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.

View Larger Map

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.