On the Road Again...and Again...and Again

By -

 

Four days in the car- four very long days.  Long journeys aren't easy, but we did our best to make it enjoyable.  For the past two years, the girls and I have driven across the country to visit Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Dan in Ohio.  We're pretty good at road-tripping.  Clark joined us this time, of course, and although we thought he might cramp our style, I was extremely grateful for the extra driver.

Sometime during the packing, Clark's glasses were misplaced, so he borrowed mine.

Our van was literally filled to the brim.  I'm sure I could have squeezed a few more things in, but we were already weighed down quite a bit.  We even had the Thule on top (picture to come).

In order to achieve the best road trip possible, it is imperative that you have food, not just enough food, but the right kind of food.  I'm pretty great at picking out food (it's a gift).  I believer we were all quite satisfied.

And what would a road trip be without the best kind of music.  At one point in our journey, Clark was nice enough to sit in the back so that Addi could DJ.  What music can you listen to that will take 2-3 hours of the road trip?  HAMILTON!  And Addi knows every single word.  It was beautiful.


Somewhere along our trip across the country we stopped for gas at a Love's.  This was the fanciest, nicest gas station I had been to, and I've been to a lot.  So fancy in fact, that I didn't even mind eating hot dog from the place.  I believe this was somewhere in Iowa or Illinois (the states and days have all run together at this point.). We chilled on the grass until we realized there were minuscule bugs climbing up our cups.  At that point, we moved on.

Speaking of bugs, we did our fair share of bug assassinations.  Those are just the bugs we got with the Thule.  The whole front of the car was covered in dead bugs, like a mass grave of insects.  Poor things!

I realize that flying across country is so much quicker, but I have loved driving across our nation for these past few years.  I believe we have some of the most beautiful country in the world.  Look at these windmills!  They are massive! You can find them all along the route through the plains.



I believe this was in West Virginia.  It's gorgeous!  I'm pretty sure some of my ancestors are from West Virginia on my dad's side.  It was my first time being in West Virginia, and I was pleasantly surprised.

At some point in our trip, my van hit 150,000 miles.  I love my van!  It's been with me on trips up north to Canada, down south to Mexico, to the west coast in California, and now to the east coast as well.  I'm really crossing my fingers we'll get to ship it with us wherever we go, because I'm just not sure I can part with it.

When Addi and I were getting tired/bored we resorted to all sorts of tactics to keep us awake.  One of which was pushing our seats up as far as they would go and resting our heads on the dash/steering wheel.  Not the most comfortable of positions, but effective for helping stay awake.



On our second evening of the road trip, we spent the night in Burlington, Iowa.  We did this so that we could go to Nauvoo, Illinois the next morning.  Nauvoo is a historic site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We got to see the temple, rebuilt to look like the one the early members of the church built and then were forced to leave behind.


The girls did a small scavenger hunt in the Visitor's Center and earned a Nauvoo brick, made from the same type of clay the pioneers used.

We then headed to Carthage, Illinois where Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum Smith were martyred.  It was solemn and humbling.

After Nauvoo, we headed to Dayton, Ohio where we got to spend the night with Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Dan.  They fed us ribs, rice, watermelon, and asparagus, which was so great after having eaten out so much.  We arrived at their place on Saturday evening and went to church with them on Sunday morning (an experience I can share in person only).  After that, we decided to leave the girls behind for a few days.  My parents will be coming to Virginia to see our boys play in the High School National Ultimate Invitational and they'll bring the girls with them.  This way, the girls get to spend more time with them before we take off far away.



Finally, late Sunday night, we arrived at our new place, Pearson Square in Falls Church.  More on that next time!  We miss you all!







Comments

Debi Lyman said…
Love reading about the adventures! Cant wait to see an apartment tour!
June 7, 2022 at 7:42 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chuck E. Cheese & Hannah's Arm

By -
Image
First, my apologies for the not so great pictures at Chuck E. Cheese.  I'm still trying to figure out photography indoors without a great flash. Man, Chuck E. Cheese has been around forever.  I remember going there when I was a kid.  In fact, I just remembered that I have a picture of my sister's birthday party from there.  I think I was 10 or so at the time.  (I'm on the right, my friend Katie on the left.) I'm pretty sure that is the very same Chuck E. Cheese that my kids just went to last week.  How scary is that? Anyway, Clark's brother had a deal for food and what seemed like a million tokens at Chuck E. Cheese, so he wanted to take my kids.  Our nephew was in town as well, so it was a good time for my kids to spend time with him. Here are a few pics from that night: Sammy at the wheel.  My kiddos with Uncle Andy and cousin Zander.  Zander, Kimball, and Sammy  Addi Joy  Kimball's really into basketball lately.  He...
Read more

Catch Up, Part 2

By -
Image
These events aren't in chronological order. They're just in the order of the way the pictures uploaded to the post. House & Yard: After four years of living in this house, we've finally gotten around to finishing the yard. We built this house, so we had to start from scratch. We were doing a little at a time. Every year when we'd get our taxes back, we'd do something big on the yard. This year we decided to bite the bullet and just get the rest finished, and I am so glad we did. We had grass in the back, but that was it. No fence, no playground, no trampoline, no borders, no patio. Here's what the back of the house looked like before: We knew we always wanted a deck, so we finally had our neighbor build us one. When it was almost finished, our boys didn't like to go out on the deck because their feet got too hot (it's west facing). So we decided to have our neighbor add a roof to the deck. We are so glad we did. He did an awesome job and it looks gr...
Read more

The Best Train Track Ever

By -
Image
Kimball was off playing with cousins today. So, while Addi took her nap, Sammy and I bonded creating the greatest train track we've ever built. It took quite a bit of time and a lot of patience on Sammy's part (which he had a lot of), but we conquered. Here is our masterpiece: We love these Fisher Price trains. We have four that use remotes (as you can see in the close-up of Sammy), and Sammy got the plane this year for Christmas. I'll tell you, I have as much fun if not more than the boys when playing with these trains. They have been worth every penny we've spent on them. I love this picture of Sammy. It shows his mild case of OCD. He has to have all the train remotes nicely lined up for easy access. So cute. By the time we finished creating the track, we didn't have much time left for playing. We had only enough time to learn that we need five people manning the trains and plane in order to keep them from crashing. Oh, but it sure was fun.
Read more