Ashland, NE
Sorry...got busy with family things. First things first, dad came home from the hospital late today (Tuesday) - around 5:30 pm. They finally got his heart back to a normal beat and then discharged him. We rescheduled our family photo for Wednesday morning. So, our day was filled with sleeping, playing Wii with cousins (nieces and nephews), eating, swimming in Grandma's pool, and getting updates from the hospital on how Grandpa was doing. Our van isn't done but should be done in the morning.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
July 13
Ashland, NE
Today was an off-trip day as we did nothing but hang around my parents house with sisters (3), brother-in-laws (3), nieces (5) and nephews (5) - plus Lisa, me and our kids. We went to Famous Dave's BBQ for lunch and had a real Swiss fondue dinner when our family friend, Sam - a real Swiss native, came over and made fondue for our family. Other than that, the ladies went shopping, we all played a lot of Wii, the kids went swimming several times, we watched children (ages of this group are 17, 16, 16, 15, 14, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 7, 3, 2 and 1), and just enjoyed being with each other. I got our van into the shop and they should get parts tomorrow so by Tuesday evening we should have it back. No pictures to show - sorry.
Please pray for my dad. He had gotten home from the hospital on Sunday from his knee replacement surgery and was still in a fair amount of pain. At his physical therapy today, he started to feel faint and so they took him back to the ER to be checked out. Well, he's back in the hospital because his blood pressure is up and down and up again. We are praying it is nothing major but that means he's not here (and the grandkids can't be there) and will probably miss our family photo on Tuesday.
Today was an off-trip day as we did nothing but hang around my parents house with sisters (3), brother-in-laws (3), nieces (5) and nephews (5) - plus Lisa, me and our kids. We went to Famous Dave's BBQ for lunch and had a real Swiss fondue dinner when our family friend, Sam - a real Swiss native, came over and made fondue for our family. Other than that, the ladies went shopping, we all played a lot of Wii, the kids went swimming several times, we watched children (ages of this group are 17, 16, 16, 15, 14, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 7, 3, 2 and 1), and just enjoyed being with each other. I got our van into the shop and they should get parts tomorrow so by Tuesday evening we should have it back. No pictures to show - sorry.
Please pray for my dad. He had gotten home from the hospital on Sunday from his knee replacement surgery and was still in a fair amount of pain. At his physical therapy today, he started to feel faint and so they took him back to the ER to be checked out. Well, he's back in the hospital because his blood pressure is up and down and up again. We are praying it is nothing major but that means he's not here (and the grandkids can't be there) and will probably miss our family photo on Tuesday.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
July 12
Oacoma, SD to Ashland, NE
We started the day with an attempt to repatch our leaking gas line one last time so we could fill up and make it to Nebraska. It didn't really work well but we got filled up and on our way just before the rain started. Our first stop was only about 4 miles down the road - a Lewis and Clark exhibit at the rest area along I-90. They had some great information and displays including a replica of the keelboat that they used. It was impressive and enjoyable for the kids.
Getting back on the interstate, we headed about an hour east to Mitchell, SD. Along the way we had our morning Bible hour - Acts 9-17. We arrived in Mitchell and went to the Corn Palace. It's a large building, whose chief purpose now seems to be to sell souvenirs, that is decorated with corn husks throughout the season in a variety of pictures. The kids enjoyed it, but then again they had not met a souvenir shop they didn't like.
With concerns for our gas situation, we decided to go from there to Grandma and Grandpa's instead of taking the diversion into Minnesota. So, after driving 353 miles for the day, and driving through South Dakota, Iowa and into Nebraska, and passing the 6000 miles mark for the trip (about 3 miles from Grandma and Grandpa's) we arrived at their house in Nebraska.
So, now we have a couple of days with family in Nebraska before we head out again. We are grateful for the time with family and the time to rest. It's been a good trip but I think everyone is looking to some more sleep and relaxing time. Also, I take the van into the shop tomorrow morning to have the gas line fixed and a once over to make sure we are ready for the trip home.
We started the day with an attempt to repatch our leaking gas line one last time so we could fill up and make it to Nebraska. It didn't really work well but we got filled up and on our way just before the rain started. Our first stop was only about 4 miles down the road - a Lewis and Clark exhibit at the rest area along I-90. They had some great information and displays including a replica of the keelboat that they used. It was impressive and enjoyable for the kids.
Getting back on the interstate, we headed about an hour east to Mitchell, SD. Along the way we had our morning Bible hour - Acts 9-17. We arrived in Mitchell and went to the Corn Palace. It's a large building, whose chief purpose now seems to be to sell souvenirs, that is decorated with corn husks throughout the season in a variety of pictures. The kids enjoyed it, but then again they had not met a souvenir shop they didn't like.
With concerns for our gas situation, we decided to go from there to Grandma and Grandpa's instead of taking the diversion into Minnesota. So, after driving 353 miles for the day, and driving through South Dakota, Iowa and into Nebraska, and passing the 6000 miles mark for the trip (about 3 miles from Grandma and Grandpa's) we arrived at their house in Nebraska.
So, now we have a couple of days with family in Nebraska before we head out again. We are grateful for the time with family and the time to rest. It's been a good trip but I think everyone is looking to some more sleep and relaxing time. Also, I take the van into the shop tomorrow morning to have the gas line fixed and a once over to make sure we are ready for the trip home.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
July 11
Rapid City, SD to Oacoma, SD
We got out of our hotel at 7:00 am and got to Mt. Rushmore before 7:40am - we were one of the first dozen people in the park. Our accomplishment was partly due to the time, partly due to that fact that there had been severe thunderstorms that morning with continued light rain, and partly because there was some heavy fog or low lying clouds passing over the carved faces. We took the time to walk around the .6 mile President's Trail as the rain had finished and by the time we got back, the sun was coming out. We finished our visit to Mt. Rushmore with a visit, of course, to the Gift Shop.
From Mt. Rushmore, we went down into Keystone where Lisa and I had planned an extra "surprise" for the kids. We took them to Rushmore Tramway (www.rushmorealpineslide.com) which has a ski lift to an adjacent hill, from which you get a unique perspective on Mt. Rushmore, and an Alpine slide back down. You sit in a little cart, controlling the speed of your own descent, and race down the mountain in a bobsled type track. It was a blast!
We then made an unplanned stop at Ft. Hayes - a tourist attraction just south of Rapid City. We stopped because it was FREE (that's me) and because they advertised that they had some of the props from "Dances with Wolves." What a surprise when we can across the Ft. Hayes command house used in the movies. We even got to stand on the spot Kevin Costner did when receiving his orders to go west.
Leaving the Mt. Rushmore area, we headed east on I-90 for our next destination - Wall Drug. For those of you not familiar with it, it's kind of hard to explain Wall Drug. It's part souvenir store, part restaurant, part western museum, part playground, part everything. We had lunch there including a buffalo burger for everyone to share. Having seen the buffalo a couple of days earlier, we didn't really enjoy it even though we thought it tasted okay! We then spent about an hour looking around the various stores that are a part of Wall Drug.
Out back, Wall Drug has an area setup for families to take pictures of their kids in a variety of western situations. As always, Jariah is our clown and very photogenic! Everyone had a great time. We then drove the final 2 hours to our hotel for the night. Our Bible Hour today was Acts 1-8. Our in-car movie was National Treasure 1. We only drove 266 miles today. We've been swimming tonight and are looking forward to getting to Grandma and Grandpa Kroll's tomorrow afternoon (after visiting a Lewis & Clark exhibit, the Corn Palace and possibly a short trip into Minnesota).
We got out of our hotel at 7:00 am and got to Mt. Rushmore before 7:40am - we were one of the first dozen people in the park. Our accomplishment was partly due to the time, partly due to that fact that there had been severe thunderstorms that morning with continued light rain, and partly because there was some heavy fog or low lying clouds passing over the carved faces. We took the time to walk around the .6 mile President's Trail as the rain had finished and by the time we got back, the sun was coming out. We finished our visit to Mt. Rushmore with a visit, of course, to the Gift Shop.
From Mt. Rushmore, we went down into Keystone where Lisa and I had planned an extra "surprise" for the kids. We took them to Rushmore Tramway (www.rushmorealpineslide.com) which has a ski lift to an adjacent hill, from which you get a unique perspective on Mt. Rushmore, and an Alpine slide back down. You sit in a little cart, controlling the speed of your own descent, and race down the mountain in a bobsled type track. It was a blast!
We then made an unplanned stop at Ft. Hayes - a tourist attraction just south of Rapid City. We stopped because it was FREE (that's me) and because they advertised that they had some of the props from "Dances with Wolves." What a surprise when we can across the Ft. Hayes command house used in the movies. We even got to stand on the spot Kevin Costner did when receiving his orders to go west.
Leaving the Mt. Rushmore area, we headed east on I-90 for our next destination - Wall Drug. For those of you not familiar with it, it's kind of hard to explain Wall Drug. It's part souvenir store, part restaurant, part western museum, part playground, part everything. We had lunch there including a buffalo burger for everyone to share. Having seen the buffalo a couple of days earlier, we didn't really enjoy it even though we thought it tasted okay! We then spent about an hour looking around the various stores that are a part of Wall Drug.
Out back, Wall Drug has an area setup for families to take pictures of their kids in a variety of western situations. As always, Jariah is our clown and very photogenic! Everyone had a great time. We then drove the final 2 hours to our hotel for the night. Our Bible Hour today was Acts 1-8. Our in-car movie was National Treasure 1. We only drove 266 miles today. We've been swimming tonight and are looking forward to getting to Grandma and Grandpa Kroll's tomorrow afternoon (after visiting a Lewis & Clark exhibit, the Corn Palace and possibly a short trip into Minnesota).
July 10
Billings, MT to Rapid City, SD
We started our day with a good breakfast at our Quality Inn hotel in Billings before heading out for the hour drive to Little Big Horn. Along the way, we had our Bible Hour of John 12-21. We got to the Monument at 8:30am and spent about90 minutes at the monument and a shop in the area. We saw the spot Custer fell as well as many other interesting sites.
Jariah even found his Indian namesake listed among the Native Americans who perished in the battle. Speaking of Jariah, the boys filled out a historical survey and then were each sworn in as Junior Rangers - complete with badges! It is a great program in the National Parks and each park is a little different in what is required and what badge they get.
From there, we traveled east and south back into Wyoming and to Devil's Tower. What an awesome site! We had gotten our lunch (Subway) right before getting to the park so when we got there we were ready for a walk. We took the 1.3 mile trail around the base of the mountain and got some wonderful pictures and a better understanding of what the mountain is really like.
Before coming on the trip, we had the kids watch "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" so they would have some idea of what the mountain was like. As good as the movie was, we were all still in awe when we were that close to it. We climbed up on some rocks near the base to get a good picture with the kids. From Devil's Tower we were going to go to Bell Fourche (the geographical center of the U.S.) but decided (on a whim) to go through Deadwood instead. What a mistake! If you are not really looking to gamble or drink or have more than a little time to spare (all parking is outside of town and you need to walk in or wait for and ride the trolley), it's not for you, and it wasn't for us.
We finally got to Rapid City, our destination for the evening and checked into our hotel. After some swimming, we got some dinner and headed to Mt. Rushmore for their evening program of lighting the memorial. It was very good and we can't wait to go back in the morning. Well, it's 11:29pm (our time) and I need to be up at 5:30am so I guess that's it for today. Thanks for reading and following our travels and for the many great comments and emails about the blog. Also, thank you all who sent birthday wishes to Jedi - I read them all to him and he really enjoyed them all!
We started our day with a good breakfast at our Quality Inn hotel in Billings before heading out for the hour drive to Little Big Horn. Along the way, we had our Bible Hour of John 12-21. We got to the Monument at 8:30am and spent about90 minutes at the monument and a shop in the area. We saw the spot Custer fell as well as many other interesting sites.
Jariah even found his Indian namesake listed among the Native Americans who perished in the battle. Speaking of Jariah, the boys filled out a historical survey and then were each sworn in as Junior Rangers - complete with badges! It is a great program in the National Parks and each park is a little different in what is required and what badge they get.
From there, we traveled east and south back into Wyoming and to Devil's Tower. What an awesome site! We had gotten our lunch (Subway) right before getting to the park so when we got there we were ready for a walk. We took the 1.3 mile trail around the base of the mountain and got some wonderful pictures and a better understanding of what the mountain is really like.
Before coming on the trip, we had the kids watch "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" so they would have some idea of what the mountain was like. As good as the movie was, we were all still in awe when we were that close to it. We climbed up on some rocks near the base to get a good picture with the kids. From Devil's Tower we were going to go to Bell Fourche (the geographical center of the U.S.) but decided (on a whim) to go through Deadwood instead. What a mistake! If you are not really looking to gamble or drink or have more than a little time to spare (all parking is outside of town and you need to walk in or wait for and ride the trolley), it's not for you, and it wasn't for us.
We finally got to Rapid City, our destination for the evening and checked into our hotel. After some swimming, we got some dinner and headed to Mt. Rushmore for their evening program of lighting the memorial. It was very good and we can't wait to go back in the morning. Well, it's 11:29pm (our time) and I need to be up at 5:30am so I guess that's it for today. Thanks for reading and following our travels and for the many great comments and emails about the blog. Also, thank you all who sent birthday wishes to Jedi - I read them all to him and he really enjoyed them all!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
July 9
Dubois, WY to Billings, MT
It seems hard to believe but we started our 10th day of the trip this morning. It's been a really good trip (except for the tire blowout) and we are still enjoying the trip and each other! We started out just before 7:00am this morning for our 393 miles of driving for the day. Our morning Bible hour was John 5-12. We drove to Yellowstone National Park through the southern entrance which comes through Grand Teton National Park. We didn't originally have the Grand Tetons on our itinerary but are so glad we changed our itinerary to include them.
The only negative to our trip into Yellowstone was the 6 miles of single road construction just before the park and it's half hour delay. We finally got into the park and headed immediately for Old Faithful. It took about an hour to get there from the south entrance and we didn't stop anywhere on the way because we didn't want to miss an eruption. They list the eruption times at the Visitor Center at Old Faithful (which doesn't help until you get there) and by phone call (but there is limited to no service in the park).
We go to Old Faithful at 10:37 and the next eruption was listed as being within 10 minutes of 10:49. What great timing! The eruption happened around 10:52. It was great - we loved it, the crowd loved, God is great! We enjoyed the 3+ minute eruption and then waited for the crowd to thin out before hitting the Visitor Center (and bathrooms) and a couple of gift shops in the area. From there, we went back towards the south entrance and stopped at the Kepler Cascades. We were planning on going out of the park through the North entrance but our GPS wanted us to go out through the East entrance. Are we glad we didn't listen to our GPS!
Soon after passing the East entrance, we came across 5 bison grazing alongside the road. We had seen 1 bison earlier but he was far from the road and barely visible. These 5 were up close and active. We stopped and took some pictures and then headed on the road. We hoped to find another bison - 7 bison for 7 people in our family. Shortly, we came across the guy in the picture with the kids. He was sitting at one of the rest areas in the park and we stood about 15 feet from him. 
In all, we saw about 80 bison in the Park and about 40-60 more on farms right outside of the park. Most were adults but Jordan found this little guy he could hold in his hand! From the Park, we travelled to Billings, MT. We had dinner at Fuddrucker's (a restaurant Lisa and I went to when we were dating). Another great day of traveling and enjoying our family together!Tomorrow is Jedi's birthday - hard to believe that our baby will be 8. I hope our on-the-road celebration is one he enjoys!
July 8
Colorado Springs, CO to Dubois, WY
Today was a long day of driving - 554 miles and about 480 of that after lunch. We started the day in Colorado Springs and left our hotel around 7:30am heading to Denver. Our Bible Hour was Luke 22 to John 4. We had two stops in Denver to look at, the Denver Mint and Casa Bonita. I had looked into the Denver Mint at the beginning of our planning for the trip but forgot to look again once our dates and itinerary was set. They offer a free tour but you MUST make reservations. I was reminded of this last night in my nightly prep for the next day. They said they do take walk-ups but a limited number.
In blind faith or desperate hope, we headed to the Mint in the attempt to get in the 9:00am tour as we had planned. They would add us to the next available tour - at noon! So, we went to the gift shop and took a couple pictures of the outside of the Mint. Way to go Dad in ruining our trip to the Mint!
So with a little extra time, we went to Casa Bonita to make sure we were there when they opened. We got there at 9:47am. They open at 11:00am. We wasted some time in the "Everything $1" store and the Family Dollar store in the plaza before heading to the restaurant. Casa Bonita is a Mexican restaurant where the food is only part of the experience. They have a 30-foot waterfall in the restaurant and a cliff diver (see the picture of him doing a handstand dive) who regularly comes out and dives for your entertainment. As well there are gunfights, and escaped gorilla, an arcade, a gift shop, a haunted tunnel and much more to do. We stayed 2 hours!
We then got on the road for Wyoming. If you are looking to go to the Grand Tetons or to Yellowstone from Denver, I highly recommend the I-80/287 route through Dubois, WY. The US-287 road is only 1 lane each way but it's 65 the whole way, except for 3 or 4 towns. You feel like you are driving through "Dances with Wolves!" Along the way we saw a sign for Sacajawea's grave and pulled off to find it only about 4 miles from the road. What an unexpected treat! If you are ever in Dubois, WY, the Super 8 motel is very nice and Chandler's Restaurant (next door) is a wonderful local restaurant with great food and a wonderful staff.
Well, everyone else is in bed except me. It's 11:01pm local time and we need to be up at 5:30am to begin our trek to Yellowstone. Thanks for reading!
Today was a long day of driving - 554 miles and about 480 of that after lunch. We started the day in Colorado Springs and left our hotel around 7:30am heading to Denver. Our Bible Hour was Luke 22 to John 4. We had two stops in Denver to look at, the Denver Mint and Casa Bonita. I had looked into the Denver Mint at the beginning of our planning for the trip but forgot to look again once our dates and itinerary was set. They offer a free tour but you MUST make reservations. I was reminded of this last night in my nightly prep for the next day. They said they do take walk-ups but a limited number.In blind faith or desperate hope, we headed to the Mint in the attempt to get in the 9:00am tour as we had planned. They would add us to the next available tour - at noon! So, we went to the gift shop and took a couple pictures of the outside of the Mint. Way to go Dad in ruining our trip to the Mint!
So with a little extra time, we went to Casa Bonita to make sure we were there when they opened. We got there at 9:47am. They open at 11:00am. We wasted some time in the "Everything $1" store and the Family Dollar store in the plaza before heading to the restaurant. Casa Bonita is a Mexican restaurant where the food is only part of the experience. They have a 30-foot waterfall in the restaurant and a cliff diver (see the picture of him doing a handstand dive) who regularly comes out and dives for your entertainment. As well there are gunfights, and escaped gorilla, an arcade, a gift shop, a haunted tunnel and much more to do. We stayed 2 hours!
We then got on the road for Wyoming. If you are looking to go to the Grand Tetons or to Yellowstone from Denver, I highly recommend the I-80/287 route through Dubois, WY. The US-287 road is only 1 lane each way but it's 65 the whole way, except for 3 or 4 towns. You feel like you are driving through "Dances with Wolves!" Along the way we saw a sign for Sacajawea's grave and pulled off to find it only about 4 miles from the road. What an unexpected treat! If you are ever in Dubois, WY, the Super 8 motel is very nice and Chandler's Restaurant (next door) is a wonderful local restaurant with great food and a wonderful staff.Well, everyone else is in bed except me. It's 11:01pm local time and we need to be up at 5:30am to begin our trek to Yellowstone. Thanks for reading!
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