Things we already knew, and now we know even better!

Things we already knew that were reinforced.

1) People talk slower outside of the NY metropolitan area.

2) People do things more slowly outside the NY metropolitan area.

3) Pizza is not the same outside of NY.

4) You can’t get a decent bagel outside of NY.

5) We have really nice kids.

6) Brownie really does like to travel.

7) Audra is always the first one up.

8) Brownie always gets up with sunrise. I think she’s related to Roosters somehow.

9) I like peace and quiet and solitude.

10) I don’t need TV. Rod does.

11) I hate mechanical sounds that don’t stop, such as the generator.

12) The generator came in handy!

13) You can’t make more than one baked potato in the RV microwave. It overheats.

14) The only “boring” time was in the car, but not too much.

15) Audra loves campfires.

16) This trip was great!

Things we learned!

Things we learned!

1)This is a vast country with varied landscapes.

2)You really do need a giant cooler when camping. Why? See #3.

3)RV refrigerators can’t handle being opened constantly to get drinks out. Nor can they cool those drinks efficiently. If you don’t have a cooler, get one for your drinks. Your food will thank you.

4)I like trees.

5)I like mountains too.

6)If your RV water suddenly loses pressure, check the water filter FIRST!

7)I don’t really have a NY or LI accent. Neither does Rod or Brianna or Sheldon.

8)There are SuperWalMarts EVERYWHERE!

9)There aren’t 7-Elevens everywhere.

10)You can get everything you need at a Super WalMart!

11)State Parks are generally very nice places to camp.

12)National Forests aren’t well-funded and aren’t the best places to camp.

13)National Parks are great vacation places and have good campgrounds if you’re into “roughing it” (ie: no hookups).

14)You don’t need “full hookups” if you’re only staying two days.

15)We always forget to stop at the dump station before going to the site. Try not to forget that!

16)You really don’t need reservations at most campgrounds. The exception was The Grand Canyon and Devil’s Lake State Park in Wisconsin. Also, anyplace on 4th of July weekend. And Yellowstone, of course.

17)There is such a thing as 85 octane gas.

18)Even though it is called “regular” gas it may not be 87 octane. Read the label at the pump!

19)85 octane gas is fine for driving around the campsite, but don’t try to tow your 7000 lb. trailer with it!

20)Most of the country is covered with sagebrush.

21)Not all deer are afraid of people.

22)I can never go to a zoo again, it just won’t seem right.

23)There are obnoxious people everywhere who deface monuments and national treasures. DON’T WRITE YOUR INITIALS everywhere, it’s annoying!

24)If you can carry your water bottle or beer bottle or other such object into the place, why can’t you carry it out?

25)Junior Rangers help clean up the trash in the National Parks! Good Job Brianna and Sheldon!

26)You can learn A LOT by attending a Ranger Program at a National Park, and they are free!

27)I like rocks.

28)Not every treasure is protected the way it should be. Important artifacts found on Indian Reservations may not be protected and may be lost someday. I even wish they’d commercialize what they have, at least it would be safer and they’d profit off of it! (ie: Dinosaur Tracks in Arizona)

29)It’s hard for me to pronounce Nevada the way most people in the country do. It’s a short a sound in Nevada (think a as in apple), not Nevaaaada. Difficult.

30)It’s impossible to describe the Grand Canyon.

31)It is harder to breathe at over 7000 feet of elevation. I noticed it when hiking up any type of slight incline.

32)The kids like KOA’s!

33)Don’t leave soda cans where they can fall while inside the RV, such as on the RV kitchen seats. Exploding soda cans can make a HUGE mess.

34)Padlocks break. You might need to buy more if you lock your stuff.

35)We’re not into History.

36)It’s not so hard to back up the trailer, at least not for Rod anymore!

37)We love camping!

Things to Remember.

Remember…

A bat landed on Rod’s hat.

Brianna’s blanket always ended up on Sheldon’s bed.

Mom had no place to sleep. Thanks Brianna. Sheldon even kicked me in the mouth.

Brownie always sneaking onto Mom and Dad’s bed.

The tomato soup in New Mexico.

The Bighorn Mountain fiasco.

Honey and Brownie

Charbette the pig

Devil’s Doorway

Devil’s Tower

Brownie swimming in Lake Thunderbird

Brianna losing a tooth.

Ponderosa Pines and Lodgepole Pines

Riding Nina’s horse

The rainstorm at Mammoth Cave – getting soaked.

How the Badlands looked like giant sandcastles.

How the Badlands made you feel after 2 days.

Sunrise at the Grand Canyon – Brownie barking and waking up Brianna when mom and dad were gone.

Sheldon’s quest for a particular light-saber.

Opening gifts from Grandma Owls.

Building Sand Castles in Oklahoma at Lake Thunderbird. Red sand!

The exploding soda can incident

Roasting Marshmallows

S’Mores

Hot dogs on the campfire

“How was I supposed to know?”

“I forgot.”

Penney squishers, Passport cancellation stations, buying souvenirs

Bison, Pronghorn, Mule Deer, White-tailed Deer, Prairie Dogs, Kaibab Squirrels, Chipmunks, Grizzlies, Elk, Deer, Deer, Deer, Crayfish, Turtles, Monarchs, Swallowtails, Skunk, Porcupines, etc.

Brownie on the chairs in camp.

Cadillac Ranch

Hiking, hiking, hiking

Trees, mountains, deserts, sagebrush, and all the different colors

The hills that looked like all different chocolates.

Hoo Doos, Sod Tables, Clastic Dikes, Sedimentation, Uplift, Erosion, Limestone, Sandstone, A’a, Pahoehoe, Pumice, Obsidian, Desert Crusts, Desert Varnish, etc.

Lichens, Mosses, Cyanobacteria, Fungus, Turkey Vultures, Condors, Red-tailed hawks, Spikey Spruces and Friendly Firs

"You're goin ta haf ta ask Jerry..."

Getting stuck in the canoe

Uncle Jim and Aunt Sharri

Car Museums

Sheldon's birthday on the road!

The "Multicultural Cows"

August 16th, Gettysburg, PA

Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Day 52
Gettysburg, PA

The Hallock family are not history buffs, that is for sure. We loved Gettysburg and the surrounding orchards and farmland. We loved the city and had lunch in a very nice restaurant. We even enjoyed the battlefields and monuments to some degree. The Visitors’ Center was fabulous and you really could spend a whole day there. It’s like a museum! But the driving tour was, well, BORING. It started off okay, and we really did learn a lot about the Battle of Gettysburg, but it was just way too detailed. All these people and their charges and their positions at this moment and that moment. I really didn’t need all that detail! And why, just why, did our armies fight in straight lines. Didn’t they just know they were going to be cut down by all those little things called bullets? It made no sense!

Toward the end we started getting testy with each other (Rod and I) because we both had heads that were spinning with way too many facts. We thought we were going to have nightmares about it. So, we turned the CD off. The main point is that Gettysburg was a major battle of the Civil War. It was a turning point in the war for the North. We won it. I could have lived with just learning the major things and if the CD just stuck to General Lee and General Mead I would have been OK. The kids were bored but they behaved themselves. Early on in the day we decided this was not the place for them to be trying the Junior Ranger Program, so we didn’t do it here.

We were in awe by the sheer number of monuments here and also for the fact that this is where Lincoln made his famous Gettysburg Address. I just think some people get way too into all the tiny details of the battle. I found the artifacts at the Visitors’ Center/museum very interesting. For example they had a section of rafters from someone’s barn that had been hit by artillery and there was the holes in 8 rafters. There was furniture with bullet holes in it. They even had on display an example of what it looks like when two bullets collide in mid-air. Yes, there were so many bullets flying that there were mid-air collisions! I could only imagine the blood and the screams of the soldiers as they died on this site. 51,000 men were killed, wounded or captured at Gettysburg. That’s just insane.

Tomorrow we are driving back to Berkshire. The next several blogs will be “lists” that I may update from time to time. Once we are home and settled I may have a follow-up blog as well. Hope you enjoyed reading about our trip! We sure enjoyed taking the trip!

August 15th, Drive to Gettysburg, PA

Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Day 51
Drive from Shenandoah National Park to Gettysburg, PA

This morning Brownie and I tried to do a similar walk to the nice one we did yesterday when we saw the 15 deer. We somehow didn’t do the same walk, and ended up back at the trailer much too soon, and only saw 3 deer. So then we decided to walk to our spot on the rock to see the view again, but about one-tenth of a mile up the trail we practically bumped into a buck in the middle of the trail. A man was taking its photo, so we just went home. Last night the same type of thing happened. We were just trying to walk and there were deer everywhere in our path! They were great to look at, but if you’re just trying to hike through, they kind of got in the way. Never thought I’d say that about deer. The deer in Shenandoah are definitely not afraid of people! They don’t approach you, but they don’t run away either.

Last night we were treated to our favorite 10 point buck with his 5 point friend and his other friend the 8-pointer. I saw the same deer again this morning. They are beautiful and we have so many photos of them, I’m afraid to download them from the camera because then I’ll have to decide which ones to keep and which ones to delete.

We left the campground just as it started drizzling this morning and then we stopped at the Visitors’ Center for the kids to turn in their completed Junior Ranger Booklets. They got their badges, well actually Brianna chose a patch and Sheldon chose a badge. They also both got stickers, which they placed in their Passports. It was nice that they got to choose here. Brianna finished her 12 activities yesterday and she helped Sheldon with the rest of his today, since he had only completed 5 or 6 yesterday. Twelve was a bit much for Sheldon, but Brianna helped him just like a little teacher.

The remainder of the drive on Skyline Drive was nice, but a bit overcast at the beginning. It took over an hour and a half to drive the rest of the way out of the park, since the speed limit is 35 mph, but we’re not complaining because it isn’t the type of road you’d want to drive fast on anyway! By the time we got off of Skyline Drive the sun was out and we were back up to over 80 degrees again. We were much higher in elevation in Shenandoah Park, between about 2500 and 3300 feet. That contributed to the nice cool temperatures! It’s really nothing compared to the 7000-9000 feet in elevation that we were at in the Rocky Mountain Region, but it’s still elevation!

Now we are in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. We are staying at a KOA, and this is our last stop on the trip before going back to Camp Wildwood, our property upstate. Tomorrow we are taking a driving tour of Gettysburg. We rented a CD that you put into the car’s CD player and it takes you through a tour of the city and battlefield. The bus tour was far too expensive for us and this one seems more our style anyway. We like to do it our way, but we want to learn something too. Now neither Rodney nor I are into history, so we might not LOVE this park, but so far it is intriguing. We watched a short film here at the KOA which kind of explained what happened during the three-day battle here in July of 1863; the turning point of the Civil War. Now we’ll see what else I pick up tomorrow. No geology or biology today or tomorrow I’m afraid…

I just finished paying two bills I “forgot” about and one had a late fee. Boo Hoo. That’s life away from home I guess. My brother has informed me that I have approximately 50 pounds of mail on my kitchen table. I dread that! But we’ll be home on Monday evening, the 21st of August. A few days at Camp Wildwood will be a nice “in-between” stage for us to re-assimilate into the “real” world. No bills there, but I can get all the stuff out of the camper and do the laundry the normal way, one load at a time with no quarters involved. Then the RV is going to need a good cleaning and hopefully everything is hunky-dorey at the Camp!

There will probably only be one more BLOG, tomorrow, until after we are home on LI. No internet access at the Camp. Later!

August 13th and 14th, Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park, VA

Sunday, August 13th and Monday, August 14th
Day 49 and 50
Driving to Virginia, Skyline Drive, Shenandoah National Park

The drive along Skyline Drive yesterday was beautiful. We had lovely weather and the temperature was in the low seventies up here on the ridge. I consider that about as perfect as it can get. We drove up Skyline Drive from the south, to about the half-way point and we are camping at Big Meadows Campground. This is a very nice campsite and we are just a few feet from the “edge” and can get a good view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Also, the Appalachian Trail is right near our campsite, not that I am planning on hiking the 105 miles of it that exist here at Shenandoah, but I did hike maybe half a mile of it. I found a very nice rock to sit on early this morning (Monday) and had a nice view for about 5 minutes until Brownie became too impatient to wait there anymore. I thought she was going over the edge a few time…

This park is FULL of deer. We saw a bunch of them last night, including an incredible 10-point buck. This morning I saw 12 does and fawns and three bucks on my morning walk with the dog. She has taken to barking at the deer, which is not good. The deer here are not afraid of people, but they still run when the dog barks at them.

Early today we took the kids to the Visitors’ Center. It is under construction, and being remodeled, so there aren’t really any displays in there, but it is going to be very nice when it is finished. The kids stamped their Passports and we bought a Junior Ranger Booklet for each of them. Yes, we had to pay here also, but only $2.50 apiece. I must say that at Mammoth Cave when we had to pay I was quite annoyed, but once the kids finished the booklets there they got a nice patch instead of a badge, and an announcement was made by the Rangers over the loud speaker. That was pretty cool, and somewhat embarrassing. Here the booklet is quite long, but the kids will get a sticker and a badge.

This morning, after going to the Visitors’ Center, we went to a Ranger Program about Birds of Prey that was very interesting. The Ranger had two raptors with him to show us. One was an injured red-tailed hawk. The other was an eastern screech owl. Both were injured in some way and were unable to be returned to the wild. We learned more about birds of prey and were able to see some of their incredible adaptations up close. Some things we learned were that they have huge eyes, up to 2/3 the size of their brain, they have sharp talons for killing and grabbing prey, they have sharp curved beaks for shredding the meat before eating it, and they can spot prey from far away due to the high number of rods in their retinas. Also, the screech owl does not actually screech. It does have its ears in a strange place, that is within its eye sockets, and they are asymmetrically placed, one being up higher than the other. This allows them to triangulate the location of their prey before they even see it. We discovered that the peregrine falcon can dive at over 100 mph and that there is a nesting pair here in the park.

After the program we took a hike to Dark Hollow Falls. This was about ¾ of a mile down to the falls and a difficult ¾ of a mile back up to the parking lot. It was beautiful in the woods on the trail as we walked next to the stream. The 70 foot high falls were soothing to the soul. The sounds were peaceful and serene. I felt good after our walk there, but tired from the difficult walk back. We picked up trash along the trail and Sheldon carried it half-way out, Brianna carried it the other half-way. Why do people leave their garbage in the park? We picked up a beer bottle and a cigarette butt. Anyway, now we are off to another Ranger Program, for the Junior Rangers amongst us.

August 11th and 12th, Bowling Green, KY and Beech Fork, WV

Friday, August 11 and Saturday, August 12, 2006
Day 47 and 48
Mammoth Cave and Drive to Beech Fork State Park, WV

On Friday we drove from Mammoth Cave down to Bowling Green, about 25 miles south. There we visited the Corvette Museum and saw many vintage Corvettes and had a very nice time. Right across from the Museum is the plant where the Corvette is made. We didn’t actually see the factory, but after eating at Hardees for lunch we did see five car-carriers loaded with brand-new Vettes leaving the plant! Wow, did we drool over those brand new vettes going to various dealerships in the country.

The highlight of the visit to the museum for me was the gorgeous 1963 split-back window in silver. Oooh, Aahh, my dream car!

Later in the day I took the kids to an activity at the Visitor’s Center just for kids. It was called Nature Tracks and they played games relating to the types of living things at Mammoth Cave. Of course the parents had to play too, so we played “CAVO”, like Bingo, and Sheldon won the third round. We also played “Bat – Moth”, like Marco – Polo. Sheldon and Brianna were both moths who never got caught by the bats. We made another campfire and I hung out there for most of the evening with Brianna, but Sheldon was in trouble so he had to go to bed early. He’ll learn to “listen” soon I hope. Of course he didn’t actually go to sleep in his bed, but kept shining his flashlight out his window at me and Brianna and things like that.

On Saturday we drove about 310 miles to Beech Fork State Park in West Virginia. This is also all of our first time to West Virginia. The hills of Eastern Kentucky rolled on and on, and the drive was quite nice. It took us a little over 5 hours to get here. This is yet another lovely State Park Campsite. I think most of the State Parks we have been to have been really nice.

Today is actually Sunday, the 13th. I have gotten behind with the journal on this later part of the trip. This morning while walking Brownie I was fortunate enough to be able to see six deer. First I saw three, a doe and her fawns. They spotted me and Brownie and didn’t stay around long. Later I saw a nice young buck, with 6 points! He stayed close enough for me to really observe him and he was probably a one-and-a-half year old buck. And with six points already! Soon after that I saw two more does, and they took off quickly and ran across the street. The deer around here are more “normal” in their behavior than the deer further out West. They run when they see people!

Later today we are off to Virginia, and Shenandoah National Park. I’m looking forward to the drive on Skyline Drive!

August 10th, Mammoth Cave, KY

Thursday, August 10, 2006
Day 46
Drive to Mammoth Cave National Park, KY

“We’re goin’ to Kentucky, we’re goin’ to the fair…” Kentucky is rolling hills and very green. It’s beautiful, but not much different looking than what we’re used to. I-65 near Louisville is very bumpy and in need of repair. I thought my teeth were going to jar loose for a while there! We found a nice site at the National Park campground and set up with no problem. It was around 95 degrees and HUMID. We cranked up the generator and turned on the air conditioner for a while before we headed over to the Visitor’s Center.

We decided to take the Frozen Niagra cave tour. When we got to the Visitor’s Center it wasn’t much more than a place to buy tickets. They have maybe three poster-type displays and they show a movie or two in the auditorium room. We actually had to pay for the Junior Ranger booklets - $5.00 a piece! This is the first National Park that we actually had to pay for the booklets. At all the other parks they were free! So, we were put on a school bus and taken to the “new” cave entrance that was blasted out by someone in the 1920’s, before this was a National Park. We walked down about 300 stainless steel, narrow steps and began the tour. The part of the cave we were in had few formations, until the end of the tour where the Frozen Niagra section is. In that area there are quite a few formations all in one area. It was interesting to look at the smooth, flat ceilings of Limestone with no water or formations forming on them. I kind of liked it, but it was not as interesting as Jewel Cave, in my opinion.

I really think in Jewel Cave we saw a lot more different types of formations and the presentation was better. Here our group was too large and there was a lot of sitting and waiting for people to catch up. Also there were a lot of loud children on this tour. Oh well, it was probably just this particular tour. We did see a bat, it was actually sitting on the brim of Rod’s hat and it freaked him out momentarily. Then it just hung from the low ceiling and he took some photos of it. The women behind him weren’t too keen on the bat, but we thought it was cool.

After we returned from the cave it started raining quite hard and we had to make a run for the car in the midst of loud thunder and a heavy downpour. By the time we returned to the campsite it was raining so hard you could barely even see. I made a dash to the door and in the seconds it took to open the locks I was drenched and I couldn’t help screaming the whole time because it was darned cold rain! We hadn’t put the awning out before we left, and boy do I wish we had. Everyone was soaked just coming from the car to the trailer. Our bed was soaked because we had left the ceiling skylight open. Our nice bundle of firewood got soaked and the whole campsite looked like a lake. Hopefully everything will dry out tomorrow, but I’m not getting my hopes up, because the humidity here is ridiculous. Maybe the dry heat was better…

Tomorrow we are going to Bowling Green to the Corvette Museum and then we are continuing on our way, remaining 2 days ahead of schedule.

August 8th and 9th, Brown County Indiana

Tuesday and Wednesday, August 8th and 9th, 2006
Days 44 and 45
Drive to Brown County State Park, IN and Visit with Mike and Dayna Zook

Wow, I actually missed a day of journaling for the first time. I was sitting by the campfire all night last night because it turned out to be such a great, hot burning, long lasting fire and it was a nice evening too. Anyway, we arrived at Brown County State Park in Indiana. This park is in the southern part of Indiana, a little south of Indianapolis. The drive from Missouri was pleasant, even though there was steady drizzle for most of the morning. Rod drove through St. Louis and I drove most of the rest of the way, until right before we got here, then I switched back to navigation mode to get us here easily.

Brown County State Park is quite nice, and rather large. We like our campsite, and I would say, based on the two different Indiana State Parks that we have stayed at on this trip, that Indiana’s State Parks are very nice! Clean, open, spacious, lots of wildlife, and “user friendly”.

Today we drove about 45 miles or so to my friends’ house in Greenwood, Indiana. Dayna and Mike are both friends from college, and I haven’t seen them in almost 16 years! Wow, that’s a long time. We’ve stayed in touch over the years and it was great to see them. Mike had to work, but Dayna was home with their two lovely children, Mitchell and Oleg. It was great to meet the children, and Brianna and Sheldon enjoyed playing with both of them even though they are a bit younger. Mitchell is 6 and Oleg is around 2 years old. We ate lunch and chatted for quite a while and Mike made it home from work before we had to leave. Unfortunately we had to leave to come back to check on the dog and take her out, but it was a lovely afternoon. Despite the rain.

Speaking of rain, I just need to mention that it did not really rain more than just thunderstorms that quickly cleared since we left the “east” in June! The last real rain we saw was in Ohio, and now we are back in Indiana and it rained for most of two days. Hmmm, coincidence? Maybe, or maybe it is just wet in the east! Anyway, my hair is not happy about the humidity again, but the rest of me is so used to it that I think I like it better than the “dry” heat of the high deserts that we were in. I kind of liked the “dry” heat, but it was just weird for me. I wasn’t all sticky and sweaty, but I didn’t really feel well in that hot, hot heat! It was just HOT! I guess it was more “comfortable”, but I truly felt baked in the sun, with no real shade anywhere in most of those areas. I think I just like trees.

Anyway, enough about the weather. Brianna is talking to Nina AGAIN. And it has been a long conversation. They miss each other, and it won’t be too long ‘til they see each other again! We’ll be home within two weeks now! I am kind of looking forward to getting home now, in a way, but I have enjoyed this trip and can’t complain one little bit. The majority of the trip has gone off without a hitch, and we’re all still happy. Tomorrow we are driving to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky and we’ll be there a day early, but for three days, most likely, because we also plan on going to the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, which is near there.

August 7th, Gateway Arch and Riverboat Cruise

Monday, August 7, 2006
Day 43
Gateway Arch and Riverboat Cruise, St. Louis, MO

Today we drove about 40 miles to downtown St. Louis to see the amazing gateway to the west, the Gateway Arch Memorial. It is simply stunning! Everyone has seen photos of it, but to see it in person is amazing. Standing 630 feet tall, it is taller than the Washington Monument, and is, in fact, the tallest monument in North America. We were able to go up into the top of it on a tram ride that they have, and you can see out these tiny windows in the top. It was a nice view of Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals, the Old Courthouse, and the rest of downtown St. Louis. On the river side, it was a nice view of the Mississippi and Illinois, but the Mississippi is not so “pretty” here, it is a working riverfront.

There is a beautiful and interesting museum beneath the monument. It is layed out in a circular fashion, with a statue of Thomas Jefferson in the center. The decades of the 1800’s span out before you with various displays. On the outer wall is the timeline of the Lewis and Clark expedition. It was very educational and interesting. We also learned a bit about the design of the arch and how it was built. The kids got another Junior Ranger Badge, but the rangers here were really not as involved or as good as all the other rangers we’ve had at the many other National Parks we’ve been too. The ranger at the information desk did not even check the kids’ books, nor did he ask them any questions about what they learned. That seems to be standard operating procedure for the rangers at all the other parks we’ve been to, but not here. Well, they still learned a lot.

After the Museum of Westward Expansion and the Arch, we took a cruise on the Riverboat up and down a small portion of the Mississippi. There was a Ranger on the boat who explained a lot of things about the city and the Arch and other miscellaneous facts. We ate a snack on the boat and enjoyed the air conditioning for a while, but then I ventured out on deck because it was very difficult to hear the ranger from inside, even with the PA system. It was hot on deck, but I could hear better and I learned more that way. It was also a better view. I got several nice photos of the Arch, and I’ll attach one at the top when I get it onto the laptop.

Finally, after turning in the kids’ Junior Ranger booklets, we walked over to the Old Courthouse. This is the courthouse where the Dred Scott trials were held. It has been restored and it is gorgeous inside and out. We were able to see two courtrooms and various displays throughout the building. The rotunda is amazing and the old wood floors were so classy. There were American flags everywhere in there and intricate paintings on the ceilings. The rotunda has amazing acoustics and you could here every word spoken by people on any of the three levels that were open to the public.

On the way home we stopped to get the oil changed in the truck and also stopped at Super Wal-Mart for a few items. After returning “home” we went swimming in the pool and had supper. I did laundry. Yuck. Now we are going to bed and watching TV. We were going to have a campfire, but the day is just not long enough to do everything you want to do. I just realized we forgot to buy toilet paper. We’re down to one spare roll, so we really need to get some. These things just don’t happen at home where there is tons of room to store stuff! Good Grief!

Tomorrow we are off to Indiana! Brown County State Park in southern Indiana. Hopefully we’ll be able to visit with my friends Mike and Dayna in a few days.

August 6th, Canoeing and Driving to St. Louis

Sunday, August 6, 2006
Day 42
Canoeing the Eleven Point River and Drive to St. Louis, MO – KOA

This morning we got up early and went canoeing on the Eleven Point River. We did the “shortest” canoe trip, and it lasted roughly two hours. That was enough for us with the children. We all fit into one canoe and I insisted on being in the back to “steer”. It was one of the easiest canoe trip as far a paddling goes, because the river really flows in places so you don’t really need to paddle much, only really to steer. We did paddle a bit, especially in the slow spots. We saw lots of turtles, ducks, herons, and other birds. We saw some squirrels, a weasel, fish jumping and baby crayfish all over the bottom where we ended.

Rod was happy because there was a lot of shade and I enjoyed the peace and quiet. There was mist rising from the water since it was still early and had been quite cool the night before. In some places it was so thick it was like a fog and you couldn’t really see. In other places it was non-existent. We brought no gear and no cameras. “We travel light.” There was one place we got stuck on a rock where I had to stick my foot out of the canoe to push us off. The river is rather shallow in many places at this time of year. There was another place where we got stuck because we thought it was the “end” and we were trying to get over to the bank, but the current was quite fast and we could not get over in time, we got turned around and stuck on a huge dead tree and some rocks. I could not get us off that rock and we were backwards in the swiftest current we had seen in the river. I really thought we were going over. I have NEVER tipped in a canoe in all the years I’ve been canoeing. But, then again, I’ve never really canoed in current either. Well, we all leaned left when I said, “lean left” because that was the only way to get off the stupid rock, and miraculously we all leaned correctly when we were suddenly freed of our entrapment and went flying out into the current. It was close, but we made it and didn’t tip. Seconds later we saw where we were supposed to go to get out.

All in all it was a beautiful canoe ride on the Eleven Point River. We only saw a few fishermen and some campers. There are no houses or building anywhere along this part of the river and it was so nice to not see any of those signs of humans. As soon as we got back to the campsite, we ate lunch, finished packing up camp and left. By noon we were “on the road again” and are now just on the western outskirts of St. Louis, MO. Tomorrow we are going into St. Louis to see the Gateway Arch and take a riverboat cruise on the Mississippi! Then we’ll be heading back east of the Mississippi once again and getting closer and closer to home.

August 5th, Drive to Greer, MO

Saturday, August 5, 2006
Day 41
Drive to Greer, Missouri

We saw more Baptist Churches than people today. There was at least one Baptist Church every 5 miles for a while today. We were driving through tiny town after tiny town in rural Arkansas. There were other churches too, we are definitely in the “Bible Belt” I think!

We arrived at “Richard’s Canoe Rental” in Greer Missouri, this is rural southern Missouri, and boy do I mean R-U-R-A-L… We are kind of scared to actually stay here. We are NOT staying for two nights, that’s for sure! The place sounded GREAT on the internet. Looked beautiful from the pictures and the description. But, the website is VERY misleading! The place is a total dump. The hook-ups don’t work, I mean there is something wrong with the electricity. Thankfully we have a special device that we hook to the plug-in that will protect against surges and tells us if there is a problem. Well, there is a problem, so we are not using their electricity. There could be reversed polarity or voltage on the ground wire. Don’t really know, but don’t want to find out either. The water works. The bathrooms are a nightmare, the worst I’ve ever seen and I won’t go near it! The people are strange too. But, we are going to get up early and canoe the Eleven Point River for a couple of hours. Then we are out of here and on the way to St. Louis. Rod would have kept driving tonight, but 10 hours in the car would have been a bit much.

I’d like to hike the trail to Greer Spring, but don’t know if I’ll get the chance. It’s a 1-2 hour hike and it is getting late, and it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to do it tomorrow. Oh well.

August 4th, Hot Springs National Park, AR

  


Friday, August 4, 2006
Day 40
Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas

It took me awhile, but I realized that I have been using the wrong abbreviation for Arkansas. I thought it was AK, it is actually AR. OOPS. Today we “did” Hot Springs National Park. Hot Springs is a city. Yes, an actual city with thousands of people. Not tens or hundred, but thousands. It was different to go to a National Park in the midst of a city. We had to find parking! We had to pay for parking. Although, if we were better at reading signs we could have found the free parking which we saw after the fact. Well, Rod saw the sign earlier, but we missed it when we needed it. Oh well, it only cost us one dollar for 4 hours so we really can’t complain.

The Hot Springs National Park is headquartered within an old bathhouse on “bathhouse row”. The building was very interesting, and so was learning about the source of the hot springs. No, the area is not volcanic, but rainwater seeps into the mountain and over a period of about 4000 years it seeps down lower and lower toward hotter and hotter rocks. Eventually it is pushed back upward through cracks in the rock, under pressure from all the other water above it. It comes up rather quickly and remains near 143 degrees Fahrenheit. This water contains various minerals and things that are dissolved, and it is very clean and pure. You can collect it from different fountains in the town. We did! We are bringing home about 2 gallons of hot springs water to “heal what ails ya”.

The hot water is too hot to bathe in, so it is cooled at two heat exchangers before being piped into the bathhouses. People still bathe in the water, but not at the old bathhouses, but there are spas in the city still. The fountains in town are mainly hot also, and that was interesting. While filling a water bottle I got “sprayed” with the hot water. It was really hot, but not hot enough to burn me in the spray. Now if I’d been sitting in it…ouch!

We spent about three hours touring around, including driving up the mountain on the scenic drive. Oh, and if anyone cares, this is the hometown of former President Bill Clinton. (Not my favorite guy, but still interesting.)

We went to Cracker Barrel for Dinner tonight. It was hard to find because all the streets around here seem to be either 7, 7S, 70, or 270. With various B’s or S’s added on for extra confusion. Anyway, we found it. We had to ASK at a gas station, how humiliating. But, we had been on the right track, we just hadn’t gone far enough before turning around. Oh well. It was good! We all love Cracker Barrel!

Tomorrow we are driving to Greer, MO. Maybe going canoeing on the Eleven Point river in a couple of days. Yeah!

August 3rd, Drive to Hot Springs AK

Thursday, August 3, 2006
Day 39
LONG drive to Hot Springs, AK

Today’s drive was WAY longer than any of us anticipated. We drove from Lake Thunderbird State Park in Oklahoma to Hot Springs in Arkansas. It took over 6 hours! Oklahoma needs to improve its section of interstate 40. It was bumpy and annoying, not to mention BORING. At least in Arkansas the road improved and the view was better. More hills and TREES! We haven’t seen trees in forever! Once we got on route 7 south toward Hot Springs, the view was nice in the Oachita National Forest. (Not sure if I spelled that correctly.) Nice view, but the road was so twisty and twiney with little indication of just how fast you should be taking the turns. Brianna even started feeling carsick for those last 60 miles.

We were going to stay at Gulpha Gorge Campground, part of the National Park, but it was SOOOOO incredible hot (102 degrees at 4 o’clock) that we couldn’t deal with no electricity for the air conditioner. We may have been able to use our generator, but usually they have severe restrictions on how long and when you can use the generator at the National Parks. So, we went to the KOA nearby instead. It is 7 times more expensive, but we needed the AC today. Now it is not only hot, it is more humid here as well, so we are really feeling it. It was nice to enjoy the pool today too.

So we are camping luxuriously for two nights… Tomorrow we are going to Hot Springs National Park and will drive around Hot Springs. This is the boyhood home of former President Bill Clinton. Not my favorite president, but still cool that we are in his hometown. Hopefully the kids will earn another badge tomorrow, and get their Passports stamped.

August 2nd, Lake Thunderbird State Park, OK

  

  


Wednesday, August 2, 2006
Day 38
Drive to Lake Thunderbird State Park, OK

We left Texas this morning and the weather was cool, but getting hotter than yesterday. By the time we crossed into Oklahoma it was in the low- to mid-90s. We stopped at the Route 66 Museum in Oklahoma. It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision, but it was worth it. It was inexpensive, only 8 dollars for all of us, and it was a very nice, small museum. We ate lunch in the parking lot (in the RV) before going in.

The reason we ended up deciding to stop was because in the side-view mirror, Rod could see that one of the moldings on the trailer was flapping in the breeze. It had come partially off and we needed to stick it back in. There were no rest areas nearby, so I noticed we were near this attraction, and it sounded good.

Next we drove through Oklahoma City. The road was horrible, and we felt like we were on a NYC road. We have also decided that people in this area of the country do not know how to merge properly. Also, the highways through Oklahoma City had a lot of interchanges that were NOT well marked. Suddenly lanes would become “exit only” lanes without much warning, there were splits that were not marked more than a few hundred feet ahead, as if you were supposed to know what lane to get in. At least in NY there is fair warning, like a mile or more before a split that it is coming up. At one point we had to move over one lane to the left and someone else decided to move over to the right immediately in front of us, even though we had our turn signal on for EVER. Well we missed them by inches, and I think my heart stopped momentarily.

Anyway, we drove to Lake Thunderbird State Park, in the southeast corner of the Oklahoma City limits. We did not know if it would be nice or not, and it is GREAT! The lake is huge. The campsites have full hookups available at reasonable prices. The pads are LEVEL with nice concrete picnic tables. We are right on the lake and we took Brownie swimming right away. She was sooooooo happy!

When we arrived at like 4:30 it was 102 degrees, but windy, which helps. It is now around 88 degrees at 9:30 at night! The water must have been around 85 degrees, with the most wonderful red silt for a beach! It was soft and NO ROCKS! We just layed in the water and built sand (silt) castles on the shore. Brownie was so happy to see water that she ran in as fast as her legs would take her and she was in for at least an hour. Running back and forth and swimming out in little circles was great exercise for her! We were the only people on this part of the beach and then some young boys came and were in our area. There were lots of boats and jet-skis. Nice place, I highly recommend it.

Thank God for the full hook-ups, because we would have died without the AC today and tonight. It has barely shut off and we have it set at 80 degrees. We even get TV stations on the antennae here, since we’re close to the city.

On the deer front: we saw 3 deer here in the park today, Rodney was in the trailer, so he missed it. But, we did not see deer in Texas at all, and in New Mexico we only saw 2 dead deer on the side of the road.

August 1st, Drive to Amarillo, TX

  


Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Day 37
Drive to Amarillo, TX

Today was an extremely pleasant day. We did not do anything spectacular or awe-inspiring, but we relaxed and didn’t drive too far. We were the last to leave the KOA in Tucumcari, 10 minutes before “check-out” time. We drove less than 150 miles to Amarillo, Texas. We are on Central Time again! Only one hour behind NY! We spent most of the day in the pool with the kids. I enjoyed it very much and so did they. They love having their dad in the pool with them, because he’ll throw them around in the water.

After swimming for hours we went out to dinner at a steak place. You have to have steak in Texas! Yummy! I am still stuffed and it’s like four hours later. I think I had a 16 ounce steak! “Texas Strip.” We even went for dessert – Strawberry Shortcake…

I washed the sheets from our bed because Brownie got them all dirty (again). And I washed the towels too, because they started to get that icky not-quite-dry smell. Sheldon and Brianna had fun on the playground tonight. It gets dark very late here, because we are again on the western edge of a time zone. It is weird to keep driving through time zones, because dawn and dusk times keep changing back and forth. But we are further south, so it doesn’t stay light quite as late as upstate NY.

On the way into Amarillo we stopped at the Cadillac Ranch, which is a roadside attraction. Some farmer “planted” ten Cadillacs in his farm field at a weird angle. They are all spray painted and graffiti covered, which is OK, and they look cool. We took a bunch of photos and I will again try to add the photo to this BLOG, but maybe not right now. I may do it in a few days, since I haven’t downloaded the photos to the laptop yet.

We have decided not to stay here to go to the Amusement Park, because it is just too expensive. We are changing are schedule (gasp!) and will head to Oklahoma tomorrow, a day ahead of our original plan. We may spend an extra day in Kentucky when we go to Mammoth Cave, because we realized that the Corvette Museum is in Bowling Green which is not far from Mammoth Cave! COOL-AIDE!

July 31st, Driving, driving, driving

Monday, July 31, 2006
Day 36
Drive to Tucumcari, NM

Well it certainly is difficult to believe that today is the last day of July. Wow! We are OFFICIALLY on the way home now, heading EAST. We got a call from our friends Sue and Tony today letting us know that their baby was born today! Welcome to the world little Joseph Anthony! Congratulations to mom and dad!

Today was a “driving” day. I drove from Grants, NM to Tucumcari, NM. We are getting close to Texas now. It was a cool day for most of the drive, cloudy and in the mid to upper-70s. There were some heavy downpours along the drive. The rain came down so hard a few times that you just couldn’t see, but it doesn’t last for more than two minutes, then you’re out of it. Weird desert storms! By the time we got near our destination, the Tucumcari KOA, it was HOT, 95 degrees, and slightly cloudy. We got gas a few exits before the Tucumcari exit, because we were really low on gas and then Rod drove the last few miles. Well, right after we got going on I-40 again, there was a trooper on the side of the road. Rod thought he was speeding, but he wasn’t, because the speed limit is 75 here, so that was fine. (We were going 77 mph.) Anyway, a few seconds later the trucks in front of us in both lanes looked as if they were stopping. We slowed down very fast because they were indeed stopping. There was another tractor-trailer in the grassy median facing us. He had just had a blowout in the West-bound side of the highway, had lost control, driven through the grassy median, entered the East-bound side of the highway, dragging a bunch of grass with him, and ended up coming to a stop in the median. Thank GOD no one was in the lane when he entered it. One trucker stopped and the other kept on going. We put on our hazards so people behind us would see that we were going extremely slow. The guy looked OK, and we continued on our way as we saw the Trooper pulling up behind us. Pretty scary stuff! Note to self: always keep both hands on the wheel when driving 75 mph and towing over 7000 pounds!

The KOA is very nice and we are not doing any site seeing today or tomorrow. We enjoyed the pool here and I did laundry. (Not quite as enjoyable as the pool.) Yesterday, at Wal-Mart, Sheldon spent the $20.00 that Aunt Sharri and Uncle Jim gave him for his birthday. He got himself a new LightSaber (Obi-Wan’s) and he is enjoying it thoroughly.

Tomorrow we are off to Amarillo, Texas. It’ll be another driving day, but we might stay there for an extra day just to hang out and relax. Maybe go to a “non-educational” amusement park…

As I am writing this I am watching the news. Today Albuquerque had major flooding. We must have just missed it, because we drove right through it.