Another Vacation Post--With a Bad Punchline Warning

So, I've been neglecting my blog lately.
But, I figure it's okay, because I've also been neglecting mopping my kitchen floor, cleaning my toilets, excavating the kid junk in my car, and organizing the garage.
Call me lazy, slacker, slug, or just plain busy. It happens.

Anyway, I haven't had a whole lot to blog about lately. I feel like I've been stuck in a wake up-eat-commute-work-commute-dinner-kid stuff-bedtime rut since we got from our vacation. Not the stuff a inspiration.

I realized I hadn't finished sharing some of our vacation photos--because I just know you've been dying to see them. (So pay me back, and show me yours...)

Anyway, with apologies for the bad punchline at the end (which The Husband did actually say), here's a look at Day 5 and beyond in our Great American Family Road Trip. (insert the wavy screen and the music here, a la Wayne's World) You'll last recall we'd made it to Wyoming, and were Yellowstone-bound...

We reached Yellowstone National Park (YNP) after five days on the road.

We actually stayed in a campground just outside the park in the town of West Yellowstone, MT.

We stayed on the shores of Hebgen Lake, nestled at the base of more mountains.

It was quite nice there. Apparently, the wildlife thought so, too.

We saw evidence of the native species visiting the lake over night. (This is a bear print next to my foot.)

(And I don't have small feet!)

We opted to stay outside of YNP because we preferred a campsite with full hook ups. (In other words, we had electric, water and sewage connections provided.) Not all of the federal campgrounds have full connections. 

Call us camping wimps, if you want, but I got nothin' to prove!

Actually, that turned out for the best, since the snow pack for YNP was running at 225 percent of normal.

Yeah, that's a LOT of snow!

Turns out, many of the YNP campgrounds--and two of the roads--were still closed (yes, first week of June!)

when we got there. So, we may not have had a camp site if I'd booked in the park.

BabyD and LittleD got a kick out of having a snowball fight (in shorts!) on their summer vacation.

The weather felt quite warm in the lower elevations, but was a little nippy up on the mountain tops.

We enjoyed so much of the beauty of the park.

Like thermal features...

 And buffalo jams...

And fly fishing...

Only all the snow melt (and a couple days of rain) left the rivers running fast and muddy, making for lousy fly fishing conditions. But, ever the outdoors woman, I did manage to land some salad for our dinner!

Here's the family over looking the canyon... 

So, I have to tell you a funny story about our neighbors in the campgrounds.


Our second night there, I was making dinner. While I was putting pork chops on the grill, The Husband and LittleD decided to walk down to the lake shore to take some pictures of an osprey that was catching fish. This included hauling all the camera gear along with them.(Yes, I'm talking about all the contents of That Bag, which I've blogged about.)
So, this older woman came by and stopped to talk to the three guys smoking cigars in front of the camper across from ours. The woman was noticeably upset, and I could hear every word.


Lady:  "Did you see the kids down there with the big guns?"
Guys:  "What?"
Lady:  "What are they going to shoot? Somebody should do something. I think they have bazookas or something."
Guys:  "You mean the guy with the camera?"
Lady:  "That's too big for a camera. I think they have big guns."
Guys:  laughing
Lady:  continuing to fret and carry on about someone's going to get hurt
By now, I'm chuckling, and I had to interject
Me:  "Um...That's a camera lens." 
Lady:  "That's too big for a camera, and he has something else under his arm. It's got to be a gun."
Me:  "That's a tripod. The lens is so big, he needs it to steady it."
Rebuffed Now-Disgusted Lady retreats to her camper.

When I went to wave The Husband and LittleD in for dinner, I walked by the camping guys. One of them says to me, "You didn't run into any terrorists did you?"



When The Husband returns, I couldn't wait to tell him what that old gal thought of him.
So what does The Husband say?

wait for it.... 

"Did you tell her it's a Nikon, not a cannon?"

Sorry, but I warned you...

Journey Continues; South Dakotans--Marketing Geniuses

I posted earlier this week about our stop at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, as we made our way cross-country to Yellowstone National Park (YNP).
I enjoyed seeing parts of the country I hadn't visited before.
And came to a few conclusions about some of our Midwestern neighbors.

This is pretty discouraging to look at--especially when you've already been on the road for hours!

We stayed at campgrounds along the way.

The girls slept well in their bunks.

We made our way west, across Missouri, then north through Iowa and into South Dakota.

Of course we had to swing by for a visit to the Corn Palace.

(aka, World's Largest Bird Feeder, I think!)

LittleD and I made friends with the giant Corn.

We finally made it to Mount Rushmore the evening of our third day on the road.

We arrived just in time for their flag-lowering ceremony and the lighting of the monument.

It was quite stunning at night.

Since we stayed so close by, we came back in the morning to enjoy Rushmore in full day light.

I'm totally fascinated by this thing.

Then we headed over to Wyoming to check out Devil's Tower.

Does anyone remember this from Close Encounters? I didn't until someone reminded me.

It's completely amazing that this thing is just sitting out there, all by itself, jutting toward the sky.

The park at Devil's Tower had one really big prairie dog colony.

All I could think of about was these guys could harbor monkey pox. (Anyone remember that?)

I think our dog would've enjoyed chasing these guys around the field.

Not to worry.

That Gigantic Camera Bag made the trip, too.

We finally stopped in Buffalo, WY, at foot of the Big Horn Mountains before starting

the last leg of our trip to Yellowstone.

Meanwhile, I've come to the conclusion (based on stops at rest areas and visitor welcome centers in several states) that the folks in South Dakota are marketing geniuses. After all, that was the whole basis behind the construction of Mount Rushmore--to get tourists to visit.

Likewise, with the world famous Wall Drug. (Yes, we made a short stop there for supper.) The Husband had told me from the beginning that we had no reason to go there. But, after seeing approximately 3.1 million signs to visit Wall Drug, he declared, "We have to stop, since we're so close." Yeah, okay.

And that Corn Palace. Again, those South Dakotans figured out the "if you build it, they will come" principle. And we did. So did a whole bunch of other people... to shop a a huge corn-themed junk gift shop.

What impressed me most was the friendly folks who were staffing their rest areas. Everyone one of them asked us if they could help us locate our destination, give us a map and/or provide us some literature. We even got free lapels pins--just for using the bathroom. Well, not for that, exactly. But that's all we did at that stop. And, their rest areas were very nice. And clean. (Wyoming can learn a thing or two...)

As if that wasn't enough, those marketing fools even seemed to have annexed the corner of Wyoming into SD, because all of their tourism materials encouraged a stop at Devil's Tower, too.

Genius, I say. Just genius.

Great American Road Trip: Day 1--St. Louis

I warned told you I was going to share some pix from our recent family vacation to Yellowstone National Park.

We actually left on Memorial Day, so The Husband and BabyD wouldn't have to miss their annual pilgrimage to the Indy 500 for Race Day. We don't mess with daddy-daughter time.

To get everyone fired-up for our trip, we decided to make the first day a (relatively!) short drive, and take in the Gateway Arch of St. Louis. That put us on the road for only four hours (which was plenty, considering we NEVER seem to leave until about lunchtime, anyway, when we go someplace--I trust this is God's way of providing opportunity for Type A Me to practice patience... but I digress...).

The girls were actually quite excited to see the Arch.

It was evening when we made it to there.

By the time we got to the top, it was after dark, which made for some fabulous views.

This is what took so long...

Like father, like daughter.

There was a LOT of this going on during our trip!

But, that's to be expected when you look at this:

Yes, that's The Husband's camera bag... all 42 lbs of it!

He didn't appreciate us making fun of it.

But, how could we resist?

That Bag had to have it's own seat ticket to ride up to the top of the Arch!!!

 Here's That Bag, riding in the little barrel elevator to the top.

Glad to report:  It wasn't afraid of the heights or tight spaces.

Now, I'm going to have to do something about getting some of the really good photos of our trip to post.

The Husband and the girls had access to the really good cameras and assorted lenses. I, however, was making do with my Itty Bitty Nikon--which I am NOT dissing, by any means, because it's compact and does a great job, fits in my pocket, and doesn't need it's own passport to travel!

Our biggest challenge in St. Louis was finding a place to park this rig.

The waterfront parking, along the Mississippi was under water.

So, we had to park by Cardinal Stadium and hoof-it, which was fine.

The big question was: If you take up three spaces in the parking lot...

How many do you have to pay for?

We only paid for one.
And we didn't get towed.
So, we were scoff-laws right from the beginning. But, that made our adventure all the more memorable!

Gettin' Back in the Groove... And the Eastern Time Zone!

I've been away for a while. Since Memorial Day, actually.

I just haven't said anything, because, well, you know... all those "online safety rules"... like not posting to the entire world that you are out-of-town on vacation for three weeks.
Because some desperate soul body might break into my house and steal all our fabulous stuff, like my 18-year-old used-to-be white couch.Or the hand-me-down stereo speakers my brother-in-law passed on to us that go so well with the 20-year-old stereo.
But I digress.

Where, pray-tell, have I been?

Big Sky Country and Yellowstone National Park.

And everywhere in between.

We packed up "Sulley", our big blue Suburban (named after the Monsters, Inc. character)

 and our camping trailer...

and set out to spend three weeks seeing a major chunk of America.

Yes, I said three weeks.
Can you believe it?!? The Husband actually agreed to taking that much time off work!
I've had the time saved up, because, heck, the last time I got three weeks off of work, I had to GIVE BIRTH!
So, the day he agreed, I posted my work vacation request form on our fridge, and booked us a reservation at a campground in West Yellowstone, Montana.

I'm going to bore you with some vacation stories and photos during the next couple weeks. I've actually been blogging all along--on a private blog for close friends and family, so they could see what we were doing each day.

This was really a great trip, that The Husband and I have been talking about since we bought our first camper 9 years ago. And, we finally did it. The girls, who are now 13 and 11, are old enough to remember it and really appreciate so much of what we saw and did. I'm glad we finally made the time (and the 4878 miles!).

I also thought I'd share a little about the RV (as in Recreational Vehicle) lifestyle. For those who might be curious.
Anyone out there an RVer, too?
Some people get a little hung-up on calling it "camping," because there's no tent involved. (Why would I want to sleep on the ground for three weeks in 30-degree nights? If that works for you, great. But, I got nothin' to prove.)

Meanwhile, we got home about 48 hours ago.

I've already conquered the mountain of laundry we drug home...

Now, honestly, our biggest problem is readjusting to life in the Eastern Time Zone. We'd kind of turned into slackers anyway, but the extra two hours on the Mountain Time clock really messed up everyone's sleep patterns. The girls have been WIDE AWAKE at midnight. And my efforts to get everyone up and dressed by 8 am this morning were in vain.

Monday is going to be ugly.

We're on a Mission From God...

It's finally spring break at our house.
(Finally? What am I saying? How did it get to be spring break already?!? Seems like we were taking the Christmas tree down about two days ago... but I digress...)

Anyway, the daughters and I are packing up today for a little spring break adventure.



The girls' school (which, in full disclosure, is part of our church) is doing a mission trip to two of the most economically depressed counties in the United States. We're going to an area in the Cumberland Mountain region to serve some folks who have little economic opportunity. We know we're going to be doing some painting and some yard work and minor repairs for some of the residents there.

This should be really interesting. I've never been on a service-type trip before, domestic or international. This trip was originally planned for Mexico, but was changed because of security issues that some of the border towns have been having lately. And, for those of us chaperoning middle school girls (for some reason no boys signed up!), I can appreciate that.

We're excited to go. I've always wanted to do a mission trip as a family. This is sort of a test run for us. (The Husband is staying behind to fix a leaking shower knob--kind of glad I don't have to be here!) I really think my girls need to experience how other people live, and gain a better understanding of just how much God has blessed our lives. And find out that, yes, there IS something they can eat for a snack in our kitchen. And, yes, they surely have something to wear today. Not that my girls are particularly bad about those attitudes. But I certainly think we can all lack gratitude for what we we have.

We're praying for a good trip right now. (After all, we're taking a group of TEEN GIRLS who may be using power tools!) That we can be a blessing to these people, and demonstrate God's love in a tangible way.

Happy Spring, everyone! And I'll see you in a week (or so, after I tackle all that laundry when we get back!)