Welcome to summer 2016!

Just checking in....

Hello friends and family! Today I started packing for our first journey of the summer. We're not leaving till Friday, but I needed to get started. I have a busy week ahead with work and the kid's end-of-year school events. We're doing things a little differently this summer, because a certain someone in the family has a big birthday coming up. I wanted to do something special for him that wasn't part of the road trip.

The kids and I are kicking off the summer by taking a mini-road trip to the Northeast, and then coming home for a few weeks, before heading out on the road "for real."

I wanted to check in, because I have no idea who or if anyone reads this blog. Road Warrior Momma doesn't receive the same attention as The Latchkey Mom (which lately isn't saying much). Just wondering if anyone is still out there? For those of you who are, I'm still planning to share stories and pictures. I'll post a few days behind, because Big Daddy worries about our safety. My posts are hastily written and therefor unpolished. I apologize - but the consolation is that you're getting the real story:).

I'm not going to share our itinerary this year. I thought it might be fun to keep it a surprise. Look for my first post in about a week!

xoxox,
Allie

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July 3, 2015 – Day 31

St. Louis, MO – Cumming, GA

560 miles/9 hours

HOME

It was a long, long day! I have learned something. In the past I’ve ended my trips at Rich’s parents’ house, or visiting close friends. We’d have a chance to relax and look forward to going home – get excited about it. This time, I was desperate to get home. And it was a long haul. But writing this, a month removed, I already miss the road. I’ve started planning next year’s adventure!

I will share “Best Of” post this week, once I’ve gone through all our pictures, calculated our stats and reviewed my road journal. 

Lincoln, NE & St. Louis, MO

July 2, 2015 – Day 30

Omaha, NE/Lincoln, NE-St. Louis, MO

45 minutes - 50 miles/7 hours – 432 miles

Renaissance St. Louis

My apologies for posting this sooooo late. The last two days of our road trip were long, and we just wanted to get home. There was very little sightseeing, so I didn’t think to post. Then I received a bunch of emails from people wondering where we were… I’m so sorry! We were only home for a couple of days, before heading to Florida, and time just got away from me.

From Omaha, we took a westward detour to Lincoln, NE, so we could tour the capitol building. You know me and my capitals. It was worth the time, because Lincoln is a fantastic little city. I sort of regret that we didn’t stay there, instead of Omaha. The Capitol is beautiful and of course, the people were very nice.

Then we headed east, for long haul across Missouri, sometimes driving through rain. The kids fought the whole time. When I pulled up to the hotel, I was fragged. Hotel was beautiful and empty! Guess the St. Louis airport isn’t a popular Fourth of July hang-out. 

We ordered room service for the children and Rich and I had dinner downstairs in the hotel dining room. We had the place to ourselves!

Dancing in Omaha

July 1, 2015 – Day 29

Pierre, SD – Omaha, NE

446 miles/ 6.5 hours

Fairfield Inn Papillion, Rms 205 & 207

Long, long, long driving day, with not much to see. South Dakota – boring. Sioux Falls to Omaha, on Interstate 29, boring. I drove for most of the day, while Rich and the kids watched a movie.

Omaha seems like a very nice city, what little we saw. We had a fairly decent meal at a popular local steakhouse. Everyone’s ready for a home-cooked meal. It would take a lot to excite our taste buds at this point. The restaurant where we dined had a lounge, with a live band. The kids were dying to go in and see what it was all about. The manager heard them begging us and said it was okay.

So this becomes the story about the night my family crashed a bar. Seriously. The band was playing old 1960’s dance covers, and it was a lively middle-aged crowd. Audrey dragged her dad to the dance floor and they looked very sweet together - much better than Rich and I do when we dance. Audrey can actually dance and does a great job of leading her dad. Cammy was the wild man of the bunch. He took to the dance floor even when the band was on break. He had the audience in the palms of his hands. When the band returned, Hunter joined him and within minutes, a woman asked Hunter to dance. And then another. At one point he was dancing with two women – even twirling them. I was astounded! So was Rich. I ran to get my camera. By the time I got back, the song had stopped and Hunter said to me, “Mom, all these old ladies want me to dance with them!” Nice. For the record, they weren’t old, not really (but maybe a little). I told him I thought it was sweet, and that he should never say no if a lady asks him to dance. Then he saw my camera. He told me he’d only dance with them if I promised not to take any pictures. So that’s why I really don’t have any pictures of him rocking the dance floor – but I assure you, he did!

I tried to take Barrett out there for a whirl, but he kept plugging his ears. He was very over whelmed. So we, the wall flowers of the family, sat on the sidelines and watched Rich, Hunter, Audrey and Cammy take over the dance floor. It was pretty damn cool.

We needed that. Conditions have been tense the last few days. Goes to show - you just never know when the next “good time” is around the corner.

 

 

 

The Badlands & Pierre, SD

June 30, 2015 – Day 28

Rapid City, SD – Pierre, SD

202 miles/3 hours

The Club Suites Inn, Rms 217 & 219

Today was overcast and it was a total bummer. We visited the Badlands and all I kept thinking was how much prettier it would've been to see the park bathed in sunshine. It’s still beautiful, but part of the magic of the Badlands, based on what I’ve read, is the glistening of the rock in sunlight. The rocks have rings of color that produce some brilliant hues – but not so much with the sun hiding behind the clouds. Looking on the bright side, we were spared the notorious heat that the park experiences in the summer with temperatures at full throttle.

The Badlands are cool – the canyons are somewhat similar to most we’ve seen, except that they aren’t as deep, and many of the plateaus have green grass. The largest valleys can easily be called prairies, because of the sheer size of the area. I’m having trouble describing it, so I’m going to use Frank Lloyd Wright’s words, which I lifted from the park brochure.

"I was totally unprepared for that revelation called the Dakota Bad Lands...What I saw gave me an indescribable sense of mysterious elsewhere-a distant architecture, ethereal....an endless supernatural world more spiritual than earth but created out of it."

After the park, we headed east to spend the night in Pierre and check off another capital. Once you get past the Badlands, South Dakota doesn’t have a whole hell of a lot going on. It’s stark and lonely. North Dakota gave us a more visually appealing drive. South Dakota, not so much.

Pierre is a small city, although not the smallest capital city we’ve visited. And I wouldn’t call it cute – or quaint. It’s different. The capitol building is very pretty, though. Our hotel is nice, with a waterslide that’s brand new! All’s good..

 

South Dakota State Capitol Building

 

The Black Hills of South Dakota

June 29, 2015 – Day 27

Gillette, WY - Rapid City, SD

244 miles (with four big stops!)

Hilton Garden Inn, Rms 214, 216

Today was a rough day, which is really unfortunate when you consider all the cool sites we got to visit. On each road trip there is one day in which the train goes off the rails, and this was the day. What follows is not pretty and I hope that you won’t think too badly of us when you’re finished reading.

We got off to an early start. I had a great night’s sleep and was the first one up. I woke Hunter so he could run, and then we had breakfast together. He also commented that it was odd that we were the only two family members up and eating, because at home we’re typically the last ones to rise. Right then and there I should’ve known something was “off.”

Our first stop of the day was Devil’s Tower National Park. About a mile from our destination, we were stopped by construction workers – for almost a half hour. It was one of those single lane deals, with an escort car that leads you down the road. We were the third car in line, and Rich was not pleased.

Once we got to the monument, it was an easy experience – except for the very steep incline you have to walk to get a decent view. Ow! My thighs and calves were feeling it. The tower is an interesting structure. The most recent scientific conclusion is that it’s an upward thrust of the earth’s surface, rising temperatures of the Earth’s Magma – or its part of an ancient volcano. There’s also an Indian legend involving a gigantic bear eating sisters that the boys liked – especially Camden who was impressed with the illustrations of the bear climbing the tower.

Next stop was Deadwood, SD – mostly for Rich, who was fascinated with the show that aired on HBO (I think). The show is based on real western outlaws who lived in the late 1800s – Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Colorado Bill, and some other wildly named people. The town was built on the South Dakota gold rush. Today it’s an over commercialized tourist town, populated with gaming machines. Other than lunch at a saloon, which originally opened in 1881, we visited the Mt. Moriah Cemetery, where a number of notorious outlaws are buried. I didn’t ask questions, because three years ago I dragged the kids to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, MA, to see the graves of Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and other literary figures. To borrow an often repeated quote of Camden’s, “We’re a weird family.”

After we saw Bill Hickok’s and Calamity Jane’s final resting places, I thought we were done. Nope, one more. Seth Bullock, apparently a friend of Hickok’s and once the Sheriff of Deadwood, is buried at the top of Mt. Moriah. So, up we went. And up, and up. It was a grueling climb and made Devil’s Tower feel like a cake walk. Oh, oh, oh - we had very unhappy campers. They were pissed. Please see exhibit A:

Things were never right after the cemetery.

Next stop: the Crazy Horse Memorial. Rich asked me why we were going more than once, so I got the impression he wanted to skip it. It was getting late, but I feared we’d regret it. It was a bit of a drive. We stopped to fill up the gas tank and have a bathroom break. Rich handled the gas, while I took the kids into the store. Audrey said she didn’t have to go and stayed in the car. When I returned, Rich said he was going to run in real quick. We all got back in the car, and as I was buckling my seat belt, Audrey said she had to use the bathroom. I said, “Too late,” because I assumed Rich would be out any second.

“But I really have to go,” she complained.

It was almost 4:00 and we had monuments to see. I said, “No, we’ll be there in twenty minutes. You can’t have to go that bad, because you didn’t have to go five minutes ago.” Well, she started screaming, yes screaming. Then the tears started. Barrett yelled, because she was yelling. And I acted very immaturely and dug in my heels in. “No.”

I know, I know. I should have let her go, I’m an ass - but I was in good company. I thought she was being ridiculous. Rich opened the car door and heard the bedlam and I’m surprised he got back in. Long story short, she got to go to the bathroom.

It started raining on our way to Crazy Horse, which meant they weren’t running the buses to take you up to the monument, because of lightening. We hung out in the visitor center and watched a movie about the building of the monument, which started in 1948 and is nowhere near complete. It’s going to be the world’s largest sculpture someday – although I never did learn an estimated completion date. Everyone in the family was tense at this point and we didn’t want to wait with the large crowd that was gathering for a bus. We took our pictures from a distance and left.

Mount Rushmore was the next destination. When I first saw it, I thought it looked small. Rich did too, and thought perhaps we felt that way because we’d just come from Crazy Horse. It’s possible. 

Either way, it’s pretty impressive and incredible to see it in person. Unfortunately I don’t have many pictures of it, because the position of the sun in the sky made it difficult to capture from my camera phone. We watched a movie about the building of it, but don’t ask the children about it. In eighteen minutes, Hunter, Audrey, and Camden got up a combined eight times, to “go to the bathroom.” The film had subtitles, so Barrett read those – out loud.

On the way to the hotel Audrey and Hunter got into a huge fight and I couldn’t even tell you what it was about. And Mom and Dad didn’t have the energy to intervene. Once at the hotel, I handled check-in, while Rich unloaded the car. Despite the fact that I had called two days prior, and that morning, to verify our reservations and secure connecting rooms, and was promised it was a “done deal,” we were given two rooms on separate floors. I’m ashamed to reveal that I was not very nice about it. I didn’t scream or anything, but I was very cross. As I was explaining the situation, and pulling the autism card, almost as if on cue, Barrett made an appearance. He was performing a song about his mother being a baker, and excitedly started jumping up and down, with is arms flapping like a bird. I whipped around to see if any of his siblings were minding him, to discover his twin lounging on a couch in the lobby oblivious to all around him.

I yelled at Hunter to get Barrett outside, and then continued negotiations with the front desk. Not even one minute later, Camden screamed Audrey’s name, and started crying. I turned around again, to see the front of his shirt soaked, and Audrey standing next to him - laughing. Not sure what went down, but she was holding a cup. I had to once again order the children out to the parking lot – where I could see Rich standing in the middle of a pile of luggage, and no luggage cart. At this point, a line was forming behind me at the desk.

Eventually we got it worked out, but only one room was ready. I rounded up the troops and headed to the room. I was following Rich, who was pushing the cart, and as we turned the corner some of the bags fell off. One was our huge Thirty-One Utility Tote, which is our road trip supply bag – and everything spilled out. Rich stayed silent, but his body language spoke volumes.

Not once, not twice, but three times, from the lobby to our room, we received pitying comments from other guest. “Oh you have your hands full!” “Been there, done that, never again.” Etc…

It was a comedy of errors getting all the luggage into the room, because the entrance was tight, and it was one room, and Hunter and Audrey, who miraculously were now chummy-chummy, plowed into the room in a flurry to get to the remote, so they could watch wrestling.

Stick a fork in me, I was done! Rich and I were snapping at each other and at one point I flipped the bird to one of my children, behind their back. I could not handle another task. We ordered room service and called it a day.

As Scarlet O’Hara would say – tomorrow is another day!

Cammyism of the Day:

I really don’t have one, but he did do something that sums up the day. I guess he was picking his nose and Audrey was mad, because she was sitting right beside him. She screamed at him, and Rich told him he was gross and to stop. He said okay. Then Audrey screamed again – and told us he put the boogers back in his nose. At least he didn’t eat them.

Devils Tower

Bill Hickok's grave.

The Crazy Horse Memorial (from a distance).

Gillette, WY

June 28, 2015 – Day 26

Jackson Hole, WY – Gillette, WY

411 miles/6.5 hours

Fairfield Inn Gillette, Rms 103 & 105

The hotel where we stayed in Jackson Hole was so nice that we could have stayed there for the rest of the trip, and everyone one would've been happy. But sadly, not possible. It was really hard to check out. Really hard.

Before we left, we explored the town square and did a little shopping. I also found a really cool bookstore, which I couldn’t pass up.

Today was a driving day. We crossed the state of Wyoming and it was, you know what’s coming…so BEAUTIFUL! We started out driving along the Grand Tetons and then turned east and traveled through the Grand Teton National Forest. We came upon a number of little dude ranch towns: Moran, Dubois, Kinear, Shoshoni. Once we passed the forest, the mountains took on a more rugged look, and changed to an orangey color, reminiscent of the southwest. At one point the rocks were as red as Sedona’s. There always seemed to be a river or creek running alongside the highway. And then suddenly, you’re looking at canyon. Incredible. Eventually the country side melted into grassy plains.

One town we drove through only had a population of 44 people – so said the sign. And it had a post office! Cumming, GA only has two posts offices (that I’m aware of).

I did the majority of the driving today, and it was a long day. Gillette is a stop-over, because tomorrow we have a lots of sites to see, on our way to Rapid City. Our hotel has a huge water slide/indoor water park, but it’s not the cleanest facility. Unfortunately, there was no stopping the kids, they didn’t look back. Rich and I were very uncomfortable. It was yucky. We gave them 15 minutes.

I went to bed as soon as we got back from dinner.

Cammyism of the day:

Our waiter at dinner asked if everyone was enjoying their meal. Cammy’s reply, “Next time, you have to lower the size of the kid burger.” He opened his mouth wide, “Look, it won’t fit!” It was an exceptionally big burger. If he held it up in front of his face you couldn’t see Cammy.