One guess where we are, yep, Colorado

 It's that time again, time to escape the summertime heat of Florida and hit the high country of Colorado. Love to be here but the trip is pretty long, about 1800+ miles. Also, the logistics of preparing to leave our house tend to be quite a large pain. Oh well, it's worth it.

We head out and catch 75N up through Georgia. Long swaths of the highway had these bright yellow flowers growing thick beside it. I love to see an effort being made to make our pollinators happy.

Our next fun (for me 😁) stop was in Perry, GA at Stripling's General Store. He wanted to fuel-up and I wanted to browse. What a store!! A little bit of everything, yes everything. There must have been 50 different napkin patterns, all perfectly gorgeous, bunches of shirts, kitchenware, decorative household goods plus a full grocery with butcher shop. 

So much to see, and if I was local I'd definitely try their sausage. Here's their mascot out front.

First night spent at Lake Guntersville State Park Lodge in Alabama. It's our usual stop, up near the top of the state and a beautiful property. The views of the lake are wonderful, the rooms great, and they have a buffet-style restaurant onsite.

We did a bit of a tour around the area before dark and stopped down at the lake for a leg-stretcher.

Large parking lot area with a nice long dock
to fish from plus a boat ramp.

Some nice overlook areas along the bluff.

 As usual, I was mesmerized by the lovely mimosa trees in bloom.

Sunset was a pretty affair, and as darkness fell the fireflies came out to play. 

Parting shots of a mural and a cornhole base depicting the AL state parks.

After crossing the Mississippi at Dyersburg, much preferred over Memphis!, we spent the night in Jackson, MO and headed out the next day to make our planned "end run" around the St. Louis/Kansas City area on Sunday morning. The destination for the evening was the Lied Lodge in Nebraska City, NE, another usual stop with restaurant onsite. Beautiful ambiance with stately wooden beams and old world charm.

After dinner, we finished up the last of the delicious blueberry cobbler with homemade whipped cream. It was a parting gift from our wonderful neighbors with whom we had shared a great meal and visit right before we left.

It's nice to have good friends that can cook!

The next bit of scenery is always one I enjoy seeing, the bread belt of the midwest spread out in front of us - vast agricultural plots, large farm equipment, silos and hay stacking up for the lean winter months. 

The next thing you know we are getting our first peek of the Rockies and seeing the end in sight. 

They're wa-ay back there.

Thanks for riding along out with us and we'll have a report of how things are here @Rocky soon.