April 18 – April 22, 2019: It was time to high tail it back home to get ready for our next adventure starting the beginning of May, a 3-week trip to South America that includes the Amazon Rainforest, the Galapagos Islands and Cusco, Peru and Machu Picchu!

April 11 – 13 & 17: Meanwhile, we had a most excellent stop over at our friends, Bob and Kay Wetzsteon’s house in Blue Ridge, Georgia before we  headed to Hilton Head, spending two nights with them (April 11 & 12). We took a trip to Amicalola Falls State Park and even hiked to the top of the south’s tallest waterfall at 729 feet, then stopped by a few apple orchards. We also dropped off Liv, our rig, for the week in their generous driveway and circled back on April 18th to pick her up.

These cows provide serious entertainment from Bob and Kay’s back deck!

Spring evening on Bob & Kay’s back deck…watching the cows!

Liv parked in front of Bob and Kay’s–she actually stayed on the other side of the house for the week, but looked good from this view!

Bob, Kay, Jeanne & Tom

Amicalola Falls

Red bud in bloom–got to love spring in states with deciduous trees!

Amicalola State Park is the southern starting point for the Appalachian Trail!

Staircase to heaven!

I love trees and had to capture a bare apple tree

April 19: We took advantage of our Harvest Host suggestion of staying in the parking lot of the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky. Gee, that was a tough place to find something to do! We rolled in early enough for me to spend about 2 hours taking a guided tour of the museum seeing many international quilt winners from the inception of the annual American Quilter’s Society quilt show.

Can you see us parked in the empty lot?

April 20: Did you know that the Gateway Arch in St. Louis is now a fully fledged National Park? Neither did I, until someone mentioned that I needed to add a few more parks to my list. It was re-designated in 2018 and I couldn’t find much of a reason why it was upgraded to a “park” as parks usually encompass large amounts of natural resources that need to be protected due to their uniqueness.

Our original plan was to cruise St. Louis without a stop, but I needed to get my National Park Passport book stamped with the Gateway Arch, so we stopped for the night. We camped right downtown only about 2 miles from the Arch and had a great spring afternoon and evening. There is new upgraded museum under the Arch that opened last summer and covers an incredible amount of history from the area and of the arch itself. We finished the afternoon off with beverages and snacks in a sky bar at the St. Louis Hotel, which overlooked part of the Cardinal’s stadium.