Mark Twain, Abe Lincoln and The Creation

This week we have been making our way back toward North Carolina, and while we planned to “make tracks” while stopping to see a few things, we’ve found that the “few things” were worth seeing for more than an hour or two. To make up the time, we’ve had to stay in a Wal-Mart parking lot twice (due to traveling so late), which is always a bit comical. In the last post, I mentioned the weedeaters… well, at our stop in Indianapolis, we were serenaded by the sound of 18-wheel truck idling nearby in the parking lot only to be replaced by the city buses that evidently begin their daily runs in this parking lot, too.

The two stops that have extended our trip a bit were Hannibal, Missouri; Springfield, Illinois; and Cincinnati, Ohio. In Hannibal, we visited Mark Twain’s boyhood home, which was very well presented. The museum, along with his actual home, the homes of Becky Thatcher and Huck Finn, his dad’s place of work, and a few other noteworthy sites were full of relicts, photos, and, of course, Twain’s famous sayings. The kids realized how good they have it when they saw pictures of Tom being whipped by his school teacher. We took a riverboat ride that everyone enjoyed, too. Hannibal had a lot of fantastic shops and antique stores that we would have loved to visited had it not been for the kids.

Next, we headed to Springfield, Missouri, to see the Lincoln Presidential Museum, which far outpaced our expectations. New in 2002, this was a state-of-the-art museum that did a beautiful job of telling the story of Abraham, Mary, their children, and the politics of the time. Unfortunately we did not budget enough time to see the entire museum along with his home (which has been preserved) and the inside of his tomb, which was equally impressive. We did see his law office and the state capitol building of his time. Springfield also is worth another visit… I’m hoping to find a super saver fair to Springfield to come back and see everything, and maybe without the kids! They are so funny in museums – they get so tired of us stopping to read the displays. I guess I would, too, if I were six!

The kids were able to dress up like Abe and his family, which I would have liked to do. Cameron indicated that he was NOT going to smile for the picture; I think he has picked up on the fact that no one is smiling in "old-fashioned" pictures. My grandmother once said it was because they didn't have much to smile about back then. After this picture, he asked Hannah to sit down next to him, like Mary Todd sat next to Lincoln in the Ford Theatre. Then he instructed me to shoot him, but only when he gave the cue. The two of them sat down, and after a few quiet moments, he said, "Ok, you can shoot me now." I'm not sure that it happened that way in real life... but I followed his orders, firing a pointer finger into his head and uttering pow, at which time he proceeded to fall on the floor dead. I think the kids are learning some history!

Yesterday we went to Cincinnati, Ohio, to see the new Creation Museum, which opened in May. It was interesting, to say the least. For once during this trip I find myself at a loss for words as not to offend the believers or the non-believers. For those who tend to lean in the direction of the literal interpretation of the Bible, it’s worth the trip. The museum was packed with people.

Last night we spent the night in one of the nicest campgrounds we’ve encountered: The Kentucky Horse Park near Lexington. Wow, some of our previous stops could take a lesson. Today we will travel to Mount Airy, then continue home early Sunday to celebrate Ron’s 41st birthday. I know he will be glad to see us!

See everyone back in town. J

Mount Rushmore

With more than 2000 miles logged, we finally made it to Mount Rushmore and the Custer State Park near Keystone, South Dakota. Every red-blooded American should take some time in his or her life to see Mount Rushmore -- it is the most patriotic thing I've done since being a part of Ronald Reagan's inauguration in 1984.

The kids were so excited to see "the Presidents' heads," and while they have very little life experience to know what they were seeing, we all agreed that they had some sense of the pride we have in being Americans, by having such revered leaders with tremendous forthought. It never occurred to me before now, but George Washington had NO IDEA how big the North American continent was when he served as president. Thomas Jefferson had an idea (he commissioned the Lewis & Clark expeditions), but he never ventured past the Blue Ridge Mountains himself.

Back to Mount Rushmore. The "heads" are much higher on the mountain than we expected. The sculptor, knowing that WWI British soldiers practiced their shooting on the Sphinx, wanted them high so it would be a lot of trouble for future generations to deface them. We were there in the evening and watch the sun set behind the sculpture before disappearing into the night, only to be majestically lit at the close of a program that included all vets and service people introducing themselves on a stage before a packed amphitheatre.

In addition to seeing Rushmore, we also visited the Crazy Horse Memorial, which is a mammoth sculpture that's been underway since the 40s, and the Custer State Park, home to bison, prairie dogs (big rat/squirrel-type animals), and the black-footed feret. We dodged Sturgis bikers left and right, and this guy stopped in the middle of my picture. Check out his biker babe on the back!

We got a little lazy in Keystone... maybe because we were road weary, maybe because of the high altitudes. With several things left to do, we cut our losses and took in Jewel Cave, the second longest cave in the world. Well, no jewels, and we all agreed now that we don't need to see another cave. We did get a kick out of the ranger who guided us though the tour who thought he was funny, but he wasn't. I called him, "Ranger Ding Dong," which the kids thought was hysterical. Now we cannot get them to stop saying it, which could be a problem if they decide to attach the name to a teacher or a kid somewhere down the road. I will not include a photo of Ranger Ding Dong to protect the innocent.

We pulled out of Keystone on Monday and drove about 350 miles to Nebraska... somewhere in Nebraska... and slept in a Wal-Mart parking lot for the second time during this trip. I need to get a picture of us there. We love to shop at Wal-Mart during these stops... our kids are so dirty and bruised from playing, with bandaids hanging off their legs, ankles and feet that I fear social services will come knocking at our trailer door each morning. On this particular Wal-Mart morning, however, we were awoken to the sound of weed-eaters attacking the grass in the Wal-Mart parking lot islands. At least we had bread and other provisions from Wal-Mart, however... we have been hard pressed to find grocery stores out here. They are not on every corner like they are at home. No CVS and Walgreens competing for business on opposing corners, either.

Last night we got so excited about the prospect of another "great" campground in Hannibal, Missouri. I have not had a chance to upload photos yet, so I'll leave you to imagine what we found when we got there... more tomorrow or the next day...

The Badlands

This is the second new post (the last one covered five days and was getting long), so be sure to read that post before reading this one... (if you can't see it, look under August for "Wisconsin...")

Tuesday we arrived in the Badlands of South Dakota, just in time for a marvelous sunset drive through the weathered buttes that look like giant sandcastles lining a prairie sea. The word "surreal" doesn't even begin to describe these lunar-like hills that took millions of years to build up, then erode in the dry, windy west.

The setting sun cast a pinkish hue on what appeared creamy white in the morning. Absolutely gorgeous. I can't believe it took my 40 years to get here!

Once again, we found ourselves disappointed with our camping arrangements only to set up camp and quickly feel at home. The Badlands Ranch and Resort is no resort. A small shack served as office and general store, and they guy behind the counter was a weathered coot. That said, we were wildy impressed by the sunset horseback tour, which made it all worthwhile.

On Wednesday morning, we set out for the Badlands and decided to take a "hike" into the hills. Mom bowed out immediately-- the temperatures were in the 90s, but felt much hotter because there was nary a tree in sight.

Cheryl picked the more difficult trail, which included a climb to the next level that looked a lot worse coming down than it did coming up. Here we were with five little kids, and if Ron had been along on this adventure, he would have shot me for taking the kids up there. Next thing we knew, we were walking a long a ledge that was getting tighter and tighter. My fear got the best of me, and it started to spread to the kids, who cowered in a crevice until we decided to turn around and get down.

Dad went on a bit... here's a picture of him through the zoom lens... and a picture he took of us on the other side. We look like ants. We made it down and worked our way back to the car. Not sure what view we missed, but it wasn't worth losing a kid over the side.

After working our way back down the ladder, we checked out some fossils and headed back to camp to get ready for the sunset horseback ride (and some laundry, but that's not fun). We set out about 6:45 p.m., just as the sun was working its way toward the western horizon. It was nothing short of spectacular. We wound our way along the edge of a cliff overlooking the fertile valley of the White River before cutting down steep, winding passages to the river banks. Prairie grass is plentiful, and the horses wanted to stop frequently to dine. We worked our way back up to the plain above the cliff just in time to watch the sun disappear over the horizon before heading back to camp. This was a highlight of our trip!

My brother-in-law, Rudy, flew out last night to join us for four days. We took off this morning for Keystone, South Dakota, the farthest point of our trip. We stopped at Wall Drug for lunch and a look around. This is Sturgis week, so motorcycles are everywhere-- all over the Badlands, all over Keystone, all over this entire stretch of South Dakota.

We finally reached our Keystone campground and plan to visit Mount Rushmore tomorrow. This is what the kids came for, and I hope they enjoy it!

Wisconsin, Minnesota and South Dakota

Almost a week has passed since our last post due to lack of Internet service. Friday was a busy day at the Noah’s Ark Waterpark in the Wisconsin Dells. The kids, of course, were in heaven! Carsyn was a little scared to go down the waterslide, but my mode of operation is to throw my kids in and hedge my bets that they will end up liking it. She fussed the whole way down her first slide, and said she wasn’t going to go again, but after sitting out the second round, she must have decided it was not so bad after all and slid the rest of the day with us with a giant smile on her face.

The lines were manageable, so we finished the day feeling like we had done enough. We headed to Moosejaw Pizza – a place we had read about in Family Fun Magazine – and it was definitely worth the visit. The pizza was some of the best we’d ever had.

After that, we went to the Tommy Bartlett Waterski Show, which had been recommended not only by Family Fun Magazine, but also by our friends Ken and Louise Gregory, who had been here the previous week with their family (how ironic). It featured fancy skiing/boating, as well as some juggling, and cirque-style entertainment followed by a pretty cool laser show.

We couldn’t leave Wisconsin without picking up some cheese. You would have thought we’d never seen the stuff the way we ogled it in the cheese store. A friend of Cheryl’s insisted we try FRESH cheese curds. Note that they had to be FRESH. So we found such cheese curds, and with high anticipation we popped them in our mouths…hmmm…not exactly sure what fresh cheese curds were supposed to be like, but these were chewy…squeaky…yes, squeaky…a little salty. Yuck… well, maybe not yuck…actually pretty good… hey, let me have another piece of that squeaky cheese… OK, now I’m sick. That’s enough of the cheese turds… I’m mean curds…

On Saturday morning, we packed up to go to Minnesota while the kids played putt putt at the campground (yes, more putt putt). Since the campground “loaned out” bicycles from a shack next to the putt putt course, some kid rode off on Carsyn’s bike, so we had to circle the campground until we found the perpetrator – a slight girl in a bathing suit. After toting the bike back to camp, Cameron and I went to check on the progress of our laundry in the laundry house, but stopped at the shack to suggest that they mark their bikes with a Sharpy pen. No sooner than Cameron dropped his bike so we could walk in and put more quarters in the dryer did some kid ride off on HIS bike! Geez!

In a huff, I went into the main office and “expressed my displeasure,” suggesting once again that they get a handle on this situation. Cameron summed up the exchange like this: “Mommy was yelling at old people.” I like to think I kept my cool, but I must admit that I did pound my fist on the counter.

Anyway, we found the bike and headed out to ride the Wisconsin Ducks, WW II army vehicles that can travel on land and water. We enjoyed seeing the glacial carvings in the sandstone along the Wisconsin River, but the engine was loud and the exhaust made me a little nauseated. We all agreed that we don’t need to do that again. After the ride, we planned to go to the Ringling Brothers Museum, but instead decided to trek on toward Walnut Grove, Minnesota. I’m thinking now that it would have been nice to see it, because we spent that evening in a Wal-Mart parking lot so we could get going early to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s childhood home…

…which is a tourist trap. The museum is a poor attempt, although there seemed to be a lot of LHOTP fans milling about. I’d say the books and TV show were the best things that ever happened to this place! It looked like they had scraped up every “old” thing they had laying around, put it in one place, and called it a museum. We did enjoy, however, the actual site of the Ingalls’ “dugout” house, Plum Creek, and the surrounding farmland where Pa Ingalls grew his crops.You could just imagine Laura and Mary splashing around the little creek in summertime. The crops of soybeans and corn stretched for miles in every direction.

We decided to drive through town to find Nelly’s Cafe (closed and hardly charming from the outside), the bell Pa helped purchase for the church, and Oleson’s Merchantile (also not much to look at.) The town looked deserted, but when we did see people, they were all Asian, which seemed odd.

The next morning (Monday), we packed up for De Smet,. South Dakota, but before we left, we decided to stop by Oleson’s Merchantile to get mashed pennies for the kids. “Ms. Oleson” (well, I don’t know her name, but we called her that) was quite charming and offered us a cappuccino. We asked about the Asian people, and she said that they are Laotians who came from St. Paul to escape the growing gang culture among the Vietnam-era refugees who had settled there. They had seen Walnut Grove in the LHOTP series and thought it looked interesting, so they all moved there!

We arrived in De Smet in the afternoon and stayed at the Ingalls family homestead, which is the actual piece of property (160 acres) that Charles Ingalls claimed in the Homestead Act of 1862. He was able to cultivate 10 acres of it for five years to actually own the piece of property, which he managed to accomplish. A family bought the property 11 years ago and created a replica of the house and barn, and brought in a school house and some other buildings that would have been around during the time the Ingalls live there. Five of Pa’s cottontrees survived on one end of the property, which has been turned into a memorial.

When we arrived, Carsyn looked at me and said, “Are we in Soufakota YET???” to which I replied, “Yes, dear. This is South Dakota.” She looked around and said, in equal parts disbelief and disappointment: “Soufakota is a CAMPGROUND??”

The homestead exhibit was much more impressive than Walnut Grove, but what we enjoyed most was the peace. From a knoll at the top of the property, we could see at least 10 miles in each direction, and we could hear was the gentle wind, the locusts and birds chirping, and the occasional bleat of a cow and her six-week-old calf. We took a horse and wagon ride around the property to an old schoolhouse, where a teacher waited to give the boys a cowboy hat and dress the girls in a bonnet and pinafore before starting a mock session of school. The kids really enjoyed it, and I think they are really getting a feel for how far we’ve come in 130 years. At the replica house, the kids washed clothes by hand and fed them through the wringer before hanging them on the line. Carsyn couldn’t get enough of the wringer… I’m thinking of getting her a wash bin, wringer, and line for our house… I hope there isn’t a law against having a four-year-old do the laundry…

We played on the homestead until dusk because it was just that fun. The kids were up the following morning (Tuesday), eager to run down to the barn to make ropes, corn cob dolls, and see the horses, pony, and foal, as well as a litter of kittens the barn loft. I really hated leaving the homestead, having become smitten with the prairie.

We trekked into downtown De Smet to get our last fill of the Ingalls-Wilder story, with a visit to the Surveyors’ House where the family wintered their first year in De Smet. We also visited the big house that Pa built (it had been beautifully restored), a school that Laura attended, and the school where Laura teached, which had only recently been acquired and moved nearer to the other buildings. The group was just beginning to restore it. We finished the tour by visiting the cemetery where Ma, Pa, Carrie, and Mary were buried.

We are now on our way to the Badlands of South Dakota. If I thought the crops spanned for miles in Wisconsin and Minnesota, nothing compares to the vast expanses of corn, hay, and sunflowers in South Dakota. The view is more like 40 to 50 miles out here. We are on our way to a campground that has the word “resort” in the name. I have high hopes that it lives up to my expectations!

Greenfield Village

Sorry for the delay, folks, but power was out at the "Redneck Riviera" last night, so we had no Internet connection. As a result, there was no A/C in Buffalo Bob, so when we put the kids to bed, they were banging on the windows of their own personal sweat house. We decided to avoid the possibility of child-abuse charges and moved the entire crew to the Chuckwagon. Stressful as it was, we all found a place to sleep: two kids on the fold-out couch, two kids on an air mattress, Carsyn on a little pallet, and Cheryl and me on nothing but a memory foam mattress topper. Cheryl and I slept under a queen bottom sheet, for which we found a serendipitous advantage: when one of us needed to roll over, the other was able to keep covered with a foot in one elastic corner and a hand in the other.

Fortunately, the day leading up to this fiasco was fantastic. Greenfield Village, adjacent to the Ford Museum, is a collection of historic homes and buildings purchased by Henry Ford and placed in a village setting. Henry Ford was a sentimental guy. He had his old school house, boyhood home, homes of favorite teachers and mentors... he even had Steven Foster's home, Noah Webster's home, Abe Lincoln's courthouse, the Wright Brother's home and cycle shop.... it was unbelievable. He even had several of Edison's laboratories and the first home with working lights. We took a ride in a Model T... it was just great. The only bad thing that happened was that Cameron was walking with a dowel rod that came from a Hobo lunch they ate when he fell and almost poked out his eye. It was pretty scary, but he is OK.

Today we got up early and drove all day to get to the Wisconsin Dells. We drove around Chicago, which was exciting. (Yes, I drove the Chuckwagon around Chicago, and we all survived. Mom drove Cheryl's car.) We are now at a nice campground in the Dells and look forward to a day at the Noah's Ark waterpark tomorrow, which they claim is the largest water park in the United States. We miss everyone!!!