A Spectacular Museum

Much has happened since the last time I posted. The girls have covered the Yellowstone and Colorado experiences so I won't do much more except to say what an amazingly diverse country we live in. The sheer majesty of the Teton and Rocky Mountains are breathtaking. The most facinating part to me is how often we said "wow" and talked about how different these mountains were from the rest.

Our drive across Kansas made me feel like Kansas has gotten the same bad rap as New Jersey. I anticipated flat cornfields (which eastern Colorado happily provided - ick). We covered 550 miles just to get it over with, but it was a much more interesting, dare I say enjoyable drive than expected. There are rolling hills that are far more enjoyable than northeastern Wyoming.

Wednesday was spent in St. Louis. The Arch and it's associated museum was pretty awesome,and the kids got to put their feet in the Mississippi, but I'd say the highlight of the day for me was the Spaghetti Carbonara at Caleco's restaurant - mmmmm. The highlight for the girls was staying in the 4 star Sheraton. Pretty nice place.

Yesterday we made a "quick stop" in Springfield,IL to see the Lincoln Presidential Library. The quick stop turned into staying until it closed at 5:00. If you ever have the opportunity to visit, you MUST do so. The museum was simply spectacular. It was fun for the kids, highly entertaining and educational, and mostly very moving. You will have a lump in the throut at least once. To a person, it was agreed that it is one of the best museums we have ever experienced.

Today we are on to the US Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH ad then on to Columbus for our last night on the road.

Great trip so far...

Bryan

"I Just Became a Geyser"

Completely unaware of what day it is and what day the last post was made I will do a quick run-down of our last two spots (which happened to be our biggest...).

Yellowstone National Park = excellent! The first day (which happened to be Mom's birthday) we entered the park. Upon our entrance we saw some Elk on the side of the road just hanging out. The excitement began - everyone scrambled for the cameras and got as close as safely possible to take pictures. This was a big deal! We couldn't imagine that three days later we'd say, "Oh, it's just an elk; no biggie." Dinner at the Mammoth Hot Springs was yumm-o (I highly recommend the Huckleberry Brie Chicken)! Mom enjoyed her birthday dinner and then several enjoyed a trip up the hot springs. We scoffed at morons who ignored the "Danger: Scalding Water" signs while holding onto Sophie so she did not follow the lead. The view was beautiful, the smell was not. Day two in Yellowstone we journeyed further into the park. We spotted a ton of animals but the most exciting part of the day was seeing the geysers. They were completely mesmerizing; I might still be standing there looking at them if they family didn't pull me away. "Old Faithful" was fun and exciting (if not a bit of a tease) but far more commercialized than I had anticipated. We met a park ranger who went to the top of everyone's "like list." Thankfully we went when we did because the day to follow the First Family would be visiting. The night was topped with a chuckwagon tour. Public apology to Bryan: it wasn't as lame as I anticipated (only because the musician had a good voice was singing Johnny Cash). The scenery was beautiful and no bears attacked so we were happy. Not so happy? The journey home. The road home closed 20 mins before approached causing us a 120-mile out-of-the-way adventure. This adventure was complete with: mostly-invisible bison, wolf, coyote and elk (some of these creatures met us in the road) ... and didn't end until after 1am. The next day was another trip into Yellowstone before crossing the ever-so-exciting state of Wyoming. Why Oming? We still don't know. But we did find Subway, much to the delight of all the kids.

Lesson learned in Yellowstone: don't drink while laying down or one simply becomes a geyser.

Yesterday was Colorado (Estes State Park). Amazing! The scenery here is unparalleled. We met up with Molly's family (dad, sister, and sister's boyfriend) and then travelled the highest point-to-point road in the country. There are not even words to put to the sights and surely no picture will do it justice. Important statement of the day: 12,000 feet is high. The temps dropped, the snow fell and the fog rolled in. Carl was mad that we couldn't climb on the ice spots (which really would have only resulted in us needing a new driver for the RV) but some did climb a walkway to one of the mountain peaks. It was an early night back in town with Bryan's family heading out with Molly's family and the rest of us freezing our way along the Riverwalk.

Today is the day I've been dreading (but I didn't book a plane trip home yet) ... a drive through Kansas. Our only sight-seeing scheduled is corn. Sadly, I left my Dorothy dress at home ...

What's so Crunchy?

Two days ago we arrived in Yellowstone National Park, miraculouly with everyone we left with (albeit barely). We immedialy spotted some elk an other animals, like buffalo, geese, and big horn sheep. on the way to Old Faithful, we got held up by what we thought was construction traffic, as it had held us up a half an hour the previous night, until we inched forward and discovered it wasn't consruction at all, but a BUFFALO meandering along the shoulder. The traffic was caused by the slowing of cars so that people could gawk at the beast.
The bet has been long running of when Chelle would be left, and in what state. She's made it thus far but it's Theresa who was nearly left. On our second day in Yellowstone we wandered around seeing sights and checking out the animals. When we got to the Upper Falls of the Grand Canyon (of Yellowstone that is) we were all pretty tired. It was the last stop of th day and it had ben a long one. That day we had't taken the van, we all piled into the RV. With so many people it was crowded and no one noticed that we were missing Theresa. She had 'wanted to walk in the woods' and 'it didn't seem like it would be longer than what we were walking'. Well, it had taken longer and we began pulling away, her abence no even registering. Until that is we heard through the window "Are you guys leaving without me?!". Whoops. Guess we'll be taking rollcall from now on.
We've been looking out for different animals and its gotten to the point where a buffalo or an elk are no longer a big deal. As we were drivin we spoted a large animal with antlets drinking aloe out of the river. A MOOSE! was yelled throughout the RV, we all began scrambling around, grabbing cameras and pushing toward the windows. Sophie began singing loudly "There was a great big moose! WHo liked to dink a lot of juice!" The chaos was incedible until...we discovered it was just a oner elk. No one took picures and we all sat back down, even the singing stopped. The elk not being a moose was a major downer.
Well, we're pulling out so I guess it's time to end this.

A little bit of fun. A little bit of dangerous.

Here we are ... Day 4. To the amazement of all of you involved in the When-Will-Michelle-Be-Sent-Home? poll, I have made it to South Dakota.

The day began in Sioux City, SD. Early in the morning we crossed over the Missouri River, which was pretty cool. That was about the last "cool" comment over the next few hours. Observation: South Dakota is extremely dull (Sarah is involved in a love-hate relationship with the state..). I guess if you're the person who fights over the "yellow-green" crayon then you might be interested in the South Dakota landscape. Seeing a herd of cattle was pretty exciting because it provided various colors (Who knew brow, black and white would be so welcoming?).

Though my pleas for a stop at Corn Palace went ignored, we did follow the signs into the highly advertized "Wall Drug" ... It was everything we had anticipated. Kelsey sat on a giant Jackalope.

The ride to the night's campground was interrupted by a detour to Bear World. Bear World is a drive-thru safari-like adventure where we saw: wolves, reindeer (Rudolph included), big horn sheep, mountain lions, burros, and ironically enough, some bears. The bears were quite active and Mom was afriad one was going to break into the bottom compartments of the RV to steal our cookies. These cute little creatures are, as Sophie, noted, "A little bit of fun. A little bit of dangerous.". They were very fun but not the most memorable part of the day...

Following the drive-thru tour, we were invited to a walk-thru section. Because of time constraints we were trying to push through this section. One should know when Carl and Theresa are involved time constraints are blatantly ignored... The last exhibit at this walk-thru spot were the otters. Otters are fun to watch ... Theresa was really enjoying these playful animals. As she leaned over for a peek, her glasses jumped to the ground - landing directly in the otter habitat. As Theresa panicked (and Kelsey laughed) the otters playfully grabbed the glasses and took them right into the water. The workers were unable to retrive the spectacles but surely there will be an otter with excellent vision tomorrow. (Thersea, however, will miss most of the sights on the trip.)

From Bear World we headed to the campground. As we came around a bend in the road Mt. Rushmore was peeking out over treetops. The excitement from everyone in the RV was unparalleled. (Sophie's screaming and dancing was probably the most fun.) During a dinner we had a wonderful visit from my cousin, Kevin, and his friend, Jessica prior to heading to Mt. Rushmore.

For those of you who have not yet been to Mt. Rushmore, get into your car immediately and head out the badlands. Not one to usually give in to hype, Mt. Rushmore was actually even cooler than I had expected. A very moving patriotic ceremony topped the night.

We look forward to celebrating Sophie's birthday tomorrow (5 years old!). Seeing more of the SD sights before rolling on to the "great verb state" of Wyoming! Surely someone will be made a "Moose" in public, and Sarah will spend hours looking for Waldo... Despite it all, looks like I'll be staying at least one more day.

Day 3

Today was long but very enjoyable. We rolled out of our campground in Illinois at 8:00 AM and pulled in to the Sioux Falls, SD KOA two minutes before their closing time 10:00 PM.

Carl found us a place to visit in Wisconsin that turned out to be lots of fun. The Circus World Museum in Baraboo, WI was the site of the original headquarters of the Ringling Bros. The museum is pretty cool with live circus animals (the kids - again including Michelle - all rode an elephant), cool acrobatics, and really corny clowns. The rain stopped when we pulled up and started again as we got back in the vehicles.

We stumbled upon water park heaven in Wisconsin Dells and bought the requisite cheese head hat before crossing the Mississippi (BEAUTIFUL) and driving through the painfully boring state of Minnesota. Aside from the cool wind turbine farms,
there ain't much to see.

We finally have a beatuiful night for tent sleeping. I am writing while looking up at the stars. Hoping to catch some of the Persius Meteor Shower this week as well.

Tomorrow, Mount Rushmore.

Bryan

Oh No!!!

So we can add another item to the forgotten items list ... Bryan's power cord for his mac! Good news - we only overshot the nearest Apple store by 300+ miles. What to do? Looks like the iPhone just became really critical!

Whew - That's a lot of driving!!

1450 Miles in 3 days. We have entered our 8th state as of 9:45 tonight (Central Time).

I am amazed at how well the kids are traveling. Sophie has had a few very minor meltdowns, but everyone else is behaving well - Even Michelle!

Yesterday was a fascinating learning lesson for me in how the earth changes over time. 15 years after my last trek to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, a return visit did not quite live up to the hype. We failed to account for the fact that the dunes move backwards 4-5 feet every year. After 15 years that adds up to a staggering 60-75 feet. The dunes were not only completely different looking, but incredibly crowded. We did not recall this aspect at all, and then we realized that previous trips had been during outings to Notre Dame football games... In October! Yesterday's 95 degrees may have added to the crowds.

The kids had a blast swimming in Lake Michigan for a bit. Sophie was none too sure of the water, but withinminutes was swimming circles around me (Quite Literally!)

Tomorrow a significant post (or several) will be up.

G'Night
Bryan