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!!!