Disclaimer: I am doing this blog entry more as a journal of our trip so most of this entry may be fairly boring:)
We spent the past 10 days on the road. It was a portion of what I had hoped to be able to do, but we had a blast!! Me and the kids drove from NC to ND and back to visit with Mike at work. This trip had sooooo many photo ops it literally drove me crazy as I was driving down the road. If I could've stopped and taken a pic of everything I wanted to we wouldn't have made it anywhere. We saw rolling hills, barns, fences, clouds, lakes, windmills, national monuments, wildlife, and everything was so beautiful. The kids were so much better behaved during the car rides than I could've ever imagined. I remember driving 20 min. to a friend's pool the day before we left and listening to the bickering coming from the backseat, and thinking how was I going to make it 1800 miles to ND when we couldn't even drive across town peacefully. But, they were great and we made it!! We visited over 10 states on this trip: Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Missouri. I stopped at every state where we saw the sign and took a picture. I was hoping to get them all, but there were a couple that didn't have a sign along the road that we traveled.
Day 1, Saturday, 7/16:
Car is packed and I am on the computer trying to finalize some details on the computer before we hit the road. I think I was apprehensive about leaving cause there was 1800 miles ahead of me and I think I might have been putting it off for some reason. We left around 11am. Passed through Asheville where my dad lives around 1:30, called him to see if he wanted to meet us for lunch but he didn't answer. He called me back to see what I wanted and I told him we were on the road. He said he wished he had known we were going and he would've tried to talk me out of it. Lol. I began to think about this a lot as I drove. No one really told me I shouldn't go or that they thought it was a bad idea, but, I thought a lot of people prob thought that. I had already had this conversation with my mom earlier. Her advice to me was that I cannot live my life worrying about things and not doing things because I am afraid. Since Mike works out of town so much there is a lot of times that I worry about traveling or doing things with the kids. What if something happened to one of the kids or myself and we are somewhere where no one can help. At home that is never an issue, we are surrounded by many that I know would come to our rescue. But, what about halfway to ND? Who would help me then? But, I kept driving, I was determined to be independent and in the back of my mind I did feel that I was being a little irresponsible taking 5 kids on the road. I prayed that the Lord would keep us safe and we thanked Him along the way for the safety He provided. Anyway, we stopped for lunch and then again @ Cracker Barrel for dinner. The kids were being awesome. I was really pleased with the trip so far. We went through Tennessee, Kentucky, and entered Indiana. We didn't actually stop in Lousiville, KY, we just passed through, but it was one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. We stopped at every state and took a picture at the state line. I had hoped to make it to Chicago by Saturday night. With our late start and a few stops we were a couple of hours behind. We stopped around midnight at a Hampton Inn in Lafayette, IN.
Day 2, Sunday, 7/17
We got up and were about 2 hours south of Chicago. We had several things that we wanted to do in Chicago, but traffic there was pretty bad. And parking in downtown Chicago was $25/hr. We went to the Navy Pier and walked around a bit and the kids were pretty anxious to get to Legoplace Discovery Center. We were on the interstate stopped in the center lane of six lanes. The kids were asking how long until we got to the lego place and I remember telling them it would be about 10 minutes if the traffic started moving. Then we were hit from behind. The kids all start screaming and crying. I immediately thought about my fears from the day before and wondered if they were coming true. I was scared to get out and look, but I jumped right out and went to see how bad it was. I didn't realize that it was actually a motorcycle that had hit us. He had been hit from behind and was pushed into our car. The motorcyclist was yelling at the driver of the other car accusing him of texting and driving. Everyone seemed to be okay, I grabbed my phone and called 911. The motorcyclist felt he needed an ambulance, he had been smooshed(sp?) between the two cars. Two hours later we were having lunch at meatheads. Best burger I have ever had. Then we headed into Legoplace. Wonderful place to go, I loved it, kids loved it, wreck forgotten. There is one of these in Atlanta (a little closer to home if anyone is interested). That night we drove to Wisconsin to stay the night. We stayed somewhere outside of Madison. I don't remember the exact town. I know there was absolutely nothing to eat in the area and it was right off of the interstate. Wherever it was had a strong smell of manure. We were definitely in the country. We had Culver's and Mcdonalds for dinner :P. We checked in the room and I logged on to my computer to catch up on Big Brother!!
Navy Pier, Chicago
Legoplace
Day 3, Monday, 7/18
Day 3, Monday, 7/18
We hit the road and headed to Mall of America, Minneapolis!! Only 4-5 hours on the road today, yay! We checked in to our hotel and much to my delight saw that there was a Qdoba right across the street :) We walked over there and had a late lunch and then we drove over to the mall. That place was amazing, I'm sure it was the kids favorite part of the trip. We rode rides and stocked up on peeps at the Peep Store. Then one little lady was made very happy with a trip to the American Girl store. FUN day!! Something else that happened today that we won't forget is when we got back to the hotel it was pretty late and some man knocked on our door and said "open up, it's the manager." I looked out the peep hole and it was definitely not the manager. Then he said "just kidding, I'm not the manager, but open up!" I asked him through the door what he wanted and he said he needed a lighter but I told him I didn't have one and he went on his way. The kids were kinda scared after this and one started crying and said she wanted to go home. However, a few minutes later I looked out the window and the man was sitting on a bench smoking, so I guess he really was just looking for a lighter.
Day 4, Tuesday, 7/19
We started off this day with a trip to the car wash. For those who know me well, you know I can't stand a dirty car. And, no one is allowed to eat or drink in it. But, I kind of let the kids break the rules for this trip. And, we had the dog with us so there was dog hair everywhere too. Anyway, I couldn't go any further without giving the burb a good vacuum. Goal was to be at our destination by the end of the night. This was the longest drive of the trip, about 9 hours and there was absolutely nothing to look at. I felt like I was on treadmill, we were moving but the scenery never changed and it felt like we were going nowhere. We drove into Fargo as soon as we crossed the North Dakota line. Finally civilization!! And, what do you know? They have Qdoba in North Dakota. Guess what was for lunch? We got it to go and went to a little park that was right off of the exit. Then we hit the treadmill again (I mean road). Such a long day. Once we were in North Dakota we started seeing all of the oil rigs and that was pretty cool. Another interesting thing was that a lot of the road we traveled on was gravel once we got off of the main interstate. The parking lots for the gas stations and stores were gravel too. We arrived in Williston close to 10pm and it was still light outside.
Day 5, Wednesday, 7/20
Today, we got up and Mike showed us around Williston. He showed us some local rigs and all of the companies that had set up there. We saw the man camps where a lot of people stay. They are just a lot of trailers on a company's lot where people live. Kind of like barracks. Part of the Missouri River runs through Williston and there is a historical site there that is part of Lewis and Clark's Trail. We went and checked that out and that was pretty interesting. The Walmart there is a pretty big deal. It's one of the only places there to shop for groceries. They actually call it the mall. And, according to the sign out front they are hiring cashiers with starting pay $17/hr. The rest of the day we just hung out and enjoyed not being in the car. It's pretty amazing how this little town just grew over night.
Lewis and Clark Trail
man camp
Oil rig
Day 6, Thursday, 7/21
On the road again. Headed to Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota. Another day in the car without about 6 hours of driving. Right outside of Williston there is a really cool National Park called Theodore Roosevelt National Park. If you didn't know better you would think you were at the Grand Canyon. We drove for a while with nothing but fields and rocks and oil rigs for scenery. Then we came to a little store literally in the middle of nowhere. It was the cutest little convenience store. Then we headed to the town of Deadwood, SD. It looked just like an old western town and it had a lot of casinos and they do a live reenactment of a shoot out right on Main Street several times a day. They pass out sheriff badges to the little ones and close down the street. It was definitely a memorable show. After we left Deadwood we were on our way to Custer, SD where we would stay for the next 2 nights. Right before we got to Custer it was almost dark and we could see the Crazy Horse Memorial. It is a monument carved into the side of the Black Hills. The memorial construction started in 1948 and was meant to honor the culture and heritage of North American Indians. It is still not completed but you can definitely make out what it is supposed to look like. We finally made it to our little cabin and got checked in. We stayed at a pretty cool place called Beaver Lake Campground. It had a waterslide that the kids loved. We did pass Bedrock City Campground just before our campground, which is Flintstones themed and of course the kids begged to stay there :)
Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Deadwood, SD
Crazy Horse Memorial (silhouette of an Indian face)
Day 7, Friday, July 22
Super busy day. We got up and had breakfast at a nice little cafe on Main Street. Then we drove to Mount Rushmore. So amazing to see in person!! We spent a lot of time here just staring at the monument and checking out the gift shop. When we left Mount Rushmore we drove down the mountain to the town of Keystone. Then we spent some time panning for gold and we took a ride down the mountain on an alpine slide. We went to Cosmos which is an interesting place that is said to defy gravity and nothing/no one can stand up straight. Then we checked out Bear Country which is a drive thru bear habitat. Lastly, Dinosaur Park in Rapid City, SD. I'll let the pics explain that one. Then we headed back to Custer. We decided to take the scenic route through Custer State Park. It was such a beautiful ride. There is a lake there and several rock formations, tons of wildlife and we could see the wildfires that have been going on for weeks off in the distance. We had dinner that night in Custer and something interesting about all the restaurants in the area use bison meat to cook with.
Mount Rushmore
Cosmos
Bear Country
Dinosaur Park
Custer State Park, Black Hills, SD
Day 8, Saturday, July 23
My brother works in North Dakota with Mike and he brought his truck to him this morning. Matthew is going to make the drive back with me and Mike is headed back to Williston. He got there around lunchtime and we got pizza for lunch and let the kids exhaust themselves at the pool for a couple of hours. Then we hit the road headed to North Carolina. Almost as soon as we left Rapid City and pulled on to the hwy we started seeing signs for Wall Drug. Just like everything else worth seeing in the midwest, it was right smack dab in the middle of no where. Sitting right off an exit of interstate 90. It was huge and there were so many people there. Where did all of these people come from? I really felt like we were the only people traveling that lonely road. The picture I took doesn't do it justice, I don't know why I didn't take a better pic. Anyway, after that the rest of the day was quite boring, we made it to Iowa to spend the night.
Wall Drug, Wall, SD
Day 9, Sunday, July 24
We started out early this morning and drove to Hannibal, MO. We stopped by Mark Twain's childhood home. We saw the whitewashed fence from Tom Sawyer and the Mark Twain Steamboat. Matthew took the kids to ride bumper boats and play some games at an arcade that was there. Right before we headed out we rode up to Lover's Leap which has some nice views of the Mississippi River.
Mark Twain Steamboat
Some dummy that jumped the fence and was standing on the edge of the cliff
Mississippi River
Day 10, Monday, July 25
Last day. Not much to say...about 13 hours of driving. I did manage to get a pic of the St. Louis Arch as we passed quickly by it. We made it home safe and sound and exhausted.
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