On the eve of Veteran's Day, we remember one close to us

It was a long and interesting day on the road. We covered some major miles and landed tonight in Staunton, Illinois. Tomorrow should find us all the way home.

We were up early again and out the door before 8 a.m. We breezed across the Oklahoma turnpikes on the first part of our journey. The turnpikes are nice, but $8 to cover the northeast corner of Oklahoma seems a little stiff. It’s twice that if we have the trailer attached.

I was reading some online truck blogs and the truckers really despise the turnpikes, not for the cost but for the lack of services along them. The turnpikes have only a couple gas stops and basically no typical state rest areas.  We have stopped at a couple of the “rest areas” and they have a couple picnic tables and a his-and-hers pit toilet.

Those must be the “free restroom” that they advertise on the turnpike.

One trucker wondered what the state is doing with the money they take in from tolls since they don’t spend it on services. I guess I echo that sentiment.

One of the major stops we had today was a quick visit to the Fort Leonard Wood Army Museum where we dropped off some of Joan’s father’s Army memorabilia for possible inclusion in the museum collection.

They took the whole box and were really excited to have Red’s duffel bag especially because it was clearly stenciled with Red’s name and service number. “We don’t usually get duffels that have that,” the volunteer at the reception desk said.

We did leave with Red’s field coat and Ike jacket as the museum said they have plenty of those.

As part of an artillery unit with the Third Army (75^th Division) Red kept his log notes on some of the firing they did in Belgium and Germany as they pushed the Nazis back into their own country in the spring of 1945. The notes were very much of interest to the museum as they were dated and described targets that were being fired upon.

Red also kept a couple of his manuals and his government issued prayer book which the museum said would likely be valuable collection pieces. Red also kept a USO map of Paris that was issued while he was in Europe. Anyway, they are keeping a large box of stuff and will return whatever they don’t want.

While we were there we toured the World War II barracks, mess hall and day rooms that have been preserved on the base from World War II.  Joan and I wondered if the buildings we toured may have been the same ones that Red stayed in during his boot camp days. It would be a long shot, but anything is possible.

We plan to stop there again when I have a camera that works and take some photos when we head south this winter. It was also especially appropriate that the visit occurred on the eve of Veteran's Day. We say many young me and women on the base and we thank them all for their service.

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful except for a minor back up in St. Louis for a construction project.

Once again we are staying at the Super 8 Motel in Staunton, Illinois and we had our usual spaghetti dinner at Cavataios' Restaurant in downtown Staunton.

We are looking forward to getting home tomorrow.

Mileage out: 31270

Time out: 7:38 a.m.

Mileage in: 31833

Time in: 5:30 p.m.