Home Again

I had written two other posts which, through a blogger glitch, were deleted unfortunately. Essentially they were an expository of thankfulness to the Lord for His provision, safety, and the opportunity to take this amazing trip. We are home in Idaho now and so, so thankful. As we settle back into real life, I am praying that the lessons learned both in character and in history will grow us more in Christ's likeness and enable us to press on toward a future bright with hope and possibility! Blessings!

Day 21 -- Taking Stock

Exclamations of driving panic from Mom directed at Dad: 94

Pushups, laps, or sentences written by child(ren) needing discipline: 200+

Boxes of cereal consumed: 8

Number of times Mom asked, "Where's Isabelle?!": 71

Loads of laundry done in other people's washing machines: 12

Number of stories told by Dad involving autopsies or other gross body parts: 12

Bottled waters consumed: 4 crates

Books read or listened to: 16

Number of papers written by Josiah for his college classes: 11

States traveled through: 17

Number of gallons filled in the RV tank: 815.69

Historical sites visited: 23 +

Miles driven: 5,564

Nights away from home: 20

Character qualities nurtured: innumerable

Family memories made: priceless ...

Day 20 -- Mount Rushmore

We arrived at the Mount Rushmore monument in time for lunch -- which was a good thing because it was cccoooollllllddddd! It couldn't have been over 40 degrees (a far cry from yesterday) and we had to break out the coats and mittens for the first time this trip.

Mount Rushmore is a beautifully kept monument with hiking trails and views all around complete with educational signs and further museums. It is one of my favorite national parks as it is rarely crowded and is a fantastic display of human ingenuity and artistry in the midst of God's amazing creation.

The four Presidents featured (Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt (Theodore), and Lincoln) are all there for a reason. We have studied about the making/sculpting of the mountain by inexperienced local miners under the guided supervision and direction of the eccentric American sculptor Gutzon Borglum. It's a fascinating story and one worth learning should you get the chance.

Inside the sculptor's studio is a model of what the monument was originally intended to look life. For a variety of reasons (mostly financial), the work on the monument came to a halt and stands as we see it today with no intention of completion in the future.

These swings are what the workers sat on as they hung over the side of the mountain, using jack hammers and loading dynamite to shape the massive granite mountainside. That harness does not look strong enough for me!

In one of the museums you can see an air compressor and jackhammer used for the sculpting of Mount Rushmore.

As we left the monument and headed to our RV we were met by a family of wild mountain goats grazing along the mountainside. They looked so soft, but their horns looked very sharp so we kept our distance! :-)

Day 20 -- South Dakota

We spent the night in Chamberlain, South Dakota on the banks of the Missouri river. We got in late and so had a leisurely morning cooking a large breakfast while watching "Monument to the Dream" -- an American History documentary about the making of Mount Rushmore. We have about 4 hours of driving before arriving at the monument itself. This will be our second visit to Mount Rushmore since living in Idaho.

As a sideline, I've neglected to tell you about the "garden" growing out of the back of our RV. At every campground, Isabelle has added some memorable vegetation to the back bumper.

This is the garden to date -- please note that the wild onions pulled at the pond in Bel Air are still hanging on for dear life!

Little House Museum and the Banks of Plum Creek

After what felt like an endlessly slow drive through many of the small towns of Minnesota, we finally arrived at the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum in Walnut Grove, the sight of her actual home during the period "On the Banks of Plum Creek" was written.

There are actually at least 5 similar such museums spaced anywhere from Minnesota to Kansas. This is the one we thought we be the most comprehensive (and that was somewhat on the way). It was small and fairly unprofessionally done, but still a good place to learn more about Laura Ingalls Wilder -- author and pioneer girl who has touched the hearts of many through her stories of growing up in the West.

While there were very few actual antiquities of Laura's life held here, there were many articles of daily life during the mid-1800's and how they might have been used by the Ingalls family. Here Isabelle stands below a portrait of Laura taken in her late teen years ("Little Town on the Prairie" days).

There was a real pump organ similar to what was bought for Mary upon her returning home from the college for the blind ("These Happy Golden Years"). We were allowed to play it and touch many things in their hands-on room.

In the mock one-room schoolhouse, I found these rules posted and thought they were worth sharing :-) Housed in the museum is an actual quilt of Laura's as well as the church pew from the Congregational Church where Rev. Alden preached and the Ingalls family attended.

A mile and half drive from the museum, you can actually walk to the sod dugout area where the Ingalls family first lived prior to building their pine-board house. Plum creek, with its overhanging willow trees, was full and you could just imagine where Laura and Mary used to play, sit on the big rock, and walk up to the table land -- all of which are still there, but smaller than they are made out to be in the book which is written from the eyes of a child.

The dugout's roof collapsed so you can no longer walk into it, but we could stand near it and on top of it -- where the prairie grasses still sway amidst patches of farmland.

The view from the dugout to the creek is lovely. I love being able to bring history and favorite books to life by "experiencing" them alongside the authors. This was very neat and would only have been appreciated more had it not been 85 and totally humid out. Isabelle, already a bit feverish, and I were both wilting by the time we were ready to leave.

We are now back on the road after passing field after field of the richest dark brown (almost black) earth I have ever seen in Minnesota. Everything that is not planted otherwise is grass. Seriously, it is like the entire state has been treated with Chem-lawn. Along the freeways, in the medians, beside every house and building -- everywhere, just like Laura shares in her book, all you see are miles of prairie grass. This, in contrast to the rich dark soil, is a gardeners dream :-)

Day 19 - Wisconsin Dells and Laura Ingalls Wilder museum

God is so good to us. We have been tremendously blessed on this trip. Yesterday we drove a whopping 571 miles through four states and still landed farther than we had hoped and in time for a walk and shower before bedtime. To top it off, unbeknownst to me, we ended up camping within the Wisconsin Dells region (a place I had hoped we could at least drive through) at a quiet and tidy campground with virtually no one else around. A playground and the cleanest bathrooms I've yet to come across were within walking distance which enabled Joe and the boys to have a long shower with constantly flowing water (for the past 18 days, we've only been able to take Navy showers in order to conserve water). Wisconsin feels much like Idaho in terms of pace-of-life. The people we have encountered have been very friendly and the landscape is a beautiful mix of rolling hills dotted with patches of deciduous and evergreen forest. The fields were being tilled in preparation for planting and the soil was so dark that it was all I could do to not jump out and handle some of it just to feel it between my fingers :-)

I will tell you that it feels as if our RV is slowly falling apart :-) Yesterday, in addition to the refrigerator door falling off, we also had our biggest kitchen drawer come off its hinges and broke through some rough road sections (the toll road through Illinois gets our vote as the worst freeway in America). I made Joe assure me that the whole back end wasn't going to suddenly give way over a large pothole as there are times when the children are at the back end of the RV when we are driving! Needless to say, the way it sounds inside the RV as we are going over rough roads leads one to imagine this if not fear it!

We also have our first casualty -- Isabelle woke up with a terrible sore throat and is generally not feeling well today. We have literally been with thousands of people in monstrous crowds and eating many of our meals out, so it is not surprising that we might have contracted a virus. I am just so thankful that it is on this end of our journey. With extra vitamin C, saltwater, and extra rest (she's already napping and it is only 9:00 in the morning), I'm hoping this will be short lived and that she will at least feel well enough to enjoy seeing Laura's home up close and personal today.

Day 18 -- Conclusions

Things We Wish We'd Known/Things Learned Along the Way:

- Don't overload your refrigerator door (ours fell off yesterday and is currently jimmy-rigged for the remainder of our trip).

- Always make sure you don't leave your water hose behind at a camp site (number of hoses bought on this trip = 4)

- Corollary to one above -- if a hose is cheap ($$), than the hose is cheap :-)

- Do make sure that your roof is rainproof before driving into the mid-west during their worst tornado season in years.

- If oil spikes over $100.00 per barrel, then you can bet that gas prices are going up and the cost of your road trip is going to increase exponentially. (To date: highest price gas we just paid was $4.49 per gallon in Indiana).

- Corollary to one above -- gas prices vary tremendously across the country (if you're interested, Isaac has kept track of gas prices across the country).

- Toll roads are generally the worst roads to drive on. You're paying to have them repaired in the future (which isn't going to come soon enough - bump!!)

- State parks are the ideal place to spend the night in an RV. Second choice, KOA campgrounds. Third choice, RV parks (think sardines). Last resort, Walmart parking lots (at least there are warm donuts in the morning :-)

- When taking a long trip without the guarantee of a washing machine/dryer -- err on the side of bringing too much socks and underwear.

- You can never have too many i-chargers (iphone, ipod, ipad, icomputers, i, i, i, ...... I'm on i-overload!)

- If you're interested in hearing a constant, one-man dialogue on the state of the nation, liberal democrats, loss of personal freedom, and or the government-regulations/debt/taxes/etc. -- just drive with Joe on the toll roads leading into and out of Chicago.

- Make sure you are monitoring your toilet levels before you no longer have any tank room to flush!

- Not all GPS's are created equal (in other words, it is necessary to UPDATE it every 4 or 5 years, especially prior to taking a cross-country trip)

- It is always good to have a destination in each day, otherwise the minutes feel like hours and you end up writing things like this :-)