Take 90 East or West?

We left early as rain was on the way, found a Dunkin Doughnuts for coffee (very happy) and headed East.  Our big stop was at a camper place in New York to find out about replacing our tire, but instead we toured giant, new campers and looked at the kind that have hard tops and slide out canvas beds which sometime we may consider.  The girls wanted every camper they saw and Charlie kept crawling into all the tub/showers trying to take a bath.  (poor kid has been camping too long)

We drove away happy with our trusty camper of almost 10 years thinking that it was still our best purchase ever! 

We killed the day with Harry Potter, we are now on the 7th book and it made much of today's drive fly by like it has done for the rest of the country.  We are all hooked! 

At many points during the drive Greg asked if he should go 90 East or 90 West, he could go another month on the road, he didn't want to go home.   Kelly was with him.  Charlie wanted to go home and get his bike helmet with the fishes which we told him was in the shed.  Katie wanted to go home and see all the Learys.  I was eager to get home and see Murphy and Casey as it was the longest we'd ever left them for!

We got home and it was a great feeling to be in our own house again!  Kelly who stayed here while we were away left it spotless and her amazing boyfriend even mowed the lawn!!  It was a treat  to come home to!  To top it off we had dinner with the Leary family (or neighbors) and got to share all the stories of our adventures!  Murphy and Casey were also very happy to see us!

Saloon Girls in 1880 town- one of their highlights!

Kelly at the rodeo riding a real bull in Cody, WY

Dad & Charlie seeing the geysers in Yellowstone!

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Katie in Los Alamos

What a trip, Greg did an amazing job in the planning & execution including driving almost 6,800 miles!
Good to be home but bittersweet to have our adventure behind us, I guess we'll just have to go back!  Thanks for reading! 
Elaine, Greg, Kelly, Katie & Charlie

We Discover Presque Isle ^& Roll on to Syracuse

We had meant to stay at a campground right by Presque Isle but the lady told us it was filling up due to a festival over the weekend called discover Presque Isle.  We wanted to see what the hype was about so after we packed up we drove to Presque Isle.  It was really a neat place, we saw people driving little beach jalopy bicycles that you could rent, a neat Coast Guard base and some very cool houseboats moored near the Coast Guard base.  The girls decided we need to buy a houseboat!

We can't resist and stop to rent one of the beach bikes.  Charlie gets to ride in the seat in front and the girls get to help pedal.  They went from wanting to buy on of the bikes to being happy to turn the bike in by the time about an hour had passed.  They were entertaining too when it was their turn to drive, Katie announced that she wouldn't be getting her license anytime soon and we all agreed!  Charlie was devastated when he had to turn in his bike helmet, then he fell alseep before we drove off the island!  No photos of the bike but I do have some video of the crazy drivers!

We rolled on to Syracuse and meant to make it as far as Onieda, NY where we found a cool campround on the way out.  However, as we were rolling into Syracuse, we got a flat tire on the camper which Greg was able to change.  So we headed for pasta in downtown Syracuse.  Found a nice place and all had a good meal, the girls were wound up on the way out and were tangoing in the street while we walked to our car.

We ended up camping at Green Lake State Park, we set up late & crawled into our beds, happy to call it a night!

A Night by Lake Erie

We leave our nice campground after a good breakfast of french toast & sausage cooked by Dad.  Then head for PA.  Our lunch stop turns out to be very cool, we stop at Cuyahoga National Park and the girls earn one more Junior Ranger badge.  Here is their total Junior Ranger tally:

1. Badlands National Park (still have to mail in book we completed after center closed for the day)
2. Little Big Horn
3. Yellowstone
4. Grand Tetons
5. Museum of Western Expansion/St. Louis Arch
6. Cuyahoga National Park

They are very proud of their badges and they really did learn alot too, they were always pointing out things to us!

We had a fabulous picnic at this cool lodge in Cuyahoga Valley Park.  Their was a huge field next to it and the kids were running around afterward swinging Charlie around, they all loved it!

We get to our campground called Camp Eriez, we get a huge, shaded pull through site.  Dad makes our store run and Mom and the kids go to the Lake.  The campground is huge and we hike down to the water and have fun seeing the little waterfall and skipping rocks in the lake.  Katie is very excited to skip some.  Kelly finds wild raspberries on the trail and Charlie and Katie eat all that Mom picks and still want more!  We head up for a nice dinner, Dad is inspired and even attempts dessert- black forest cake in the dutch overn.  It is incredible and we share some with a  very nice couple that invited us to join them at their fire.  We have a great night trading Yellowstone storied and have fun making new friends.  The girls decide that people at this campground are the friendliest ever!



Louisville & On to Ohio!

It is a super hot packout at the campground so we have motivation to hurry!  We head for downtown Louisville to the Louisville Slugger Factory.  Once inside we are able to "hold a piece of history" and once the kids put on batting gloves they get to hold a bat of their choice... they all choose to hold David Ortiz's 2004 bat.  It's pretty heavy for Charlie but he is not to be denied!

We like heading through the factory and Charlie is on cloud 9 when they give him a little baseball bat at the very end!  We then head to the kids batting t and Charlie gets to practice.  We all head to the cages.   I takes some fast pitch softball swings with a nice aluminum bat, the girls have some success at slow pitch and finally Greg uses Dustin Pedrioa's (spelling?) bat to take some baseball pitches.  A very cool stop for everyone!

We drive by Churchill Downs and see the outside including the Barbaro statue, but its too hot and Mom is desperate to start heading NORTH! 

We camp in Central Ohio at a very nice RV park called Cross Creek Camping Resort.  It was very nice, we had a great dinner of fish tacos and a fire to use up the last of our wood from Yellowstone (we'd drug it far enough!)  The pool was very refreshing and Charlie loved riding his bike everywhere on the paved roads inside the park.  I felt like our site was so nice we could have been in a "Go Rving" commercial, especially when the kids were sitting by the fire eating marshmallows. (it turns out Charlie is quite a marshmallow junkie!)  It is a gorgeous, cool night and the stars are amazing.

The Arch!

Greg and the girls get up early and go for a swim before Charlie and I wake up.  They come back to the room energized for the day.  We head for the St. Louis arch and have a fabulous ride in.  We find parking and get some tickets.  We finally find some drinkable coffee inside the visitors center...we do miss the Dunkin Doughnuts on every corner back in Boston!

We head to the top of the arch in these little cars...the top has an amazing view but you can feel it moving! 

This is Charlie's view from the top of the arch.

We head on to the Western edge of Indiana where we set up camp and head into Louisville to catch a minor league baseball game, the Louisville Bats.  We all have a good time, Charlie loves the mascot who is Buddy the Bat, but Charlie calls him "My Buddy".  We see the home team win which is always fun!

We head back to our little campground and listen to chicken trucks coming across the little bridge by the river next to the campground all night long...turns out there is a Purdue plant very close.  The air smells like the county fair! I stay up and start the laundry and make a late night grocery store run so we have some provisions in our cooler again!

Missouri Sports Hall of Fame

It is blazing hot so stops must be air conditioned!  We find a cool spot, the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.  There, Charlie likes hitting the golf ball into the hole, Greg likes the football throwing game, the girls like the race car driving game and being the sportscaster where you read the broadcast.  Katie says "The Cobb" when she reads it, Greg says"Try Cobb",  Elaine pronounces it correctly as Ty Cobb, but is way ahead of the actual movement in the video...we all have a good laugh!

Here is the car racing game. 

We drive through some rain & see many rainbows, even a double one.  However what cracks us up was at one point when we pass a sign and it looks like the sign might be the "pot of gold at the end of the rainbow"...We attempted to catch the moment, zoom in &.enjoy!

We stay on the western side of St. Louis that night so we can get out early and head for the arch.  We stay at some big hotel/convention place and have fun exploring the grounds at night.

Oklahoma City

Charlie was happy as we left Los Alamos, a group of firefighters stopped at the bagel place in town.  They had four wheelers loaded on their trucks.  Charlie got out of our truck wearing his firefighter hat and pointing at the four wheelers... they loved him!

We drive through the hottest weather, it registers about 106 most of the day.  We only make a few stops because it is just too hot.  We stopped at one rest area that went over the highway and the Air Conditioners were broken.  What amazed us was that people were still sitting in there eating... it was sweltering in there!  Getting into the car my leg touches the chrome on the step and I scream....super hot!

We had to stop and see the big Texan that a few people had told Greg about...it is a giant steak you can eat- we looked for pictures of Adam Richmond eating it (Man vs. Food) but didn't see that he'd been there.

We get a hotel in Oklahoma City downtown at night and Greg has to figure out how to park the camper in downtown!  (luckily the hotel parking guy directs him).  Katie is all loopy in the hotel and since we've been listening to Harry Potter nonstop she says she is going to "Nick Food", like Ron does.  She gets Charlie saying it as well.  Luckily we got upgraded to the club level or whatever and there is some food out to "nick".  So we get some apples and get everyone finally settled down...it was about 100 degrees still when we were checking in at about 9pm!

Los Alamos

We spend a nice day with friends in Los Alamos, we tour the free science museum that explains alot about Nukes.  The kids have fun checking out playgrounds.  We then have a wonderful dinner made by Susan and have a great time catching up and hearing about the O'Leary's move from NC to Santa Fe.  They are amazing hosts considering they just got their household goods delivered the same week!! 
Here is a picture of all the kids at the park in Los Alamos.  Charlie loves the little dog Lola and also loves Angie's scooter. 

We head out, sad to leave our friends and I'm dreading the heat that we have to drive through, we heard that the pavement has buckled in Oklahoma on the highway because it is so hot!

Santa Fe!

I got sick enroute Los Alamos...however by noon the next day I was doing ok and we drove to Santa Fe for the day.  We first saw the Miraculous Staircase which was our favorite story in a Christmas book that we read every year.  It was neat to see it up close and our woodworker (Greg) was very impressed by the craftsmanship.

We then toured the New Mexico statehouse and ended up talking to two gentlemen in the hallway that were the #3 &  #4 most senior guys in the NM House.  They gave us an amazing tour and got the keys to the floor so the kids could take pictures in the big chair.  On the way out we even met the actual speaker of the house that owns the chair the kids were sitting in...Greg was most impressed by his turquoise rock/bolo tie.  (sorry no picture)

Los Alamos or Bust....by way of Taos!

We leave Colorado Springs planning to visit our friends the O'Learys in Los Alamos.  Greg is now feeling sick on the ride so I drive most of the way (I haven't really driven the entire trip).  We make it as far as Taos and Greg is not doing well, so we get a hotel and drop him off and the kids and I hit the pool then go exploring.

We have a great dinner and enjoy checking out the square.  In the night Katie gets sick and in the morning Kelly joins her.  Charlie and I hit the toy store and wait for everyone to check out of the hotel..The girls are so sick we can't go anywhere.  We luckily get to spend the day & night in the O'Leary's incredible vacation home which really is amazing.  (it turns out it was across the street from the hotel we went to last night!).

We rest & take Charlie to the amazing toystore that has a big backyard play area where he spends a few hours in the afternoon.  The girls come see it right before closing but they still aren't feeling full of energy.  We eat plain pasta & go to bed early hoping everyone will be back to full strength in the morning!

Colorado Springs!

We spend a few days in paradise according to Kelly & Katie, they would stay with the Walsh girls forever!  We even stay an extra day because Charlie gets a stomach bug, we joke that the girls paid him so they could stay longer.  Mark & Sarah are great hosts and they take us to Manitou Springs which the kids love, then to Garden of the Gods.  We also do a hike in Monument (which the kids could have lived without) and we get to catch up with my Dad's cousin and her husband. (Don & Marcie)  Marcie is the O'Brien family geneology author so the girls are thrilled to meet her.  It was fun to catch up with them since I have so many great memories of visiting them in Colorado when I was Kelly & Katie's age!  We also get to catch up with Don & Jody Brown who are also stationed in Colorado and loving their 2 year adventure!

I have to include a picture of Charlie in Mark's Jeep, he LOVED it!

The Tetons Amaze Us!

We have a late packout which includes our campfire from the night before.  We have a great breakfast and head for the Grand Tetons which are right next to us.  We stop by the lake and take a great hike which leads to the water where we can get some great views of the mountains and the kids can dip their feet in the freezing water.

We then eat lunch in the cool lodge and head for Jenny Lake.  The drive to Jenny Lake is beautiful and we can't resist doing the boat ride to the falls on the other side (even though we are supposed to drive as far as Rawlins, Wyoming that night.  The hike to the falls are amazing.  We then head to Jackson Hole where we find a campground for the night, the Dads (Mark & Greg) make dinner while the Moms (Elaine & Sarah) and kids head for a swim.  The Dads have a few beers and realize that they drove farther last night on our way back through Yellowstone than we did all day.  Due to the beauty of the Tetons we really were delayed and will have a long drive tomorrow!

Most of Yellowstone in 1 Day!

We have a rainy night that sends us from the campfire to the campers, we watch the cool lightning.  In the morning we have more light rain and the girls (in the middle of a game) ask if Yellowstone is closed so they can stay at the campground all day! 
We load up and head for more geysers, find some cool ones in the area of the mud volcano.  (I liked Dragons Breath the most). 
Then we head to the Falls area, we hop out and see the falls, but rain is coming so we hit the cafeteria for lunch and wait out the rain.  Then our junior rangers attend a program and the Dads hit the movie where they learn alot!  Next stop was Mammoth Hot Springs, in the far northwest corner, lots of driving but cool sights and animals. 

The crew turns in their Junior Ranger books and are honored to recieve their patches.  We sneak into Montana for dinner so the Walsh family can add that to their list of states... We finish dinner around 9 and have to drive to the other end of the park to get back to our camp...late night but well worth it!

Our First Buffalo & Old Faithful!

We pull into Yellowstone and see a buffalo on the road in the first few miles!  Then we wind through the park, get some cell phone coverage and figure out our friends are at Old Faithful so we head there before going to the campground to set up.  We pull into the parking lot and Katie has a monster nosebleed!  We finally get to the geyser and find our friends, so good to see all the Walshes!  They have already got their junior ranger books and we get ours so the girls can get cracking!

Almost Busted in Cody, Wyoming!

All, We've been offline for a bit...it started after Deadwood, Charlie got sick, with a fever & bad sore throat.  He got some medicine and started feeling better then Katie & Mom got it.  At one point we were sleeping in a park in Cody, WO because we felt so awful.  So Greg found a close campground and we set up and slept while Charlie, Kelly and Greg went to a cowboy show and a rodeo.  Katie and I got medicine the next day and were on the road to recovery!  On to Yellowstone!

Wall drug with cousin jack Mosquitos were tough in wall!

Rushmore at night Katie says the movie was boring!

Deadwood saloon where wild bill bought it!

Gunfights are cool!

Jolly green giant blue earth minn

Cedar rapids kids parade with cousins!

Camping in Iowa

Cabelas stop in Indiana

Day 1 & 2

We head out around 1pm, not the 5:30 departure Greg and Kelly were talking about but not bad for leaving the house clean & packing everything for a month! Thanks to our other Kelly for taking our departure photos & taking care of Murphy & Casey so we could travel without worry!

It is a gorgeous, cool day and we make good time. Our first stop after Mom & Charlie sleep for quite a bit is Rotterdam, New York, right by the Erie Canal. Lock 8.  We find a cool picnic area right across from a campground.  The girls roller blade on the bike path, Charlie rides his trike.  All are excited when Kelly sees a snake and Greg catches it!  Katie and Charlie are brave enough to touch the snake.

After seeing the campground Mom is eager to camp and we decide the weather is perfect to camp tonight instead of a hotel.  Our camp book has a write up for  a place by Oneida, NY by a casino. 

            We pull into the Villages at Turning Stone around 6:30.  We head to the amazing playground and Dad and Kelly set up our camp.  The campground is amazing, the most beautiful one we’ve stayed at besides Fort Wilderness at DisneyWorld!    We find a cute burger & ice cream place for dinner and come back to a nice campfire.  We bust out some sweatshirts and find our warm blankets, chilly but a great clear night!  We see the big dipper right above us.

The girls say it doesn’t feel like a big trip yet, it just feels like a normal camping trip.  We tell them it probably will start to feel differently when the scenery changes out West.

July 1, 2011

We  take lovely showers and head to the playground.  Charlie borrows some trucks a kid left in the sand and we play and enjoy the beautiful morning.  Kelly and Katie see what kinds of candy they have at the camp store.  Dad packs us out and is appreciating our new bin system.  We do a shopping/lunch stop, restock the ice in our cooler. 

We find a nice school playground for a mid-afternoon break, we do a kickball challenge and Charlie likes pitching to his little 2 year old friend more than the rest of us. 

We head for a hotel in Mentor, Ohio and the lady makes our day and upgrades us to a jacuzzi suite, the girls request to have the master room with the king bed, Charlie, Mom & Dad get the other room with the double.  We are unsure which of the 3 flat screen tv's we should watch...we are really unsure that Greg will leave with all of the TV choices!