Road Trips

I meant to post about our road trips, and when I get on MY computer, I will post photos, but before I forget, I will put some basic summer road trip info on here so that it's not forgotten.

On our first road trip of the summer, we went from Kansas to Branson, Mo. We have a resort there, so spent the night in a hotel for a couple of nights, and then the resort when it became available. We went to several shows, as well as the amusement park there. Our favorite show was the Twelve Irish Tenors. They were amazing, and started the show with "O Danny Boy", so they couldn't go wrong. We also rode on a showboat, which was fun - but using dogs as ventriloquist dummies was a little creepy.

Next we headed to St. Louis. We went up into the St. Louis Arch. Talk about your CRAZINESS!! I spent the first 5-10 minutes freaked out. But then I got used to it a little, and the magnets on both Randy's wallet and Rachel's camera case were sticking to the inside, so it somehow made it feel more sturdy (like knowing that several million people have gone up into the thing didn't), and I became better - not that I enjoyed it, mind you - but I was better.

Got several pix of the Rams stadium, so will post those a little later.

About 2 hours outside St. Louis is Mexico, MO, so we stopped and spent the night with Uncle Garf. He sure works hard. We visited with him until about 11:00 and he was gone before we got up. It was raining when we left. He gave us ice cream.

Onward to Nauvoo, and a small town in Iowa called Keokuk. (River City for you Music Man fans.) We stayed in Keokuk, since there are few hotels in Nauvoo. It is across the Mississippi river from Nauvoo. Raining again, and I got a nasty cough. In Nauvoo the pageant was going on, but between the rain and my cough, we didn't brave it. We did go to the Visitor's Center and toured the Carthage Jail.

Moline, Illinois was next, with a stop at Whitey's Ice Cream and a few of my old mission haunts. What a blast that was. They still have the best ice cream I know.

Then on to Ames, where we stayed the night and got up and went to Ledges State Park. It is, as Randy put it, the most beautiful part of Iowa. I saw more of it than we did that trip, so I am not sure about that, but it is gorgeous.

Next we had hunted down some friends from Midvale who had moved to Chillicothe, Missouri (the "home" of sliced bread!) and drove there. We went out to dinner with them, and had a great time. But apparently all there is to do in the "home" of sliced bread is slice bread, we pushed on to Osage Beach, MO where we have another resort.

The resort is called Lake of the Ozarks. It is literally right on the lake, and we rented wave runners, which is great fun. We stayed for a few days, and then we were on our way back to Kansas for a few weeks.

Our second road trip was set up in stages. If we heard about the visa before a certain date, then we would not be going. If we heard between the time the first half was finalized and we left, we would just do the first half. If we heard sometime while we were on the road, it would be almost 5000 miles. The day we had in mind was a Friday, and we found out Monday, so we did the first (2 week) half.

We started by going again to Branson. We saw some shows, and were not nearly so impressed with them as the Irish Tenors. None of the Baldknobbers are nearly as cute as those tenors!! Tee hee.

Then on to Indianapolis, where we watched a Colts game. There was a mixup in the tickets we had purchased online, so when we went to pick them up we were on the 25 yard line in the 23rd row. Not that the seats we HAD purchased were terrible seats, but these were certainly at least twice as good. Anyway, the game was great fun, and the Colts won, so that was a plus. We were driving our monster truck through town on the way to the hotel, and the kids were screaming out the window, "Go Colts!" and throwing salt water taffy. That was fun.

After Indianapolis we headed to Kirtland, OH and the church history sights there. It is beautiful. Never thought I would want to live in Ohio, but it is so beautiful, we may have to make a stop on our long-term map there.

After staying a night in Kirtland, we headed to Palmyra and the Sacred Grove. We hicked (and d'Artagnan rolled down) the Hill Cumorah, and then spent time in the Sacred Grove. I took some great photos.

Palmyra is 2 hours from Niagara Falls, Canada, so we spent two nights there, and another day. We saw all the sights there, including riding on the Maid of the Mist, riding a cable car across the whirlpools, walking past the most dangerous rapids in the world (cat. 6), and walking behind the falls. It is astounding. 34 million gallons of water per minute flow over that thing, comprising 20% of the world's fresh water.

We left Canada and headed to Chicago - we thought. We crossed the border from Canada to Michigan (passing 4 of the 5 Great Lakes, I might add) and the truck broke down shortly after crossing. It was the fuel pump, and it took almost 24 hours to fix it. Thank goodness for AAA! They towed us to the repair shop, and then we took a taxi to the recommended Marriott Hotel, and they allowed us to stay for the whole time in the room (6 hours past check-out). After that we headed the rest of the way to Chicago, and got there LATE!!! We were pulling through the neighborhood in Chicago, and both Randy and I were thinking, oh, boy - what kind of hotel is going to be in this part of town? Turns out it was beautiful, and there was nothing to worry about.

In Chicago it was raining again, so we opted for inside stuff. We went to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, which had a Harry Potter exhibit. We hung out all day there, and then headed to the Blue Man Group, which is a great show. The kids hadn't been told about that, so they were completely in the dark until about an hour before it started, and we had a blast.

After the show we went to Galena, IL, where we have another resort. Stayed there a day and 2 nights, and drove to Omaha, where my old college roommate is. She cut all of our hair (has been working at the JCPenney Salon for 15 years!) It was so cool to see her after 20 years! We went out to dinner, and then back to Kansas, where after spending Saturday boating with Jon's family, we packed our bags and got on a plane to CA! It was tough to say goodbye to them. We have become really close with Jon and Amanda and their 3 kids. Emily (3) and Taylor(5) both were in tears when we left, and that brought it to me, as well.

We figured out that during this summer, we will have been (as of Friday, Australia time) to 21 states, the District of Columbia, and 4 countries, all in 14 weeks. Quite an adventure, and it has only just begun!

Love you all!
Jill