Summer '22 Cross Country - Day 43

Travel day from York, Nebraska to Danville, Missouri

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Sunday, 17 July 2022

It is with heavy hearts that Frieda and I must cut our cross country trip short and head back home to Harriman, Tennessee.

Early this morning, we received word from our dear friend and neighbor Wayne Rose that Judy, his wife of 60 years, had passed after a short illness. Wayne and Judy have lived two doors down from us for almost six years now and are family to us. When we started this journey back on June 6th, they were both doing well. Unfortunately, Judy developed some lung issues that deteriorated rapidly and two days ago she went into hospice after the doctor’s determined there was nothing more they could do.

So this morning we departed from the Diamond B Horse Motel in York, Nebraska to head southeast toward Tennessee.

We’re smiling — barely — because our hearts were heavy with grief.

You know you’re in corn growing and ethanol producing territory when not only do they proudly tell you that Unleaded and Super Unleaded contain 10% Ethanol, but if that’s not enough, you can also get 20%, 30% and even 85% Ethanol. Oh boy! (We bought 100% gasoline every time we could find it as the truck got way better gas mileage and had more power when fed with it.)

We felt absolutely dwarfed by this million-dollar plus Newmar King Aire we parked next to at a Rest Area.

We arrived at Lazy Day Campground in Danville, Missouri around 4:30 pm CDT and we have to say it’s one of our favorites so far!

That’s Ollie in the middle.

Tomorrow we will head to Clarksville, Tennessee where we will camp for one more night before arriving home in Harriman on Tuesday. One of the things we have learned about towing our 2022 Oliver Legacy Elite II with our 2013 F-150 Platinum with an Ecoboost V6 engine is that driving about 62 mph is best for optimal gas mileage, which means a trip of about 300 or so miles is all we want to do in a day. It’s totally different than travel in a car. It’s obviously a lot safer driving slower too as stopping is a whole different experience with 6,000 lbs+ in tow.

As we walked Maddie and Skipper one last time tonight, Frieda and I both noticed the stars were incredible on a moonless night in a rural area with no light pollution. After placing the dogs in the trailer so they could wind down, we both quietly sat outside for about 15 minutes marveling at the heavens, and even enjoyed a couple of shooting stars. And of course, we thought about Judy — a devout Christian — who made her way to Heaven today. This photo hardly does the view justice, but it’s what I could capture with my iPhone 13 Pro:

God Bless our late friend, Judy Rose.

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