A Wandering, Pondering Penguin

Gallatin, Missouri

In my last post I mentioned that in the beginning of October I made another cross country trek from Tennessee to California. We took a new route and a HUGE detour in New Mexico so I could see states and sights I had never seen before. It was a impromptu road trip but a road trip nonetheless so we made the most of it. We spent two nights in northern Missouri (not too far from where Mormons think the Garden of Eden lies...) and I got to see Kentucky, Kansas and Illinois!

Gallatin, Missouri

Adam-ondi-Ahman

This was my first trip to Missouri and it was also my first time experiencing an Amish community and a squirrel jail. If you don't know what a squirrel jail is you should look it up and know that I saw one of the only functioning ones in the world. Unbeknown to us until we were in the middle of the trip, we were following Jesse James' tracks almost perfectly. One clue to this was that Gallatin, MO ended up having a lot of James history, as did almost every place we stopped after that. It made the trip all the more exciting to think that Jesse James was on the run in the directions that we were heading. We also discovered that Dodge City, Kansas, USA is NOTHING like you may think it is and that made us a little sad.

What did not make us sad was that Mopsy was a trooper through this all and happily napped on the floorboard of the passenger seat of the car and slept in motel bathrooms.

New Mexico

In the end, I came away from this with a new love: New Mexico. We happened across the greatest landscapes and state parks and I swear every person we spoke to was the nicest person on the trip. New Mexico is a gem and I cannot wait to go back some day. Until then, I have some awesome memories and a few neat pictures. I hope another road trip happens soon.

New Mexico