Day Nine - Independence, MO

Day Nine - Saturday, June 4^th 2016, Independence MO!

This morning we woke up in Kansas City.  We had another continental breakfast before packing up and hitting the road.  We drove about 40minutes into Independence, Missouri.  In addition to all the Oregon Trail history, Independence is also known for being Harry Truman’s homestead.  We drove through the Main Street area and past Truman’s house.  There is also a lot of Mormon history here, and there were several museums and buildings dedicated to that.  We started our day at the National Frontier Trails Museum.  We saw a 15minute video about the different trails that jumped off from Independence – the Oregon, Santa Fe, Great Salt Lake.  Despite being made in 1990, the video was fairly interesting and informative :)  There’s so much history to immerse yourself in.  Reading excerpts from journals and seeing real pictures of real pioneers, really brought it all to life for me.  I’m sure the kids were a little bored, but I know they did have fun packing their wagon.  Everything was ¼ scale, and they had a list of suggested items to bring along.  As the wagon started filling up, the light would turn yellow and when it turned red you knew you had more than your mules could pull.  We also enjoyed seeing the display about the Santa Fe Trail.  There was a huge mural of the Plaza, and it looks very much like it does today – the Palace of the Governors, the huge church.  Another highlight was the rock where you could sign your names.  We had read about Independence Rock and how the travelers would sign their names and dates as the passed by.  There was a large rock with a binder of paper, and they all took turns signing their names too.  Good thing Chloe learned to write her name in the last week or two!

After the museum, we headed outside for a covered wagon ride, yay!  We rode along with a newspaper journalist from 1849.  He was quite a character, ha!  He asked us about our journey to Independence all the way from Atlanta, and he even tried to convince Coleson to head out to California to find riches.  The Mayor was also wandering around, as well as the mill owner’s wife.  That’s about all though, honestly the reenactment wasn’t all we had hoped it would be.  But we did ride in a covered wagon.  And we learned that mules were mostly used to pull the wagons.  They don’t sweat and work as hard as horses do.  Horses were used on the trail of course, but were mostly for riding alongside the wagons and keeping cattle in line. 

The wagon ride let us off in the Main Street square area of Independence.  We had lunch at Clinton’s, a soda fountain shop that I had been real excited about.  It’s old and was actually the site of Harry Truman’s first job.  The food was pretty good, but the atmosphere and experience overall just seemed a little lacking.  The kids had grilled cheeses, and Coleson and I shared a chicken salad sandwich.  And of course we all had to have ice cream when we were done with our lunches.  We tried to walk around afterwards, but there just wasn’t much to see.  I was surprised at how slow the town area was.  They sure advertise it well and play it up!  We walked the short distance back to our car; the covered wagon rides weren’t running at the time.  Back in the same parking lot as the museum, we wandered into an old train station.  The kids were itching to look inside, and we ended up getting an all-out tour from a sweet old volunteer.  He sure knew his stuff, although he did tell us the same story about the reclining chairs twice.  The station was a restored original, and it was full of fun things to look at. 

The last stop on our way out of Independence was a strawberry festival that we had heard about at the Vaile museum.  It was about a mile drive, and oh boy was it the place to be.  There was nobody downtown because they were all up there.  Coleson was done for by now, and it would have been hard to get a decent parking spot anyways.  So he dropped the girls and I off, and he and Ryan sat in the car in a nearby church parking lot.  While Coleson rested his eyes, the girls and I took a quick walk around the grounds.  It would have been easy to stay there for a while, but we were tiring fast, and I didn’t want to keep the guys waiting too long.  There were dozens and dozens of crafts booths set up with everything you could imagine for sale.  There was also a huge, empty parking lot area that was probably being used as a stage.  There was nothing going on at the moment, but there were tons of people sitting in camping chairs all around it, a tent with audio equipment, and I saw several young girls in dance outfits nearby.  Vaile museum was definitely where all the action in Independence was! 

We left town around 2:30 or 3:00, programmed our google maps app for home, and just like that our vacation was over.  Sad!  Coleson drove us three hours to St. Louis, Chloe and I each took short naps, and there was some movie watching on the DVD player.  I’m still not a huge fan of having it built in to the van, I definitely didn’t want it, but I suppose it is okay.  The kids don’t bug me about watching it around town, they know it’s only for trips, so it’s not ever been a fight or anything.  One big drawback for me though, is that the sound plays through the car speakers.  Way back before the portable ones died, I could have those playing while I turned the radio volume to the front and listened to my driving CDs.  Oh well, first world problems indeed. 

Our route home just happened to take us through St. Louis, one of our favorite stops.  We ate dinner at an Imo’s Pizza again, yumm.  Different location this time, and quite possibly even better, the toasted raviolis seemed a little less greasy.  The store had a totally different atmosphere too.  It was a little outside of town, much quieter, newer, lots of big windows.  We splurged on the girls this time and ordered them bread sticks.  For whatever reason, they really don’t seem to like pizza, at least not like Coleson and Ryan and I do!  The three of us put away the largest pepperoni they have.  While in St. Louis, we also made a couple of quick stops looking for a souvenir magnet.  We had managed to purchase six already on our trip, but nothing from our favorite spot.  I eventually found a cheap, boring, generic Missouri one at a Love’s gas station, but at least it is something.  Guess we’ll have to come back again someday to find a better one :)  We passed through the outskirts of the downtown area and saw the arch in the skyline as we drove into Illinois, another new state for the kiddos!  I suppose it counts, we drove through it for several hours, but we never actually stopped the car, and they ended up sleeping through most of the state!  We also passed through Kentucky, although I don't think that's a new one, pretty sure we drove through there two years ago on our way up to Ohio and Niagara Falls.  The drive home was uneventful, which is always a good thing when you’re driving somewhere.  There were a few rainy spots, but that's always helpful for washing bugs off the windshield.  We took turns driving and sleeping, and we made it home about 4:15am.  Which is really only 3am central, so not quite as bad?!  We brought kids inside, visited with Maya for a few minutes, and went quickly to sleep.  From what I can gather, the kids were up about 8:30 today – a little earlier than I had hoped, considering that’s only 7:30 central, and they had been sleeping later than that in the hotels.  But they didn’t wake me up, and I slept until almost 10, a whole five hours, so no complaints here ;)

Today has been all about laundry.  I had thought about making tally marks for the number of loads, but I didn’t, and I’ve already lost count, and I doubt I’m even halfway.  Boy, it sure is nice washing clothes!  Can you believe I’m saying that??  I don’t think I’ve gone this long without the ability to do laundry before; our road trips usually include visiting family, which comes with the added bonus of borrowing their washers and dryers!  And I finally freed our tick-infested sneakers from their quarantined grocery bags.  Lots of lysol spray out in the front yard away from the house, and then through the washer with laundry detg, bleach, and vinegar.  They might just be safe now!  Coleson and I also took turns going running, as well as napping, and Ryan and I went to the grocery store.  It was crazy packed on a Sunday afternoon, but it was certainly worth it to have a home-cooked meal at our own kitchen table – tacos and fresh southern caviar dip and veggies, yes veggies! 

So, anyways, there you have it!  Nine days, just over 2,700 miles, seven different states [I think.  We really only spent time in four : TN, MO, OK, Kansas].  Lots of memories, some good stories, bunches of new facts learned, plenty of pictures to go through.  And mostly, just a lot of family time!  I love that we really do like each other, and we can take trips like this.  I think there was only that one time along Route 66 that we actually had to pull the car over ;)  An awesome week with my awesome family!  Wonder when and where our next adventure will take us?!?     

PS, the Oregon Trail was about 2,000 miles and took an average of six months.  The trails were only used for a short amount of time before the trains replaced them.  And now, 150 years later, not that long in the grand scheme of things, we can do that same journey in a car in a matter of days.  Things to ponder.

                                                                                                                                                                                  

Day Eight - Kansas

Day Eight – Friday, June 3^rd 2016, Kansas

This morning we awoke in Woodward OK, everyone sleeping in until about 8:00 again, love it.  We had a yummy breakfast, complete with a breakfast bagel creation – scrambled eggs, cheese, small bits of bacon, all melted on top of a bagel.  Quite tasty.  We packed up and headed north towards Kansas.

The drive was pretty much the same – wide open views everywhere, cows, windmills, oil digger thingys.  And yet, it’s still beautiful and so peaceful.  We kept entertained by challenging each other to see who could spot a windmill next or an oil digger, that sort of thing.  We also played an ABC game.  You had to either find the letter in a sign [pretty hard to do when there are almost no signs] or find something outside of the car that started with that letter.  For example C for cattle, D for Daddy who rolled down his window and stuck his head out so that it would count, G for grass, and believe it or not Z for zebra.  There was some sort of random petting zoo, rescue something, I don’t even know, alongside of the tiny little county road, go figure.  We have also noticed that everyone around here, particularly in Oklahoma drives a white truck.  It’s true.  We first noticed it driving in and out of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.  No colors at all, except one rebellious silver pickup.  Once we crossed into Kansas, we started seeing a few different colors, but still mostly white.  

Tonight’s end goal and hotel location is Kansas City.  The halfway-ish point is Wichita, so we searched things to do in Wichita last night and found a few ideas.  With limited cell service and internet, we couldn’t find a fun lunch spot along the road, so we ate at a trusted favorite: Wendy’s.  Affordable, agreeable to all, and free frosty key tags.  We then went into the Old Cowtown Museum that we had read about last night.  It was really quite neat!  It was very empty, and probably would have been even cooler on the weekend when bustling with activity.  It’s a huge 1870’s town set on 23acres.  All the buildings are original, which makes it super awesome.  Most were moved around to get where they are today, but everything is completely authentic.  In fact, the grain elevator is still operational, and they claim it’s the only working one left in North America.  The houses and shops are filled with original artifacts and people dressed in character walk the streets and shops.  We even saw a reenactment of a gun fight.  Chloe and Abby both screamed, and it took some time to calm Chloe down.  We walked through a farm with chickens and cows and horses and a very loud sheep that kept baaing at us, and a goat that ate grass and flowers from the kids’ hands.  There was a jail and a saloon and general store and schoolhouse and train depot and everything else you could think of in that would have been in an old Western town.  Almost all the buildings are open and you can wander in and out exploring all sorts of neat things.  And again, all real, nothing fake or cheesy about it.  Cowtown was a great place to have stumbled upon!  The setting was very nice, along the Arkansas River.

We closed the museum down at five and headed north again.  The drive was extra pretty with the early evening sun, and we passed through a hilly stretch of terrain, the Flint Hills I believe the sign said.  It was quite different than any other area we’ve been through recently and was very beautiful.  The lunchtime Wendy's kids meals had come with small plastic cones for playing various little games, but in reality they're megaphones for already loud kids :)  My favorite was Abby belting out Lincoln Brewster's song, "there is power in the name of Jesus."  Our new-to-us van came with a free three month trial of xm satellite radio which has been great on this trip!  Our trio also attempted to pass the cones and clap to the Cup Song.  It didn't work too well, fortunately for them they have lots of cones since most ended up on the floor!  We stopped for dinner in Emporia, KS.  What a bustling downtown area.  There was a huge mountain bike race or convention or something going on.  We had planned to eat at a local Mexican restaurant that has great reviews online, but we eventually gave up waiting and walked across the street to Jimmy John’s.  Yummy and so much quieter and way quicker, which is good when everyone is tired.  The town had a really nice quaint feel to it.  I’m not sure if it’s always that way, or if it was just extra vibrant because of all the bikers in town.  There were lots of old shops along the main street, fun window displays, sidewalk chalk drawings all over, people walking everywhere,  and just a really neat atmosphere.  Fun place!

The last stretch of our drive was maybe an hour and a half.  I drove while Coleson read our library book about the Oregon Trail in preparation for Independence tomorrow.  Kinda crazy to think that most of this trip came about because of the one book that Abby randomly set her heart on at the school book fair [Ranger in Time].  We’ve had so much fun learning about the Oregon Trail and life in the 1800’s.  I wonder where we’d be tonight and what we might have done if we hadn’t planned our trip around ending up in Independence tomorrow for the reenactment!  Ryan wrote an awesome postcard to Nana today that summed it up pretty well:  “This trip has been a good one so far.  You should do it.  It’s fun learning a lot about the 1800’s.”  We didn’t intentionally set out to teach such an extensive lesson in American history, but it sure has evolved into one, and I’m grateful the kids are enjoying it!  I know I am!  Sad to think our trip is wrapping up!     

PS, Our hotel was a low-budget La Quinta Inn in Kansas City, about 40minutes from Independence.  It was fine enough, but certainly far from fancy.  I really was itching for a run and was sad that there was no fitness center.  I ran outside, but not very far, it was dark, and I wasn't brave enough to go more than about 1.75miles.  There were bunnies everywhere along my run though, which was kinda cool.  I bet you I scared up twenty of them.  In once spot, there was a group of four and in another place, there was five together. 

Day Seven - Oklahoma

Day Seven – Thursday, June 2^nd 2016, driving Oklahoma

Today [and I really mean today!  I’m caught up on blogging!], we had planned to venture west of OKC into the Black Kettle grasslands area.  But between the rain, our fear of ticks, and having already seen my buffalo, we were open to new ideas.  We spent last night researching, but still hadn’t really come up with anything.  This morning, Coleson and the girls got a head start on the breakfast, while I called up a local barn that I had finally found that advertised horseback riding.  Believe it or not, those seem to be hard to come by around here.   I suppose that’s because so many people have their own horses!  Even the places that do offer horse trails, are just that- trails, you bring your own horse.  The lady that answered was super sweet and apologetic, with all the rain, it’s just too wet and muddy and it wouldn’t be safe for riding.  That made complete sense to me, and also made me realize that most any outdoor activity would have the same limitations.  So we enjoyed our breakfast of waffles and bananas and hot coffee and checked out of our room, still without a clear plan for the day.     

We headed west and jumped on the old historic route 66 for a while.  It was pretty and fun and all, but it can get a little boring, especially if you are 8, 6, or 3.  We saw some nice countryside and a cool old bridge.  We stopped at a fun old picnic area, complete with little metal overhangs at each table.  We sat and finished our Ranger in Time book and read a couple of the Blessings book devotionals.   Love that the kids brought that along too and ask to read from it!  Abby scaled the metal posts of the overhang and Ryan played his little football kicking game [think those paper footballs that you flick with your fingers].  He’s got a tournament type championship thing going on that he’s been keeping track of on hotel stationery.  After a bathroom break, we drove just a little farther to Weatherford where we ate lunch at Lucille’s diner.  The food was quite good, classic American.  I had a Route 66 burger complete with lettuce, tomato, pickle, etc, it was thick and huge and delicious!  Coleson had a patty melt.  They had the same jump the pegs game that Cracker Barrel has, so the kids enjoyed that.  It was a fun stop. 

We then began meandering our way up towards Woodward, OK, where tonight’s hotel is located.  We pulled over at a city park area that caught our eye and went on a walk.  We sampled some blackberry looking and tasting fruits, except they were growing off a huge tree instead of a bush.  But they were still yummy, whatever they were.  The kids enjoyed playing on a section of exercise equipment.  And then it rained on us.  And since it’s Oklahoma and you can see for miles, you can also see the rain.  So neat.  We took the opportunity to use the bathrooms with the added bonus of getting out of the rain for a few mins.  The rain halted temporarily, and we walked some more, although we did get rained on a second time.  It wasn’t too heavy or anything, just extra annoying in flipflops.  Our sneakers are still tied up in plastic grocery bags with ticks crawling all around in them.  I’m kinda scared of that bag, and I don’t really know what to do about it.  I wish I could spray them and wash them and air them out, somewhere far far away from us.  But I can’t.  So we walk in flipflops.  Anyways, back to walking in the rain.  It was a nice stretch of the legs before sitting again.  The drive to Woodward was not quite two hours.  It was a great drive.  Lots of backroads without any painted lines, some parts barely paved, middle of nowhere, nothing in sight.  My eyes just love seeing nothing and everything all at the same time.  It’s so hard to take it all in.  You can see forever here.  We saw hundreds and hundreds of windmills.  They’re huge and white and only have three blades.  They put them in rows in the windy areas, and you’ll pass through dozens of them.  It’s almost freaky.  As Coleson said, it makes you think of that movie Contact.  We saw bunches of them the other day too, driving from the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.  I really love the classic older windmills though, and I even pulled over so Coleson could take some pictures for me.  There’s also wheat everywhere.  So pretty and golden.  And really cool to me were the bales of it all rolled up spread out across the fields.  Dots and dots of wheat bales ready and waiting.  It’s just so totally different out here.  Having the day to drive and explore and really see the countryside was fun. 

We made it to our hotel about 4:30 probably.  We checked in [they gave us chocolate chip cookies upon arrival!  best hotel ever!], and much to the delight of our three little people discovered another indoor pool, hooray!  I tell ya, we could just spend a week in a hotel with an indoor pool and continental breakfasts, and they’d be happy as clams :)  Awesome Daddy took the kiddos swimming while I typed blogs.  Typing these can be a bit annoying and very time-consuming, but I do enjoy looking back on them, and hopefully someday the kids will appreciate them too.   And maybe I’ll even print them into a book of some sort.  Great plans and aspirations.  So, I typed Tuesday and Wednesday while they swam.  And since it was after six when they returned, and they were pretty much done for, I drove over to Subway and picked up dinner while the family took warm showers.  It was raining while I was out, but it was so different than any rain back home.  It was still relatively bright and sunny out, and the rain barely even got you wet.  It was a light rain that just sort of rolled off.  I didn’t mind it one bit.  And oh boy was it fresh.  It smelled so clean and good and fresh.  It really made me want to find a grassy field and stretch my arms and dance in a circle like you see in movies.  When I returned to the hotel, the fire alarm was going off.  It was crazy loud.  I wasn’t overly concerned since I hadn’t noticed anything from the parking lot.  Everyone was still in the room – the girls had just gotten in the tub when it went off.  It didn’t last long, and by the time the time we made it to the lobby to investigate, it had stopped.  There was a fire truck in the parking lot by then, and when I said something to the front desk lady, she offered that she had been making some cookies.  Oops ;)

We had a very nice evening in.  Sandwiches, apples that we had bought along the way and not eaten yet, Cheetos from our snack bag, and more cookies.  We watched Spy Kids #892 on Disney, and despite not having seen Spy Kids #1 or 2 or 3, it was still about as good as a made for TV Disney channel movie can be.  It was cute and relaxing and fun to be together.  After goodnights and snuggles [“why you all laying on my foots??” –Chloe], the kids quickly fell asleep.  They haven’t given us a single peep or bit of grief about bedtime.  But I guess that’s what long, action-packed days will do!  And they’ve been staying up a lot later then at home.  Even the girls are getting better at sleeping in too.  I think it was close to 8:00 before we rolled out of bed this morning.   

Everyone’s fast asleep, and I’m happy to report that I’m caught up and current on my blog posts!  I’ve been typing them in word and posting whenever I can get internet, so some of the lag-time has been because I can’t post what I’ve written.  But some of it has just been because I’ve been behind.  Hopefully, I can maintain now.  Good night from Woodward, OK!  Sweet dreams to all! 

Day Six - OKC

Day Six – Wednesday, June 1^st, Oklahoma City

Good morning Oklahoma City!  We enjoyed a yummy continental breakfast before heading to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, another recommendation from Mom’s friend.  Thankfully, Coleson thought to check for coupons before we left, and we were able to buy a groupon for admission that saved us over half the price, woohoo!  The weather was a little cloudy and overcast, so it was a good morning to be inside.  The first part of the museum was mostly art galleries.  The kids weren’t overly thrilled of course, but there was some neat and pretty stuff in there for Coleson and I to look at.  We then walked into a section focusing on the American cowboy and the rise of Western movies.  Abby lit up!  I must admit, I wasn’t expecting it.  She was enthralled.  This girl loves horses though, there seems to be something in her DNA, so I suppose it makes sense.  To be honest, we don’t really encourage horses, if anything we sometimes try to discourage.  Horse riding is actually one of the few things the urologist said we might want to avoid.  But seeing the way she comes to life when she sees the horses and ranches and cowboy things we’ve seen on this trip, we may have to just embrace her love for it and take a risk.  But that’s another thought for another day after we return home!  So anyways, she loved the Western movie displays, especially the one about the singing cowboy.  She even sat through a documentary about Western movies and was totally captivated the whole ten minutes or so.  On a random note, the documentary was narrated by Sam Elliot.  We’ve been watching his comedy show, The Ranch, on Netflix.  After a quick walk through a couple more galleries, we headed to the Kids’ Corral area.  It was a fun place.  There were trunks of dress-up cowboy clothes and boots.  Ryan and Chloe sort of tried on some clothes, and Abby went all out.  Turquoise boots, chaps, a vest.  A hat would have perfectly completed the outfit, but they didn’t have any, and after experiencing lice I suppose I understand why!  Abby wore her get-up all over the kids’ area.  There were saddles to sit on, a campfire play area, a miniature log cabin.  I loved watching all three of them have fun.  Eventually, we made our way outside to the grass gardens area.  There were some statues, including an enormous Buffalo Bill, and a small stream with huge goldfish/koi/some sort of beautiful fish.  A few more displays inside, a stop at the gift shop for postcards, and we were on our way.

The weather was pretty gross, so we stopped at a Smoothie King for a to-go lunch and then headed back to the hotel.  We shared smoothies and ate our anniversary crème pies.  It was then off to the indoor, heated swimming pool.  The kids go nuts for a good indoor pool.  Chloe practiced her swimming, she’s going to be a fish in no time!  Now that she’s completed lessons with Ms. Elaine, there’s no going back [aka no floaties, so Mommy has a long summer of swimming with the kids ahead of her].  After showering, we ventured out into the rain again.  We went back through Stockyards City once more to do a little shopping.  Chloe picked out her trip souvenir - a super cute pink tank top.  It has a fun Indian print, but it doesn’t say Oklahoma or anything and it’s not all touristy.  She really wanted it though, so why not.  Most of the shops there were ‘real’ shops as opposed to souvenir shops, so it was pretty nice and expensive stuff.  We then drove a few more minutes towards the Bricktown district.  Chloe had fallen asleep, so we continued to drive around a little before coming back to park.  We went into Bass Pro Shops for a few minutes, mostly probably so we wouldn’t feel bad about using a free parking spot in their lot.  We then walked along the Bricktown canal waterway.  It was a fun and pretty walk.  There’s a water taxi that I had thought we’d ride, but it wasn’t even running so that made our decision for us.  It was still a little drizzly.  We stopped in a couple shops and ate dinner at Fuzzy’s Taco Shop.  It was really fun and yummy.  The shredded chicken nachos were the best, they even had feta cheese.  Oh, and the tortilla soup.  Quite a tasty dinner.

We were right across from the Bricktown stadium, home of the AAA Dodgers.  We had planned all along to go the game, and Ryan was so excited he was about to burst.  But it was getting late and we were tired and the girls were tired and buying five tickets just didn’t seem like a good idea.  So we finally decided that Ryan and I would go into the game.  Coleson took the girls back to the room where they laid in bed watching one of the Night in the Museum movies on HBO.  Honestly, we had both wanted to return to the hotel, but as it usually happens, I’m glad I made myself go out.  Ryan and I very much enjoyed the game.  Our seats were in right field and they were right there.  I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so close to the action.  Ryan intently watched the game and took it all in.  He kept close tabs on the second baseman in particular, he was even #2 just like Ryan.  I tried a couple of times to get Ryan to walk around the stadium, but he didn’t want to miss any of the game.  We eventually made a bathroom run and discovered a playground.  He was so cute – I could see him debating with himself, the game or the playground?!  But in the end, he’s still a kid, so he decided he wanted to go down each slide once.  And after doing so, it was right back to the game.  Once Coleson texted that the movie was over and he was on his way back to get us, we went into the team store where we purchased a magnet, and then somebody walking by with a stack of promotional type hats offered Ryan one.  It’s a really nice baseball cap, and Ryan has worn it proudly ever since receiving the free gift.  Coleson and the girls did a drive-by to pick us up and it was back to the hotel for us.  We left in the middle of the ninth, with the home team Dodgers losing 5-2 to the Iowa Cubs. 

Guess that’s about it for our day!  It’s been a good one!