The Amana Colonies

This particular stop along the way was one that I had been looking forward to for some time. After reading about the True Inspirationists and their communal living I was interested in seeing how they had made it work for so long. I will start you off with the evening we arrived as it could be the funniest part of the trip. I had been racing the sun the whole way there and although I was determined to arrive before sun down, I sadly did not. And once it went down it headed there fast. By the time that I got to the gate of the RV park and campground it was so dark it was hard to see too far infront of me. The campsite map was taped to the front of the office door with my campsite circled. I followed the map into the campgrounds and headed toward our site. Now I feel that it is important to paint the entire picture for you. We have been driving in Amana for a bit and the closest home was several miles back. As we are driving into this site in the dark there are very few trailers or RVs around. Most of them are pretty close together near the front. As we are driving in further and further there is almost no one around. We then past two metal buildings and head back to a completely secluded area which happens to be near the road. It was a bit creepy to say the least.

However, we set up the tent and got the sleeping bags in there. I get out my phone to call my husband to let him know where I was. After all if we disappear in the night the police would need to have some place to start looking. I am pulling out the cooler and duffel bags. I can't find my phone. I start searching with a flash light and now have emptied almost all of the contents of the truck onto the grass. NO PHONE! I remembered seeing some pay phones back by the metal buildings. So we leave everything and head back to the buildings. I put in $1.50 because it was long distance and no sound is heard. The last place to look is the office as I know that I had it then. So we load back into the truck and headed back to the office. Pulling up I see the glimmer of metal against the gravel and breath the biggest sigh of relief.

Then I called Joe and let him know where the police should start their investigations in the morning.

Next morning we headed into Main Amana to start our journey. We watched a short video on the history of the Amana colonies. Here is a link to the history if anyone is interested.

http://www.amanacolonies.com/history.htm

It is hard to truly express the Amana colonies into writing. Many parts of the colonies are like stepping back into time a hundred years or more. The general store had the general ledger showing how they ran accounts. The colonist got credit at the store to use each year. They also got weekly food supplies. Although, most of their meals were eaten communally. While visiting the communal kitchen we learned that this was mostly for the adults. The children would be fed at home as the meals were not social occasions. The adults were given 15 minutes to eat and then go to work.

The other thing that I found was remarkable was that their children were in school year round, six days a week. Before school age the children would go to kinderschool. Which was basically a daycare. The daily schedule for a mother would be to feed her children and then drop them off, head to eat, and then work until about noon. From noon to two she would take her children home and feed them. They would rest until it was time to go back to work for the rest of the day.

The Amana colonies were filled with faith, devotion, and a lot of hard work. We still have ruminates of their beginnings in our homes today in the form of Amana appliances, some furniture, and some toys. Their culture is amazing story and well worth visit.

Once we had visited the Tractor Museum we headed west to Mt. Rushmore. Which mainly consisted of a lot of driving and road weary travelers.

Chicago!

Chicago is an amazing city when the sun is shining and you are on a tall ship with a pirate that looked like he just got off a Malibu Rum billboard. On the other hand, when it is pouring and you CTA bus driver kicks you off the bus to walk a couple of miles due to rerouting during a run it is a cold place. We spend two days in Chicago and the first is why I will leave a piece of my heart in Chicago. On this day we rode the train from Elgin to Chicago's Union Station. From there we took a bus to the Grayline Double Decker Bus. We rode the bus around and heard interesting facts about the city until about half way through the tour when our stomachs protested. We then caught a bus to Rock N' Roll McDonalds. Now here is my though on this. It was a very cool McDonalds, but the food is not different so not worth double the money which is what I ended up paying. Just about everything on the menu was $1 to $.50 more. If I had it to do again I would have just gone here for an ice cream cone.

We then took another bus to Navy Pier for some family fun by Lake Michigan. We picked up tickets to ride the Lighthouse ride, Wave Swings, Carousel, and Ferris Wheel. Then we went and got tickets to ride Windy the Tall Ship. Their 5 pm show was "Real Pirates Stories." So we got aboard and got seats on the midship and learned about the Pirates that had once sailed on the very lake that we were on. The stories were fascinating and the crew was amazing. My favorite story was about Pirate Fox who imprisoned a entire town and got them to do his bidding for over a year. He was sentenced to death only after he shot a goose a few year later.

After our cruise we headed to dinner at an Italian restaurant where we had our first taste of deep dish. Then headed back to the train to ride back to the hotel. However, we missed our train so we had to wait for the next one. This one was at 10:40 and when we headed to get on their were four police officers barring the way and only allowed boarding twenty minutes before departure. They also did bag checks as we boarded.

Once home we collapsed in bed and got ready for the next day. However, my alarm didn't go off so I awoke forty minutes before we needed to be at the train station and we had not even packed our stuff up yet. So we did a rush job and grabbed McDs breakfast to make it just in time. We got off at Union Station and headed to Chicago. Once we got to Union Station we headed to our bus that would take us to the Museum Campus. As we walked out of Union Station we saw buckets of rain pouring down. We rushed to our bus stop because it was supposed to be there in a few minutes. However, no bus came. Then Blake said he had to use the bathroom. I went into the nearest building to see if they had a public restroom. When I went to the desk the security guard told me that they did not have a public restroom. Also, the door that I had used to access the building was supposed to be locked so another guard was locking it and I would have to exit the side door and walk around the building. Hmphf!

Back at the bus stop the next bus came and we sat happily headed to the planetarium. About three stops away from the planetarium the bus driver asked everyone to get off the bus. He didn't give a reason and only after asking were we given the reason that they were rerouted for the day due to the Taste of Chicago Run/Walk. So I followed a Field Museum volunteer to the Campus and headed back to the planetarium. In the pouring rain. With a seven year old who was wearing flip flops! Once there we headed around the museum in rapid fire style reading only a few plaques in each room. Then we watched a movie about IBEX, a NASA project, and headed to the Shedd Aquarium.

The Shedd was packed and the line to get in was over an hour line. The will call line that we had to stand in to get our tickets was still twenty minutes long. There we knew that we were running out of time fast so we headed directly to the penguins. We did stop briefly to look at the turtles, dolphins, and sea otters. The kids loved and we could have easily spend multiple days in here alone.

At this point we were starving and headed to the Taste of Chicago. We got two pieces of deep dish pizza and everyone was full. I was nervous that the kids would still be starving but they were not even able to finish both pieces. We got a dream cup, orange sherbert and vanilla ice cream to top it off. We all thought that this was great.

This was the end of our day in Chicago so we road the train back and went to the store to get some food for the trip. Unfortunately we pushed our luck and ended up putting our tent up in the dark. Then found that I had lost my phone. We finally after an hour of searching ended up finding it at the front office on the ground. The only thing that I can assume is that I knocked it out when I got the tent site information. Then fell asleep to the sound of rustling wind in an open field; For there were no other campers with us that night.

Homeward Bound!

So we left Avoca and headed to Niagara Falls. I went to the US side and realized that this was not the Falls that I remember, because apparently that is on the Canada side. So if you are headed to the Falls remember to keep driving until you are in Canada. The kids were not impressed with the Falls which confuses me because they are pretty impressive. Now we decided to only take the Maid of the Mist tour due to time, but the kids said that they would really want to do the Cave of the Winds another time. On the Canadian side there is an observation restaurant and a great wax museum. After seeing the Falls we headed to bed early because we had a lot of driving to do the next day.

The next morning we headed out for Cleveland, OH around six and got there about 9:30. We parked and headed into the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is amazing but a bit dry for the kids. Also, I realized that they knew very few of the people in it. They did learn about Elvis, Les Paul, Bruce Springsteen, and more. We got a souvenir for the boys and one for their guitar teacher before moving on to the second hall of fame. The Second Hall of Fame that we saw that day was just south in Canton and was the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The boys had a ton of fun there and talked me into letting them get a package of trading cards. Now they want to collect them, so at some point in the future we will head to Target to get a binder. That will be after they remind me, of course.

Now all of this was good and if it had gone my way we would end on this note. However, it did not. From Canton, we headed west through the rest of Ohio. For those of you that have a GPS you might understand. My GPS, aka Lola, took me on surface streets for about 20 miles. She ate up about an hour before getting us to a freeway. We headed onto the toll road and right before Indiana we payed Ohio $10 for the pleasure of using their freeway for half the state. Once in Indiana we got the pleasure of heading onto another toll road and proceeded to drive through Indiana.

At the end of the thruway we pulled up to the booths and there seemed to me a lot of congestion. I blew this off as the time of the day as it was not almost six. However, when I got my turn at the transponder I realized it was because the transponder was not working well and took four times to read my ticket. Indiana was only $6.75. I attempted to pay with my credit card and when that didn't work because of the same reader issue I paid in cash. As I drove away I couldn't find my credit card. I am assuming that I left it in the machine in my hast to get away from the noxious fumes, the impatient honking, and the rumbling engines of semis.

My wonderful husband called and canceled our cards. I can't thank him enough for helping me out of a very stressful situation.

Just Visiting

So it has been awhile since I last posted and I thought that I should let you guys know what I have been up to. I have been having a wonderful time with my family and friends over on the east coast. I hope that you don't mind that I haven't been blogging so that I could spend as much time with everyone as possible. I will be hitting the road on the 24th again and I will resume blogging the trip then.

Down on the Boardwalk

We started the next day taking a stroll on the boardwalk. Like they say, “It ain’t what it used to be.” Atlantic City is more about casinos and a little bit more like Vegas than it was awhile ago. Obviously a long while ago. But, we did walk along and end up at Rainforest Cafe for lunch. This was a huge treat as my kids had not been here before even though we have one near our home. The kids loved the environment and had a blast with the thunderstorm.
After lunch we headed to visit with family. We had the a delightful time with my family. I can’t thank them enough for a wonderful visit that days later my children were still raving about.

From Hannibal To Atlantic City - Our Journey

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At George Washington’s Feet

The next morning we had pancakes and headed into Colonial Williamsburg. We started our tour by listening to George Washington explaining what our options are with the Revolution and why we should fight. It was very interesting listening to his speech and he then answered questions from the attendants. From there we headed to take a children’s tour. The kids really enjoyed this. The tour guide was great and centered everything towards the kids. He was very energetic and interactive. He taught the children to courtesy in the fashion of the day. He explained that if you were a farmer or a merchant you would want your daughter to marry into a higher class and into gentry class if possible. He explained that the way to do that was to make sure that she had the training to fit into the life. Also women would look for men with strong calfs as this meant that they spent time dancing and riding horses, therefore in the gentry class. He taught the children a rhythm dance that the slaves used to help them survive the many hours of hard labor.
From there we headed to get iced coffee and water as it was 99 degrees out. I couldn’t help but laugh at the number of people who stopped me to ask where I had gotten my Starbucks. We enjoyed our Starbucks as we rode around Colonial Williamsburg in our carriage. Ryleigh said that she loved it as she was a princess and should get a carriage. It was a great experience and we loved the horses. The poor things were so hot though and after our ride they only had one more ride before they were going to return to the stables to rest in the shade.
After riding around Williamsburg we walked around and went into several of the shops. We visited a wig makers shop, a silversmiths, a blacksmiths, and a baker. We also visited an apothecary shop and learned about the trade. I personally found this fascinating and had a lot of questions to ask. We found out that a male that could read Latin was able to become an apprentice and the apprenticeship was about seven years. We looked at casts and medicines. We learned that a family that could not afford to pay for a cast or a medicine could open a credit and pay over time. We also got to see a real skeleton as in it was real bones.
After we made it back to the visitor’s center I called to find out if our cruise on Assateague was still going to be happening since they were calling for thunderstorms. They said that they would so I drove the 3 hours and waited at the dock. The sky was looking ominous but no rain had fallen yet. However, the radar showed that the storm that was rolling in was thick and we would not be able to wait it out. Disappointed again I looked for a place to stay the night. I looked on my GPS and it was only 118 miles to Atlantic City so I thought that I would try and made a reservation at Trump Marina. The only catch was that it was a 118 miles as the crow flies and when the GPS showed the route it was 3 hours of driving. So I began to drive.
Halfway through I found out that the GPS route wanted me to take a ferry that closed at 6 pm. So I ended up driving another 2 1/2 hours to go around it. When I finally got into Atlantic City at 12:40 I was fried. I grumpily checked into the hotel and fell into my comfy bed. I did like the Trump Marina and the beds were great. Not to say this it wasn’t without its faults. But I am a sucker for a good bed and good pillows. I would like to stay again at the Trump Taj Mahal on the boardwalk.

The Nations Capital

The next morning we got our late start as we already knew that the race for the cure would be stalling all shuttles. We headed to Arlington Cemetery as that tour would start on time and we headed out for the first tour of the day. The tour was very interesting as I learned many things about Arlington Cemetery that I had never known. It was interesting to learn that it was formerly Robert E. Lee’s house. He left it when he moved back to his home state of Virginia to join the confederate army. When public outcry came about as a result of bodies being buried on the field of the battle where the soldier had lost his life the government needed to find a location to bury the bodies. Without scouting they decided to use Lee’s home as they viewed him as a traitor. They also hoped that this would prevent him from ever coming back. Now to acquire the property they planned on seizing it from unpaid taxes. It was the law at the time that property taxes needed to be paid in person. Mrs. Lee sent her cousin to pay the taxes, however, because it was not her in person they refused the money, which was $92, and seized the property.
From there we headed onto a bus to visit the National Mall. When we first started out we planned on seeing several monuments and two of the Smithsonian Museums. However, the first thing that happened was our bus broke down. This caused a delay of about an hour while we waited for a new bus to come. So we stopped at the Lincoln Memorial. It was so crowded that it was difficult to move around. We got back on the bus and rode around. I will suggest that if you are headed to DC to skip the Tourmobile tours and park at Union Station and purchase tickets to the circulator. Once we saw how long the bus was taking going around the National Mall I decided to just head to the most important place first. Which was the Air and Space Museum for Blake. We got to see the Wright Brother Exhibit and then as many exhibits that would could until it was time to watch the Hubble IMAX movie. This was a documentary about astronauts going to do the last repair on Hubble. Of course we stopped at the gift shop to pick up a bobble-head Einstein just like “Night at the Museum 2.”
We went outside to get our bus and found a note on the sign that said due to Race for the Cure and directing us to walk to the temporary location for pick up at the corner. Now remember this is the same place that they dropped us off at. So I try to be patient even though this has already gone so poorly. We just miss the bus and wait another 20 minutes for the next one. We were excited to see the bus heading toward us after our wait and were thinking about sitting down and getting off our tired feet; Until it pulled right by us. Furiously I walked quickly across the park hoping to catch the next bus on the other side. I stew as we sit there waiting and pretty much most of the drive back to the Cemetery. Quietly I stew as we drive to Williamsburg. Until I see a thunder and lighting storm. I love lighting so we pulled into Williamsburg with a happy mama.
We got the key to the cabin and the kids were excited to jump on the jumping pillow and swimming. The key didn’t fit though and we had to call down to the desk. An hour later after we had been moved to another cabin we walked down to the pool and found that it was closed. There were plenty of tears but we headed to take our showers and back to the cabin. At the cabin we started to read Misty of Chincoteague and the kids fell asleep in the third chapter.

Back to the 1700s

The next morning we started our day at the Frontier Cultural Museum in Staunton, VA. In fact, we arrived with about 80 school children on a field trip. The gift shop representative suggested that I start at the English farm and I should be able to make it around and go to the new world before the classes got there. What I didn’t know about this place before we went here was that it was a state run living museum. They also have volunteers that run the trams from the Old World to the New World. We started our adventure in the Old World. The West African Village was under construction so we headed to the English House. We got to tour the home first and learned about how the woman of the house would use the the walking wheel to create thread to sell. We learned that six children would sleep in a trundle bed. The family that lived in the house was a burgeoning merchant and would entertain guests in the parlor. The only time that children would be in the parlor would be during a wedding. We also learned about how the house would be passed to the first-born son and how a daughter could never inherit the house, but her husband could if there were no other heirs available. Outside of the house was a mayflower pole, garden, and dairy barn. We got to pet the calf Hallie who was born on Halloween and where she got her name from. The kids feed chickens and got to watch the chickens pluck the worms out of the ground.
From there we walked over to Ireland and went to the Irish Forgery. There were a ton of questions for the blacksmith as the kids found this to be the most interesting portion of the Museum. The blacksmith made a nail and explained how it was in the 1700s for a blacksmith. He told them that the apprenticeship was 10 years and he had been doing this for 5 years. We saw an Irish home which had a foot wheel to make thread and this family was a bit better off, as they had their own loom as well. There we met their cat, Fiona, who would catch the mice that got into the oats and the house. They had a barn with chickens and pigs. When we got the German house the field trip group was just arriving so we quickly hopped on a tram to the new world. There we saw a log cabin from the 1740s, 1820s, and 1850s. We also saw a one room school house. The tour guide for this section also told us that all of the homes had been moved from one place to this location.
From The Frontier Cultural we headed closer to our Nation’s Capital and towards the home of the man who helped shape our country. We went to visit Mount Vernon. At Mount Vernon we started our tour by watching a video about George Washington. Then we toured his home. During the home tour we learned that George Washington over saw all the building of his home. One of the things that I thought was very interesting was that the siding on Mount Vernon is not stone, but actually sand made to look like stone as stone was not readily available near Mount Vernon. It was very interesting to learn that Mount Vernon was often visited by many guests at a time and that many people would not know the Washingtons before their visit. After we had finished the tour we headed to get something to eat at the Mount Vernon Inn.
The dinner was quaint and a great time. The boys both chose the roast duck and I chose the the turkey dinner. Bryce loved his duck and Blake was not as impressed. My turkey was good and I enjoyed sitting in a nice restaurant with my kids.
We asked for our dessert to go and the kids ate it as we drove to DC to tour the Capital by Moonlight. Unfortunately, we were late for our tour and missed it. So we headed up to our cabin at the KOA for the night. If we had gone on the tour than we would have been doing a late check in after hours. When I went to check in at the desk I found out that they had not switched our tent site over to a cabin so it was a very good thing that we got up there earlier. We also found out that the hop on hop trolley was delayed because of the race for the cure, which we wouldn’t have found out if we had gone on the tour. I guess everything happens for a reason.

Angry Clouds

The kids and I struggled on this day of driving as it was so long. We stopped at for lunch, but other than that it was pretty uneventful. A 15 passenger van almost hit me when the driver decided to switch lanes without looking but if you are on the road for that many hours and miles that is bound to happen.
The big event came at the end of the day when Ry told me that she couldn’t find her top retainer. I am not saying that my face turned red and steam blew out my ears, but I am not saying that it didn’t. After two hours of looking we gave up. I think it took me another two hours to see that $175 was not the worst thing in the world. But still do you know how many lattes that is?

Gateway to the West

After we ate breakfast at IHOP we needed to reorganize the car and this cut into our time in St. Louis. So we drove by the Gateway Arch and headed to Grant’s Farm. Now the thing that I was really excited was seeing President Grant’s House and learning more about him. We drove into the park and paid our $11 for parking. This is a great deal and I saw a lot of mom’s taking their children there. If I lived in the area it would probably be a outing for us often. Before we got onto the tram that takes you around the farm I wanted to use the restroom and headed in the direction of the sign. I was still a bit tired from the night before and almost headed into the tram pathway.
On the trolly we learned that Grant’s father-in-law owned a brewery and they were the start of Anhiemer - Bucsh. The farm was opened when the present owner of Bucsh, because his quests found it fascinating and he thought that others would as well. They have an extensive collection of animals. We saw ducks, geese, deer, bison, zebra, texas longhorns, kangaroo, lemurs, giant tortoise, scarlet macaw, camel, goats, elephants, and a rare deer that no one in our family can remember the name of. The dear is on the critical extinction list and all of the ones that are left are in captivities. They did also have a bald eagle that we missed. One of the cool features of Grant’s Farm was that you could feed a baby goat.
Each of the kids got a bottle and was let into the pen. Bryce feed five goats and kept walking backwards because the goats continued to walk into him as he feed them. Blake had his own troubles as he was feeding. One goat butted him with his horns repetitively to get some of the milk and other goats tried to eat his shorts. Joe hung out with Ryleigh and let her pick the goat that she would feed. She picked what could easily be the smallest goat in the pen. As she feed her goat Joe was constantly having to push the other goats away. He had his work cut out for him. I enjoyed watching it because he did such a great job of protecting his daughter and helping her achieve what she wanted. No matter how small this is the reason that I was on this trip. To watch moments just like this.
Unfortunately, Joe was leaving in just a few hours and we were to head on our own. The weather was following us and we had to upgrade to a cabin once again. At this point I just upgraded our entire trip home with cabins except one that was not possible and left the ones going home for further consideration. On the way to the airport we saw a White Castle burger and decided to try these as we had never had them before. I will say that it wasn’t our cup of tea; Because it was a burger. All the same we will not be heading back. After lunch we headed to the airport and they had a really cool feature. They had pull through spots for dropping people off. I have to say that although it would not work at SeaTac it was really cool and I really liked it.
For the remainder of the day the kids and I drove to Louisville, KY. This was a fairly long drive and by the time we got in it was time to take showers and head to bed. This time though it would be for another day of straight driving.

Stormy Weather on the Mississippi

We enjoyed our stay at the Best Western on the River in Hannibal. The kids loved the pool downstairs and another hot breakfast was great. Blake had sausage and gravy for the first time and loved it. After breakfast we headed to the towns main attraction. The boyhood home of Mark Twain and museum. Walking through the various buildings were awesome. Although a bit boring for the children. There are quotes from various books and there is more information on his parents. One story in particular stands in my mind. Mark Twain talked about his mother in his autobiography and he told a story about a time when a man was chasing his daughter around town with a line of rope, telling her how he was going to be her with it. As they ran other men witnessed the event and did not step in. Mark Twain’s mother on the other hand, threw open her door and allowed the child to run in. She did not shut and lock the door behind her, but stood in the door way barring him from entering. I imagine that courage is what helped shape Mark Twain into the man that he was.
We toured Huck Finn’s boyhood home and it made me wonder where he ended up. Unfortunately, the kids didn’t find reading all the information interesting and I wasn’t able to read a lot of it either. What they did find interesting was the American Music room that was at the end of the museum. There they learned to play spoons and washboards. They probably heard their first sounds of jazz and Ryleigh danced to Pasty Cline. Now this is personal to me as Patsy Cline was my favorite singer as a child.
We left Hannibal after we had finished the tour and headed to St. Louis. We stopped for lunch at Pappy’s Smokehouse which has been rated the best BBQ in St. Louis. We got a full rack of ribs, a potato with pulled pork, beans, and cheese on it, and a Fritos pie with pulled pork, beans, and cheese. I will whole-heartedly agree that this is the best BBQ in St. Louis if not Mossuri. This apparently is the second stop on the boys college “road trip.” I guess they will be really hungry after hiking the Tetons.
After lunch we headed to the Saint Louis KOA which was actually in Granite City, IL. Joe and the kids spent the rest of the day in the pool. I unfortunately found that I had left my swimsuit at home. It was a very leisurely day until around 3 am that morning. We were woken with the tent shaking and lighting striking a few miles away. We got everyone in the truck. It took some time for Joe to get the tent folded up and away. After everything was packed we decided to head to IHOP. Unfortunately when we tried to start our car we found out that the battery was dead. We had drained the battery by charging a few things and then watching a movie while letting the air blow. So we called AAA and got a jump. Around 4:30 we headed to IHOP where the kids and I slept in the car for awhile. I am not sure if Joe slept at all but he did tell me around 6 that he would be drinking coffee inside and we should join him when we wake up. Can’t say it was the best night of sleep but I don’t remember every sleeping so well in a car.

On The Road Again

On Day 4 we had a long day of driving in front of us. So we ate our hot breakfast and hit the road. There is not a ton to comment on about the drive through Nebraska. It was very straight and they have cows. So I thought that it would be good to put up a map to show how far we had come by the end of Day 4. We ended our drive in Hannibal, MO. To view the whole map you will need to click on view larger map under the picture.

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Yellowstone

The next morning after staying in the Mammoth Lodge. We head to the Mammoth Terraces. Just after leaving the Lodge we see two Elk on the right eating their breakfast. We then head into the upper terraces and view the amazing geothermal area. This is a must see spot in Yellowstone. It looks absolutely cold and barren, however, there are trees and shrubs growing in here. As we are driving through we got the opportunity to see a bear just awake wondering through. We were able to take quite a few good pictures of said bear before we got a line up of cars behind us. As we pulled away our engine scared the bear and he jutted out in front of our car and left the other would be picture takers to dislike us.
After our tour of Mammoth area we made the loop around Yellowstone. It was fascinating how different each area was. We had almost no snow on the ground near Mammoth and then down my the south entrance and by Yellowstone lake there was almost a foot of snow. We ended our time in Yellowstone by going to see Old Faithful. However, we arrived just in time to have missed the previous eruption and would have to wait 90 minutes to see the next one. So we headed to our car to get some bagels and cream cheese for breakfast. Once we were done we returned to Old Faithful. Joe, Bryce, and Ryleigh headed up to get a front row seat while Blake and I hung back to get full pictures. I have to say that Old Faithful is a must see but not the most impressive thing in Yellowstone.
After the eruption we headed to the Tetons to view their impressive peaks. They were very impressive and the boys wanted to climb them. I told them that they would have to come back at another time. They are now planning a road trip with that as their first stop. The really funny thing was that the best view of the Tetons was really on the freeway leaving them. However we would have all enjoyed canoeing or kayaking on Jenny Lake next to them.
With the temperatures still cold we decided to keep driving past our stop for the night and ended up driving about five hours more that night. We made it all the way to Nebraska before calling it at night in Sydney, Nebraska. I will say though that the Days Inn that we stayed in made me wish we had either quit earlier or kept going as it smelled like a frat house. Everyone woke up with a sore throat and sneezing from the smoke. Apparently they thought that it was a good idea to put smoking rooms on the bottom floor and put non-smoking above them. Joe and the kid really enjoyed their belgium waffles though.

Rocky Road Ahead

On the second day we woke up at 5:30 so that we could drive the two hours to Crater of the Moon National Park. That morning when I woke up I checked what the weather would be like both at Crater of the Moon National Park and at Yellowstone since we would be ending our day there. The weather was chilly in both places, but concerning in Yellowstone as we had a campsite reserved and it was looking like it was going to be 24 degrees and snowing by evening. With this information on our way to Crater of the Moon I called the reservation desk and cancelled my tent reservation. While I was on the phone I thought that I would check to see which hotel reservations were available for that evening. Being that it was Memorial Day weekend there was only one hotel left with rooms and that was Mammoth Lodge. I took it. It actually worked very well with my plans as my original plans had me setting up the tent and heading up to the Mammoth Terraces.
At Crater of the Moon National Park we started our visit of in the visitors center where we learned about the different types of lava. We got to see an animation on when and where each lava flow occurred. We read accounts of Oregon Trail travelers that had traveled through the land on their way west. The time that we were in there the kids were filling out a questionnaire about the park to become a junior ranger. They also had to take a hike, complete a workbook, and treat the trail with respect. Treating the trail with respect meant not taking anything out, not stepping off the directed trail, and picking up trash if they passed any.
From the visitors center we headed out on the 7 mile loop and stopped first at North Crater Loop. North Crater Loop is a short trail where some of the youngest lava is. We then headed to the Spatter Cones. Spatter Cones are mini volcanoes that you can hike up to look down into. They have taken away trails to two of these due to the cones caving in, but you can still hike up one. There is also a smaller one that requires no hiking and it had snow in it. The last stop before we headed on to Yellowstone was the lava caves. These are lava tubes that were created as lava flowed over hardened lava. Joe and the kids climbed down into on of the caves. This was the highlight of the trip so far for the boys. I laughed when they said this because we had only just begun.
We stopped in the ranger station before we left so that they kids could be sworn in as junior rangers and complete their oath. They were really excited about this and wanted to accomplish this in Yellowstone. However, the Yellowstone Junior Ranger program can take a full day or two lazy days to complete so we didn’t have time.
The drive to Yellowstone is where we hit our second bump of the trip. After a fairly lengthy drive of five hours we hit West Yellowstone, MT. The closer we got to Yellowstone the more bipolar the weather got. One minute it was sunny and the next it was hailing and then the next it would be lightly snowing. I took this as I sign that I had made the right decision by not camping. West Yellowstone is adjacent to the west entrance gate to Yellowstone and we were excited to be just minutes from Yellowstone. However, our GPS had other ideas and we missed the turn off. We headed in the Gallatin National Forrest for approximately thirty some miles only to realize that our GPS wanted to take us into Bozeman, MT and then down into the north entrance of Yellowstone instead. This mistake cost us about an hour of extra driving, but we finally made it into the park.
About five miles into the park Bison were standing of to the side of the road eating the grass. It was amazing to have just started exploring and to be feet from these amazing creatures. On our drive up to Mammoth Lodge we got to see elk, bison, bison, and more bison. We stopped to see the paint pots which are a geothermal area and the “pots” represent different colors. We drove past countless geysers and roaring mountain. This area really has to be seen first hand to be appreciated properly. The jutting cliffs and lakes with steam rising off of them we a sight to behold. We had originally planned on heading back out once we checked into our hotel room but honestly we were all very tired and chose showers and a book instead. So tomorrow morning we will head to the Terraces.

Home, Sweet Mountain Home ID

For our first stop on our road trip we headed to Mountain Home, ID. We woke the kids up at 4:30 and left A-town at 5 am. (And the kids thought that getting up for school was early). We woke up this early to beat the traffic into Seattle and we did. We also got another travel partner for the drive into Seattle and into the mountains, the rain. The traffic over the pass was sparse which made for an easy drive.
We stopped for breakfast in Yakima and headed down to Richland. We crossed over the bridge into Oregon just before ten and were happy to be slightly ahead of schedule. Which was especially good for me, because in the few hours since we had left home I had come up with a list of things that we needed to get from Target that had sadly been left behind.
Most of the trip was spent playing with the new gps and admiring the gas milage that we were now getting with our DP Tuner. The DP Tuner was installed a week before we left and so far we are seeing an increase of 7 miles per gallon on the highway. Which means that we increased our gas milage by almost forty percent.
Once we got to Mountain Home we stayed at the KOA where we got our very own TeePee for the evening. The kids thought that was very cool.

A Bit About Us

Along time ago a girl fell in love with a US Marine, and that was before she saw him in his blues. They decided to move in together when he separated from the Corps and they moved to his home state, The very green state of Washington. After a few years they added to their family and before you could blink they had three beautiful children. This made five of them, with two boys and one girl.
Now this girl was originally from Upstate New York and wanted to go home and see her family. So she started pricing out plane fare, hotels and rental cars which came to a lofty sum for a few weeks. Being the frugal gal that she is she was looking for ways to save money. First came the thought to calculate how much it would be to drive compared to flying. Then came the thought of how much they would see as they drove. Next came the thought of seeing Old Faithful, The gateway arches, DC, and more. Somewhere around Niagara Falls she fell in love with the idea and the planning began.
It took a few months to decide exactly how it would all work out and finally the plan was born. We are taking our Ford Excursion across the country and back. We will be seeing quite a few places, including Yellowstone, Philadelphia, New York City, Williamsburg, and more. For the most part it will be just the kids and I. However, my husband is sharing the first part of the journey with us and will fly back and visit us for a portion as well. Originally the plan was to stay every other night in a hotel, however, when I was planning my frugal side won out and we will be camping a majority of the way. Thankfully we found a lighting speed tent at Costco for under a hundred dollars and this will make set up easy. What makes it easier is when Joe, my husband, is with us and does it for us.

The Starting Place