When we left Davenport, it was hard to take leave of my sister Sally – back to work for her. Her dog Chloe was also depressed. Such a sweet doggie!

Today was a bit longer ride than we like. 396 miles, mostly on bumpy back roads. We traveled on 61 south to 5, passing through some very cool Iowa towns on the way. Washington was one of the most interesting – full of beautiful old homes and other buildings and very friendly residents. One of the historic houses, called the Blair house, made us wonder – Rob’s maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Blair. Is this somehow connected to his family?

We finally dropped into Missouri at Unionville. We continued on 5 south to 139, and went through Sumner, home of the giant goose (which is the only one we saw there!).

We took highway 24 south to where it connects with 65 and then to Sedalia. We head toward Marsh, Missouri tomorrow morning, which is where Flower Mound is supposed to be – the birthplace of Rob’s great, great-grandfather (his mother’s paternal grandfather) – his homestead and burial plot. We will meander toward Branson from there.

We escaped thunder showers today by staying ahead of them all day – only a few drops fell on us. Unfortunately, there is no way to stay ahead of the humidity! It is awful. We did manage to not get sunburned, too.

We crossed the wide Missouri today. It’s interesting that nearly all of the rivers and streams we see here are muddy.

We discovered on our arrival in Sedalia that this was the second week of the Missouri State Fair. We had no idea, and were very lucky to find a motel room.

We’d noticed a BBQ place on the way to the motel – Dickey Doo’s BBQ – and decided to have dinner there. After registering in the motel, we headed for Dickey’s. Rob has been talking about deep-fried dill pickles since our trip began – and guess what was on the menu? He was elated. (BTW – these were very, very good!)