We're Almost There!

 



Our 4th of July was spent visiting Mt. Rushmore, driving through the Black Hils {❤️}, and stopping in Casper, WY for our last night on the road.  Days 4 and 5 on the journey can be summed up as follows:

Mt. Rushmore
  • SUPER busy.  I don't know if it's always that busy or if there was extra traffic because of the holiday.   
  • SUPER hot.  We were originally supposed to be rolling in around noon, but thanks to our head start, got there a couple hours early.  When we LEFT a little after noon, it was brutally hot and I was so glad we were on our way out.





  • SUPER...aggravating.  I won't name names, but there was a certain kid who was NOT in the right frame of mind for the day's adventures.  This may have been the result of being over-tired and hangry, but it doesn't erase the fact that we basically got nothing out of our Mt. Rushmore experience except the requisite pictures and some souvenirs.  In retrospect, if we would have eaten FIRST instead of right before we left, we may have been able to actually walk the full Presidential trail and MAYBE have hit up the museum to learn more about the monument.  Maybe.  Hahahaha.

{Check out that sky!!}



The day the selfie stick died.  RIP felfie friend.



  • SUPER productive for our license plate game.  Hahaha.  The parking lot was a jackpot for a lot of the kids who hadn't been as vigilant at keeping track while on the road. 


  • SUPER scenic -- the Black Hills that is.  I didn't capture any good shots that did it justice, but I was pretty much in love with the landscape there as well.  I would have loved to have spent a little more time exploring the area once we were done with Mt. Rushmore, but the kids were ready to get on the road.  The promise of swimming at the pool in Casper was too strong a siren song to resist.

Wyoming
{Check out THAT sky!!}

  • We hit up our first {and actually only} truck stop rest area of the trip somewhere in Wyoming en route to Casper.  It was delightful.  A much needed rest and stretch for the kids and a happy point on the drive for that day. 



  • We were on the verge of a storm for the 20 minutes or so that we were there, which provided a deliciously windy and wild air for our enjoyment.



  • After happily arriving at our hotel in Casper, we hit the pool -- which was scarcely bigger than a bathtub -- and then fueled up for the night with Taco Bell.  We were aggravated the next morning to discover there is no longer free breakfast with the Marriott Courtyard chain, so we headed next door to Denny's on our way out of town, and enjoyed one of the best meals of the trip.  Hahaha.

So happy to be out of the car!

Thank you Denny's for being SO consistent.

Martin's Cove
  • Tuesday morning, July 5th, was our last day of the journey out west.  For our final "field trip" we detoured to Martin's Cove before driving into Utah.  Neither Scott nor I have ever been, but it holds a special place not only in our Church's history, but in our own family history as well.  With both of us having ancestors who were part of the Willie or Martin handcart companies, and knowing the tragedies and hardships they experienced, I felt the impact from this stop even if it was (out of necessity) rather brief.



  • As I mentioned in a previous post, this trek out west was a really profound experience for me.  As we covered roughly the same trail that the pioneers did, I couldn't help but wonder -- on several different occasions -- if we would have had what it took to make it to the Salt Lake Valley.  However, as I watched the kids pulling that handcart around that loop, I was struck with the thought that these kids have the grit.  They have the sheer determination to do whatever they set their minds to.  And I am confident, that even though their trials and obstacles today will be different from the early pioneers', they have what it takes to do hard things.  





  • After pulling the handcart around the loop a couple of times, we loaded back up in the car to finally make it to OUR promised land.  Hahaha.  :)  
 
 {Highlight of the road trip right here -- ordering from a kiosk at McDonald's.  Hahahaha.}

Utah
  • FINALLY, after 5 days on the road, we made it to Grandma and Grandpa's house!  Scott's sister and brother and their families were already there and ready to get this reunion started, and the kids couldn't have been more excited.  :)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#WestCoastSwing2021

Image
  Get ready for an onslaught of posts about this summer's epic road trip!  To kick things off, and hopefully build anticipation for the recaps, I thought I'd start with my top 10 favorite moments from the trip plus my top 10 best tips and tricks for road tripping with kids. In no particular order, my favorite memories were... 1.)  Watching the kids frolic on Cannon Beach our first night there while waiting for dinner. Tip 1: Eat first thing whenever you make a stop.  Hanger puts a damper on any fun.  Trust me.  Hahaha. 2.)  Listening to the beautiful strains of the   Pride and Prejudice   soundtrack while driving through the "Avenue of Giants" in the Redwoods. Tip 2: Download/movies/shows/whatever onto devices that kids can watch during long stretches of driving.  For us grown-ups, Scott downloaded a bunch of true crime podcasts to entertain him while driving, and I listened to several audiobooks.   3.)  Listening to all t...
Read more

Boston to NYC

Image
  Possibly the most entertaining part of the entire DRIVING portion of the road trip happened en route from Boston to New York.  In what could have potentially been a horribly miserable situation -- there was tons of traffic thanks to construction {?} about an hour outside of the city, which slowed us down and made irritable kids more irritable -- but thanks to a BMW convertible full of ridiculous teenage boys, we passed the time in the blink of an eye!  Hahaha.  This little bimmer was weaving in and out of the traffic with panache while the boys in the backseat were trying to interact with/get the attention of every car and truck they passed along the way, using a phone the whole time to -- Video? Live stream? Selfie? SnapChat? (we don't really know) -- the entire thing.  For about 20 minutes, our cars went back and forth between passing each other, and each time we did, the kids would dab or dance like maniacs to humor them.  And in the process humor ours...
Read more

A Crayola Experience

Image
  One of the stops that Jane and I were most looking forward to on the trip was the Crayola Experience in Easton, Pennsylvania!  What can I say?  We both love all the colors of the rainbow.  Hahaha.  In all honesty, though, I really did love it!  If we lived in Easton (or any of the other locations for the Crayola Experience), I would TOTALLY be buying an annual pass each year.  World's Largest Crayon DOB : October 11, 2003 Color : Blue Weight : 1,500 pounds Length : 15 feet Diameter : 16 inces # of Crayola Crayons used: 123,000 blue Crayola crayons were gathered from children around the country, who contributed their "leftolas" in an effort to help break the current world record! Coloring Capacity: You could color a straight line for nearly 10 miles or cover an area the size of a football field! With four floors of fun, it was essentially a Crayola themed children's museum -- and it was awesome.  The kids were able to mold a crayon into a "diamon...
Read more