For the last 6 days my husband and I have been the guests of Village Tours on their Autumn River Cruise https://villagetours.net/tours/. Another adventure cleared from my list. We started in Oklahoma City and drove north by way of Hannibal, MO to the Mark Twain boyhood home and museum on the Mississippi River. I could imagine Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer’s escapades when I climbed the berm to the river. It was less than two blocks to the river from his bedroom window. I even found the Becky Thatcher house. Being a reader and writer, I roamed the gift store afterwards looking over a multitude of volumes of America’s greatest storyteller.
We continued north to the Presidential Museum and Library of Abraham Lincoln. We didn’t actually get to see the library, but the museum could have kept me captive all day. The wax statues themselves were worth the visit. I have never seen such detail.
At our northern-most destination of Peoria, Illinois we boarded the Spirit of Peoria paddleboat for the next three days https://spiritofpeoria.com/. The three-story boat is powered by its paddle which is not just for decoration. The boat was comfortable and spacious, but the food was to die for! The chef would come by daily telling you to be sure to save room for her grandmother’s sweet potato casserole and the deck hand smoked the brisket on board for 7 hours prior to dinner. 
There was entertainment daily with musicians and storytellers and you could always sit on a deck chair and watch the river go by. I was fascinated by the bald eagles, herons and the monarch butterfly migration we saw as we idly watched the world from the point of view of a major river. If you could secure a rocking chair in the shade, you could spend your retirement there. 
We spent three days on the Illinois and then the Mississippi Rivers going through locks along the way and seeing cities from an entirely different view than you would by car. Each night the bus would pick us up and take us to another lodge for the evening and we were stuffed with food along the way.
Finally, in St Louis we visited the Arch – the Gateway to the West – and we took the elevator to the top to take pictures, then headed home to Oklahoma the next morning. Our bus driver and tour guide, David and Pam Harms, were fabulous professionals with an eye to detail. We may have been over fed, but not neglected.
If you need a vacation and don’t want to drive, I highly recommend Village Tours. They have all levels of tours for every person and every pocket book. Check them out!
I’m ready for my next adventure. 
For the last few years, I’ve had some beautiful crepe myrtle bushes in my front flowerbed. They provided color and took up a lot of room and then I had flowers and groundcover around them. I made the mistake of planting daylilies years ago and they tried to take over. This year I even cleared a space for some kale and beets in the flowerbed. I love to experiment.
Friday I was honored by the flight simulator instructors from Vance AFB with a quilt handmade by the wife of one instructor. I had the best job in the world at Vance for 15 years. As an Office Administrator for CSI (Contract Simulator Instructors) I started that job in 1995 in the front office with 23 retired military pilots. They taught the Air Force students to fly, and I kept the office running for them. We lost that contract 15 years later and by that time we had 85 instructors and one Office Administrator. I had help and lots of things changed in that 15 years, but what was most important was that I worked with 85 of the best people in the world. 
Next week, Friday, September 7, 2018 is First Friday in Enid 5-9 pm. 
#weareowfi! was used a couple of years ago to celebrate all things having to do with Oklahoma Writers’ Federation, Inc. Those days came and went, and we are still a great group of writers supporting writers even if I haven’t seen that hashtag in some time. Breaking into the publishing world is a tough nut to crack and you need all the support you can get. And at OWFI, you get the support you need and want. 
I cleared my life of a few books at A New Chapter Bookstore yesterday afternoon. I had a book signing with four other Oklahoma authors. Five authors in one location. It was a beautiful Oklahoma afternoon and I was surrounded by books and good friends. What more could an author want? I came home and ordered more books. 
Victim mentality
I cleared my life of an old phone this week. I’m like an old dog with new tricks – trying desperately to learn something. 
I did a little more clearing of my life this week. My bedroom is in the back of the house and it seems things collect there. I am not sure how this happens, but the house is shaped like an “L” and the master bedroom suite is at the end of the “L.” You can’t go any further. So, as you walk to the back with your arms loaded from the living areas, things get dropped in that room. The room is also a dust collector and I constantly battle the dust bunnies. I think I may be losing that battle. 
Peggy Chambers "Views from the Hammock" site 