History in Motion (Days 11-19)

Day 11

Monday, July 22^nd 2013

We had a good morning today. Everyone slept in, we had a nice breakfast of oatmeal. We had some time to plot out some places we wanted to visit next as we headed over to the East coast. 

Packing up, we headed out to conquer the rest of South Dakota and journey south along the borders of Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri.

One of the challenges of so much driving is eating healthy. Snack food typically is junk food and it's been hard to find good things to give the girls to snack on while we drive. There's limits for Juliet with her few front teeth and both the girls can be picky at times. But we've discovered a new favorite. Sugar snap peas! Yum!

Nebraska has TERRIBLE roads. They do not keep up on them and trying to drive the trailer over all the bumps is probably not the best for it. The drivers here are crazy too. We had several cars pull out in front of us when they were not supposed to go, and there were many cars not using turn signals and practically riding in between lanes before they made their choice of which lane to use. Geezzzzz

With all that driving, and rough driving at that, we really wanted to stop at a park for the girls. So we tried finding a park. The roads were so bad we tried 4 times finding 4 different parks and had no luck. 

Then we got stuck having to go over a creepy toll bridge that looked like it was going to crumble beneath us. Let's just say we were very glad to get out of Nebraska.

It was getting late and everyone was tired and hungry. We tracked down a Chick-fil-A for dinner and it even had a play area inside. Double win! They have great food and service to match. 

The girls loved the break and Juliet had a blast climbing up the slide. (Yes, she could climb all the way to the top all by herself! With Mom or Dad close behind of course.) We had a grand ole time. Then we got the girls ready for bed and popped back in the car for some late night driving.

As we were driving along, we thought it had begun to rain again. We could hear the pitter patter against the window but... strangely enough, there were no water streaks. We looked closely and listened as the sound continued. We couldn't believe it. That was no rain hitting our window... it was bugs!!!! GROSS!

We ended up at another Walmart in St. Joseph, Missouri. It was so hot & muggy though! I didn't think we'd be able to sleep in the trailer with how hot it was inside. But my superman figured out how to run the AC on low with our generator. Ahh... sleep at last!

Day 12

Tuesday, July 23^rd 2013

We were out of water. No showers for us this morning. =( 

We loaded up and left to go check out the Pony Express Museum. 











It looked really small when we first entered, but it actually had a ton of stuff to look at. 




There was an amazing play area for the kids. This museum is a must see with tons of really neat facts!

Juliet loved the life sized displays 

The original well back when the pony express was in operation

The awesome play room

Next we were off to find an amazing BBQ place for lunch. We tracked down Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue in downtown Kansas City (or Kennis like the locals there call it). Talk about crazy – trying to find a place to park a 27 ft trailer and Excursion in the middle of a busy city. But my amazing husband did it! He found a place and parked our long convoy. 

We tried out Jack Stack's BBQ which was good, but not favorite. The place had been rated on Trip Advisor in the top ten restaurants in Kansas City, so maybe we were just expecting more. Very nice restaurant and service though. =)

Cupcake A La Mode 

Then we walked across the street to Cupcake A La Mode. Another top rated place on Trip Advisor to eat at. And boy, did they have amazing cupcakes! Super delicate and moist with awesome frosting! We got four cupcakes – stuffed french toast, mint chocolate dream, pink lemonade, and chocolate obsession (if I remember the names correctly), and each one was delicious.

We checked out the Money Museum located inside the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, That was a lot more fun than I thought it would be, lol. Caleb really wanted to check it out and I thought it'd be boring, but there were some fun activities to do with the kiddos and great info as well. 

My personal favorite display was the one showing all the original coins used in each presidency dating all the way back to George Washington. 

Another cool display was a solid gold bar worth half a million dollars in a glass safe that you could “lift” by pushing down on a lever. So now we can say “I've held half a million bucks.” Oh yeah.

Ain't I a lucky woman! 

There were actually 40 million dollars in $100 bills in there

After all the sightseeing, we only got a few hours of driving in and settled down at a place called Conttonwoods RV park in Columbia, Missouri. I don't know what they're called, but there was some kind of bug there that made this high pitched scream that just went on and on and on.... so annoying. But with our AC going it covered up the noise – thank goodness! We watched the movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs with Ellie before bed. Always nice to have a few laughs at the end of the day. =)

A nice place for nice people

Day 13

Wednesday, July 24^th 2013

I made the girls' favorite breakfast. Pancakes! 

We took it easy this morning and left close to 1pm. 

Driving through Missouri, we were glad to see trees again. It's a very green state with lots of trees and vegetation.

We made a stop at a fast food place called White Castle. (Caleb's a big food person so anything new and interesting looking, we gotta stop to try at least something out on the menu. =) They sell sliders there and let me tell you... they were NASTY! Yuk yuk yuk, I need to go wash my mouth out with chocolate now.

We're getting closer to St. Louis, Missouri, and we can't get over how perfect the grass has been mowed! Perfect straight lines or diamond shapes. 

We saw two firetrucks that had a blue colored cab with the red body with a white zigzag stripe. Designed kind of like an American flag. I thought that was kind of cool.

Once in St. Louis, Caleb tracked down Pappy's Smokehouse, another Trip Advisor recommend. They had awesome smoked baby back ribs. So tender and great flavor, we didn't even need BBQ sauce. The inside of the building was kind of crazy (weird décor and kind of hipster environment) and small for how many people were there, but the food was definitely worth the wait.

Next, we checked out the Gateway Arch. 

A very cool, 630 feet tall national monument. 

We went underground to the visitor center and bought tickets to ride to the very top of the arch. 

After a craaaazzzzy long wait because of some kind of situation no one would discuss (very reassuring right?), we finally crammed into a tiny pod-like elevator that took us all the way up. Much nicer than having to climb the 1000+ stairs. 

My superman in action! 

Looking out the windows at the top of the arch

Once up in the small enclosed peak of the archway, we got to look out these little rectangular windows upon the world below. We were too eager to beat the line back down to stay for long, but it was a memorable memory. Just wouldn't have minded skipping the wait.

The view from the top of the arch looking to the West

The view from the top of the arch looking to the East

Home sweet home for the night was at another Walmart in Mt. Vernon, Illinois.

Looking up at the arch from below - you can see the tiny little windows way up top

Day 14

Thursday, July 25^th 2013

Today we focused on driving to Tennessee. We passed through Illinois into Indiana. 

As we drove, we were a-maze-ed to see a ton of cornfields everywhere. haha 

We stopped at a church to take a break and make a big decision. Head to Washington D.C. or travel to South Carolina to visit Grandma Viv. 

We charted the routes out, checked the budget and schedule, and then made the determining call. Grandma Viv was available that weekend! It was off to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina! Yay!

So we altered our route and entered yet another state. Kentucky. It seemed like we were there for only 5 min. before we made it into Tennessee.

We took our chances and stopped at the Crazy Buffet for dinner. 

It was actually super good! Mostly Chinese with some Dim Sum and Sushi and even a chocolate fountain! Yummy!!!













We actually had a hard time finding a Walmart to stay at. 

The first we stopped at was some small neighborhood Walmart that was definitely not prime real estate. 

The second was in a snazzy town called Mt. Juliet that had signs stating you could not stay overnight in the parking lot. 

Finally, we found a third to stay at in Lebanon. Phew... almost didn't have a place to stay that night.

Day 15

Friday, July 26^th 2013

It was a fun morning dancing around to music as we got ready to head out. We left the trailer behind at Walmart and visited downtown Nashville, Tennessee. 

It's a big city focused on music. Pretty much every restaurant had a live musician singing for everyone. 

Speakers blared music everywhere you walked. 

We had fun exploring for an hour or so and then loaded up to head off to the beach.

And that's when I felt it. That annoying itch at the back of your throat. A warning of what was to come. Oh no...

The longer we drove, the worse I felt. I got a nice sore throat and headache. That combined with trying to find another Walmart at an unearthly hour of the morning in humid hot weather made for a miserable night. =( 

Of course I would get sick now... we were going to visit someone. And what fun is visiting without bringing something to share? (Sorry Grandma Viv!)

Day 16

Saturday, July 27^th 2013

The drive to Myrtle Beach was looooooonnnnnggggg as it seemed EVERYONE was headed to the east coast today.

The girls were not very happy and I was sick with a cold.

BUT, God is good... and we were on our way to the beach.

We showed up outside of Grandma Viv's place close to 5pm (when we should have been there around 2 – that's how much we were detained by traffic!!!). 

A familiar face after 16 days on the road. So nice to see Grandma again! And we got to meet Aunt Helen, Vivian's sweet sister, for the first time as well.

We got to see their place set up at the top of Atalaya Towers. The resort was right on the beach – as in on the sandy shoreline and you could walk a few seconds to the water. Super cool! 

The girls had a blast playing in the sand. The weather here was very humid and warm so all the sand stuck leaving two very dirty, but happy kids.

After cleaning up Ellie & Juliet, we loaded up in our car with Grandma and drove through town to find a place to eat. We went to a buffet and it was awesome having both hands free to eat while Grandma helped the girls eat. A win for all of us! We dropped Grandma back off at her place and hunkered down for the night in our trailer. 

Day 17

Sunday, July 28^th 2013

With all these different time zones, it's been hard keeping up with the times. We are now 4 hours ahead of our accustomed time and its hard getting up in the morning. But we finally dragged ourselves outta bed and got ready after another peek at the beach for the girls.

I'm feeling overall better, but still got a darn ole stuffy nose and my ears are kind of plugged now too. But I'm grateful no one else has gotten sick.

Grandma Viv took us out to Chipotle for lunch. Super yummy healthy Mexican food. 

Then while Caleb did some “man” errands like shop at Best Buy and take care of car stuff, Grandma, Ellie, Juliet and I had an all girls outing. 

We had a ton of fun! Even little Ellie is quite the shopper herself – she likes to pick out polka dots and poofy skirts that would be good to dance in. Though today she decided she needed a bracelet like Grandma's. We shopped till we dropped. Literally.

We were all so tired we headed home for naps and dinner. While I was whipping up some good ole grilled cheese sandwiches, I noticed a surprising visitor outside our trailer window. A cop. And he wasn't very happy.

He basically gave us 20 min. to get out of the place we were parked alongside of the road (which we had thought would be okay) or he'd start writing up tickets.

We were out in 15.

Back to Walmart we went, stopping to clean up the mess we left in the flurry to leave. 






Grandma met us there to say goodbye as we planned on leaving that night to beat the mad morning rush hours that would start up tomorrow.

Farewell Grandma Viv! Thanks for having us! It was a joy spending time with you!!! We love you!!!

Day 18

Monday, July 29^th 2013

We awoke in an RV park called Sleepy Bear. Our poor girls both had runny noses and seemed more irritable. They got my cold. =(





So we took some time to figure out our route Northward, eat breakfast, and let the girls play in the playground. 






That brought a smile to those sweet little faces. 

Then we hopped back in the car and took off for Virginia! 

We made reservations for two nights at a place called American Heritage. A super nice RV park with a giant blow up water slide, pool, laundry, and it was close to Jamestown and lots of other neat historical places.

The route to Virginia has been much like the drive since Missouri. So many trees, and green everywhere.

It's almost like the forest is taking over everything and civilization is barely holding back.... at least until you come to the cities. But out on the open road the trees tower high into the sky and you can't really see beyond them. The trees are always crammed right up to the freeway or over-lurking rivers. Pretty for a few hours, but it's been this way for days and there's not much you can see beyond the green treetops.

This was a cool bridge we crossed over

We got to our RV park about 7 and quickly threw together some dinner so we could head to the pool. Ellie and Juliet had fun splashing around for a little bit. Then we bundled up and headed back to put the kiddos down for bed.

Now I'm trying to conquer Mt. Neverrest. The laundry pile that has been growing in our bedroom for the past two weeks. It is quite a sight, that much I can say. Grandma Viv had kindly offered to let us do laundry at her house, but I declined, thinking we'd be fine. Today when we all pulled out our last pair of undies, I realized it might have been a mistake.

So I've been in the laundry room for the last couple of hours trying to finish it all. The time in between loads has given me the opportunity to finally catch up on my blog though, so there is a plus side to this late night endeavor... well, that and clean laundry of course. ;D

Fresh underwear in the morning is a definite plus.  

Day 19

Tuesday, July 30^th 2013

The American Heritage RV park is the nicest park we've stayed at. The showers were great, a coveted commodity after several days using our little trailer shower.

Today we are exploring Virginia with our first stop being historic Williamsburg. A really neat town with fun stores like the Peanut Store. 

We took out the bikes and hooked up the bike trailer for a refreshing cruise through the streets of old town Williamsburg. 

The girls' favorite part was watching the horse drawn carriages meandering down the roads.

Then we headed over to the original sight of the Jamestown settlement. 

First, I must say, as we've been driving around, Virginia is a beautiful state! Lots of trees, blue rivers and lakes, and well kept neighborhoods. I'd say it's my favorite state we've been to so far.

Jamestown was cool in getting to see the original settlement of America, but sadness overshadowed many of the displays and sties. 

There were grave markers everywhere and stories of the suffering and starvation the people of Jamestown faced. 

Half of one of the museums had skeletons, talked of the grave sites, or the cannibalism people resorted to in the desperate times. =(

 

Seeing the layout of the old settlement and the archaeological digs going on was super cool though. 

The only original structure left was a church tower that they were currently working on restoring. 

There were hundreds of dragonflies buzzing around. I just had to share this picture of a red one!

We headed back to our RV park and got ready for some slip n slide fun! 

We didn't know the inflatable water slide cost money and the little ones couldn't go so we had Caleb experience the slide for us while we laughed and took pictures.

Afterwards, we played with the girls at the playground and then went back to our trailer to barbecue up some fresh home made pizza! Oh boy!

There's no need to talk about the pizza... though I will say it had a nice “charred” flavor. Lol

P.S. Sorry about all the delays! I've had a lot of issues with pictures not loading, the blog formatting wigging out on me, not having a good wifi connection, or just running out of time in a day. So bear with me here, I'm very close to being all caught up and then I will hopefully be able to do a once-a-day post of the events we just experienced. =)