The lake that disappeared

Wisconsin Dells reminded us all strongly of Pigeon Forge, TN where we stopped to visit Dollywood.  An Itty bitty town with a huge tourist aspect.  Right on the shore of Lake Delton which has recently disappeared.  )  After dinner last night, we woke up early (for the Irey’s LOL) in Sherwood Forest Campground and headed out to scout out some breakfast and then off the Tommy Bartlett Exploratorium. 

We found Denny’s Diner a corner street with a huge sign for famouns cinnamin rolls and we knew we had to stop.  Denny’s Diner is like walking into the local Mayberry diner.  There was signs for the upcoming Big Bopper concert next to poster advertizements for the Pickaninny Paper (definitely not politically correct :0) with a balancing bear on a highwire going through the center of the diner right next to the phone booth where you  could see Superman changing.  Our whole crew took two tables as per our usual.  As we sat down, the couple behind us with two children, one boy and one girl (my guess is that they had a dog too) looked at us and the father started reminiscing about camp days and all the fun he had with this friends.  Realizing that her husband was referring to us, the wife leaned over the table to him and whispered, “honey that is all ONE family!!”  LOL The change on his face was delightful!  I took a bite of my famous cinnamin roll to keep from laughing out loud.

After our delicious breakfast, we headed off to the exploratory.  If you are ever in the Dells, you must stop here.  There are 150 hands on activities for folks of all ages and it kept us occupied for almost three hours of discovery and fun.

After touring the Russian Miur, we loaded up in our chocolate RV and off we went on the final leg of our journey home.  As we traveled, we realized that the AC and the satellite TV was dysfunctional at home and wondered again why we were coming home again.   But summer hockey camp was calling and so we decided to stick to the plan.  Sigh…  :0) 

After a quick four hours on the road, we pulled up into our driveway.  We were back to our home without wheels at last.  As I walked through the house, I couldn’t help but wonder why we needed SO much space and SO MUCH stuff!!  It is amazing how living in 100 square feet for two months will change your perspective.  LOL    Quenti started unpacking immediately – everything he owned went back in the house without wheels.  Julia wanted to know if she could still sleep in the RV.  Since the AC was out, Q and I and Lukie actually spent yet another night in the RV!  :0) 

We decided to pick up dinner one last time.  As we headed back home, a gentleman pulled up next to us with an awful frown on his face looking angry and frustrated.  Q mentioned wryly that he might need a relaxation session and as he pulled away we noticed he was from – where else?? – Illinois!  LOL 

Signing off in real life overwhelm…  :0)

 

Rebecca

Ohio, Indiana, Illinois??? Oh My!!

So as we headed out with Grammy’s cute li’l RV following us home, it occurred to me that we would have to pass through … ILLINOIS … on our way to the Dells.  As you know, our experiences in the Land of Lincoln have been less than pleasant.  As we traversed the Indiana Pike towards the Illinois border, the clouds threatened ominiously and rain began to pelt our windshield.  We had set Grammy with a walkie talkie so we could communicate to us without being on the phone.  As we crossed the border, she called us to let us know she had received her first “Illinois raspberry”.  Whew that didn’t take long!! After treading gingerly through Chicago traffic, some hair raising gas station experiences, we all let out a huge WHOOHOOO GOD when we crossed the border into Wisconsin!

Today turns out to be our 13th wedding anniversary.  So we decided to go out for a nice dinner.  And…although the Wisconsin Cheese Factory was tempting we decided to head for the River’s Edge Pub & Grub instead.  The restaurant was (of course) right at the river’s edge so we hung out on the bank of the river until our table was ready.  As we waited for our food, the family taking the two tables next to us were having an impassioned discussion about Barack Obama and Jesse Jackson.  I realized with a giggle that I couldn’t remember the last time that there had been a heated political discussion that I wasn’t a part of of!  Dinner was very nice and we headed back to the campground to say good night to Grammy for the last time.  She had decided to head back to MN first thing in the morning and we were going to stay and play for a bit before heading back to the house.  Tears were shed as said goodbye to Grammy after two months of traveling together.  We had a fabulous time with her and made memories to last a lifetime.  Thanks Grammy for being a great traveling buddy!

~Mama

A new rig for Grammy

In our conversations about spending more time learning about history and traveling the country, Quentin and I started doing some research on new lines of RVs that have come out since we bought ours two years ago.  Turns out, they have a line of RVs now that sleep 10 and come with bunk beds.  Interesting.  We decided to make our final stop Martinsburg, PA where was a dealership that carried the Gulfstream Supernova. 

As this was Linda’s second year traveling with us, she decided she would like to look at a little rig of her own and this dealership had some of those too.  Soooo we headed out of Gettysburg two hours up the road to Martinsburg, PA.  When we arrived we started with rigs for Grammy.  The first one was 23 feet long which was a good size but … our li’l Grammy couldn’t reach the cupboards!  No go. We couldn’t seem to find the perfect fit for her.

We took a look at the Supernovas which are about 5 feet longer than our Seneca for a total of 40 feet long.  Definitely more room that would give both Rachel and Lukie their own bunk and hopefully the rest of the family some peace.  We took a look at everything on their lot but it turned out the one we would really be interested in wouldn’t be back until Monday (we arrived on Saturday).  Soooo, we headed over to Altoona to spend the weekend. 

The first campground we stayed in was a nice little place but it had no amenities such as playground or pool.  However, there was a group of retired full time RVers getting together there.  It was fun to talk to them about how to do life on the road and we spent all of the next day playing games at the pavilion.  It was fun to pull out some of the history games I had picked up and hear comments like, “I know what the McLead house is – we were there – that is where General Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox!!”  I guess some of what we are seeing is sinking in – whoohooo! 

Again, I am struck with what fun it is to just be with my family.  Even without gadgets, pools or playgrounds and living in a space smaller than our living room at home, I am loving real getting to know my children and play with them and letting them get to know  their mama in a way that isn’t always possible when there is always an activity, a playdate, or the old standby “go play in your room for awhile”.  I love seeing each little personality develop and seeing how different each one is.  What interesting people they are!  How blessed I am!

When we headed back to the RV shop there was a little RV parked in the front that Grammy took a shine to.  I went in and asked the salesman – how much for that one – my MIL likes it.  He shared with me that it had been ordered for a customer who didn’t want it now and that it might be available.  Hmmmm ….  sounds good to us!

Grammy took it for a spin and although she realized it would take a bit of getting used to.  She liked it!  Whoohoo!  The dealership offered to sell it to her at cost (WOW WOW WOW) soooo Grammy had a new RV!  She would be following us home from PA rather than riding with us!  Yay!

While we waited for her RV to be ready, we had breakfast at a place called Mamie’s.  It was Fabulous!!  If you are ever within 100 miles of Altoona, PA, you HAVE to stop in at Mamie’s.  It is the best home cooking we have had in two months and hands down the best food in PA!

We are going to make one more stop at Wisconsin Dells on the way home and then finally on to Minnesota!

~Mama

Bliss

So we did the auto tour today which is basically a $20 CD you buy at the gift shop that you plug into your car and it tells you where to drive and what you are driving by.  The Battlefield is huge (6600 acres) and it took some time to go through and we now put new meaning into things like “Fish hook defense” and “Pickett’s charge”.  

When we came back to the campground, I took all of the children to the pool.  There was an interesting family on the other side of the pool.  They had a teenage son proudly sporting a cap that said “Keeping the Yanks in the North since 1865″.  :0)   As I watched the children swim, I couldn’t help overhearing a bit of the conversation which made me giggle.  The father was complaining about one of the tourists he had come across today.  Apparantly, it was a “yank” family touring the battlefield and at one of the stops one of the children said to the mother, “I don’t understand Mama why didn’t the soldier just hide behind all of these monuments?”  LOL  I had a hard not falling out of my chair!

Lukie has decided he wants to go in the pool too.  He is almost one year old – though not yet sleeping through the night grrrr – so I am watching him play with Quenti in the pool as the warm Pennsylvania sun warms us, intermittently reading a book called Property (fiction and good so far though a bit dark for my tastes).  I am struck with how good God is.  How incredible that He has blessed us with this astounding piece of artwork we call Earth and given us the unbelievable gift of each other.   It is so easy for me to get caught up in getting lessons done, the house clean, the insanity of frighteningly liberal Minnesota politics that seem to pervade life sometimes that the gorgeous glow that permeates all of God’s creation fades out of my line vision.  But now, watching my children play, hearing my baby giggle and splash, I feel my vision refocusing to those things that are truly important and I want to savor each moment connected and memorizing each minute detail of this moment. 

Love from Gettysburg,

Rebecca

Harrisburg … Not

Our original plan was to head out of Philly and spend a day in Harrisburg and then down to Gettysburg for two days before starting the trek home.  Now, of course you all know, Harrisburg is the capital of PA so of course they would be inviting to tourists right?  NOT.  No campground within 20 miles of Harrisburg soooo we’ll just go ahead and camp in Gettysburg, rent a car and drive to Harrisburg.  We checked in late and went to check in the next morning.  Asking my usual questions, I asked the lady what she recommended that we see in Harrisburg and she looked at me oddly and said “uh, why would you want to go there?”  The gentleman from Enterprise agreed that Harrisburg was a big fat yawn soooo two days in Gettyburg it is. 

Today we went to the visitor center/Gettysburg museum/theater.  It was fabulous.  I always think of Gone with the Wind and Dances with Wolves and North and South when I think of the Civil War and somehow it always seem like a such a romantic war.  You might agree…until you go through the LIncoln Museum or the Gettysburg Museum and see the brutality, almost one million casualties, brother fighting brother, there is actually nothing romantic about it, it is just heart rending.  The phrase “Washington the Father and Lincoln the Savior” has a whole new depth of meaning.  Even the children are sobered.

Rachel probably had the best insight of the day.  Seems like a lifetime ago that we visited the Lincoln museum in Springfield.  When I realized that the only anti-slavery candidate on the 1860 presidential election ticket was Lincoln, a Republican, and that the two Democrats running and the Independent were all pro-slavery, I was surprised.   It struck me that the majority of the African American population today votes Democrat and how could that be when it was the Republicans that were the driving force behind ending slavery.  When I asked the gentleman at the museum why he thought that was, his response was “well, we all know the Republican party isn’t what it used to be”.

So today at the Gettysburg museum we watched a film about the end of Civil War when the Republicans pushed through Reformation and tried to bring African Americans into an equal status in America but when the Democrats gained control Reformation was set aside and segregation and “separate but equal” became the status quo creating a welfare state and a huge population of dependents on the government.  As we were leaving Rachel said to me, “I finally get the irony of the man’s statement.  The Republican party may not be what it used to be but the Democrat party is.” 

Tomorrow we will do the auto tour of the battlefield.  It was a fascinating and sobering day.  How blessed we are to live in the United States of America, united and rooted in liberty regardless of how far it may feel like we have strayed sometimes from the founding fathers vision.  We are truly unbelievably blessed.  Whoohooo God!!

~ Mama

Irey of the Tiger

The day started bright and early with yet another trip to an aquarium in our search for the “perfect” aquarium. You know, an aquarium that is not sad and you don’t feel bad for the animals and fishes because they are so crowded in or obviously uncared for. I think we came pretty close this time. The Adventure Aquarium in Camden, NJ, is just that an adventure. You can touch the sharks and sting rays and be weighed on the shark scales (yeah, mama didn’t really appreciate that one but the children loved it!) All the tanks are open at the top so you can actually see the fish in the water rather than having to press your face against the glass. The penguins were a bit sad and mottled looking and the seal tank was murky BUT I could hardly remember any of that when we got the to hippo tank. Yes they had hippos!

I was going to do the usual walk by and “oh that’s a hippo – neat” and walk on but Lukie wasn’t having any of that. He wanted to go right up to the glass in his stroller. So I took him right next to the tank and tipped his stroller up so he could reach to touch the tank. Within moments a huge mama hippo (not me), pressed her face against the other side of the glass checking him out. She stared at him intently and then jumped up to the surface for air and came right back down to continue her mind meld with Lukie. She must have repeated that process 20 times before she finally swam away. It was the most amazing thing to watch!

What do you have to do in Philly? Get your picture taken with the Rocky statue and run up the steps to the Philadelphia Art Museum of course!! And we did. Unbelievably we had to wait our turn too! Picture first and then up the endless (yes they do feel endless) steps to the art museum. They come in sections and I couldn’t see one section of steps from the next so Noah and I went up together and he would ask me is that all and I would say “just one more honey you can do it” only to see yet another group! Whew! But we made it! If I can still do that when I am Sly’s age, I will be doing pretty good I figure.

We drove around the building in philly with William Penn on the top. Rachel swore it was designed much like the Louvre in Paris. It really was beautiful! From there we had a nice lunch and headed out towards Harrisburg – the capital of PA.

Would definitely do Philly again (with a rental car :0) there was TONS we didn’t see but would like to!

~Mama

A Quacktastic Day

We had asked several campground people if we should rent a car since we were going into Philly. They ALL assured us that if we just parked at Penn’s Landing we could walk to anything we wanted to see. We all looked at them skeptically but trusted the advice of the locals.

The New Jersey campground had directions to Penn’s Landing which we followed. THe first time we drove on the 200 year old coblestone streets with cars parked on either side it was stress full but we made it. Now dont ask me why the campground sent us on these narrow roads. But as I said the first time was fine, it was the second time around that was a mess. You see the first time we took a wrong turn and missed the landing. So we went on the narrow roads again.

We were on a tiny street and we needed to make a left hand turn. Little did we know that there was a delivery van parked illegally in front of a fire hydrant. No the RV did not hit the van. A bike on our rack hit the vans mirror and tore it off.

So mommy jumped out and we headed towards the parking. We stopped next to a trolley and I jumped out and asked the driver where we should park. They told me where and we just sat and waited for mommy to make it back. When she did we drove down to the parking lot.

The lady that was supposed to take our money just shook her head and told us that they didnt have room. Then another lady came up and was saying we were to big no room. Mommy was like ‘We only take up two spots, we will pay for two spots’. But alas they were sure they had no room for us. So we grinned and headed for another lot thinking up all the choice words we had for the people who told us that philly was RV friendly.

Finally we found another lot but we had to take a taxi back to the visitors center. *Rolls eyes* But we still made it to the visitors center. We decided to take the duck for a tour of the city. I know ducks dont eat cheese but wow was that tour cheesy. We even got quackers that made you want to jump into the river. Even through all that it was very interesting and we learned a lot of interesting facts.

After the duck tour we headed off to see the liberty bell and independence hall. Which we both amazing. Standing in independence hall gave me chills. Just thinking about what happened there and seeing the chair the George Washington sat in, the one with the rising sun. It was awesome. After that we headed back home and enjoyed a spagetti dinner.

-Rachel

How do you make a Crayon Mama?

DC was absolutely fabulous! On the 5th we slept late with a plan to head out to Philadelphia. As we prepared to get on the road after a week, I kept hearing distantly the prettiest guitar music. I figured that someone somewhere left a radio on…. Alrighty, the Irey’s are ready we jump in the cab to start things up and….nothing…hmmm….try again….nothing….oh dear….we’ve been to this movie before. :0) As I walked around to the drivers side, I noticed a long haired gentleman softly playing the guitar. OMG! I said has that been you all morning. Now for those of you who have seen King of the Hill – ya know that guy who you have a hard time understanding? Okay, this guy was that guy only with long hair. What he said went something like this, “well nah thn lil lady yeah thas me, godda lil blue grass group heah from Dothen, AL an we got in purty late lass nite. do ya nee sum help theah now lil gal?” Took me a sec to translate but I got it eventually and he turned out to be one of the nicest neighbors we had, helped us jump the truck and everything.

We finally made it on the road and headed towards Philly. Now only a camper can appreciate pulling into a new campground. When we pull into a new campground it is like being the new kid in the 5th grade public school. Everyone and I do mean every single man woman and child stops and watches every move you make, from pulling up to the office, jumping out to check in, pulling in to your sight, how many children come out, you are watched with laser like intensity. And sure enough, this campground was probably the most intense yet, this campground was a resort where people go to spend the whole summer so they all knew each other and wanted to know who the new kid was. *smile* It’s nice to be famous! teeheee

So turns out we were just up the road from the Crayola Factory, purportedly one the best tours in the country. And I would agree, we had a great time writing on the walls and making our own Crayola creations and Noah even got one of the newest Crayola colors “Macaroni and Cheese”! Whoohooo!

Then just to make the day complete we hit the Pez Museum – yes, there really is a museum dedicated only to Pez. I think it might be run by that guy – you know the one – single guy with a room in his house or apartment dedicated to his toys – yeah that guy – decided to set up a Pez Museum. It was a neat 10 minute stop.

And the best part….it was right next door to the Purple Cow Creamery. The children all got Dirt and Worm Sundaes ( I will leave that delicious creation to your imaginations) and the children were suitably impressed when the ice cream artist rang the cow bell for Papa’s Purple Cow Sundae which has chocolate raspberry truffles and hot fudge with raspberry ice cream whipped cream and a cherry on top – of course! :0)

Thus ended our first day in Philadelphia – kind of …. We headed toward the closest campground to Philly to spend the next night which was – where else? – in Clarksboro, New Jersey!

~Mama

The Fourth Of July

At around six thirty in the morning I woke up and headed out to start loading our rented mini van with our chairs and umbrellas. I packed up lunch drinks and everything we would need. Then I ran through the shower before it began to sprinkle outside.

I started getting impatient around eight o clock. So I woke mommy up and eventually everybody else started rolling around and waking up. We all got dressed loaded everything else into the van and headed towards Washington DC.

We got there and started trying to figure out where we should park in order to be ask close to the Washington monument as possible. But of course all the roads were blocked off because of the parade. We finally spotted a parking place in front of the National Museum of Native Americans. So we unloaded the things from the car and loaded them onto our two ten dollar strollers.

After we walked for a while we decided that our spot was not as sweet as we had thought. So Mommy Papa, Lukas, and Bella went back to the van and looked for a better stop. While the rest of us kept our steady march to the Washington Monument. We arrived around fifteen minutes later and parked ourselves by the entrance and waited for the rest of our crew. Finally another fifteen minutes they arrived and we picked what we were later told was a ‘primo’ spot for watching the fireworks.

After we settled all our stuff under our trees, we headed for the parade route. We got there and waited….and waited. Finally we got some ice cream and then waited some more. AFter around thirty minutes we finally spotted the beginning of the parade. It was baking outside, and there was no shade. We were packed in like sardines and getting bored. So when Bella said she had to go to the bathroom, we decided it was time to go back to our spot.

We got some lunch and then everybody took a nice nap in the shade of our trees. After our naps everybody except Grammy and Papa headed off to take a tour of the monuments. First we walked the six blocks to the Lincoln monument. It was amazing. When you look up into his face you can almost believe that your actually standing next to him. Except for the fact that he is around twenty times you size

After that we wanted to go see the Jefferson monument. On the way we saw the korean war memorial and the FDR memorial. The Korean War memorial was amazing. there was a huge wall with etchings of people and soldiers, it was beautiful. The FDR memorial was huge, and as we walked through it rain began to pour down on us. We grinned and kept walking around the basin towards the Jefferson memorial. The view of the Washington monument was amazing as we walked around the basin.

The Jefferson monument was great even through the rain. I got my picture with the huge statue and then we left heading back towards the washington monument. When we got there we ordered pizza from the patroling domino’s man. After about twenty minutes he came back and gave us our four pizzas. Then he informed us that our pizza cost us seventy dollars. We rolled our eyes and enjoyed the most expensive, disgusting pizza we had eaten.

Then it was just waiting time. Waiting for the fireworks. When they started we all agreed that they were well worth the wait. they were breath taking and didnt even compare to any fireworks we had ever seen before. Even though the fireworks only lasted about twenty minutes the day was well worth it just to see them. We all decided that we would most definitly do this again even if we had to spend another day in the hot hot sun.

When we finally arrived back at the RV we unrolled our beds and curled up, exhausted and thouroughly happy.

-Rachel

The White House and Wall-E

The next dawned bright and clear. In preparation for the Fourth of July festivities, Quentin wanted us to rent a car so I picked it up and Quentin offered to drive us down to the White House which was our first planned stop for the day and there was no really close Metro stop. Shockingly, (she says tongue in cheek :0) when we got with sight of the White House there wasn’t a really good drop off area. So we stopped and Rachel and I jumped out but before anyone else could get out, some serious looking person with dark sunglasses waved Quentin on. So off they went without us…. We caught up about a block later and off we went to the White House.

We got as close as we could get and took our pictures and headed off to the National Aquarium. One word for the National Aquarium – ewwww. I had a sneaking suspicion when I realized it shared a building with the Department of Commerce that it might not be exactly what we were expecting. Nuff said.

From there we headed over the Ronald Reagan building and saw a piece of the Berlin Wall. The children were amazed that the communists Mama is always talking about really did exist and built a wall to keep their people from escaping. :0) We had lunch at the Ronald Reagan building and realized so much of the day had gotten away from us that we weren’t going to have enough time for the Newseum which I had never heard of but sounded super cool.

Sooooo as our next best option we headed down the street to check out the FBI Building and the Department of Justice. Turns out we couldn’t get into those building so we took awesome pictures of our future lawyer :0) and headed back to the Old Post Office Pavilion. Beautiful building but uh…not alot to do other than shop at touristy shops. We were so spoiled by the shoe store we went to at Union Station – I mean really how made times do you find a shoe store salesman that just intuitively pulls out a pair of shoes that your 16 year old just loves?!? Anyway touristy shops lost a bit of their charm sooooo

we headed over to a movie theater to see Wall-E – hey we were in DC what else would you do but see a movie right?? It was cute – the children had a great time and then we called it a day and headed back home.

The next day several children woke up under the weather and since we knew the next day was gonna be a long on (the 4th) we decided to put off the planned sightseeing for that day and hang out at the RV and play and chill out. It was sooo nice to just hang out with my family and reflect on the blessings of the summer.

I picked that day to hit my husband with my latest bombshell of an idea – no, I am not pregnant :0) – but, I think I would like to be a full timer. We work on the internet for heavens sake why couldn’t we travel the US with the children? What better way to learn? I rambled on for about 5 minutes about how wonderful it would be and then forced my mouth to close, held my breath and looked up in sheepish hopefulness at my darling husband who said… I think that might work honey but we would need a new RV to do it. Let me pray about it and see where I think we might be led. Whooooopieee! It’s not a for sure but it wasn’t a no!

Signing off with my heart in my chest looking forward to the 4th and the new (potential) adventure ahead of us!

~ Mama