West to home

Starting from the Eastern side of Missouri, on the Eastern side of St. Louis, we began our final leg of our journey. We were talking about stopping from lunch, when I got a call from my best friend from BYU. We met after my mission. We are proof that strangers who are roommates can become lifelong friends. 

I plugged her address into my phone and we drove to her house for sandwiches, fruit, and cookies. It was so fun to see her again.  Her kids are accomplished and lovely. I think they were a bit surprised that I knew their names, but they warmed up to Boaz quickly and they scattered outside to play. A wonderful break from the car for him. 

A few pictures from our lunch visit. 

We look a bit different than when we were college students, but the years fell away and I was back laughing with my best friend. 

Boaz surrounded by girls and the baby boy. (He is loosing his baby status quickly though :) they were laughing at an episode of Studio C, a program on BYU TV. It is a favorite in both households. 

Too soon it was time to climb back in the car and continue on our way West. 

Leaving KAnsas City, we crossed the river and entered Kansas. I have discovered that East Kansas is very different than Western Kansas. Western Kansas is more what I thought Kansas was like. 

Our next stop was Goodland, Kansas - where Criag has been working since January. We met his friend and mentor, Trip. A few laughs, some water and we we were on our way again. But we got a quick tour of the city. Trip mentioned the Van Gough, and Craig took me too see it. 

A giant easel towers over the barn in the back ground. 

A better idea of the size of the reproduction. 

Goodland loves its sunflowers. I looked it up online, and copied a few pictures. 

Beautiful sunflowers near Goodland. 

This picture is in better focus. It does give a good idea of the scale also. 

From Goodland we headed to Denver and the dreaded all night drive. Once again the phone map ap was a star as it lead us around the different freeways that circled Denver and got us on the road towards Soda Springs, Idaho and then home. 

Craig and I traded off through the night. 

Craig did the last leg. I distantly heard giggles and when we arrived I saw this picture. 

This is me in the backseat, determined to sleep as much as I could. 

This is Boaz jumping for joy in our drive way. We were home. We said hi to Josh and gave him big hugs, I brushed my teeth (nasty road trip teeth is the worst), and we headed into the bedroom and passed out for a bit. 

So glad to be home, and so glad to have seen all our loved ones. 

States that I had never been in before: 

I had been just over the border in Missouri before, but this time I was seriously in the state and saw two major cities. 

Kansas - not as flat in the East - as I had previously thought. 

Very glad to be off the road and home in my own bed and my own bathroom. 

Going South to Indy

We were only seven or eight hours away from Thea. When we drove 27 hours to get to Wisconsin, then eight hours doesn't seem like that much. 

So we attended Church on Sunday, ate lunch, and got back in the car to drive to Indianapolis. 

I am a fan of my maps ap. I was the navigator, and I did pretty good. We got an idea of where Madison is and we headed into Illinois. I can tell you I am not a fan of Illinois, especially around the Chicago area. We had to pay almost $20.00 in tolls. Our experience as someone just traveling through the area was full of confusion and we think it was one of the most dangerous areas of our trip. With all the toll gates, we were confused as to which lane we should be in, we were dodging traffic, the vehicles were all traveling different speeds and switching lanes.

I was interested in visiting Chicago before, but that desire has been firmly squashed by the toll system.  

We made it past Chicago with out dying and we found a hotel to spend the night. Thea was so excited to spend the day with us. We were excited to spend the day with her. 

We followed the directions on my phone right to Thea's apartment. She looked great. We drove around on errands. 

A quick picture in her apartment. 

We went to the local burger joint for lunch. We love the Steak and Shake. Our server was Johnny, and we loved him. He was quick on his feet with the conversation and the service. 

We went to Goodwill for a pan. We went to Walmart for groceries and supplies. We went to Costco for canned chicken. 

A quick picture in the heat of the day. 

A lot of laughing, a bit of lecturing, and a lot of love. It was a fun day. We love her, and we miss her - lots. 

After a sweet day, we headed West for home. We made it to St Louis that night. We saw the St. Louis Arch, but I snapped a crappy picture. 

But there is the wonder of the internet. 

It is amazing. We crossed the river on an amazing bridge. 

I had fun looking for pictures. 

Again. 

It's a crazy bridge. I love it. 

Epic Road Trip

We did a spur of the moment dash across the country. Josh went on his Eighth Grade California trip, more on yhat later, and Craig, Boaz, and I went to Wisconsin to help Brenda on the farm. Tim was at his annual two week AT training. (AT stands for annual training, so I am being redundant.)

We put Josh on the bus and we loaded up in the car and were off by 5:00am.

We drove through Yellowstone Park. We were hoping for animal sightings. We drove through the middle of the park and then headed down to the Fishing Bridge. We took our time and looked for the elusive moose. We have never seen a moose in the park. They have proved to be harder to se than bear, we saw four bear last summer. No luck on seening moosen in the woodsen, but we did see buffalo. 

I was trying to get a good picture through the windshield. That never works. 

Craig snapped this through his window. 

His winter coat is shaggy and in the process of being scratched off. The buffalo were more numerous by e road than the elk this trip. We did see a few elk across the meadow, but not close enough to take a picture. We also saw some cranes, maybe blue heron. We needed the binoculars to identify them, we thought they were deer at first. I love to see the tall birds. 

All too soon, we were out of the Park, and into new territory. 

Wyoming, just out of the Park is beautiful. In fact Wyoming in the Spring is beautiful. I was surprised, I was expecting desolation. But Spring can put a glossy, green coat on any bare landscape and turn it into a garden, even if just for a few weeks. We were lucky in our timing. 

Spring was still new in the high country, and I snapped a few pictures of ice and snow. 

We love to watch water. Craig is always looking for a likely fishing hole, and I love the play of the water over the rocks. 

Not a good time to go wading. 

We were following the map ap on our phones and were trying to decide on the name of the river/creek the road was following. I read the signs and they kept mentioning Eagle Creek; Eagle Creek Lodge this and Eagle Creek something else that. Craig refused to believe that it wasn't a river. Finally , we stopped to read a sign:

Now that I am home, I see that I didn't zoom in close enough to get the names of the rivers and streams. Oh well. 

It was the Shoshone River and Craig did the victory lap/happy dance for being right. He tries to tell himself that it is a common occurrence. I documented the occasion for him. 

With a 25 hour drive (at least) ahead of use, we were in a playful mood, and were willing to stop for brief breaks. 

Boaz started us on the alphabet game. He is proficient enough to play by the real rules. He gave me a run for my money, but I managed to sneak the Z in before he saw it. 

I was missing my Josh, so when I saw this, I texted him the picture. 

They were stopping at Bryce Canyon to see the erosion patterns. I thought this outcropping looked a bit like the Bryce Canyon formations. 

We also passed a memorial to the firefighters that died in the Blackwater Fire. That was a somber moment. My brother spent many summers fighting fires for the Forest Service. My nephew spent one summer doing the same thing. I am so glad that they never got stuck in dangerous situations that they could not escape. 

Here is a picture I found on the web. 

I am grateful for brave men and women who put themselves in danger to protect the rest of us. 

We passed a random snow bank. Our plan was to also swing by and visit Thea in Indianapolis. We hadn't told her yet, and so we had a game going. We sent random pictures to her to see if she could guess what we were doing. 

This picture was sent to Thea and Josh. The caption I sent with it was: Do you want to build a snowman? A little reference to the Disney movie Frozen. 

Boaz was a trooper and didn't complain about the seemingly endless hour in the backseat. He spent some of them dreaming. 

I do love taking pictures of my kids when they are sleeping. :) Isn't he sweet?

Our goal for the first day driving was to see Mt Rushmore. I had never seen it. It was just a bit out of the way, but not bad really. We got on the smart phone and saw that it was open until 11:00pm. That changed up our plans a bit. We decided to drive right there, instead of spending the night and seeing it in the morning. Yahoo!

Boaz happy to be out of the car and doing something that Josh had never done before. We are in the parking lot. I was trying to get a picture from the car, but the trees prevented a good snapshot. 

From the parking structure. So exciting. 

Zooming in on the faces. Still no idea what was on the other side od the gate. 

The flags of all fifty states. 

Boaz was born in Oregon. 

I grew up in Utah. Rocking the no make-up look. 

Craig and Boaz in front of the Idaho pillar. Each side of every pillar had a state. We didn't look for the Wisconsin pillar. Rats. 

The fog came rolling in just as we were finishing our picture taking. Craig got a better picture. Darn. He just left, I'll have to get the picture later. You can just make out the faces through the fog. 

The light show was an hour away, and with the fog, we decided not to stay. 

On our way out, we saw a display of Thomas Jefferson with a facsimile of his recipe for ice cream. It was too cold for ice cream and we decided on hot chocolate on the road.  Brenda later told us the ice cream at Mt Rushmore is excellent. So that will have to be for next time. 

We decided to drive through the night. We would get to Brenda faster and it would mean less driving on Sunday. 

New states that I had never been in before: South Dakota. I found it amazing that South Dakota has only two cities. That is it. Crazy. Rapid City on the West and Sioux Falls on the East. In between there is barely a rest stop. Plan accordingly. 

Minnesota. We just skimmed the southern border. Honestly, I slept through most of it. My turn to drive was through South Dakota. We headed north to Minneapolis for the river crossing and into Wisconsin. We took a brief side trip to see the temple. I am asking myself why I didn't take a picture.  What is wrong with me. The temple is cute. Small and tucked away in a residential area. Craig says it is like Madrid and Kona. I can't see that they have the same floor plan, but I trust him. He can keep pictures in his head. 

Wisconsin. The trees were a revelation to me. I had never seen so many trees. Not even in Oregon. We texted Brenda and told her where we were. She was getting ready to go to Church. She was being put in as the new Primary President, and had to stay for the whole meeting. We didn't make Church, but we made it to the farm safe and sound. I didn't get any pictures until just before we left. So I'll show them later. 

Honestly, the rest of Sunday is a gone from my memory. I was exhausted. 

This is a good place to stop. I'll pick up my expirience on the farm later. 

From Craig's camera. The faces are still fully visible before the fog rolls in. 

He did take much better pictures than I did. This is one the way up to the viewing arena. The parking garage is down the steps and to the right. 

An amazing site.