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07.23.2010 Day Six

Nature and Embroidery-RoadTrip 7 Comments

Right now I am sitting in a cafe in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho…all by myself!!!!! Can I get a hallelujah from all the Mom’s out there :)? I’m sorry I disappeared, but we have not been anywhere with Internet access the last couple of days…we’ve barely even had phone service. The disconnected time has been filled with joy and beauty though, so I’ve decided to keep on recording our days, just a little behind.

We got to Cody, Wyoming in enough time for Jeremiah and I to take turns going on a run/swimming with the girls. It was the first evening we’d arrived at our hotel in enough time to do that, and I am so thankful. Cody was quaint and beautiful–store fronted main street, picture book neighborhoods, and mountains all around. It was our anniversary (thanks for the congratulations!) and we went to a quaint local steak house (think a hair fancier than Conestoga, Dothanites) where I ate the absolute best steak I have ever put in my mouth. No exaggeration. Apparently all that corn treats their cows well, because my filet was charred on the outside, but soft goodness on the inside. I asked if I could hug the cook–pretty sure they thought I was crazy 🙂

And the next morning we did a quick map refresher on where we we’d been:

And where we were headed:

Organized our camping gear and bought supplies for dinner and breakfast (in hopes that we’d be prepared parents and not starve our children this time) and went to lay my virgin eyes on the sights of Yellowstone.

I was not disappointed.

This is Lake Yellowstone, with Old Faithful erupting in the distance.

And Jeremiah showing the girls how to skip rocks.

Now this is the beginning of our little hiking adventure that turned into a significant mistake.

The girls are pretty tough and adventurous, but taking a round-trip hike of 2.5 miles at a significantly higher altitude turned out to be a little much. At first just the smallest chicken wing needed help.

But then the second man started to go down…

And being drug by Daddy’s belt didn’t prove helpful enough…

I was taking turns carrying Dapples on my back, and somewhere between a baby, a belt, Jeremiah’s sunglasses, and a camera around my neck, my sunglasses fell off–unbeknownst to me. My sunglasses that I’d splurged on against Jeremiah’s wishes…

And while we did get to see a bridge built by God himself:

And while we did search the whole way down, and Jeremiah ran back and forth along the trail twice looking for them…I’m afraid they were never found. And I had to have a little talk with myself about monetary possessions not being worth as much as memories…but my stomach still felt sick over the loss.

But we bounced on along the Yellowstone loop, and refused to let our joy be stolen.

We stood with hundreds of others, in reverent silence as we watched the wonder of Old Faithful.

And since that steam in created by lava, Pace told us she felt satisfied in her wish to see a volcano on our trip 🙂

We also stopped at the Fire Paint Pots (not totally sure that name is right?) and saw more evidence of God’s never-ending creativity.

And Pace experienced a “volcano” at a closer level.

We stopped all throughout our trek at different camp sights, hoping to find a perfect spot for the night. Two things prevented us. One–they were all full. Two–I couldn’t understand why we would camp 2 FEET from another group of campers. Or worse yet a big ‘ol RV with a humming generator.

We decided to drive on out of Yellowstone (At around 7:30 and we still don’t have a camp site and we have to build a fire, pitch a tent, and make dinner. I was starting to develop some tension in my neck…) to see if there was a more secluded (and available) spot. There wasn’t.

I guess maybe I’ve been spoiled to having friends and family gracious enough to let us camp on their land. But y’all, those camp-sites didn’t feel like camping…they just felt like sleeping outside. I wasn’t sure it was worth all the effort without seclusion. SO, we decided to drive the 90-something miles on to Mrs. Ohs, Jeremiah’s mountain Mama.

As I dealt with the two devastated mini-campers in the backseat, Jeremiah spotted a little dive off the highway where it looked like they may serve us some much-needed dinner. It was sitting on a lake, and it turned out to be a boat that had been used as a bar during the Prohibition Era. It was now permanently landed as a restaurant/bar. There were only a handful of locals there, and we headed out to the prow of the boat and had dinner overlooking this:

All to ourselves. I guess the locals were accustomed to the beauty…or maybe they just didn’t want to have drinks with our kids :).

As soon as the sun started sinking behind the mountains, we sent Jeremiah out to the U-Haul for some winter clothes.

We talked about our favorite parts of Yellowstone and dreamed of going back with a whole week to quench the desire we felt for more. We’d only scratched the surface. We ate cheeseburgers and sweet potato fries, and experienced something worth leagues more than we were paying. Our own private family dinner, surrounded by mountains and water and sunset.

As the girls tuckered out immediately in the backseat, Jeremiah and I wound through mountains towering majestically in the moonlight. I whispered, “This is more than happiness, it’s bliss.”
07.19.2010 Day Four and Five

Nature and Embroidery-RoadTrip 10 Comments

Yesterday we saw the Badlands of South Dakota. I read Mornings on Horseback this past year, which is a David McCullough biography about the young life of Theodore Roosevelt. I wish that my book wasn’t in a storage unit in Dothan, and I could give you some of his quotes about this mesmerizing land. From the cliffs that seem fragile enough to be made of sand, yet strong enough to stand firm through the harsh winds that rip through the prairies…

To the herds of buffalo,

that sauntered right by our car.

To the prairies dancing with wheat, and sage and even a few baby cacti:

We all delighted in the opportunity to take in something so very new to us all.

In an effort to have an adventure of our own, we decided to take off on our own trail. It wasn’t against any rules we could find, and the girls were both begging to climb a “mountain.” We spotted one in the distance that looked like it could handle two small children.

I’m just going to tell you that it was a little scary walking through that tall and prickly grass. I kept envisioning the large replica of a coiled rattlesnake I’d seen in a shop window in town the night before. While there weren’t any written rules against walking in the grass, there were lots of rules warning about the danger of wild buffalo and RATTLESNAKES. I started thinking about stories of compartment syndrome I’d heard Jeremiah tell, from patients he’d seen in the ER with snake bites. I also thought about all those corn fields…without so much as a small town and wondered where in the world we’d find anti-venom. I had just finished reassuring myself that snake fangs were surely sharp enough that the actual bite couldn’t hurt too badly, and surely Jeremiah could fit me with a really awesome prosthetic leg, when we finally reached our mountain. (I will mention that Jeremiah and I were flanking the girls in a line through the grass and I felt pretty safe for them that a snake would either attack the front or the rear).

And so, Jeremiah helped/took them to the top–

And the reward for our effort, and all that fear of snake bites :), was great.

Can you see the confidence?

We continued on through more wonders of the Badlands, until our stomachs (and more loudly our children) reminded us that it was lunchtime.

And the fearless adventurer parents had not thought to pack a lunch! Shouldn’t there be a snack bar somewhere in a National Park? We did eventually find a picnic area with some drink machines, and we broke out the sandwich toppings and other odds and ends Jeremiah’s mom had packed for us for a picnic our first day. The girls had a lot of Peanut butter with Ritz crackers and Jeremiah came up with these little concoctions for us:

That would be two saltine crackers with a slice of tomato, a couple of banana peppers, and a smattering of tostito cheese dip. Lunch of champions.

After lunch we encountered my favorite view of the day, at the “White River” overlook.

I thought of Roosevelt and his lonely winters alone, trying to keep a herd of cattle alive in this strange wilderness. I thought of how creative God is, to weave lines of color through rock that ripples on and on. And I thought about all the flips my insides were turning at having myself and two little babies so close to that drop off with the wind whipping our hair.

At around two, we left the Badlands,

And drove the 75 miles to Mount Rushmore:

It was an iconic moment. To smile with my very own family in front of the statues I remember staring at in my History book as a little girl. When did I get children of my own? And when did it become Ok for me to drive around wherever I want to and stay in hotels with the man I’m crazy about?

Am I really aloud to have this much fun?

We hiked the half mile trail around the monument. And went to the artists’ studio, where I learned that 90% of these beautiful carvings were made by dynamite, AND Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln were meant to be pictured to the waist like this:

but the base of the mountain became too variable.

All in all, it was a wonderful day. But the little girls were pooped (and battle scarred):

So we headed off across the Black Hills and then the Rockies.

Today we’ve driven to Cody, Wyoming. We’ll stay here tonight and head into Yellowstone tomorrow. Whew, and today is our seven year wedding anniversary on top of all that!
07.18.2010 Day Three

Nature and Embroidery-RoadTrip 9 Comments

We are currently in Wall, South Dakota–the entrance to the Badlands National Park. It’s been a good day, despite the 536 miles that we drove. I’ve been reading Same Kind of Different as Me for we-the grown-ups. We have also played some eye-spy, “I-start-a-story-and-we-go-in-rounds-til-its-finished,” and lots of nursery-rhyme type songs that Jeremiah still attempts to sing harmony with 🙂 I guess I should also update you on the fact that we broke the DVD barrier last night. So they watched one movie yesterday and two today–still not bad all things considered. I stand amazed at how good the girls have been. I can only think to thank prayer. I know it’s not them!

I hope this doesn’t sound ugly, but if you are from Iowa or South Dakota WHAT IN THE WORLD DO YOU DO FOR FUN??!! All we saw were corn fields. I mean really, very very few small towns and corn fields. It was fun the first day, but by today I pretty much had corn fields down and was ready for a little change.

South Dakotians crack me up with their advertising schemes. If you thought Sikes and Kohns had a lot of advertising signs, you should see the ones for the “1880’s town” “Ghost Town” and “WALL DRUGSTORE” in South Dakota. We got taken in at first:

We soon learned, however, that a whole lot more is spent on advertising than the actual attraction. This one was basically a slightly glorified gas station, with some Buffalo in a pen out back.

At this very moment I am extremely happy. The weather here is to die for. A cool breeze in a cloudless sky with a sunset that seems to never end. I don’t know if it’s because of how big the horizons are, or if the northern mid-west is just blessed with never-ending sunsets, but it seems to stay twilight here for around four hours.

I found some mini-log-cabins for us to stay in for a really good price. I can’t begin to tell you what a $20 difference in price has made in the quality of our hotel stay. Last night was MISERABLE (and disgusting). I won’t go into too much detail because Jeremiah will say I sound like a brat, but the hotel did not have air conditioning, there were un-identifiable stains on our bathroom wall, and even Jeremiah admitted that he had a hard time sleeping on his pillow with the odor it was emitting. OK?! I will note that I kept my disgust to myself since Pace and Mary Aplin were still enthralled by it all. Pace actually said, “Mommy, look at these beautiful roses on the bed spread! Aren’t they just lovely?” I mean, you hate to spoil that kind of innocence. Even though she was slightly distraught when I threw the comforter off our bed using two fingers that barely touched. I told her I was just hot (which was true).

Right now the girls are playing on a log-cabinesque play fort with slides galore, while Jeremiah and I eat Ben and Jerry’s straight out of the carton in this never-ending sunset and breeze. I’ve decided I love road trips 🙂

Tomorrow we plan to hike around the Badlands and see Mount Rushmore. We may even watch a movie in our CLEAN bed tonight.