Little House Pageant

Like many women my age, I grew up with a major Laura Ingalls Wilder obsession. Ire member. Visiting her home Mansfield, MO when I was a kid but for obvious reasons a trip to DeSmet, SD never happened. (If you don't know that Laura's family settled there and she married and had her first child there, just don't ever tell me. I will judge you. Sorry)

It turns out that we arrived in DS, SD (as Duncan so wittily pointed out this evening) in perfect time to see the last performance of the DeSmet Pageant retelling of Little Town on the Prairie. 

We ended up losing too much time with the time change, the pancake breakfast and a visit to Wall Drug to go to the campsite I had reserved. Instead we are staying in a municipal park, with electric hook up, bathrooms and showers (that are cleaner than yesterday's KOA) and directly adjacent to a large green space and a playground. The kids ears happy for that and I'm grateful for the convenience and the possibility that we'll be able to leave the camper up past 8:00 and let the dew dry of our stuff for once. 

Well, enough chatter, here are some shots of the day:

Mini-golf at the KOA while he grown ups hitched up the camper

Wall Drug. Last time I was there 10 minutes before close and the trip didn't do the place justice.

It has jackalopes,

JACKALOPES, 

And a fountain with jumping water. D got soaked!

Pageant!

Even Grandma got in on the fun!

Ainsley's enthusiasm and desire to get autographs from all the actors was charming and saved my dignity. If she hadn't gone and talked to all of them, I would have had to do it on my own!

Busy couple of days

Were we just leaving Yellowstone yesterday morning? It is such a fast paced trip and we're seeing so much that it is dizzying to think about.

The kids are being great travelers and handling the trek with good humor and engaged minds. There has been a little bickering but overall a positive experience.

We got to Yellowstone on Wednesday  just in time to set up the camper before the skies really opened on us. We cooked dinner and ate in the camper, which was a first. The next day was lovely, as I've already shown. Friday we took the clockwise road around the park to the East entrance. If Thursday was geyser day, Friday was buffalo day!

We were stopped for several minutes as bison crossed in front of our cars. There were several juvenile bison that looked adorable yet still fierce alongside their parents.

We stopped in Cody, WY and were spontaneous yet again (people who know me, try not to die from the shock). We opted to take a trail ride around a reserve on the banks of the Shoshone River. It was D's inaugural ride on a horse and we all had fun!

We stopped in Sheridan, WY and were back in the road this AM. Today we stopped in Deadwood. SD and ended at a KOA campground in the shadow of Mt. Rushmore. KOA's decidedly Chic-Fil-A attitude was quite a shock and the place seems like more of an amusement park than a campground. Still, we will partake if their $2.50 all you can eat pancake breakfast tomorrow before we go!

Here are some shots of our journey...

Dinner in Sheridan. 

Shootout in Deadwood

Mt. Rushmore!!

One goat

A couple others!

Oregon!

Yellowstone!

To make up for a loooooong day of driving yesterday, today we made no Eastward progress on our trip and explored a sliver of Yellowstone National Park. We could have spent a week here, there is so much to see and do!

My mom has a Senior's Park Pass that got us into the park for free! Though we were greeted by this flashing Bison sign, unfortunately the amazing natural resources we saw did not include much wild life. We are hoping our morning trip through the park tomorrow will be more fruitful. 

Even without animals we saw so much! We started our day with a dip in the Madison River at a fly fishing spot at the side of the road. The water was clear and not as cold as you expect a mountain river to be (I guess all those hot springs and geysers heat the rivers and streams) We waded in one stream that was as warm as a toasty bath 

Crystal clear!

Wishing we'd worn shorts!

The road from the west entrance of the park to Old Faithful was peppered with mind-blowing sites. We stopped at several geyser attractions, a path through the woods that led to a meadow by the river and a historical marker that talked a out the Nez Perce war. We arrived at Old Faithful just after an eruption so we got some lunch at the 100 year old Yellowstone Lodge (that had a variety of gluten-free dishes and accommodations listed!) and explored the Visitors Center. Here are some shots of the day:

Lobby of Yellowstone Lodge

Old Faithful!

Visitors Center photobomb 

New National Park Passports, complements of Grandma Judy 

Spotted while eating dinner. 

That's the best description they could come up with?

There is not much going on in this part of Idaho!

I love these windmills. They are so futuristic in such desolate surroundings that I feel like we've stumbled onto the set of some Mad Max-esque dystopian movie set.

Day one: Farewell Bend State Park

We have arrived and are safely ensconced in the pop- up (which needs a name - any suggestions?). The park is just at the Eastern end of Oregon but crossed over into Mountain Time so it is pretty late here. 

Getting packed up was a little hectic and a couple of non-essential but nice to have things were forgotten but we'll be fine. 

Before setting off, we did a brief traveling ritual. We poured an offering of Mountain Dew on the tires to honor Asphaltia, modern American Goddess of the roadways. 

Then we all made wishes for our journey and left the pennies on the top of the pop-up. (Sorry no pics of that) They were all scattered before we were on the freeway! 

In the spirit of spontaneity, we stopped at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and Wasco County Museum at lunchtime. I hope that we'll maintain a spirit of adventure on this trip and this was a great way to start that intention. The museum had all kinds of cool exhibits about the geology and natural history of the gorge and the native and Oregon Trail history of the region. There were a bunch of interesting and hands on exhibits. 

On the Oregon Trail!

The exhibits of native life & art really caught their attention!

We spent an  hour and could have stayed for twice that! We'll be back!

We're developing ways to entertain and manage the hours in the car. Today was a healthy combination of kindle/iPad game time with some more engaging and creative choices. 

Ainsley latch-hooking

Duncan doing some sort of drawing project

We also saw some beautiful scenery and this weird tree farm:

We were surprised to discover that it was  over 100* when we got to Farewell Bend so we opted not to cook over a campfire and used the camper's stove and spent the time saved playing in the sprinklers and showering. Now the kids are crashed out and I should join them as we have a 450 mile journey ahead of us tomorrow!

Preparations for the road

I predict that my phone-based blog posts are going to be largely visual. That is not my usual mode of expression but there are limitations with a phone-sized keyboard!

I have been quite focused on prep this week and have done a ton of it but it is still hard to imagine that we are leaving tomorrow morning!

I have done a lot of "kid entertainment" prep. That will be its own post soon but here is most of the fruits of that labor:

Most of the food has been assembled:

(Plus some fridge thing and some shopping along the way)

The camper is ready to get loaded and hitched!

I have a disturbing to do list for the day so I need to get cracking!

Test post

This is a post from my iPhone! Getting all the tech onboard for the trip! We're leaving on Tuesday. Lots to do before then...

In the meantime, here's a photo, just cuz I can!