Southern Illinois

On our way home after the 4th we took a detour through Southern Illinois to see our old home. It was so neat to see it all. We drove through Duquoin, into Carbondale and we took a break at Turley Park:

There was so much that had changed in Carbondale. It was neat to see it all. Then the most exciting part was driving by our old house...we drove by it about 3 times driving really slow, I even wanted to get out and go look in the windows, since it appeared nobody lived there. But we just got a picture from the truck:

After that we cut through Carterville then Marion and saw the effects from a recent storm. Then we headed up the interstate and went home. it was a long day but a good day!

4th of July weekend

We did quite a bit over the 4th of July weekend. Friday we headed to St Louis and stayed in O'Fallon and went to the St. Clair Square Mall, 17th street and then did some swimming in the hotel. Oh Rhonda met us there that day as well. after all that we drove and parked on the Illinois side of Eads bridge and watched the small fireworks display from there. We were expecting a long drive back but there was very little traffic. Saturday morning we got up and decided to go to the science center since it was raining outside. It was ok there...not as exciting as it used to be. Then we headed over to Rhonda's house in Sedalia. That was a long drive...we took back roads because Rhonda told us that the interstate had construction, which turned out not to be true. Oh well, that afternoon we got there and relaxed and had some yummy dinner and shot off quite a few fireworks. The next morning we got up and headed back home. Here are some pictures of us leaving St Louis: