We left at 7:15 on a friday nite from my parents place and drove thru the night & into the next day, finally reaching our first destination after lunch on Sat. Our first stop was to unload flour at a sm. pretzel factory in MO. When we pulled in we noticed this homemade bike sitting here. My brother Joe tried to ride it but the tires were flat ! 
Our next stop was in the small town of Rutledge, MO at my great aunt & uncle's store. I remember coming here as a small child with my dad and a truck load of peaches we delivered from PA. This store has a small diner, groceries & dry goods, including fabrics. When I looked up the spelling of Rutledge it told me that it had a pop. of 103 in the yr. 2000!
This building was across the street and is also owned by my great uncle. I loved the character of this building but was told the floors are ruinned and it needed too many repairs, it's currently used for storage.
My great aunt & uncle's house behind the store. We freshed up here before heading to the chicken bbq supper provided for us by my Mom's family. My Mom has 2 brothers and a sister living here in MO with their children and grandchildren.
My Uncles are known for their bbq chicken and once again we were not disappointed !
A salad one of my cousin's brought. I thought the touch of edible violets was pretty !
Our bbq was held at a ball diamond, so the guys could play ball after eating.
Watching the game !
Beautiful sunrise as we were getting ready to leave on Monday morning. 
My uncle's farm in Mo. We had spent two nights here with them and were here most of Sunday.
Their dairy barn.
A beautiful morning to start the next part of our trip ! We needed to be in Page AZ by wed. morning to met Kim & Jerry and my husband , Dave ( he left a week before us and was in the west doing work for Bindery Tools,LLC ) So look for my next post to see more of our vacation.
.jpg)
.jpg)
