Turtle Tales: Day 35 & 36

Our plans per our last blog was to go to Branson, MO. and "play" However, after talking with our Son Jason in North Carolina, we decided the best action to take was to head home, regroup, fulfill our medical appointment obligations, and be prepared to head to North Carolina when needed.

Our Son and his wife (Jason and Shannon) are expecting our ninth grandchild - a girl whom they have named Eliana. She is due around Thanksgiving. This in and of itself if not unusual, people have babies every day......however, Eliana will not live for a long period of time once she is born. It may be just minutes, hours, or a few days, but the prognosis is the same, regardless of the time we have to spend with her. At their 18 week ultrasound in July, Jason and Shannon found out that Eliana has a very rare chromosomal disorder - Tetrasomy 9p. The survival rate of children born with this disorder is poor, at best. This past Sunday, Shannnon began to have contractions and other issues, and she has been hospitalized to slow down/stop the contractions and to eliminate the chance of her or the Eliana getting an infection or developing any other form of distress. She is in the hospital until the baby is born, which depending on how things go, may be earlier than anticipated or she may be allowed to go full term. So we have made the decision to be available to them as needed, and to head home. We did get to visit with Jason and Shannon and their children including Eliana (she's quite the kicker!) at the beginning of this journey, and we feel blessed to have had that time together. We ask that you lift our family up in prayer and for God to give Jason and Shannon the peace and comfort needed to get them through this difficult time. Thank you...........

So Part II of the journey is almost over. Yesterday the weather was beautiful for traveling, and we were glad not to have to deal with rain, fog and dismal weather conditions! We left the Benton KOA Campground and headed south via Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi. We spent the evening at the Movietown RV Park in Canton, Mississippi. I haven't researched it, but they say that several movies have been made in this area, thus "Movietown" is used on many of the businesses in town. The only major city we went through in our travels this day was Memphis, TN which we highlighted earlier in this blog. We did cross over the Mississippi River twice on this day - in two different states!

Today we left Canton, MS and headed south, passing through Jackson, MS, Baton Rouge, Lafayette and Lake Charles, LA - and once again crossed over the Mississippi River (in Baton Rouge)! We are spending the night in Westlake, LA, and will begin our last leg of Part II of the Journey in the morning! As we drove further south today, the temperatures rose and the gas prices dropped! (YES!)

We are staying at a very nice RV Park called Whispering Meadow RV Park. It is one of the nicest RV Parks we have stayed at, and the owners are very accommodating! The dogs have been the center of attention here, and have received many visitors - as has "Speedy". When we first arrived, the owner jokingly asked us if we had any dogs traveling with us. He said he had a doctor and his wife arrive at the park in a small RV like ours, and they had two Great Danes! He wondered how they all fit in the RV. We did inform him that we had dogs with us, and that we did indeed fit comfortably in the "Turtle" - all of us! He just shook his head and laughed. That was probably the most asked question on our journey - funny when we think back on that..........

We will blog again once we get home and are settled, and try to give you a final tally on miles traveled, states we traveled through or visited, and of course the number of lighthouses we saw along the way!

Thanks for following us all these miles.......we are blessed to have had the opportunity to share our journey with you!.

Here are a few pictures from the road..........

Bridge just before entering Missouri on I-57