Nauvoo Vacation: Notes from Days 1 and 2

Travel Notes from Journal:

Miles travelled by day two: 1,500

Prettiest State: Colorado (Utah 2nd)

Most Boring State: Kansas (Nevada 2nd)

Best Part of the Trip: Mom reading the book "Holes" to us. 

Hours of "Fire of the Covenant" CD we listened to so far: 3

Sorest traveller: Mom

Sorest part of the Body:

    Dad--Right Bum Cheek

    Ryanne--Legs

    Elias-- My Bottom!

    Mckay--Legs

    Leah--Neck

    Mom--Hips, Legs, and Knees

One thing you wish you had:

    Dad--Auto Pilot

    Ryanne--My Cat, Pepper

    Elias--My Big Dog Stuffed Animal

    Mckay--A Computer

    Leah-- My Kitty

    Mom-- Detachable Legs

Most Viewed Road Kill: 2 Deer (1 dog, 1 hawk, 1 porcupine)

Best Meal: Breakfast Buffet at Comfort Suites: bagels, fruit loops, yogurt, donuts, muffins, juice, eggs suasage, bacon, biscuits and gravy, and the BEST Malted Belgium Waffles Ever!  Plus seconds (thirds if your name is Mckay).

Awards:

    Best Traveller Attitude: Leah

    Funniest Traveller: Daddy (singing loudly and dancing to silly old songs)

        The Sleepiest Traveller: Mckay ("I am sooo bored! Can I take one of those pills that make you sleepy"?)

     The Hungriest Traveller: Elias

     The Most Organized Traveller: Ryanne

     The Hardest Working Traveller: Mom

     Stinkiest Traveller: Tied between Dad and Mckay (Mckay! Don't take your shoes off!"

Comments:

    Ryanne: "Elias was funny and stuck a pencil up his nose!  I liked seeing the beautiful canyons in Utah and Colorado." 

       Leah: "I liked playing the Leapster  I liked looking out the window at the canyons.  I liked playing with Mckay.  I will write that in my journal.  I didn't like being car-sick."

      Mckay: "I liked all the colors in the rocks." 

      Elias: I liked the big river."

      Mckay: "FOOD!  PIZZA!"

    Elias: "I talked to a real biker motorcycle man from Alabama.  He talked funny."

    Leah: "I liked swimming in the hotel pool."

    Dad: I met a man at the gas station.  as an artist hippy from Kansas city and was on his way to Laguna Beach, Ca! Hints murals a beaches.  He had already completed 2 40 foot murals there.  He painted himself in one of them."

       Dad: "We saw a horse in Kansas that refused to get back in its trailer after a break.  The horse was only 1/3 of the way along on its journey.  We all agreed with the horse; we didn't want to get back in the car!"

    Mom: "I thought the funniest part of our ride was Wes not wanting to camp.  He was worried it would rain.  We got a hotel.  It didn't rain!""

    Dad: "Melissa, how could you forget the map of Kansas?!"

     Melissa: "It's straight and flat; do we really need it?"

     Wes: "Melissa, how could you forget the map of Missouri?!"

     Melissa: "Ummmm . . . . . Yeah, we kinda do need that one!"

     Ryanne: "Missouri has really cool old buildings! Thanks for forgetting the map, mom, I like this tour."

Night Two, Day Three:

After our arduous trek through Kansas (thirteen more hours of driving including me getting Wes lost for 40 minutes--he wasn't happy, but I enjoyed the scenic tour of the area), we were relieved to arrive in Independence, Mo.  We had a hotel, but it was too late to go out for dinner,It was 10 pm, Yikes! We cooked outside on our portable stove.  There weren't any picnic tables, so we used the sidewalk--yup, we're strange.  The kids chased June Beetles while I made stew.  They ran out some of their energy and filled their bellies.  Then, off to bed. 

I let Elias choose his sleeping arrangements because he was the one who volunteered to sleep on the floor at the hotel the night before.  He wanted to sleep by Leah. They slept in a big heap with their legs all a-tangle. 

 Ryanne, on the other hand, refused to sleep next to Mckay.  She went to bed on the floor in a corner.  Before long, however, she was cold and stiff, so she climbed into the bed.  As you can see, she stayed as far away from Mckay as possible! I don't know how she slept like that all night without falling off--she was in the same exact place when we woke up the next morning!

Summer Vacation to Nauvoo: California, Nevada, Colorado, and Kansas

We started our trip at about 4:30 in the morning on Tuesday June 28th. It's always best to get boring desert driving over with when you are fresh and the kids are asleep; California swished by in the wee hours. We fueled and had breakfast at State Line, Nevada . . . a silly tradition of ours on every I-15 trip we take.  We eat on the curb in the parking lot between the gas station and McDonalds.  This may seem strange, but there is a story.  

(travelling-story-from-years-past).  If you don't need to know the story, carry on . . . .

Breakfast At State Line, NV:  in the parking lot.

Elias is glad to be out of the car streeeetch!

Now he is doing karate, while Leah hopes for peace. 

A similar lunch.

We are now in Richfield, Utah.

Everybody geta a sandwhich, carrots, grapes, juice and a few cookies. 

The Highlight of our trip on day one was . . .

no, not the beautiful red and white striated Utah Cliffs,

But Dad Singing, at the top of his longs,

while dancing, while driving.

He was singing along with the radio to "Let's hear it for the Boys." 

We laughed so hard! Nothing is as good as laughter!

Sadly, I can't find the silly picture of him singing . . .

You'll all have to ask him for a Replay

of the show!

We finally arrive in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

We have been driving for thirteen hours. 

They sky is laden with rain clouds and we are supposed to camp. 

Wes vetos camping and grabs a hotel room. 

Hooray!  No more work for me. 

 We have pizza for dinner and the kids swim in the pool. 

I loved the sky in Colorado. 

The kids find the funniest things to enjoy. 

This is the side of the 70 freeway. 

We went for a walk on a path that went under the freeway.  

The kids couldn't pass up this "climbing wall". 

I let them--any chance to use up energy

after that car ride sounded good to me. 

It was very steep. 

I sitll like the clouds.

Their were a lot of bird nests under the freeway!

We enjoyed seeing the Colorado River-Author of the Grand Canyon. 

There were some kayakers the kids enjoyed watching.

Wes made us all touch the water. 

 "Now," He said, "in a few days, the water you just touched 

will have been through the Grand Canyon and washed out to sea!"

I wonder how long it does take water to go from Colorado to the ocean?

My wonderful family. 

This is what I loved about Colorado!

It was amazingly beautiful!

We planned our trip specifically

so I could see the mountains of Colorado.

I loved them!

On the contrary, our next day in Eastern Colorado

and Kansas was anything but gorgeous:

Driving through Kansas the next day

(for 12 hours) was really fun!

Here is what we saw:

Grass.

More grass.

More grass.

Redundant grass.

Hey--there's that white pole again,

 haven't we seen that before?

Oh, some bushes and trees! Hooray!

More bushes!

More grass!  Whee!

We just love looking at flat plains of grass

as far as the eye can see!

Boredom in the car leads to strange things!

Hands, Feet, and lollipops!

He's got mad-cow disease.

AHHH!  Pencil in the nose. 

He's crazy!

We took one stop in Kansas--you know,

just to enjoy the view some more. 

And eat lunch. Guess what we saw?

Yup--a field of grass!

A Travelling Story from Years Past

We once took a trip to Utah with plans to drive all the way to Mesquite before stopping for breakfast. We left in the wee hours, buckled the kids and drove like crazy. But the kids, who were little, were"dying" of hunger before we even got to Nevada. It seemed like eating breakfast was the only thing that would placate them. If you've travelled with little kids, you know what it's like when they are crying incessantly. We didn't want to wait and find some nice, grassy place to eat --what nice place would we find off the freeway in Nevada in the next 30 minutes before we strangled our moaning munchkins? None.

So Wes decided to pull off the freeway at the next exit. That happened to be at State Line and the exit conveniently had a huge Mcdonald's sign, which the kids all spotted immediately. Loud yammering for McDoanald's escalated as we arrived in the glamorous world of pavement and ever-blinking lights. Wes topped the gas tank at the station, then parked the car in between the gas station and McDonald's. He got out and lined the kids up on a curb. Knowing that a McDonald's breakfast would cost us well near 35 dollars, we had packed a box of cereal, some bananas, and milk (a whopping 8 dollars). With the kids lined up, we politely "welcomed them to McDonalds" and took their order: each "Happy Meal" came with a bowl of cereal, a banana, and milk. With the kids contented and munching, Wes and I surveyed our surroundings. We felt akward eating on a curb in the parking lot. However, the sun had just risen, so not many people seemed to notice our grovelling.


Nearby, at he gas station, two drunk redneck men had  parked their truck. The back of the truck was full of gasoline cans. And I mean FULL! (Think like twenty gas cans). The men were filling the cans with gas one at a time, laughing and bantering and loading the truck. What was hillarious to us, was that the cowboys were smoking puff after puff on their cigarettes; They dangled their smokes from their lips as they bent over open gas cans and wiped their fuel-covered hands all over their faces. Fortunately, nobody caught fire or blew up, but we were laughing so hard, sure these men should win a Darwin Award at their imminent death by fire.

Well, ever since then, we eat at the same place and re-tell the story of those two crazy men. We talk about Vegas and why smoking, drinking, gambling, and gasoline are bad ideas. We munch our cereal and consider the dishevelled state of gamblers at 6 in the morning while they consider our dishevelled travelling crew munching breakfast like pigeons on the pavement.

Travelling Note

Hi From Beautiful Nauvoo! We are here and having a fabulous time.  The car trip was wonderful and the kids were AMAZINGLY Good on the drive.  Really, I'm not fibbing.  We are safe and having fun.  Just wanted to let you all know.  Pictures and stories to arrive later.