Bookin' it home

After leaving Lewisburg, West Virginia, we headed toward Beckley where we stopped for the night.  I discovered that my wallet was missing!  A call to the coffee house back in Louisburg confirmed that I left it there.  Oh man.  That meant we would need to backtrack the next day.  At least only an hour.  If we hadn't been too tired, we could have continued on another couple of hours.  Then we would have had to backtrack 3 hours!!!

"All things work together for good..." Romans 8:28   The Lord allowed it for some purpose.  Maybe one day we will know why.

The next morning we got back on the road and headed back EAST to Lewisburg.  At least it is a really is a pretty drive through the Allegheny mountains!  We had a sweet time of devotions and prayer on the way.

When we got to Lewisburg, we went to the coffeeshop and the workers gave me my wallet.  All money intact and so far no charges on cards.  Thank you, guys!!!

 

It was real tempting for me to want to stick around for the antique shop to open so I could pick up that one sweet doll whose eyes are weighted and close when she lays down.  She looked similar to the one above, except she had a bonnet.  BUT we were going to need to skedattle!

Infact, a look at the weather app showed that snow was headed to Wichita and we would need to book it going back home!!

We drove back the way we came and on to some road that took us by a river.  Allen texted and asked me if we were swimming.  Life360 had us IN the river.

Charleston, capitol of West Virginia.

Our GPS told us to get off of Highway 64 at Milton.  We weren't sure why.

This motorcycle guy talked to us at a gas station.  He saw us looking at our atlas.  "Are you lost?"  We told him we wondered why our GPS wanted us to get off.  He told us there was a very bad accident.  He said we could follow him. 

Then  GPS had us getting off on another road.  So we decided to trust it.

Should we have trusted her?

Sometimes the road was not wide enough for 2 cars to pass.

We drove through Daniel Boone National Forest. The day before we'd been through George Washington & Jefferson National Forest. And later on we'd go through the Mark Twain National Forest.  Too bad we wouldn't be able to explore and camp out!

At Barbourville, it had us getting back on 64.  There was no traffic coming from the east, which meant that the traffic was still tied up with the accident.  Guess we did the right thing.  AND, we saw some country we will never see again ever, probably!  It was real back woods.  

I was driving when Ruth took this picture.  Looks like a castle!  She didn't mention it.  I just saw it when I loaded pictures up!

We made it all the way to Paduka, KY that evening!  It got dark right before we got there.  I am not supposed to drive after dark (blind eye messes with depth perception) so Ruth drove for 45 minutes until we got to the hotel.  I'd picked one out that had a pool so I could do laps!  I was the only one in the pool.  It was soooo nice to swim!

The next morning, we were up early and on the road by 7.  

Allen and I had come this way last year on our way home from Anna Maria Island.  You drive from Kentucky over the bridge into the tip of Illinois, then onto another bridge into Missouri.  All in a matter of minutes!

We made a stop at a historical marker to read about a civil war battle here.  I had been driving and we switched places.

Ruth was thirsty for a Sonic limeaid drink so we pulled off at some town along the way.

I can now officially say I've had ice-cream for breakfast.

At Mountain Grove we pulled off to switch drivers again and to stop for lunch.  An EXCELLANT choice!!!

They will be moving into another building soon.  There was no seating but they told us if we went to the coffee shop, we could use the tables there.

We drove through Springfield and on to 44 towards Joplin.

I accidently took the first exit toward Carthage instead of the 2nd one toward Webb City, so we kind of got lost.  We "upset" our GPS.  She was constantly trying to get me to turn this way, then that.   We were on historic 66 for awhile.

This is north of Webb City.

I finally found the road to Pittsburg and on to Wichita.  I took Ruth to her new "home" where she will be for awhile.  Allen came to pick me up and that was my trip to Virginia and home!  What a wonderful trip!!!

And the snow storm didn't happen after all.