A couple of years ago, as we were anticipating Bob's retirement, I was mentally planning several big bucket list trips. I had actually gotten so far as to book a 28-day cruise to the South Pacific for February 2020 and a land tour of Turkey for May 2020. And beyond that I was dreaming of traveling to all seven continents. After all, our 2019 cruise to South America and Antarctica had given us a great start on this goal.
Well, it wasn't meant to be. We cancelled the South Pacific cruise before final payment. Something just didn't feel right about the trip. Perhaps I had a premonition of what was coming? And by the time we were to have been in Turkey the whole world had shut down. As many others, I assumed the "pandemic pause" would be over in a few weeks and then we would continue on with our travel dreams.
Now, nearly two years later, the ability to travel is slowly returning, but not even close to what I would consider "normal". So instead of writing posts about our international adventures, I am using this blog to write about our close-to-home jaunts. Perhaps these travels aren't exciting or interesting to others, but they still fall under the category of our "souvenir memories" and as such, I will record them. Lord willing, I will be able to look back on these times in the future and say "remember when we had that pandemic..."
With our Black Hills trip in the rearview mirror, we decided to squeeze in one more fall trip. One advantage to living in a large country, such as the U.S., is that the seasons do not change simultaneously in all locations. Our timing had been good to catch fall colors in the Black Hills in late September but by traveling south in late October we could once again catch the beautiful autumn foliage.
Our two weeks in Missouri was a combination of tourist sites, nostalgia, and family time so rather than give a day-by-day account, I will do the condensed version covering some of the highlights.
Touristy stuff first...
