This post is actually a "copy and paste" of a Facebook note that I did last summer before I started my blog. In fact, writing this note was what made me realize that I love writing so much and was kind of the final catalyst that pushed me over the edge in actually starting the blog. (How's that for mixed metaphors)? Throughout the note I mention pictures being posted. They are in an album on my Facebook page. If we're not Facebook friends, I guess you're out of luck because there are too many to re-post.
We are leaving on a very different vacation this morning and I'm sure I'll have lots to say about that as well. Not sure what will happen, but it's guaranteed that I will find the humor in it. I left the Facebook comments attached because they were almost as funny as the note itself. Enjoy!!
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OK, so apparently a lot of people that are familiar with the "lipstick-wearing, high heel-sporting Robin" can't imagine "low-maintenance camping in a Pop-Up Robin." Many people told me they would need evidence that I actually made it through the trip so here you go. I'm writing a note about our trip that I will try to update and post pics to as we progress on our journey. I wrote one last year when we went to Orlando but this is a completely different experience than our Orlando trip in a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo with a screened porch overlooking the golf course.
Today is technically the first day of our journey because I worked yesterday in KC. However, we actually covered 3/10 of the Top Ten things to do in KC in a short amount of time--Crown Center, Country Club Plaza, and Winstad's for their Skyscraper Shake. I'll post pictures of that later but there were nine of us sharing two shakes and Lindy happened to get the short end of the straw. He shared with Jace, Jac, Gavin, and Ethan and it was quite a sight. We did more laughing than anything else.
Today we drove from Lee's Summit to Mitchell, South Dakota--home of the Corn Palace!! As we drove through Council Bluffs, Iowa you can see Omaha, Nebraska across the Missouri River. We didn't actually go into Nebraska but we could see downtown Omaha from the highway on the Iowa side. Ethan said, "It's a dream come true. I'm actually seeing Nebraska." Ha ha He was literally "seeing it" but we didn't actually go there.
When we were packing for the trip we made a list of all the things we didn't want to forget. You'd think that a family going camping would write down things like bug spray, flashlights, etc. Not us. We had laptop, laptop charger, iPad, iPad charger, iPhone, iPhone charger, iPod Touch, iPod charger, iPod Nano, iPod Nano charger. In spite of all of our technical support Lindy still needed an old school atlas so he could have even more information at his fingertips. I shuffled between the iPhone and the atlas reading him thrilling information about the history of the cities we were driving through. If you know my husband you know that he is all about learning everything he can wherever he happens to be. He says he needs to constantly add to the wealth of useless information that he already possesses.
Also, regarding packing you should be impressed to learn that I only brought four pairs of shoes, minimal jewelry, only very casual clothes, and I completely downsized my makeup. I did bring my pink baseball cap with rhinestones on it (thank, Jenn, for reminding me to bring a hat), and only my flat iron. I did not bring a curling iron or a regular iron so I want to apologize in advance if I appear wrinkled in pictures or you just downright don't recognize me.
Tonight we are in a Ramada Inn, thanks to Priceline, in Mitchell. We already toured the Corn Palace this evening. Very neat and educational, of course. We also ate dinner at a place full of bikers and Lindy and I had buffalo burgers. (I'm committed to the full experience, you see). Speaking of the bikers, Lindy and I noticed that we were traveling with quite a number of them. I was studying the old school atlas and noticed that Sturgis is in South Dakota. Lindy whipped out his handy iPhone and learned that the huge Harley event in Sturgis is this coming week. Duhhh!!! No wonder we keep seeing so many bikers. We're tagging along on their pilgrimage to their Holy Land. Tomorrow when we head to Mount Rushmore we will be right in the thick of things because Mount Rushmore is up close and personal to Sturgis. Anyone want to predict whether I will have a picture of me to post sitting on a Harley by the time this trip is over? Now I have to because I can't even back down from my own challenge.
Lindy and the boys are at the pool and I have to go now so that I can do my facial mask. Don't worry, I haven't become completely uncivilized. :)
Feel free to comment. I'll be adding more as we really get into the nitty gritty. The next two nights will be at a KOA in Hill City near Mount Rushmore. That's when the real fun begins.
I'm back and now it's Monday night, I think. I lose track of the days of the week when on vacation. We drove most of the day Saturday to get to Hill City--near Mount Rushmore. We spent most of our time touring The Badlands. It was amazingly, breathtakingly beautiful. I know that's a strong characterization but you just have to take my word for it or view the pics.
Along the way I kept remembering my challenge of getting a picture on a Harley and finally I worked up the nerve to ask a group of guys who were hanging out at one of the outlooks. Before I even walked up to them, one of them asked, "Do you want to take a picture on one of our bikes?" Am I really that obvious? They told me to just pick one. I happened to be wearing a sundress so I'm sitting as any lady would on a Harley-Davidson in a sundress. I'll spare you the comment the guy made when I asked them what the best way would be to climb on the bike in a dress. Randy (one of my commenters) was definitely right about Sturgis probably being too much of an education for my young boys. Kind of like me on Bourbon Street, Carrie.
After getting that picture, I told Lindy, "Now I should see how MANY pictures I can get on different Harleys." He thought that would be pretty cool but I decided against it pretty quick. Knowing me it would become a definite preoccupation and I would spend the rest of my time in "Harley-town" consumed with getting the different pics. So, alas, there is only one.
I'm having some trouble getting the pictures to load where I want them to in this note so I may just post an album with our pictures and add to it. I'll try to label them.
After spending most of Saturday in The Badlands, we went to Wall Drug and hung out for quite a while. It's pretty overwhelming but you can't go to South Dakota and not go to Wall Drug. We finally got to Hill City and set up camp. Yes, that's right, we set up camp. I mostly just stood around while Lindy and Jac did the setting up but I did cook on the little three burner stove. Our food did not stay frozen in the ice box in the pop-up so I had to cook the hamburger patties before they went bad. We had burgers cooked in an iron skillet on the stove and boiled French green beans. Yum!! I'm being sarcastic but we were pretty hungry by that time. We ended up eating mostly in the dark.
Sunday was a full day. We took a steam engine train ride on the 1880 train from Hill City to Keystone. (It was about an hour each way). While in Keystone we went to the Big Thunder Gold Mine, took a tour of an abandoned mine and then panned for gold. Remember, this is an educational trip. During the tour the guide turned off the lights to show us how dark it was when they worked by the light of one candle and then how dark it was if the candle burned out. Before he turned out the light he said, "If you're scared of the dark, get over it." So, since then that has become one of Ethan's new phrases. The guide said that Gavin was pretty well-behaved because most little kids scream when the lights go out. All Gavin did the whole time was say, "It's CHILLY in here" and every time the guide asked if there were any questions, Gavin's response was, "No." Ethan was sure we were going to get rich panning for gold. We left with a few gold flakes. If Lindy had figured a way to do it he probably would have gone a little upstream from where they get the creek water for you to pan and tried it there.
After riding the train back to Hill City we drove back over to Keystone (it's actually only 9 miles by car) and did the Alpine Slide. It's like the luge without ice. We road ski lifts up and then rode the Alpine Slide down. That was a lot of fun and Ethan probably got the most of out it--or he left with the least skin. It's a "ride at your own risk" attraction and you have to sign a liability release before they even let you go to the top. Ethan went down twice and wiped out both time skinning each elbow. My boys are pretty fearless and that's the way we like it. We'd rather have skinned elbows than little guys who are afraid of getting dirty or hurt.
After the Alpine Slide we went over to Mount Rushmore and stayed for about four hours. We got the full treatment there. We took the hike, we ate dinner there, we toured the museum and watched both movies, and stayed for the lighting ceremony. That was really a memorable event. I've always wanted to see Mount Rushmore so it was a treat for me. Gavin, of course, complained of being hungry almost the whole time. But he did the hike with us including about 250 steps.
Finally, that was the end of Sunday. Today was a travel day again. Even though we only drove about 250 miles it took us nearly 9 hours. It was definitely the scenic route to get from Hill City to Cody, Wyoming. That's where we are tonight. We drove through Big Horn National Forest and it winds up the mountain and down the other side. The highlight of today was stopping at Shell Falls. Just gorgeous. I'll post pics of that as well. We decided to live on the edge and wait until we got here to book a hotel room or stay at the KOA in the pop-up. Living on the edge we did, because we had no idea that Cody is such a tourist hot spot. We ended up at the Skyline Motor Inn. Nice! But it was the 7th motel we tried before we found a vacancy and a room for less than $300. We felt like we got off cheap in our cheap motel room. At least it's clean but I'm still wearing my shoes. The KOA was booked.
Tomorrow we are off again to Yellowstone. That's only about 85 miles away from here and we are staying in West Yellowstone for the next three nights in the pop-up. I'll try to take some pics once we have it set up again. We were really only there to sleep in Hill City and didn't even take any pictures of it.
Gavin's ready to go home. He said while we were at Shell Falls today that he wants to go home, he wants me to fix him some chocolate milk, and let him watch a movie on the downstairs TV. This is a little out of his comfort zone. The low in Yellowstone is around 37 degrees at night and that's a little out of my comfort zone. Say a little prayer for me tomorrow as we push on to the Montana/Idaho/Wyoming border. Wow, are we a long way from home!! By the way, no shopping yet. If I'd been in the market for some biker chick gear I would have been hooked up, but once again...out of my comfort zone. :)
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Now it's Thursday night and this will be the third night in the pop-up in West Yellowstone, MT. This is just west of the west entrance to Yellowstone. If you're wondering why we didn't stay in Yellowstone it's because their campsites don't have electric or running water in most of them. I'm willing to do the whole pop-up thing but I'm not willing to go without heat or water. We drove in on Tuesday and toured a portion of the park. Yesterday we went back and saw all but a tiny bit of it. It's almost too overwhelming to describe everything we've seen. If you've been here you would understand. Such amazing beauty. We discussed today what our most favorite and least favorite parts of the trip have been and we all agreed that our close encounter with bulls in "rut" or heat was our favorite part. We were driving on the east side of the park to the Sulfur Caldron and came to a HUGE herd of buffalo (or bison). There were two rangers there at the outlook point trying to keep the stupid humans from getting too close to the wild animals. They told us that if the buffalo came any closer we would all have to return to our vehicles. The rangers were both watching the buffalo on one side of the lookout when our Junior Ranger, aka Ethan, came to report to the rangers that the buffalo were even closer on the other side of the lookout. There were people over there getting way too close. The rangers ordered everyone to their cars. After that, a traffic jam ensued with buffalo crossing, or actually standing in, the road. Lindy got some great shots and even he was a little unnerved by the personal attention one particular bison bull was giving him. That was pretty cool and even resulted in a mildly dirty look from one of the rangers.
Beyond that we have seen some amazing sights and, like I said, it's too much to try to describe. So, I thought I would just create a list of the things I've learned, or things that have been reaffirmed while I've been on this trip. Here it goes. I might add to the list as the trip continues to progress so if you're a faithful reader you might want to check back periodically.
1. Women in campground restrooms are not very talkative or friendly. Where I come from, you speak to people when they enter or leave a room. It's impolite to not speak, acknowledge someone's presence, or to at least say something. I did get a couple biker chicks to answer some questions for me when we were at Hill City, but basically, mum's the word, otherwise.
2. I love love love that I have a husband who can fix almost anything at anytime. He's like Magyver. When we got to Yellowstone and set up the pop-up the furnace wasn't working. It had worked when he tested it before we left home. It was to be a low of 37 every night we are here so heat was important to me. He basically took the whole thing apart and fixed it. Amazing.
3. I've learned that Gavin can't really stick with a chosen career. So far on this trip he's told us he wants to be a train conductor, a chef, a cowboy, and the latest as of tonight...a cow. Lindy took the boys to the rodeo tonight and he came back saying he wants to be a cow. His exact words were "I want to be a cow so I can make milk come out of my teets and into a bucket so that people can buy it and drink it with their cereal." I can't make this stuff up, people. This isn't the first time he's had a lot of questions about teets. His former questions came after he got to milk a cow for the first time. He was pretty mixed up but we got him straightened out.
4. It's impossible for me to not believe in a Creator after seeing all of the wonderful, magnificent, majestic things we have encountered. Obviously, this was one of those things that was reaffirmed to me, not something that's new. I don't want to get into semantics, but we had quite a discussion with the boys and overall I have to say that I believe in the "Gap Theory." If you don't know what that is, you'll just have to look it up because I can't explain it properly.
5. My hair doesn't turn out near as well when I wash and French braid it at night then let it go the next morning now that it's shorter. It turned out great when Jenn and I were in St. Maarten but not so much here. Please excuse the few pics that exhibit longer hair is needed to work this style.
6. Ethan has a very difficult time actually walking in a straight line. He has to run, jump, climb, crawl, go over, under, or through whatever is in his way but it is very challenging for him to just walk forward at an even pace.
7. I do not like a summer vacation that requires a jacket and long pants. That's bad enough in the winter, but it's been worth it to see the amazement in my boys' eyes. Most of what I've seen in Gavin's eyes has been hunger.
I'm back and now it's Saturday night and we are in Cheyenne, Wyoming heading back east. Here are more of the things I've learned:
8. My skin does not agree with the dry climate. I feel like I look 10 years older and my skin is all shrively. Humidity will be a welcome change.
9. When camping in a pop-up that does not have a toilet, it's important to not drink many liquids in the evening. Very inconvenient.
10. When I do have to get up at 4:00 a.m. to walk to the bathroom, turns out I'm more afraid of the escaped fugitive murderer who's still on the loose than I am the potential of meeting up with a bear. Bears were a real possibility.
11. If Lindy takes the boys to a rodeo, they will come back singing the lyrics he taught them to "Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys."
12. According to Lindy, if you get behind a slow vehicle in Yellowstone Park they are bound to have Illinois license plates.
13. I was surprised to find that the smell of sulfur actually grew on me after 3 days at Yellowstone.
14. They aren't kidding around when they say the sky is big in Montana. I was taken aback at how many more stars you can see out west when it's pitch black.
15. There are a lot of foreigners both working in and around the park and visiting the park. I was amazed by this, but Lindy was not. He worked in a National Park the summer after college and there were a lot of Europeans who came to visit. I would estimate that there have been at least half if not more people from foreign countries visiting the park and working in the area. Some workers in restaurants did not even speak English. There wasn't a majority from any one area. There were many Europeans and Asians. Two people groups were not represented hardly at all and I was surprised by that.
16. Next time I will know that when Lindy "sells" me on staying at a KOA because they have a swimming pool, water slide, splash pad, etc. I should not buy it. We stayed at the KOA in Hill City and he wouldn't let the boys get in the water at all. He said, "they swim every day at home. We're not going to go on vacation and just swim in the pool." Not buying it next time, Lindy.
17. I love how people who are pulling cars behind their RV have matched the color of the car to the RV. I would totally do the same thing. Impressive, people.
18. The Carnetts can actually get through a vacation without an amusement park, water park, or outlet mall. We went to National Parks, National Monuments, and National Forests. I think that's the first time that's happened since we've been married.
Well, it's really late now and we had a full day of driving. Nothing really exciting to report except we had fun eating a picnic at a park. It was a long day of driving with 2, maybe 3, long days of driving ahead of us. Last report we had already covered about 2500 miles. The boys are good travelers. Ethan basically has a lounge area set up for himself in the back of the van. Pillows galore, iPod, snacks. When he gets tired he just lays down (with his seat belt buckled). He's the one who gets out of the van saying, "It's a good day to be alive."
More stories and things I've learned next time I have internet connection. Hopefully tomorrow. Good night.
I'll add more later. The camp master (Lindy) is telling us we have to go to bed now. We're getting up around 6:30 to pack up and move on to Jackson, WY. Yea, vacation!!
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It's Tuesday night and it's "Back to Life, Back to Reality" for all of us tomorrow. Lindy and I go back to work, Jac starts middle school and Ethan starts 3rd grade. I promise this will be the last installment. It was a long trip with a long note. We drove 3,656 miles and we actually came back with all of our hair intact.
The last few days of the trip were pretty boring--three straight days of driving and a different place to stay each night. A few last points to ponder and I will close out my "Yellowstone" note. I forgot to mention one of Gavin's other chosen professions when I listed all that he's come up with since we've been gone on vacation. He also said he wants to be a mall cop. Now, this is directly related to the number of times he watched "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" on my iPad or Jac's iPod while we were traveling. We didn't allow the boys to have any movies or electronics while we were in South Dakota, or in Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, the Badlands, etc. but Nebraska and Iowa are pretty boring. We let them do all of that during those traveling hours. He watched Mall Cop so many times that he was on a first name basis with Paul Blart. He would just say, "I want to watch Paul now."
In looking back at the trip Lindy and I agreed that we are so blessed to have kids who are eager to see new things, never complained about long hours in the van or all the times we were in and out to hike or take pictures or just see something we've never seen before. They were real troopers--especially Jac and Ethan--and Gavin did OK for a 4-year-old.
I learned that motel/hotel price is all about location, location, location. We stayed in two dives in Cody and Jackson Hole. You know, the kind of places where you lie awake at night waiting for your car alarm to go off, make your kids wear their shoes all the time, yell at them for sitting on the bedspread, have to walk up an outside metal staircase to get to your room on the second floor.... We paid $50 more a night for each of those motel rooms than we did to stay in the Marriott Hotel in Lincoln, Nebraska. Thanks to Priceline, and the boring location of Lincoln. Lindy and I started out our trip at the Hyatt Crown Plaza in KC and ended it at The Marriott. Not too shabby.
One last thing I learned--my hip bones (or greater trochanters, for all my nursing friends out there), cannot handle more than three consecutive nights in a pop-up camper. I felt bruised on both sides and couldn't have made it another night.
I'm fresh out of things to say in this note but will end it with my promised surprise announcement. You would know this if you have commented on my pictures or note. The surprise is that I'm starting a blog and will continue writing there--not about this trip, but about other things. A deeper explanation is there if you decide to check it out. The title of my blog is "Not Your Average Pastor's Wife" and you can find it at www.notyouraveragepastorswife.blogspot.com. I hope you check it out. It's brand new but something I've been talking myself out of doing for 9 months. Please don't let my mother be the only one who reads it. It's a surprise to her too. :)
Thanks for reading and looking at my pictures. Back to my real life now....
Hi, Robin! I finally got a moment to look up your blog. I find it interesting that we went west also on our vacation. We went to the Grand Canyon, south rim.
ReplyDeleteTwo Chilean friends came up from their home where we once lived 'way down in southern Chile to go with us on this amazing trip.
Both of us couple had been married 50 yrs last Spring so this had been planned for a long time to celebrate together. It all went great.
Glad your vacation was good too. Blessings!