The Cliff House Hotel Ardmore

... side down to the tar paper before it began raining for real. There has been more rain than anyone can remember for this time of year and is about 20 degrees colder than usual.. Global changes? The cold, overcast, rainy front seems to be covering most of the USA. Oh well...it doesn't bother us as we get on with our "Habitat for Family" work! <br><br>Matt came home after his shift cooking steaks at D&amp;G Steak House and ...

... know we made a right turn for Chicago. We turned around and ended up through the middle of the city. Which would have been ok but I didn't see the fine red print on the map "I-64...will be completely closed in 2009". So we had to go through downtown. At that point, we just kept going west, hoping it would get us out. That is one big city. It would not end. When it finally did, we ...

... short, but just wanted to test out my travel blog. I have a very busy day today and even busier tomorrow. We have to be at Chicago O'hare by 3:30 p.m. our flight leaves at 6:50 p.m. and we land in Dublin at 8:30 a.m. their time so about 2:30 a.m. ours. Then i have a 2 hour bus ride till I get to Carlow. I can't wait and will update soon with pictures and more posts once I'm in Ireland.

... I was born into a family of shoe salesmen. Limiting the amount of shoes I get to travel with is a very difficult and heartbreaking ordeal. I don't buy shoes on a whim. It is a very thought out and deliberated move. I have managed to pack 4 pairs of boots and about 7 pairs of regular shoes which is very limiting to me. <br><br>Leaving my dear country behind also means leaving the things I love most. Very obviously my family and dog cannot travel with. Sometimes this will ...

... first settling in Nauvoo and then leaving in the middle of winter to a place where they didn't even know was. Not to mention leaving there beautiful temple just barely after completing it. We went through many original houses while we were there. Such as Brigham Young, John Taylor and other members of the first presidency. We went to the post office and learned about the mailing system back then. We also went to the shoe shop where we ...

... show Darren the Missouri campus he always tries to discount due to his Kansas ties. We visited Kristi's brother Brian and his girlfriend and they served as our tour guides around a campus that has changed quite a bit in ten years which made Kristi feel really old. It's still a beautiful campus.

... to see the other side of the Atlantic Ocean - the town of Ardmore was much more impressive in the vision of Nora Roberts than it was in person! Because it was a Monday, pretty much everything was closed, It was drizzly and windy all day, so after a short walk on the beach, we headed out.<br><br>Happily, a wrong turn took us up a country road and ...

We arrived in Hannibal, checked into the hotel, and headed out for lunch. Then, we walked up the hill to the lighthouse to get a good view of the river. Afterward, we toured the Mark Twain house and museum and took an hour long ride on the Twain Riverboat.

We continued driving through Nebraska. At Grand Island, we headed south into Kansas. Just before the Kansas state line, we stopped in Red Cloud to see Willa Cather's childhood home. Kansas involved another two-lane road with very few towns or traffic. We were going to stop in Kansas City, but went on to Cameron instead.

Well my trip has officially begun as I have left home on Aug 5, although I am only 90 miles away in Columbia, Missouri. On Aug 10 I will be boarding the Grey Hound bus and heading south to Baton Rouge and New Orleans to visit a friend and check out some of the damage left by Hurricane Katrina last year.