Monday: Grand Junction, CO to Cedar City, UT

We do miss Annina, but it is nice to have just our family again. We thought about some more interesting stops, but we've been spoiled with Annina's extra hands and we are tired so we're making easy stops.  For instance, the Powell River Museum in Green River, UT, was a great place to stop because 1) it's cheap admission, 2) it's not a long distance from the parking lot to the museum, 3) the museum is interesting, and 4) it's a contained area so Natalie can't wander off.

Uh oh, now we're stopping at Fremont Indian State Park.  I guess Tom thought he could pull another Indian stop on us...but it meets the important requirements I listed above.  And that's just the museum...there's a paved walking trail to view the petroglyphs.  That's probably the only petroglyph trail we'll ever be able to take Natalie in a stroller!  Once again, there's a family rate for the entrance fee (also at Green River).  Is this from the Mormon influence of large families?  Do we have a large family?  After seeing families of 6 and 8 kids, I don't think so, but I'm thankful for the family rate!

Another 4-5 hour driving day (not counting stops).  That's a doable distance for our family...more than that means we arrive too late in the day or we're just too tired.  And this from the family that did 12 hours the first day of our trip!  We could do that the first day, but not near the end.

We arrived in Cedar City so "early" that we decided to find a playground for the kids to burn off some steam before dinner.  After about 10 minutes of searching, we found Park Discovery, an awesome park that had every child's favorite playground equipment, all in one place.  But it was hot and dry and we probably stayed 15 minutes too long, because the kids were parched when we left for dinner.  We intended to try a Mexican restaurant we'd seen advertised on billboards, Costa Vida.  But when we drove up, it looked more like a fast food restaurant, so we looked some more (we've been trying to have nicer dinners since we're getting free breakfast and homemade sandwiches for lunch).  Just as we were about to go to another Mexican restaurant, I saw a Thai restaurant!  Tom swerved to get in the parking lot, and we were in the restaurant within a few minutes.

But after waiting five minutes with no water glass service, and no eye contact from the one waitress serving the full restaurant, we left.  Yes, we're from California and we've both been waiters, so we don't have much patience for slow service, especially when our kids are thirsty and hungry.  We were about to go to the Applebee's next door, when I saw the Costa Vida again across the street...we were desperate to have quicker service at this point, so we went there.  It was great!  The food was bland compared to California Mexican food, but with a little hot sauce on top, it tasted authentic.

And instead of ending our day with a swim (which requires both of us to be in the pool, and then bathe and dress three kids), we put Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the laptop and the kids were satisfied while we relaxed in our hotel room.  In honor of our last night on the road, we were blessed with the nicest hotel room so far: right next to the elevator, 2 queen beds in the largest suite we've had.

California, here we come...right back where we started from!

Sunday: Eastern Colorado to Grand Junction, CO

What a blessing to stay with Carl and Esther another night!  We are always so encouraged by them!  But we were sad to say good-bye, and to leave without Annina and her wonderful smile and help.  Natalie cried in the van as she realized we were telling the truth when we said we would be saying good-bye to Annina:  she finally realized Annina wasn't getting in the van and sitting next to her.

We had planned to attend church and/or ride the Georgetown Railroad in Georgetown, CO...but decided instead to do neither and have an easy 4.5 hour (which stretches into 6 hours) drive to Grand Junction, which would ease our travels the next two days.  We are taking three days to travel the 1000 miles we traveled in two days at the beginning of our trip.  I would love to drive straight through and just SLEEP IN MY OWN BED, but it's a much better idea to take it slow and steady and keep everyone sane and happy.

We stopped in Vail again to play at the playground (we saw a different one from the highway that we visited this time...Lukas announced that he liked the playground on the west side of Vail better than the one on the east side).  Then we had dinner at Famous Dave's BBQ in Grand Juntion (some of the best food all trip!) and hit the swimming pool before the kids collapsed into bed. We're all looking forward to being in the same time zone for an extended period, having regular naps, and just having an overall normal schedule again.

Two more days!

Saturday: Abilene, KS to Eastern Colorado

Friday night, Tom and I talked about our travels on Saturday:  here we were in Abilene, KS, the birthplace of Dwight Eisenhower, and we didn't have time to visit his presidential library.  We were close to deciding to visit the library for an hour and leave town by 10 a.m., then decided it would only be of interest to the adults, and we'd be better off leaving by 8 a.m. to arrive at Annina's home at an earlier hour.

Our mid-morning "get the wiggles out/feed Dominik" stop coincided with Fort Hays. (I got confused and had this on the previous day, but have now corrected it!) We posed with the bison across the street, then walked around some of the old buildings still standing from the fort.

We saw a lot of funny signs that will be featured in a future blog post of the trip, and we also saw this huge harvester being transported...Konrad was very excited about it.

We were happy to arrive by 4 p.m. at Annina's home so we could settle down, Annina could catch up with her family, and the kids could burn off some more energy.  And our arrival didn't come any too soon:  Dominik was in full melt down (he wanted to eat), and Konrad and Natalie weren't far behind.  But as soon as we got out of the van, all was better.  Lukas and Katrina had a great time running in the sprinklers and playing with the pool toys we brought:  fill with water and squirt!  Natalie and Konrad had a fun time making mud pies...then Lukas and Katrina got into the action and Lukas ended up the dirtiest one of all.

And Carl and Esther honored us by including us in their celebration of the Swiss National Day.  They had delicious bratwurst, corn on the cob, grilled tomatoes and bread and beer.  What a fun celebration!

Friday: St. Louis to Abilene, KS

Driving out of St. Louis we first drove by the train station for the benefit of Konrad.  Last night we had thought we would go to a restaurant at the train station, but decided instead to go to a restaurant that was supposed to be like a fire station.  We had higher expectations of what the experience would be like (it was just a restaurant with fire station decor and waitresses in fireman shirts) but the food was good.  Anyway, Konrad was disappointed we went to the "fire station" instead of the train station, and he still remembered it the next morning.

Konrad:  Where we going, Mom?
Me:  We're going to Kansas.
Konrad:  I no want go to Kansas, I want go to train station!

So we said hello and good-bye to the train station as we drove by and that barely satisfied him (when we also distracted him by pointing out a crane).

BTW, traveling for 2 weeks with small kids means naps are not consistent (and a lot of other things aren't consistent), so there are more fits over not getting their way than normal.  I am gearing up for training when we get back home!

We found a unique sink at a rest stop in Missouri:  you put your hands in and got soap, then water, then dryer without moving your hands!

Independence, Missouri.  We found a mall that had a huge indoor playground, so we stayed longer than we'd planned, but it was worth it for the kids.  And it meant that we weren't in Abilene by dinner time, so we stopped 30 miles short, hoping to find a steak house.  After all, we are in Kansas!  But this route has no steak houses that we could find.  We settled for "Sirloin Stockade" that was actually a buffet. It wasn't until we had disappointedly settled for lots of fried and canned food on the buffet that we saw that there was prime rib and steak back in a corner that we could have had!

Is Missouri called the Show-Me State because of its thousands of roadside billboards?  Our impression of  Kansas:  sunflowers, and if you are from Kansas and become famous for something, they will put "Hometown of Cindy from The Happy Ones" on a sign outside the town.  Too bad I'm not from Kansas...oh, not famous, either!


We are determined to leave tomorrow morning early enough to reach Annina's home by a decent hour tomorrow night.  There's a special celebration planned!  Hint:  Annina's mom is Swiss.

Wednesday and Thursday: Louisville to St. Louis

Wednesday we drove to St. Louis.  But on the way we had the pleasure of visiting Tom's mom's hometown of New Athens, Illinois.  We went to the house where she was born and grew up, and even met the young lady who grew up there...her grandparents bought the house from Tom's grandparents.  It was fun to see the small town and imagine that it was probably about the same size when Mom lived there, but there are a few new features like a new school and a few new businesses.

We enjoyed crossing the Mississippi River and seeing The Arch and the beautiful skyline.  St. Louis has many beautiful areas, but we were also shocked by the many abandoned buildings that have been sitting burned out for many years.  I know there are areas like that in LA, but it seemed there were so many more here. 

Tom had chosen a hotel near the River that gave us easy access to many fun things to see and do.  Wednesday night we had a great pasta dinner in the Italian District called The Hill.  Then I did laundry... sorting it back into the bags would happen the second night in St. Louis.

Thursday morning we were planning to go up The Arch.  Myssie had suggested we buy tickets in advance, and Tom had reserved ours for 9:10 a.m.  But we didn't leave our hotel with enough time to get there, so Tom dropped me off near The Arch so I could run and get the tickets while he parked.  Thankfully I was able to get our reservation moved to 9:20 a.m....but where were the lines?  There was no one in line, so I was beginning to think we didn't need advance reservations to save time.  However, after we came down from The Arch, a little after 10 a.m., the place was packed and there were very long lines.  Thanks for the tip, Myssie!  As we left the parking lot for The Arch, we drove right next to the Mississippi River, which was actually up over the street that we were driving on!

After The Arch we drove to Cahokia Mounds, an archaeological site of ancient Indians (inhabited 1000 years ago).  You need to know that Tom is very interested in ancient Indian sites:  our last major vacation in 2002 (before kids) we visited many Indian sites in the Southwest U.S. (Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, and at least three others that I've forgotten the name of).  I had had ENOUGH Indian sites for a while...so Tom kept it simple this trip with just one Indian site visit, at Cahokia.  It was quite impressive, and the museum is very interesting and well done.  But the climb up the largest mound would be too much for Natalie, so I stayed in the van with Natalie and Dominik and we jammed to Signing Time CDs.  Tom, Annina, Lukas and Konrad climbed to the top of the mound and enjoyed the view.

But wait, there's more!  Since it was hot, we decided to not go to Grant's Farm (also, too similar to Conner Prairie that we had already seen) or the Mississippi River Locks at Alton.  Instead, we went on a (free) tour of the Budweiser Brewery.  There was lots of air conditioning, a very interesting tour of a brewery and bottling plant (the kids loved it!), the architecture was beautiful...and there was free beer at the end.  Mind you, Tom and I are beer snobs so we don't drink Bud, but we enjoyed the more refined flavors of their American Ale and Amber Bock.

It was nice to spend two nights in the same hotel, the last time we'll do it on this trip. :(  Now we're heading home as fast as we can without killing ourselves or our children (only 4-7 hours of driving each day).

Tuesday: Bowling Green to Louisville

We started with an early morning (packed and in the car by 7:30) so we could make our 9 a.m. tour at Mammoth Cave, the largest cave network in the world.  We took a 3/4 mile tour, which included 240 stainless steel steps down to the bottom.  Here's a visit that would have been impossible without Annina along: Natalie's not that good on steps and Annina ended up carrying her most of the way.  Natalie walked about 10% of the trek (the flat parts) and Tom carried her some too.  Another wrinkle we weren't expecting was that Konrad had a meltdown in the bus on the way to the cave tour, and then was less than cooperative for the first half of the tour (wouldn't listen to Tom, but would only walk with Tom).  He was tired and thirsty and we couldn't give him what he wanted right away, so we kept saying, "soon!" and he finally came around.

The caves were beautiful and large, but not spectacular with stalagtites and stalagmites...there's one large formation, the Frozen Niagara, which is a curtain formation.

After we came out of the cave, I put an eye patch back on because I could feel irritation coming on again.  :(  I was glad to make it through the cave because it would have been hard to safely navigate the cave with one eye.

Then we were off to Abraham Lincoln's birthplace.  On the way there, we drove through a huge thunder and lightning storm with very heavy rain.  Tom got another thunder storm!  We also saw a sign that said "used cows."  I couldn't get a photo of the sign...but what does "used cows" mean?  Inquiring minds want to know.  BTW, I'm planning a special blog post on all the funny pictures we took..."used cows" would have made the post if I had taken the picture.

Lincoln's birthplace was nothing spectacular to look at, but more than we expected and still a momentous place to be.  And we needed something easy to do after the cave tour...and I needed a place to feed Dominik.  The quote of the day came from Tom:  "my son has suckled at the same place that Abraham Lincoln suckled!"

Then it was off to the Patton Museum near Fort Knox.  More thunder, lightning and pouring rain, with heavy rain timed for our arrival.  We paused to let the rain die down, and as we were changing a diaper, it did stop raining.  Then just as we were ready to go from the van to the entrance, it started pouring again.  But we were there, so we put jackets on and used our umbrellas and made it inside...quite wet, but it's very warm until you go inside with air conditioning.  The dark spots on our clothing IS RAIN!  The kids and Tom had a great time looking at the tanks.  I was along for the ride and I think Annina was as well...we find a lot of things interesting, but would never go there if it weren't for Tom's interest, and his knowing the kids will love it.  And admission is free, so how can you go wrong?

Hotel in Louisville, ordered pizza in (didn't find anything interesting on the way to the hotel) and went swimming.  We've been in so many hotels now that they're all running together.  We are ready to be home, but home is one week away!  I am amazed that the kids have really gotten used to going to bed in a different place almost every night:  at first it was too exciting for them to settle down and go to sleep, but they're finally used to it and cooperating very well.

1000 miles into the trip...

...we arrived at our friends' home in Colorado for the weekend!

On the way there, we saw more beautiful scenery as we drove through the Colorado mountains.  After lunch in the car, we stopped at a great playground in Vail...we had hoped the higher altitude would provide a cooler activity period, but it was still over 90 degrees.  Then we came out of the Rocky Mountains to see the plains below and the prairie of middle America spreading out ahead.  What a beautiful sight!

At just over 1000 miles from our home, we're already 1/4 of the way done with our whole trip!  The rest of the trip should be slightly more relaxed.  Our reason for rushing the first part and not stopping to see many of the sights was we thought it's much more likely that we will visit Utah and Colorado in the next few years, and then we'll be able to stop and enjoy a longer visit.  Since we're going all the way to Ohio with this trip, we want to spend as much time at the furthest reaches, where we are not as likely to visit again anytime soon.

Sunday we worshipped with Carl and Esther, and their daughters, Annina and Katrina.  Annina will be joining us for the rest of the trip to help out with the kids and see some parts of the country for the first time.  We're so glad she's joining us!

Our plans to blog on the way have been hampered by the unsecured wireless connections at the hotels.  We hope to find secured connections or figure out how to encrypt our passwords so we're not giving away info to anyone listening in.  In the meantime, our postings may be less frequent than we intended.  :(