottonwoods RV CG, a very nice park. Very well maintained with paved streets, grass, cement patios, and inexpensice laundry facilities. $1.25 to wash or dry. We met another couple (Ron & Linda) from Climax, MI and had a good chat with them, they are also on their way to Sedilia for the hitchHiker rally. We counted about 6 HH's in the CG. Bonners in Frankenmouth, MI must be very well known, we saw a large billboard here in MO advertizing for their Christmas store. I found the one problem with Cottonwoods CG.....they have small trees, bushes and bolders in each campsite. It was a little tight pulling out but we made it OK.

Wednesday October 3 Sikeston, MO

We stayed put today and washed the trailer and truck. It was hot and sunny, Judy worked more that I did. About 4 we cleaned up and went to Lambert's Throwed Rolls for lunch/supper. They get their name by throwing fresh hot rolls across the restaurant if you want a roll. They also come around with free fried okra, potatoes & onions, macaroni & tomatoes, black beans, etc. They also give you too much food. After that it was grocery shopping and back home. Tomorrow it's back on the road to Sedalia.

Tuesday October 2, 2007 Sikeston, MO

Another good travel day, we were up at 7:30 and casually prepared to leave pulling out at 10am. We stopped at a Flying J truck stop on I24 for lunch and a break. We both had the soup and salad bar, topped off the fuel tanks ($2.88/gal) and even started our Christmas shopping. Imagine, Christmas shopping at a truck stop! We also saw something new, a soybean field on fire. Lots of smoke coming from the large field was drifting across the expressway. We arrived here at 4pm and weren't near as tired as we were yesterday when we stopped. We crossed the Mississippi again, this is about 17 times since April....OK, twelve times while we were stayed in Natchez and crossed daily for sightseeing. I just checked the weather radar and we are expecting some thunder storms tonight, it's still 80 outside and almost dark (6:40 CST). We will be here 2 days and plan to wash the truck and trailer one day. We'll check to see what local history needs exploring too.