12-19-17  on to St. Louis from Knoxville:

Time to head to St. Louis.  Since we were joining the kids there, I made a Dr. appointment, so our "vacation" there would start a little earlier.  Joy, joy!!!

So Tues. morning Ken and I took off from Knoxville for our 7 or so hour drive to St. Louis.  The weather sort of represented my feelings for going back to a cold place for Christmas.  At least we would have the kids there----so we thought!!!

 more gloom.

 What's that blue stuff????

 Wow, other then all the dormant trees, it was turning into a rather pretty day.

 Back to my passion on long trips----photographing old barns.

 and the occasional river

 love the weathered wood on barns.

 Also love the critters along the way.

 Looks like this barn is deteriorating more and more every trip we make back to St. Louis.

 another random barn

No stopping for dinner to visit with my brother and SIL this time.  They were in Oregon for Christmas.  Glad they went, but missed our visit.  But we did stop and visit a long time friend of mine in Benton, Illinois.  It was a short visit, but nice seeing her again. 
We wasted no time getting to some of our favorite restaurants.  Tonight we hit up Castelli's Moonlight restaurant on our way in.  Bit of a detour, but well worth it!  They make the best chicken ever.

Finally we made it to our house.  I will admit it's really nice traveling that far and staying in our own place!  Makes packing a whole lot easier!   We settled in quickly for what was suppose to be about a 3 week stay.