Great Southern Summer Road Trip Twenty-Twenty-One

Southern Summer Road Trip, part I: In Which We Reunite with Old Friends at beautiful Lake of the Ozarks.

Thanks to Kirk and Courtney for being such gracious and generous hosts! We all connected instantly and had the best time swimming, boating, fishing, lounging, eating, surfing, jet-skiing, pickle-balling, and wakeboarding. I will be revisiting the screened in-porch of their lake cabin in my mind every time I need to go to a happy place. It was the perfect way to start our vacation.

PS- Plus, who knew about deliciously decadent Mennonite whoopie pies? Not me.

You see what I mean about the porch???

Allen and Kirk: best friends for life.
(Also, Andy's Frozen Custard and Becca: best friends for life)

I love this picture so much.

Mollie caught about 20 lightning bugs in
a jar and out of the 2,000 photos I took,
we managed to get one glowing!

Catfishin', y'all.

Becca and Courtney (and adorable Quinn). The hostess with
the mostess! Ahhh, what a lovely time we had.

I think this was their favorite moment of the entire trip

Southern Summer Road Trip, part II: Arkansas Roots.

We took a little detour to Bellafonte, Arkansas, to find my ancestors' graves, Benjamin LaFayette Franklin and his wife, Mary C. Choate. There was no cemetery in Bellafonte, unfortunately, and we couldn't take the time to explore the three cemeteries scattered in that county, so we drove on to SNOWBALL, ARKANSAS to find Allen's ancestors! The Snowball cemetery was old and small, and we felt a connection to our southern roots there. It was special to see the place where so many Renfroes were born, raised their families, and passed away. I'm thankful we made time to seek out these relatives--it is a sacred experience to connect with them in this small way.

The only "Renfroe" name we could find in this
tiny cemetery was of a cousin, Stella, a
granddaughter of Joseph Renfroe.

Stella's headstone told a sad story of death at childbirth. She was only 27 years old. Her daughter Nellie was born in November, but died two months later in January of 1918.

Half of the headstones looked like this, front and back

I love this photo of Stella! It's always a find when there are photos going back to someone born in the 1800s. I love her kids' names, too: Homer, Helen, George, and sweet baby Nellie.

This photo is a GEM! Seriously.
I mean, "seriously" must be how the photographer
told her to compose her expression.

Southern Summer Road Trip, part III: BEAVER LAKE!

Thanks to Mark & Heather / Mom & Dad for arranging a fun week on the lake! It's everyone's favorite vacation, and we had such a great time together. Everyone in our family agrees it was the best Arkansas trip yet!

Southern Summer Road Trip, Part IV: In Which We Worship and Waterslide.

The lake cabin we stayed at was only fifteen minutes from Eureka Springs, one of America's funkiest tourist towns--we celebrated Allen's birthday with a big family lunch there, then visited beautiful Thorncrown Chapel.

On checkout-day, our family took a little detour to Cassville, Missouri, to check out the funkiest WATERSLIDE in America. Seriously, it was so much fun--Calvin did not want to leave!

Eureka Springs, Arkansas, for Allen's birthday lunch and a fun sightseeing tour!

I never get tired of visiting Thorncrown Chapel. There is a special spirit in this beautiful building. This time was memorable because we were with a big, touring church group that asked a lot of great questions. One woman in the group said the building was completed on her birthday, July 10th--I told her my birthday was July 11th and she hugged me and said, "My birthday buddy!"

What a wonderful world.

Southern Summer Road Trip, Part V: Nana's house!

Getting to Nana's pool is the main goal of every trip to Arkansas. It is an Ozark oasis. We loved capping off our visit with family there!

Brigham' favorite activity in Fayetteville is running, with Granddad riding beside him on a bike. They were excited to find the Razorback stadium open one day, and Granddad coached Brigham into talking to some other runners there. No big deal, they turned out to be PRO RUNNERS: Taliyah Brooks (heptathlon) and Shamier Little (400 meter hurdles). It was the highlight of his year.

Board games with all the cousins!  Adam's sweet 
Medieval Risk game!

Reenacting.

Heather and Brig, pinging some pong

I loved riding on the Northwest Arkansas Greenway!
It was so peaceful and beautiful and greeeeeeeeeen . . .

My critter catcher, Mollie

Southern Summer Road Trip, part VI: Ancestors in Kansas, or "Kansestors"

Just before we left for our trip, I got an email from familysearch.org saying "we found your relative's headstone." I clicked on the link and saw that Johan Adam Fisher and Catharine Ringle were buried in Morehead Kansas, a place ridiculously convenient to our planned route to Arkansas. But it was even MORE "coincidental" when I clicked on "view my relationship" and saw that Adam and Catherine were the grandparents of Harry Fisher, whose grave we had just visited in Boise in May.

I feel a strong connection to this line on my family tree. We found names of many Fishers and Ringles on the Veteran Memorial in the Morehead cemetery. I am so thankful for the technology that makes family history so EASY. Familysearch is FREE to everyone--it's so rewarding to connect to your roots and learn about the people who came before you.

Plus, TURTLE RESCUE.

Johan Adam Fisher! He was born in Germany in 1823 (Herschberg, Pfalz, Bayern), and immigrated to America in 1937 at age 14. His family lived in a Germantown in Marshall, Indiana, and that's where he met and married Catherine Ringle. They eventually settled in Cherry Township, Kansas (now known as Cherryville), where they lived the rest of their lives.

It's the thought that counts.

Catherine Ringle was born in 1825 in Canton, Ohio. She and Adam had eight children (William, Mary, Elizabeth, John, Harvey, Albert, Fredlan, and Emma).

Fredlan was my third-great-grandpa, and we visited the graves of Fredlan's son, Harry Adam Fisher (2nd great-grandpa), in Boise in May, along with Harry's daughter, Irene Elizabeth Fisher (my great-grandma, who I KNEW!).