Traveling with wheels on blue highways can be educational as well as fun, especially when niece Deb is the driver! A multiplicity of learning experiences infused my life in the last six months. Because of their differences, I will share a few of those with you.

RAMBLE around FALSE RIVER "Where River History & French Culture Collide" was a unique experience at New Roads when fall foliage sang "enjoy my peak colors as you soak up the bonds of harmony of this plantation culture." Sponsored by Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation, we gathered at the forme Poydras School now upcycled into a comfortable community center. After meeting charming hosts and learning that a new documented history will be available soon, friends Kathy, Jeanne and I began our self-guided tour.

False River is and was the focus of life and transportation. "The antebellum homes of yesteryear retell the story of luxurious living." Thus, we viewed from the 1740 Parlange through the 1800s those exquisite homes such as Austerlitz, 1832, to Lakeside, 1820, largest house in Pointe Coupee Parish, ending at St. Francis Church almost isolated on Pointe Coupee Road. The adjacent cemetery was freshened for All Saints Day by putting a gleaming, white coat of cemetery paint on the above ground slabs. As we drove away in the late afternoon, we tipped out hat to Morel's Restaurant, the superb caterer for morning coffee and lunch at Bonnie Glen. And we gloated over their first Veterans Day Parade.

With Thanksgiving approaching, Deb, Sharon and I planned a trip through the Okie state ending in Kansas. Far superior to the cattle drives from Texas to the railhead in Abilene, we stopped en route, visiting Sharon's family and Will Rogers' Museum. Can one visit Tulsa without driving around Oral Roberts University? The design was certainly a prototype of the future, and the striking 25-floors building is now a hospital. A beautiful campus, it is not to be missed.

Claremore, in the heart of the Cherokee Nation, nestles in the shadow of the great Oil Capitol of Tulsa. Boasting rightfully of some famous people and events, Claremore is on the famous "Route 66," that well known two-lane highway, lacing from Chicago, Joplin, Tulsa, across Texas Panhandle's Amarillo westward to the Golden State. The few businesses from the 1920s add nostalgia to that well travelled route. Patti Page, longtime popular singer calls Claremore home, and the musical Oklahoma is set there.

Will Rogers Museum was our focus. On the highest promontory overlooking the city, twelve magnificent galleries are brimming with the lore of this American icon-Will Rogers. Born near Claremore, this part-Indian Oklahoma legend early on found his love by working with cattle. Roping is a necessary skill with cattle, and Will Rogers became the outstanding roper in the U.S. using his winsome personality and contagious smile to move right on into Hollywood films. All 50 can be viewed in the comfortable theater.

Will Rogers, known as a humorist, readily used his wit and wisdom to bring laughter and fill books. Some examples: "A difference of opinion is what makes horse racing and missionaries." "Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don't have for something they don't need." "Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip."

On the third day we arrived in the Little Apple, on the map Manhattan, KS. Home of Kansas State University, it is in the Flint Hills and only 120 miles east of Kansas City. Since 1855 it is a growing, developing city with stately, old homes far outnumbered by suburbia and college students. One of the family joined the Business faculty this semester, so we joined this wonderful family and lively three-year-old son for Thanksgiving. My cousin Mary and Wes' mother, Heidi, a German war bride living in Lubbock, rounded out our happy holiday. Manhattan is named as "one of the Top 10" cities in which to retire.

Number One for me was getting a tour of the main campus by Wes. The 24,000 student Enrollment is involved in typical curricula as well as research. Known as K-State, this land grant Flagship was founded in 1863, and is known as a Space Grant university, or "research university." The excimer laser, made LASIK eye surgery possible, was developed at KSU. Landon Lecture Series, named for Governor Alfred Landon who challenged President Franklin D. Roosevelt for his position, brings in the "big names" to the campus. In engineering, physics, and agriculture, extensive research is ongoing in atomic, molecular and optical physics as well as the NASA Center for Gravitational Studies in Cellular and Development Biology. Satellite campuses are engaged in some exciting topics on the frontier.

A tour through the edge of the 30, ODD-acre Fort Riley showed the transition from the proud Cavalry, which converted to tanks in 1941, to present artillery training. It is akin to being its own state!

Not only was Thanksgiving week so enjoyable, we drove in solid rain from Paris, TX, to Central Louisiana!