Vosslings Adventure Book: Day 25 HERITAGE DAYS

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Day 25 HERITAGE DAYS

Day 25

Heritage Days 2015

Depart- Lawton, Oklahoma
Destination- Ramsey, Illinois
670 miles and 10 hours

July 2, 2015

We had a very busy day ahead. We had come to realize the Voss family reunion starts TODAY! My planning was a day behind. The only location we had to skip was our stay in Joplin, Missouri. A few years ago we took a trip to visit Grandma in Oklahoma and stopped for the night in Joplin, Missouri just after the tornado had ripped through town. We vividly remember the experience of driving through the devastation. It would have been a nice trip to go through there a few years later and compare the rebuild. I hope we get the opportunity at another time. We departed Lawton, OK at 6am in the middle of a rain storm. Josh was soaked after closing up the RV so we can get on the road, it was dark and wet and not the best start to our day. We had a good 10 hour drive ahead of us to arrive at the Family Reunion in time to hitch a ride on the firetruck in route for ice cream at Dairy Dee.

When we pulled into Ramsey, IL., we were ahead of schedule and really excited to set up camp at the WJLY Radio Station. As we pulled onto the lawn, the front tires sank into the ground, Josh stopped immediately. We were STUCK! We drove over 4000 miles and got stuck on the last leg of our trip. It was a bit of a fiasco but thankfully we were at the farm with family and were able to get immediate assistance. First we tried to pull it out with Dad's truck. It was unsuccessful. Then we tried to pull it out with a tractor, the tires just spun until there were spin out holes in the gravel drive. Lastly, we used 2 tractors to pull the RV until it started to roll back. SUCCESS! We had a good laugh at this. I'm just thankful we had access to equipment and a few family farmers to pull us out!

After we got ourselves out of the front yard, we drove up to the machine shed to park for the night. We were so happy to have made it to the reunion in time for dinner and the traditional firetruck ride to Dairy Dee for ice cream. When the firetrucks got back to the machine shed, Josh and his dad tired unsuccessfully to find us power for the night, the generator would have to do. We had a slumber party in the driveway. So be it!