Had to mention one more thing, since I noticed that you are following this, Mark, we DID make it to Wall Drug. I thought it was very fun, the kids were all, "whatever" - especially Annie - she just kept asking "what is the big thing about Wall Drug?" But she did really like the Corn Palace!!! (of course that could have something to do with her addiction to popcorn!!)
I gotta figure out how to post pictures to this!! I'll try to do that tomorrow. The day that we stayed in one place for a while, for Tommy's birthday, we played Bocce ball, and Lon did pretty good, his first game, he was in the lead, until I figured out that he has a bit of a problem with his close game. There is a HILARIOUS picture of my four balls all clustered around the jack, and his all about 15 feed down the field!! I'll try to get those posted as soon as I can figure that out. I may end up posting them on facebook, if it is too hard to post them here.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Access to internet has not been nearly as forthcoming as we were expecting it to be. But we are all mostly well, and have arrived safely at OshKosh - I am currently at the hotel room of a friend so that Sarah and I could take showers, so I have have access for a few more minutes, until she is done.
Friday evening we pulled in to the parking lot of a small church in Albert Lea, Minnesota. We camped there for the night, attended church, Sabbath School, and pot luck there, along with four other visitors from the NW, a truck driver from Coure d' Alene, and a family from Moses Lake that we know from way back, the Larson's, and their granddaughter. They are on their way to OshKosh too. We stayed there, camped next to the church for the remainder of Sabbath, and pulled out early in the morning and drove the last few hours. Just as we crossed the state line into the state of Wisconsin, at about 9:00 we pulled in to a rest stop to eat breakfast, and low and behold, in pulls Bob Gaede and his son. They have been here all month, visiting family, and helping do early set up. He informed us that we would be able to pull right in to the club camping spot, right when we got there. Which was WONDERFUL to find out, as our funds are running rather tight, and so we were planning to 'camp' in the Walmart parking lot and be at the gate at 8:00 to wait for the 10:00 official opening time. He told us how to go around to the south gate, that there was a dump station there, and fresh water filling point, and then we could pull right in to our club's spot, and camp tonight!! Yea!! So we knocked out the last four hours of driving, and did just that!! It is WONDERFUL to be somewhere where we won't have to move for several more nights. I'm looking forward to next summer's trip out to the NW with OUT all the extra gear we have to schlep in and out of the trailer ever time we need to bed down, and without the dog - she travels well, but it's just one more thing... We will be traveling SO much lighter on that trip.
The order of business for tomorrow is to find a place that will take care fo Maggie for us for the week, and to find a place to go swimming with the kids, as we have not done that yet, on this trip, and we told the kids we would do it ALOT, so we have to make good!! At about 6 in the evening we start making airport runs to get everyone else from the club picked up from Appleton. Then everything gets rolling on Tuesday afternoon for the actual camporee. You probably won't hear from us much after that, they keep us pretty busy!!
The traveling has gone pretty well, really, no major mishaps (one small one that only cost us a $12 repair) and nothing more than a minor cold passed around among us. Sarah and I had it yesterday and were pretty wiped out, of course the heat didn't help on that front either, but we were both pretty low energy, but it was Sabbath, so we just rested. Mayahna and Ricky have had a bit of a hard time with all of the changes taking place every day, but hopefully things will get easier now, that we are staing in one place for a while.
I think I mentioned in my last post that we decided not to drop south on this part of the trip, that we would stop to see the kid's birth aunt on the way to Alabama on Sunday evening, next week. So that part of the trip has not taken place yet, if you knew about it, and are wondering why I have not mentioned it. The one sister, that lives in S. Carolina, couldn't make it up, so it made more sense to just stop in St. Louis (where the other sister lives) on the way south, rather than going out of our way to see them now. The reason we were going down there before OshKosh was because of that other sister coming up then - the original plan called for us to drop south before, because she was unable to make it up on the date we would go through after - but now that she can't make it at all, we changed our plans to fit better, and will just stop there next week. We'll go over and see the S. Carolina sister some time after we get settled in our new place.
The kids are getting pretty excited about getting to Alabama, I think Sarah would rather that we just keep right on going and get there, rather than staying here for a week. But I know that once her friends from PVC get here tomorrow, and once she meets her new friends from Alabama, and once the activities get going, she will settle in and enjoy herself.
We are a LONG ways from the activities this time, so there will be a LOT of walking going on this week. That will be kind of nice, after all the SITTING that has been going on!! I guess we were pretty spoiled last time, and didn't realize just how lucky we were!!
Well, sounds like Sarah is about done, I better wrap up. Hope all is well with all of you!! post a reply if you like, so I know you have been here, reading!!
Friday evening we pulled in to the parking lot of a small church in Albert Lea, Minnesota. We camped there for the night, attended church, Sabbath School, and pot luck there, along with four other visitors from the NW, a truck driver from Coure d' Alene, and a family from Moses Lake that we know from way back, the Larson's, and their granddaughter. They are on their way to OshKosh too. We stayed there, camped next to the church for the remainder of Sabbath, and pulled out early in the morning and drove the last few hours. Just as we crossed the state line into the state of Wisconsin, at about 9:00 we pulled in to a rest stop to eat breakfast, and low and behold, in pulls Bob Gaede and his son. They have been here all month, visiting family, and helping do early set up. He informed us that we would be able to pull right in to the club camping spot, right when we got there. Which was WONDERFUL to find out, as our funds are running rather tight, and so we were planning to 'camp' in the Walmart parking lot and be at the gate at 8:00 to wait for the 10:00 official opening time. He told us how to go around to the south gate, that there was a dump station there, and fresh water filling point, and then we could pull right in to our club's spot, and camp tonight!! Yea!! So we knocked out the last four hours of driving, and did just that!! It is WONDERFUL to be somewhere where we won't have to move for several more nights. I'm looking forward to next summer's trip out to the NW with OUT all the extra gear we have to schlep in and out of the trailer ever time we need to bed down, and without the dog - she travels well, but it's just one more thing... We will be traveling SO much lighter on that trip.
The order of business for tomorrow is to find a place that will take care fo Maggie for us for the week, and to find a place to go swimming with the kids, as we have not done that yet, on this trip, and we told the kids we would do it ALOT, so we have to make good!! At about 6 in the evening we start making airport runs to get everyone else from the club picked up from Appleton. Then everything gets rolling on Tuesday afternoon for the actual camporee. You probably won't hear from us much after that, they keep us pretty busy!!
The traveling has gone pretty well, really, no major mishaps (one small one that only cost us a $12 repair) and nothing more than a minor cold passed around among us. Sarah and I had it yesterday and were pretty wiped out, of course the heat didn't help on that front either, but we were both pretty low energy, but it was Sabbath, so we just rested. Mayahna and Ricky have had a bit of a hard time with all of the changes taking place every day, but hopefully things will get easier now, that we are staing in one place for a while.
I think I mentioned in my last post that we decided not to drop south on this part of the trip, that we would stop to see the kid's birth aunt on the way to Alabama on Sunday evening, next week. So that part of the trip has not taken place yet, if you knew about it, and are wondering why I have not mentioned it. The one sister, that lives in S. Carolina, couldn't make it up, so it made more sense to just stop in St. Louis (where the other sister lives) on the way south, rather than going out of our way to see them now. The reason we were going down there before OshKosh was because of that other sister coming up then - the original plan called for us to drop south before, because she was unable to make it up on the date we would go through after - but now that she can't make it at all, we changed our plans to fit better, and will just stop there next week. We'll go over and see the S. Carolina sister some time after we get settled in our new place.
The kids are getting pretty excited about getting to Alabama, I think Sarah would rather that we just keep right on going and get there, rather than staying here for a week. But I know that once her friends from PVC get here tomorrow, and once she meets her new friends from Alabama, and once the activities get going, she will settle in and enjoy herself.
We are a LONG ways from the activities this time, so there will be a LOT of walking going on this week. That will be kind of nice, after all the SITTING that has been going on!! I guess we were pretty spoiled last time, and didn't realize just how lucky we were!!
Well, sounds like Sarah is about done, I better wrap up. Hope all is well with all of you!! post a reply if you like, so I know you have been here, reading!!
Thursday, August 6, 2009
(written by Sarah on 8-5-09)
We had a fun day in Yellowstone, we saw buffalo, deer, elk, old faithful, many thermal pools, and a very daring chipmonk. I was so exited to be in Montana and Wyoming. Seeing lots of cows and sheep in all the fields and some deer by the rode was very exciting. Seeing lots of rocks and trees was kind of boring. We also saw two moose by the side of the road - one male and one female and got some good pictures. I didn't get a very good night's sleep last night but we got to see a very beautiful sunrise this morning, while we were driving down out of the Rockies and the black hills in South Dakota.
We had a fun day in Yellowstone, we saw buffalo, deer, elk, old faithful, many thermal pools, and a very daring chipmonk. I was so exited to be in Montana and Wyoming. Seeing lots of cows and sheep in all the fields and some deer by the rode was very exciting. Seeing lots of rocks and trees was kind of boring. We also saw two moose by the side of the road - one male and one female and got some good pictures. I didn't get a very good night's sleep last night but we got to see a very beautiful sunrise this morning, while we were driving down out of the Rockies and the black hills in South Dakota.
Well, today has been a most relaxing day – Up until now we have been a bit rushed – trying to get to Mt Rushmore in time to meet up with Mrs. Stanley to get some paperwork to her. Now that we have made it to that destination, and now that we have decided not to go south to visit relatives, we have a much more relaxed itinerary from here on out. The first day, when we left Coure'd Alene, we didn't actually look at our spread sheet that had our trip planned out, until just as we were leaving town, at nearly 2:00 – only to discover we had 8 hours of driving to do to get to the campground we had reservations at, just outside of Yellowstone. So we pulled in there, VERY late (early actually – due to the time change) and bedded down quickly, so as to get up and out into Yellowstone as early as possible in the morning. We spent a nice day, Monday, exploring Old Faithful and other locations inside the park. We saw some wildlife, elk in particular, a couple of buffalo, a couple of osprey and a bald eagle. We were REALLY hoping for a bear and a moose, but didn't get so lucky. We camped back at the same campground that night, and drove, out through the park on our way east, in the morning. We stopped at the boiling mud pit on that trip through, and kept our eyes pealed for moose and bear. When we left the park, the highway took us through amazing territory and the Big Horn National Forest, where we did manage to spot a moose!! Two of them, actually! It was quite exciting.
We actually met up with Mrs. Stanley at the Crazy Horse exhibit, which we were quite excited to be let in for free at, simply because we mentioned that Thomas is half Native American. It was quite an amazing, extensive exhibit of Native American history and art. It will be a VERY amazing sculpture when they are done with it. And, being the first week of August, there were TONS of motorcycles there!! (Sturgis is just a few miles away!) Mt. Rushmore felt almost a bit like an afterthought, though it was awe inspiring too, in it's own way. We also saw some big horn sheep, there, just at the entrance sign. That was cool.
We left there, and found an RV site in Rapid City – where we are right now. We had planned to take the day to do more relaxing things, playing at a water park, etc. Due to it being Tommy's birthday. But we woke up to rain today and had to change our plans. So we have just been here at the campground all day, tidying up the trailer, and getting laundry done, playing bocce ball, and generally getting our lives a tad more organized. As soon as the laundry is done, here in a few minutes, we are going to head out, hit a DQ (thank you Charlene!) for birthday cake - and then go miniature golfing at a pirate coarse we saw in town this morning when we were on a grocery/birthday present run.
From here on out, we only have to cover 4-5 hours of driving each day in order to reach OshKosh on Monday morning, early. God is taking care of our needs, so far, as they come up. But continued prayers for the finances would be much appreciated – and also for and extra measure of strengthening of our trust in Him to continue to do that...
We actually met up with Mrs. Stanley at the Crazy Horse exhibit, which we were quite excited to be let in for free at, simply because we mentioned that Thomas is half Native American. It was quite an amazing, extensive exhibit of Native American history and art. It will be a VERY amazing sculpture when they are done with it. And, being the first week of August, there were TONS of motorcycles there!! (Sturgis is just a few miles away!) Mt. Rushmore felt almost a bit like an afterthought, though it was awe inspiring too, in it's own way. We also saw some big horn sheep, there, just at the entrance sign. That was cool.
We left there, and found an RV site in Rapid City – where we are right now. We had planned to take the day to do more relaxing things, playing at a water park, etc. Due to it being Tommy's birthday. But we woke up to rain today and had to change our plans. So we have just been here at the campground all day, tidying up the trailer, and getting laundry done, playing bocce ball, and generally getting our lives a tad more organized. As soon as the laundry is done, here in a few minutes, we are going to head out, hit a DQ (thank you Charlene!) for birthday cake - and then go miniature golfing at a pirate coarse we saw in town this morning when we were on a grocery/birthday present run.
From here on out, we only have to cover 4-5 hours of driving each day in order to reach OshKosh on Monday morning, early. God is taking care of our needs, so far, as they come up. But continued prayers for the finances would be much appreciated – and also for and extra measure of strengthening of our trust in Him to continue to do that...
On the Road Wednesday Afternoon- Annie
7:00 AM - It was really cool, last night we got to see a huge bull moose, and then a little while later we saw a cow moose as well. After leaving our camp site this morning we got to see a beautiful sunrise. It's amazing coming out of the Rockies. There's not a lot of rolling hills, you come out of the Rockies and it's rather flat.
4:00 PM - We just left Crazy Horse. It was very cool! There were all sorts of informational facts as well as lots of models of how it's going to look when it's done. We're just a few minutes out from Mt. Rushmore. Several hours ago we passed these strange hills, they look like a giant hand grabbed a handful of earth and pulled it upwards into a point. We've also seen a lot of Prong Horn.
6:30 PM - We just left Mt. Rushmore. It was even better than I remembered it! They had a really interesting documentary on how the mountain was carved.
4:00 PM - We just left Crazy Horse. It was very cool! There were all sorts of informational facts as well as lots of models of how it's going to look when it's done. We're just a few minutes out from Mt. Rushmore. Several hours ago we passed these strange hills, they look like a giant hand grabbed a handful of earth and pulled it upwards into a point. We've also seen a lot of Prong Horn.
6:30 PM - We just left Mt. Rushmore. It was even better than I remembered it! They had a really interesting documentary on how the mountain was carved.
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