IOWA

The past two days have been quite a lot. Time goes so quickly, and yesterday seems like a month ago. It's a strange feeling. So, Monday morning we woke up and drove once more past Mt. Rushmore towards Crazy Horse. His memorial will be about 5 times the size of Mt. Rushmore. Since it's privately funded, it's been a work in progress for over 50 years. Crazy Horse was a warrior at the Battle of Little Bighorn. One family has been working on it the whole time. It was very impressive, and if I ever hit it big, I will donate to the cause.

From Crazy Horse, we stopped at Jackson's favorite store, Cabela's. It's like Wild Animal Park, only stuffed. From there we drove east to Wall, SD. Wall Drug has become a well-known stop on I-90. Story is that a husband and wife were trying to make their little pharmacy successful. They weren't doing well. On one hot summer day, the wife thought to put up a billboard advertising "free ice water." People came in from everywhere. Today, an average of 20,000 people stop on any summer day. It was pretty fun, and the kids loved it.

After Wall Drug, we moved on to Mitchell, SD, home of the Corn Palace. As you may have guessed, it's made of corn husks. It was sunset, and the Palace was closed. I had a hard time hiding my relief. No gift shop shopping for us, thank goodness.

Now with the new time change, it was already dinner and well past 8pm. We were supposed to make it to Sioux Falls, but we called it a day and found a KOA for the night.

Today (my brother's 50th birthday!), we drove across 3 state lines; S Dakota to Minnesota to Iowa. The kids were troopers and kept wanting to drive on. So we did. Nine hours later, we ended up in Cedar Falls, IA. I couldn't find a campground anywhere, so I found a Days Inn. I was trying to save some of the food in the fridge, so I used the lobby micro to heat lasagne for dinner. While I got the kids set up in the room, I "cooked" a pizza in the RV stove. Well, that didn't go so well. When I got back from the room to get the pizza out of the RV, it was basically on fire. Forgetting that the broiler unit is MUCH closer to the over rack, the pizza was a mass of black charred crust. The entire RV was full of smoke. As I opened the doors and windows, people in the parking lot came over to see if I was okay. Kind of embarassing to say, "no, I just burnt the pizza." Is it a bad thing to make dinner in an RV in a hotel parking lot?? I threw out the pizza, grabbed my last beer, the toaster oven and went up to the room.

Dinner was lasagne, kiwi and toasted bagels. And beer. Now we are watching "Field of Dreams" since tomorrow we go Dubuque, IA to see where the movie was filmed. It's nice to have a movie night, the first of our trip. That's it!

Mt. Rushmore Day 2

What a nice day. Since we are definitely at the end of the season here, most everything is closed. That is a good thing for me as there was no option to do the Alpine Slide, Pee-Wee golf, Helicopter ride or cave exploration. All we could do was SCHOOL! It was good to get some solid hours of work done. At lunch we walked around town which meant walking down one block and up the other side. Even the kids commented, "wow, there seems to be a lot of junk here that is pretty expensive." Apparently the entire town of Keystone (which is about the size of Kensington) closes down in October for six months. There is only one other RV in our campground, and we are adjacent to the Travel Lodge, which runs our RV park. So, we may not have many neighbors, but we are right in the middle of things.

After having lunch back in the RV, we drove back up the 2 mile hill to the memorial. The kids had ice cream and we took another walk about. It was a beautiful day, warm enough for shorts, and the leaves have all begun to turn.

Back in camp we did more school, laundry and took showers. I thought it would be nice to have dinner up at the cafe at the memorial. Turns out the Governor of S. Dakota was there, so there was a big, private dinner for him. We ended up having tuna, PB&J, mango, tomatoes and carrots in the RV parking lot.

Both nights we have been up to see the "retiring of the colors," and both nights have moved me to tears. There's a short talk in their outdoor amphitheater by a park ranger, followed by a film about the 4 presidents. After the film, all present day and veteran service men and women are asked to go down on stage to help retire the flag. They introduce themselves, state what branch of service they were in and honor anyone who has died in Iraq. By the end of the introductions, I was a mess. Tears coming down, with the kids asking, "Mom, are you alright?" It didn't matter if you were Rep or Dem; it was nationalism at its best. And then we all cheered for the service men and women, sang the National Anthem, and then the memorial was lit by lights shining through the trees. It still gives me goosebumps. Rhody, I think you would have really enjoyed it. Lilly wanted to go down on stage in your honor, just so you know.

Tomorrow we'll drive to the Crazy Horse memorial before hitting Cabela's (Jack can't wait!), Wall Drug and then The Corn Palace. Final desination for tomorrow is Sioux City. Making our way across the Northern Plains. We are counting down to Chicago which we should hit Oct 2nd. The kids can't wait, and Jack is very excited about his birthday this Friday.

Mt. Rushmore

Well, grab yourself a cup of coffee, beer or wine, because this could get lengthy as there is much to catch up on...

Let's go back to last Thursday when something quite remarkable happened on our trip. I GOT A BABYSITTER AND WENT OUT TO DINNER WITH TWO ADULTS! Tara secured her usual wonderful babysitter so that she, Brynn and I got to eat out at a gret local restaurant. It was so much fun, and the company was quite delightful. The kids were happy back at Tara's house watching a movie and singing Wicked with Amira. We said all our good-byes to our old and new Montana friends Thursday night, since we would be leaving early Friday morning. It was really wonderful to spend time with Tara and her family. They took good care of us, as we basically moved in for 4 nights.

Friday morning we took Brynn and Ri to the airport. They had an early flight, so we slept in the RV so I could drive with them still in bed. It was so much fun to have company this past week. It helped grately to have another adult to bounce off ideas and things. And the kids so enjoyed have cousin time with Riley.

After leaving Brynn and Ri at the airport, we made our way east towards Sheridan, WY. Now, it is hard not to tawlk like a cowboy when your in this part of the county. It is B-yute-TEE-ful, and 'dem chitlins are gettin purty tired of 'der Mom acting like crazzy cow wawlkin' circles in a yard with no egg-SIT. When Brynnie was here, the two of would go off, so much so that the kids had absolutley no idea what to make of us.

The highlight on Friday was litterally stumbling into the Battle of Little Bighorn. We spent over 2 hours at this national monument. There is a beautiful (or B-yute-TE-ful for ya'll cowboys) native american monument, and a memorial to Custer and all his men who died in the battle. Crazy Horse and Sittlng Bull were the main characters on the warrior side, and over 200 soldiers died. It is unclear how many indians died since their bodies were retreived by their individual tribes. There were a total of three tribes involved in the battle.

We moved on from Bighorn and got into Sheridan around dinner time. The lady at the KAO campground said we must go see the King's Ropes and Sadles in town. So we did. Now, I had to stop my cowboy tawlk because downtown Sheridan gave me the feeling that I could very well have my head blown clean off if I was to act up at all. So I kept my mouth shut like a new jar of jam with a tight lid. Jackson was in 7th heaven in the rope store. Lilly just pouted with jealousy bemoaning the fact she still doesn't have a real horse.

We left the rope store, got back to camp and I promptly ordered a real western dinner of Domino's pizza. Now there were two men in camp that kinda scared me. The first one was in the camp store when I registered. He went on and on, telling me he'd "bin all over lookin' for this fly SWAT-ar, and that he'd bin usin' his G-un to shoot dem flies, but that just left too many holes in his wall!" Okay, so I'm thinking to myslef, "is this guy playing my cowboy game with me???" No, he was for real, so I quite like a rabbit got out of that store and went back to the safety of my RV. Only that wasn't complete safe neither... Man number two comes strolling on over asking, "I seen you on the road. I recognize all dem bikes on the back of your rig. What part of California you from? Figures you from California and ordered Dominos." I say, "San Diego," and he says "well, what part? (real snotty). MIssion Valley, La Jolla, Ocean Beach??" I reply, "near SDSU (now go away)... You seem to know a lot about the area. Did you live there?" "Yes, I was stationed there." "Oh, where were you?" "WELL WHICH TIME ARE YOU TAWLKING ABOUT??" Now, it's pretty obvious to me that I 1) don't care to talk to him, and 2) HOW AM I TO KNOW YOU LIVED THERE MORE THAN ONCE?!!" So I told the kids that the bees are coming to eat their pizza so time to MOVE IN THE RV! The man left. Go figure.

We read some Tom Sawyer, showered, brush teeth and went to bed. During the night we were sarenaded by the lovely sounds of a train near by! And the train wistles lull (and wake) me all night long. One might think that in order to count the cars on a train, a game the kids play when we see them from the road, you would actually have to SEE the train. Not true. Last night I could count the cars just by hearing the click-click, click-click as each car rolled over the track.

Jack and I were up and ready to go by 7. We left the camp, and 'dem strange cowboys, with the girls still sleeping in their beds. Our destination for today, Mt. Rushmore! It was SO windy driving, that it definitley required both hands on the wheel, not one with a beer, for example.

Mt. Rushmore was AMAZING. We were all soo impressed. The memorial was built by 400 workers from 1927-1941. The four chosen presidents are Washington (for the Birth of our nation), Jeffereson (for the Expansion of our nation-Lousiana Purchase), T. Roosevelt (for the Conservation/Development of our nation), and Lincoln (for the Preservation of our nation). Dynamite was used to carve out about 90% of the memorial, and the sculptor was Gutzon Borglum. He worked on the carving for the last 14 years of his life. Each face is 60 feet tall, each eye is 11 feet wide, and the noses are 20 feet long, except Washington's which is 21 feet long.

We spent 3 hours at the park and are going back tonight to retire the colors and light the memorial. After Tuesday, they won't be doing that, so we didn't want to miss it.

So, you should be up to speed. One more thing-I made dinner in the RV and each time I get that pilot light lit (or empty the sewer tank), I feel like POWER WOMAN WHO CAN DO ANYTHING! I swear, each time I light that pilot, I half expect to blow us all up. So far, so good!

Jackson's favorite thing for today:
"My favorite thing about today was learning about the presidents and seeing a mountain goat."

Lilly's:
"My favorite thing today was seeing the rock faces, also called Mt. Rushmore! I also like seeing the mountain goat and making friendship bracelets. But what i didn't like about today was hurting my knee, sliding down a rail."

Sam's:
"My favorite thing was seeing Mt. Rushmore and making freindship bracelets."

Leaving Bozeman/Arrv Sheridan WY

From Sammy:

We left from Bozeman and we dropped Brynnie and Riley at the airport. And then we got on the road. It wasn't that fun. Would you like to know why? Because we really didn't get to do very much stuff besides

And a day of rest

Not much to report today which is a good thing! We all slept late, had an amazing breakfast of Brynn's famous french toast, did school work all morning and into the afternoon, and played in the park. But most notable is Brynn and I had naps! I posted a few more pictures from our time in Yellowstone. And that's about it.

Leaving Yellowstone, Arriving Bozeman, MT

There's much to catch up on since the past few days have gone by quickly-

On Sunday morning, the kids and I enjoyed a beautiful last walk around the gysers and Old Faithful. We had breakfast and watched one last eruption before continuing north through Yellowstone to meet Brynn and Riley. As I drove, Jack listened on the iPod to a "story on tape" from Audible.com. Listening and watching for wildlife made driving very easy!

By the time we met Brynn and Ri in Mammoth Hot Springs, the northern most part of the park, we had seen bison, elk, bald eagles and even the top of a grizzly head (Jack saw it, I didn't). There are a bunch of elk in Mammoth, and as luck would hve it, the BIG BUCK decided it was time to check out the ladies. As he mated, the kids all asked, "what is he DOING???" Not only did we get a front row seat of elk mating, Jackson was also the one to ask at a ranger program in the Grand Tetons, "what does Teton mean?" A very good question, most would agree. The answer is "nipple or tit," named by a frenchman. Poor Jack, his face turned bright red. So, not only do we get the nipple invovled, we also get elk mating. We've covered it all. And Jack actually got a picture of the Buck and his lady friend, but I'm not putting it on the blog. The Buck's name was Lawrence. Get it, Lawrence Elk?

We were thrilled to pick up our fellow passengers and decided to leave Mammoth and drive Brynn and Ri back south to camp at Fishing Bridge. We made dinner and fell asleep with the six of us in the camper laughing. Jack "camped" in the camper and slept on the floor, quite happily, he wanted me to add. Four people fit better than six, but it sure was funny!

It was DARK in the campground, and we were in the forest. After having seen all the wildlife that day, the kids were kind of spooked. Lilly kept thinking a bison or a bear was going to come into the camper. And it was COLD. The low was about 23 degrees, the high was about 45-50 degrees. On Monday morning, they asked if we could go to Bozeman. Brynnie and I didn't mind since the two of us were up on the top bunk and we both could not sleep past 230am. The thought of a bed sounded good to us! We got the weather report and learned that snow showers were expected. "LET'S GO TO BOZEMAN!" was confirmed. The kids all listened to another Audible story while we made pancakes, cleaned up and got ready to drive north.

We arrived at Brynn's very dear friend's house, Tara Bishop. She and her husband, Greg Mortensen (Three Cups of Tea author) have two kids, Amira (12) and Khyber (8). Jackson, Lilly, Sam, Riley, Khyber and Amira all played and played. By the time we were getting to bed, it started to rain. And then it started to thunder and lighening. And then came the hail. I had the kids in the RV, and I was getting ready for bed too when I found that there was another leak in the RV, this time over the cab bed. As I was attempting to stop the leak with all-purpose duct tape, Brynn and Amira came out and insisted we go inside to sleep.

Once again, we were lucky to be with friends when the Big Broken Down Turd sprung a leak. We all crashed on the floor in Tara's living room, grateful to be dry.

Today we woke up to say "have a good day at school Khyber and Amira!," and then the six of us went to the Rockies Museum, which was just a short walk through Montana State University, 8 blocks from Tara's house. It was a great museum, and the kids learned all about Lewis and Clark, dinosaurs (Montana boast the highest number of dinosaur fossils in the US), and how insects help sovle crime scenes. Maggots were a big part of that exhibit, and I was about to vomit. The kids loved it.

We walked home from the museum, ate lunch and did some journaling. Tomorrow I'll get to the hardware store and caulk the leak. It won't be pretty, but it should do the trick.

Thanks for all the calls and emails. I really appreciate the "check-ins" as it doesn't make us feel like we're out floating in space.

Yellowstone!

What a day. I included more pictures since last night I was unable to get them posted.

Jackson and I woke up and ran down to the lake to watch the sunrise on the mountains. It was a cold, crisp, wet morning, and it smelled like Christmas outside. Our plan to see the sunrise was foiled as it was overcast and cloudy. While we didn't see a pink sky, we did see the mountains sticking out of the clouds which was pretty awesome. We got back to the RV as the girls were waking up. Only then did the rain start, for which I was very grateful. Rain gives us the chance to play catch up. We sat in the RV, snuggled in our blankets, ate a little breakfast and spent the morning doing the Jr. Ranger programs. By the time we turned them into the visitor center (and the kids did one last look at the gift shop) it was already noon.

Driving north through the park, we crossed into Yellowstone. It is one big park. Two hours of driving, and we arrived at the Yellowstone Inn and Lodge area. I was told if we go to Yellowstone, we must spend one night at the Inn. Since it was still kind of a rainy day, we grabbed lunch at the cafeteria and from the comfort of our window table, saw Old Faithful go off right on schedule. And then the rain came down! Everyone ran inside and the kids and I went back to the RV. Lunch was at the Lodge, but our room was at the Inn, so we drove over there.

Before going to our room, we walked all along the gysers and saw Old Faithful erupt again. The dark clouds moved in again, and before we knew it, it was a total downpour. Thunder and lightening, hail, all of it! It was fabulous. I told the kids, "now THIS is a night to be staying at an Inn, NOT in our RV!!" They agreed.

The lobby of this historic Inn is breathtaking. It looks a little like The Swiss Family Robinson Tree House. Old, wood log steps wind way up into the rafters, five flights! Guests are only allowed to go up to the 3rd floor. There are huge comfy chairs with a giant fireplace and views all around. We ran through the rain back to the RV to gather our belongings, including school work. Shlepping it up to the 3rd floor, we found a great, big table and spread everything out. For those of you CAL folks, it was like being at that old, cool library with the long tables, which I now can't remember the name.

Anyway, we spent over 2 1/2 hours doing some work and met lots of nice people, including another homeschool family. The girls quickly made friends with their girls and swapped all kinds of stories. Before I knew it, it was 8pm, and we hadn't had dinner. Thankfullly we picked up some sandwiches and brought them back to the room.

Each day we see some amazing sights. And each day I think it can't get better, but it does. Today Sammy said, "Mom, I didn't think I would like this place, but I love it. Thanks so much for bringing us here. I think I want to live here." It doesn't get much better than that.

Grand Teton National Park

I woke up this morning to find that it was my favorite kind of morning outside... very cool and crisp, the perfect fall day. Kids slept in, and we ate breakfast kind of late. After shopping around town, we drove into Teton park.

Words do not do this park justice. It is one of the most beautiful
places I've been, and I think is now my favorite of our trip. As we
entered the park and viewed the mountains for the first time, Iliterally
gasped and got goosebumps. The colors are changing, so the all the
yellow is quite a nice contrast with the blue skies and the mountains.

The kids and I leisurely drove through the park, stopping to take pictures
of any animals. Once in our campground, we ate a late lunch in the RV,
took off our bikes and rode all around. We walked down to the lake,
which is cold like Tahoe, and stopped at the visitor center.

After dinner (mac-n-cheese and broccoli!), we walked down to the ranger
campfire program. By the end, Sam was just about asleep in my lap, and
the big kids crawled easily into bed. Will try and add pictures later--blog thing not working, and I'm done for now.

Wyoming, finally

I'm pooped, so here's the cliff note version of the last 36 hours...kids are sleeping or I'd make them write!
We left Denver yesterday and happily stopped one more time in Evergreen to see an old friend of ours, Julie Antenucci. She and her husband, Ted, were a big part of our moving to Evergreen 10 years ago, so it was great to catch up.

We left Evergreen and drove to Steamboat, smelling burning brakes most of the way. We stopped for lunch in Steamboat (I even cooked lunch in the Big-Broken-down-Turd in the City Market parking lot!), and I called the shop guys. They assured me all was fine with the new brakes, despite the horrible smell and haze.

After lunch we drove to Strawberry Hot Springs which was amazing!! We all had a ball, and it was beautiful. We left Steamboat and 5pm and began driving towards Rock Springs, WY, my layover spot before Jackson Hole. Long story short, we got so lost, on some county road that turned into a dirt road. And when the sun went down, and I didn't have cell coverage, and I had no FU&^%$#@?+@##ING idea where I was going since the road on THE MAP looked just fine, and no one knew WHERE I was, and there was not a soul or a light around for miles, I turned back. I knew how much gas I would need, and how many miles I had gone, so that was that. Half scared out of my mind, we got back to Craig, CO and spent the night.

Today, to make up for lost time, we had to drive 8 hours to Jackson Hole. It was soo worth it. We love it here, and are safe and sound. We went to Town Square and all had a chance to swim and hot tub. Tomorrow we'll have some time in town again before heading into Teton Park. Saturday we head to Yellowstone and meet Brynn and Riley! Can't wait.

Going to bed-

Good New, Bad News

So, it's been an interesting past couple of days. Sunday night we dropped Mike at the airport. The plan was we'd get back the RV on Monday by noon and drive to Steamboat. Well, I got a call Sunday night that the director of Pennies for Peace, Christiane, had to fly out of town on Monday and would not be abble to meet us until Tues. When the kids woke up on Monday, we took a vote. They decided to stay one more night in Denver and go to Evergreen on Tuesday morning. Lilly really wanted to meet her. Swimming and playing with the Pittman kids was a great alternative. Plus it did give me time to get to Costco and restock/clean the RV. I got the RV back Monday afternoon, ready to go, so we thought...

Tuesday morning I wake the kids up and get ready to leave Denver. We say our good-byes and head to Evergreen, CO by 830am to meet P4P director, Christiane. Evergreen is only about 40 minutes from Denver, and it's UP a very steep grade. When I pull off at our meeting place, my left front brake is smoking so badly, that a man in the parking lot comes over to see if we are okay. Clouds of smoke and horrible burning brake smell is coming out of the tire well. But I just have to leave it and meet Christiane.

Christiane was fabulous, and the work she does for Pennies for Peace is so exciting. Lilly, sadly, wasn't feeling well and spent most of the meeting with her head in my lap. But by the end, she was good enough to take a picture with Christiane and Pennies for Peace.

After coffee, I called my RV shop in Denver and asked if they had any ideas as to why my brakes were smoking after going UP hill. They suggested I take it right to a shop and have it looked at. I did, and the consensus was to drive it back down to Denver, straight to the shop. The kids might be done with the "it's just part of the adventure!" line I use when "minor repairs" happen. I'm calling them minor repairs instead of breaking down to make myself feel better...

Krissy came to our rescue, again, and picked us up at the shop. We were hoping to get it by 3, but it wasn't until 5 that it was ready. By the time I could get a ride back over to the shop, load the kids, get gas, it would have been 630pm. It's almost a 4 hour drive to Steamboat, over passes, and in the dark. We elected to be like relatives that never leave, and stay another night in Denver. Doesn't fish stink after 3 days?? Isn't there something like that for house guests?

Here's another funny part--when Krissy took me to the RV, I had told the guys to lock the keys in it as I had a spare. Well, you know where this is going. I got there, found my spare and went to unlock the door. My spare key is for the back door only, different from the passenger and driver door. There are 2 locks on the backdoor. One lock I don't even have a key for. Guess which lock was locked?? Here comes AAA to let me in!

If anyone has seen the movie "RV," the kids in the movie call the RV "the big rolling turd." We are now thinking of changing our name from White Lightening to "the big BROKEN DOWN turd."

If we're lucky, we will make it out of Colorado today. I will drive the kids through Steamboat, stopping for lunch, and then continuing on to Rock Springs, WY.

Could you all just cross your fingers please?

What a weekend

It was an action-packed weekend for us in Denver. Mike flew in on Saturday morning, we had a chance to swim and play Saturday afternoon, took a great walk with the whole group, Saturday night was the Rockies game, Sunday we spent 4 hours at the Nature and Science Museum, we watched a little of the Broncos/Chargers game (go Chargers-we lost), and then Mike flew out tonight. Thankfully, there was a round of kareoke going at Mike's departure time which help to aliviate a few tears. Mike went to say good-bye to Sam and asked if she wanted to walk out to the car with him. She replied, "well Daddy, I would, but it is my turn next to sing." So there you have it. Jackson and I drove Mike out to DIA leaving enough time for Jack to visit his favorite stop, The Great OutDoors Bass store. Quite the hunting/camping/fishing mecca.

It was so nice to be at the Pittmans. They were such kind and generous hosts, and the kids loved being here. They've fed us and helped stock us up for our next leg of the trip. Tomorrow, if the RV is ready, we'll head to Steamboat Springs for two nights. On our way we hope to stop at Pennies for Peace and also see our old house in Evergreen. It was a fabulous time in Denver. THANK YOU PITTMANS!

TGIF!

Well, thank goodness we slept in Krissy and Ray's house last night. We woke up after a night of pouring rain to find that one of the windows in the RV leaks, and it leaks quite a bit. The entire left side of the dinette bench was soaked. Water had leaked in, soaked the seat and even the storage space underneath was very wet. We were lucky it wasn't our bed that night.

The kids and I had a 9am tour reservation at the Denver Mint, so Krissy lent us her car, and off we went, leaving the puddle of water behind.

The Mint was great. We were amazed to learn that at the Denver Mint produces about 2 1/2 million dollars in coins a day! And, the state quarter collection was the most popular collection ever. It was raining as we left the tour, so we ran back to the car and headed back to Krissy's.

I was glad to have a rainy day schedule. It provided just the opportunity to catch up on school. We brought out the books and did some catch up. I was also able to get the RV into a repair shop. Not only is Steve, the nice RV man, fixing my propane problem, but he's also fixing my leak, taking care of my fuel hoses, and changing a number of my fluids. We'll be back on the road (safely) on Monday.

It was also the perfect day to restock the cookie dough. Made quite the batch, I may add. Kids are downstairs singing their hearts away on the karoake. We may just stay in Denver, skip the rest of our trip and super impose pictures on the blog. That was Krissy's idea.

Raining in Denver

We had a great time in Vail yesterday. I tried to coax the kids to do a hike on the mountain, but they wanted to shop. How surprising! We did get our bikes off the RV and rode around town which was fun. On our way out from Vail, we stopped at the Betty Ford Alpine Garden. It was absoultely beautiful. Mom, you would have loved it, and it also made me think of Toni. At 8000 feet, the garden has the highest collection of alpine flowers. There's even a little meditation garden--I tried to get zen there. Next to the garden was the greatest play stucture, even better than the one at Legoland. It was time for motor skill development class.

We loaded up and got over Vail pass just as some rain began to fall. We made one stop in Silverthorne to see an old friend of mine, Jillian, and her husband. Jillian came to the Denver hospital when Jack was born, so it was quite shocking to see how big he is now!

Pulling the RV into the Pittman's driveway in Denver, one would have thought we'd received free passes to Disneyland. The kids were beyond excited to see our dear friends, Ray, Krissy, Lizzie, Jacqui and Tres.

This morning we are going on the Denver Mint Tour which has had great reviews. The kids are all sleeping (in the house!), and it's a little rainy out, which I love. Mike comes tomorrow!!

Leaving UT, arriving CO

On our way out from Moab, we stopped at Utah State Park, Dead Horse Pt. Mike's brother, Dave, suggested we go there, and it was well worth the time. It was an amazing outlook. Legend has it a group of old cowboys coraled a heard of horsed out to this small, precarious point. Then they selected the horses they wanted, blocked the remaining horses out on this point (the narrow pass is only 30 yards wide, 2000 feet down), and left. The horses left behind died of thirst, starring down at the Colorado River, 2000 feet below. The girls both asked, "WHY WOULD COWBOYS DO THAT??!!" Jackson just remained silent...

We made our best time yet driving to Vail. It was so nice to get here, as it is a bit of home for me. Not only did Mike and I live in Colorado, but 17 (??) years ago, Heidi and I lived in Vail. It was close to dinner when we arrived. It feels like fall here, cool and crisp, my favorite weather. Sam said it smells like Christmas trees.

The only campground in town was closed for the season... so we ended up at the Vail Holiday Inn. I tried to convince the kids to sleep in a parking lot, but turns out Vail is not at all RV friendly!!

But we're happy, clean bed, bath tub and a little time with cartoons.

Last night in Moab

From Jackson:
this trip has been a great experrience for me. But so far I htink Moab is going to be the best. I think it's the best because out of everything, there is arches, hummer tours, bike rides, hiking, and at this campground, fishing for minnows. the Grand Canyon was pretty spectacular but Moab, overall, has been more exciting.

Today we visited Arches. if you're thinking about a family trip, go there. You can climb on most of the arches and see where Indiana Jones was filmed. If you go to the movie about Arches (in the Visitor Center), you'll hear that old bank robber gangs and train thieves would hide out in Canyonlands. The hid there because the marshalls and sheriffs weren't familiar with the area. And the bank robbers knew the area so could hide really well.

The slick rock hummer tour would be any kids favorite moment on a vacation. Teh history of Moab and Arches and Canyonland is so big, it's hard to take it all in at once. The End.

From Sammy:
H,i I am Sammy, and this is our big adventure. We're going around the US and we're going to go to 16 states and 1 country. And my Mom, Gretchen, is homeschooling us for 3 months. We are going around the US in an RV. It's going to be very fun. Except the homework isn't that fun. But that's how it's going to be. My favorite state has been I think Utah. It has been the most fun. And I'll tell you all the stuff that we have been doing. It is swimming, seeing our babysitter, her name is Liana, and then we saw Hoover Dam and we saw this most great campground. The name is Portal RV. It's in Moab. Also we catched minnows and we caught a frog.
From, Sammy

Arches Nat'l Park

From Lilly:
By the pond near our campsite, there are frogs and minnows. I caught a frog in a bucket except it jumped out. The frog was brown and very small. Okay, that's all.

from RoadMom:
Besides trying to catch frogs and minnows, we did go and see Arches Nat'l Park. It was awesome and the kids were very impressed by the size of it all. We had some overcast skies and some wind which made it more exciting. We were in the park for about 4 hours, then drove into town for lunch and more shopping--they can't seem to get enough. Back in camp, we ordered Dominos, did some school work, and headed back out to catch frogs and minnows. They might be as impressive as the arches.

Moab part 2

Had some technical difficulties adding some pictures to the last post... here are a few from today.

Moab

From Sammy:
I liked the hummer tour that we went on. And I liked swimming at our new campground. My favorite thing about Moab is we got to go and see a real dinosaur footprint, and we saw petroglyphs. Those are back in the old days when indians wrote on rocks. First they burnt the rock, and I think they used rocks to make the pictures. Thank you, from Sammy ( I am five and a half).

From Lilly:
I had a bunch of fun in the hummer today. The instructor was really nice. We got to go fast and it was really fun. I learned that we were under water, that Moab was covered by the ocean. It was really cool seeing the dinosaur footprints. When we got back, we went to the the swimming hole and to the pool. I was trying to catch frogs at the pond. That's all.

We love Zion!

Not too much time to post tonight--kids wanted to but they are writing in their journals.
We had an amazing day today, hiking in Zion park in a place call the Narrows. It's a river walk, and the kids loved it.

It's 80 degrees tonight, and we're sitting at our campground picnic table, doing a little school time before bed. Sam had us all in giggles while riding the Zion shuttle tonight. I think the whole bus was amused.

Tomorrow we leave for Moab. It should take us about 6 hours. The kids will try and post while I drive. Jack just said, "can I go to bed? I am soo tired!" Ah, the sign of a good day!

Loving Zion

After leaving St. George, we drove about 3 hours to our next stop. We had an absolutely amazing time at the Grand Canyon, North Rim. Because we broke down and lost one night, we maximized our time at the canyon. Once we got the campground, we quickly unloaded the bikes and rode down the the Grand Canyon Lodge and Rim. We walked along a pretty precarious trail out to the view point. The kids were awe struck by the size, as was I. We stopped at the visitor center and picked up the Jr. Ranger booklets for the kids and rode back to the RV. Speaking of the RV...

I think we incurred some other damages to the RV from our tow in St. George. I seem to be without propane gas and my fridge went out. No more food that is good to eat in the fridge! The greatest loss was the cookie dough... have to restock on that in Denver.

We spent our one night at the canyon listening to a great ranger program. The kids all filled out their booklets and became "Jr. Rangers," taking a pledge and all.

In the morning, I drove them (still in their beds) down to the Rim 545am. I thought we should all watch the sunrise. They were very happy to do it, and it took our breath away.

After breakfast we drove to another rim view, Cape Royal, for one last visit. It was even more amazing than what we had seen earlier.

We are now in Zion and have decided to stay 2 nights instead of one. The pace of just 'one night stands' is a bit much for us all. We'll be in Moab tomorrow and will stay 3 nights. We've decided to change course and skip southern Col. for now. From Moab we'll hit Vail and then into Denver.

Kids will post this afternoon. They are doing great, shopping in the gift shop. We haven't had internet or cell coverage since the canyon, so we'll update when we can.

Happy Trails!

Well, the inevitable has happened!

We had a great morning at Hoover Dam. It is an amazing site. There's enough concrete in the dam to build a 4ft. wide sidewalk around the equator of the earth. And it weighs about the same as 18 Empire St. Buildings!

From Hoover, we headed N. on Interestate 15 towards the Grand Canyon. We made it over this steep grade and began going down into St. George, UT. Coming down, I lost power and couldn't accelerate. I was losing speed and was able to coast down far enough to reach a safe spot to pull over. It was a bit scary, as I had to get over and cut off a semi to do it. Kids jumped into action, were buckled up, and took it as well as I could.

We got a tow to St. George, only about 6 miles. Looks like it's the fuel pump, and we hope to be on the road tomorrow. The good news is it happened going down the grade and not up. The tow truck came right away, the guys at the shop were very nice, the Days Inn only cost $50, AND there's a Denny's across the street to boot! We'll post pictures tomorrow, as my camera is locked in the RV at the shop.

My take is this was bound to happen and now it has. Should be smooth sailing from here on out!

Okay, off to dinner at Denny's. Then we all get a clean shower. Also a bonus!

We did it!

Day 1 is under our belt, we were very excited! After an amazing send-off party at the Fortunes, we spent our last night in San Diego having an RV picnic dinner with Mike at Lake Murray. We finished all our packing and left on Tuesday morning at 10. The drive to Vegas went pretty smoothly. My favorite part of the day was glancing back over my shoulder to see that Lilly and Sam had put the couch down, snuggled back with their pillows and were reading books. Jackson was sitting at the dinette reading his homework. Pretty great! We sang songs, watched 4 very long trains go by, and arrived at our friend's, Liana, house seven hours later. Using some of our gas gift cards, (thanks everyone!!) we made it in just one gas stop. Liana and Bradon prepared a great dinner for us, and the kids and I slept in the RV parked on the street. It was a great first day.