*Sidenote – some unexpected medical issues have caused this delay in finishing out the blog for our trip* This morning, we overslept. As I bolted up in bed, I knew that we were late. Jimmy had set the alarm for 6:26 p.m., instead of 6:26 a.m. Oh boy! We rushed out the door because we had a two hour and twenty-minute drive to meet Jimmy’s parents at The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. The light drizzle turned into a harder…
After two long days of traveling, it was nice to stay put in our friend’s house. Jimmy and I even had our own room – apart from the kids. What a treat! After staying up until midnight to catch up with our friends, my fishing-obsessed husband got up at 5 a.m. for the first of two fishing trips for the day. Our friend, George, has a boat but it can only legally hold 4-5 people. They would take Nate and…
This is going to be short. Today, we drove and drove and drove… We had arrived in Des Moines around 3 a.m. and left the hotel this morning at 7 a.m. after scarfing down breakfast. We had a ten-hour drive, not counting in any bathroom or food stops or the hour time change we anticipated. It was going to be a long day in the van. Like I said in my earlier blog, we knew these two long days of…
I purposefully chose The Powder House Lodge in Keystone, South Dakota because it was a 10-minute drive away from Mt. Rushmore. On the way to the hotel yesterday, we had to call and let them know we’d be arriving after office hours. They left the keys on the office door in an envelope with our name on it. This was certainly not a chain hotel. It was raining when we arrived and raining when we woke up this morning. A…
At 3 a.m., I woke up to rain drops slowly hitting the tent. Pretty quickly, the drops came faster and faster, turning into a pouring rain. It was cold too – a low of 38 degrees was predicted. But I had jeans and sweatpants on my lower half, four layers on my upper half, and a winter hat. I was comfortable. I fell back asleep in my sleeping bag until Luke and Nate woke us up suddenly at 4 a.m….
We woke up today in Rexburg, Idaho at 8:55 a.m. The hotel breakfast ended at 9 a.m. Jimmy and I used our hands to smooth out our hair and hurried to the hotel lobby. The kids followed us a few minutes later. The young lady in charge of breakfast was cleaning up and putting everything away. When we explained that we’d gotten in last night at 3 a.m., she gladly turned the waffle makers back on and agreed to extend…
The boys had set up their rods last night in preparation for an early morning fishing excursion. As much as I wanted to go to watch the action, I decided to stay back at the hotel to get some rest. Emma Grace had no desire to watch the action, she just wanted to sleep in. Jimmy and the boys headed to Lake Baron, about 20 minutes from our hotel in South Lake Tahoe. It was the spot where the Tahoe…
I woke up in the tent at 6:45 a.m. to the smell of charcoal. Someone was up early cooking breakfast – overachiever! But I do love the smell of a charcoal fire. Today, our goal was to make it to Lake Tahoe. This is Seth’s pick for our trip. He wanted to fish at Lake Tahoe. Did I mention that Nate did get a chance to fish at Yosemite? Fishing, not catching. We didn’t let “fishilitus” set in. What doctor…
We woke up in Merced, CA, NOT at the Motel 6 thankfully. Jimmy had misplaced his cell phone sometime on our drive from San Francisco last night. This morning as he added more ice to the cooler, he found his phone – packed in the ice! Oh boy – never a dull moment around here. We’ll just have to thaw it out and see what happens. We had a two-hour drive from Merced to Yosemite. Jimmy and I quickly got…
We woke up at the Rodeway Inn on the outskirts of San Francisco. It was the worst hotel of our trip (not as clean, no wi-fi) even though it cost $189 for the night. I’m sure this is a deal for San Francisco. Thankfully, the night before I was able to do a load of laundry in an oversized washer and dryer at local laundromat. Emma Grace got an education in laundromats – it was fun to work together. LaunderLand…