Chicago – Missouri – Mississippi. A month of reconnecting with family and friends.

We flew into Chicago where Charlotte gets to reunite with her only sister, Sheila.

After a nice visit and a homemade gourmet meal, we headed out driving together to Tao and Persephone’s place near Booneville, Missouri. Last time we were in the states to see friends and family, we drove all over the place to see them. Renting a car and gas and food and lodging on the road had us go way over our budget. We knew we couldn’t do that again. This time we organized a ‘family reunion’ of sorts and had everyone descend on Booneville, Missouri for a couple weeks.

It was nearly a ten hour car ride to our son’s house outside of Booneville.

They have a beautiful 100+ year old renovated farmhouse with acreage that sits on top of a hill. Below is a view to the west across the vinyard.

Beautiful sunsets from the west facing deck.

It had rained a lot lately so the nearby creeks were swollen.

Tao and Persephone have two children, Milo and Addie (Adelaide).

Addie loves her racing machine.

Our daughter, Maya and her husband Chris and their two kids – Jude and Hero – made the trip all the way from Cambridge, Massachusetts to spend most of a week with us.

Jude and Hero got right into the battery operated vehicles going round and round the house.

The guys.

Tao does amazing gardens and here Charlotte is helping plant maybe radishes in one of the fine raised beds.

My sister, Mary made the trip down from Minnesota with two of my nieces Amy and Claire.

Persephone did a great job organizing amazing meals for this big gang. But here we head into Booneville to the restaurant in the Historic Fredrich Hotel for a break from the kitchen.

There is a ranch nearby that is home to the Budweiser Clydesdales. Tao looks the part for this outing.

We got to meet a movie star that had been in more than a couple Super Bowl commercials. I think his name is Bud. There are only about 5,000 of these horse in the world.

We didn’t have any warm hats, so we borrowed some classic ones. Another excursion was the Katy Trail. Named after the Missouri-Kansas-Texas rail line. A couple hundred miles of it along the Missouri river have been turned into a walking-biking route.

Booneville, which is right on the Missouri river has a lot of historic old homes. We liked the flag being flown on this one.

After a week or more in Booneville we went to visit Uncle Steve at the Lake of the Ozarks. Here is the Bagnel Dam that makes the lake possible. It was built around 1930 and created 1,150 miles of shoreline. Countless lakeshore homes line the lake.

Steve’s got the perfect attitude for lake life.

This is the dock and landing at Steve’s place. Yes, he has a boat and we loved cruising the lake with him.

There are some incredible fish in this lake that used to be the Osage River. These are paddlefish. They can grow to over 150 pounds.

There are some historic mansions along the lake. Ha Ha Tonka Castle Ruins. This one was destroyed by fire long ago.

We walked around a lot on the gravel roads. Stopping to meet the local livestock. Here Claire is reaching out.

We also got to find a herd where they had just had a bunch of new calves.

Hill to Hill Radio. This low watt fully automated radio station with artificial intelligent DJ’s operates as a hobby with a great playlist getting near 2,000 hours. You can listen from any room in the house and beyond.

After three wonderful weeks we head south to Jackson, Mississippi to reconnect with friends. And boy did we ever. We stayed with our friend, Chris Carey. He lives with 10’s of thousands of books but cleared a space for us. We also got to visit his partner, Nancy’s artistic house and magical backyard.

And then we got to visit Larry Fortenberry and Kay Patterson at their office. We have been doing tax returns together for something like thirty years or so. Before we headed out into the world about seven years ago we worked out a method of working on tax returns over the internet from anywhere in the world. It has worked out great. We’ve saved time and a small forest of trees that didn’t have to get printed into tax forms.

Charlotte made a stop at her favorite hairdresser, Michael.

There was no way we were going to miss stopping in at our favorite restaurant IN THE WORLD!! Walkers Drive in. We sat at the bar with a local celebrity and one of our favorite waitress, Mary waited on us.

And then we got totally surprised by the chef, Mike Greenhill, who came out to greet us and treated us to the whole meal!!!! Wow! We were so excited we couldn’t even hold the camera still!!

We got to have dinner with one of our favorite couples who used to be our neighbors in Fondren on Warrior Trail, Allen Tye and Karla Steckler Tye.

We made it up to Madison to visit old friends Steve and Jeanne Rozman. Charlotte and I met at their house many years ago at a meditation session.

We got to see other friends including Katy White and her husband. Joe.

And last but no least, we got to spend some time with Gen Barbour. We will never forget how she put us up for several months while we got it together to begin our journey which is now in it’s seventh year.

And then it was back on the road and up in the air to Boquete, Panama. Before we leave, here is a picture of the beautiful Natchez Trace.