All caught up

I finally have caught up with all the posts. Lisa's Aunt Lil and my Aunt Jerry don't have Internet access, which has made it really difficult to post an entry each night. I finally had the time to get all caught up today. We actually didn't do a lot today as opposed to most days so far. We all commented on how nice it was to have dinner at a normal hour and have a chance to unwind before going to bed. I should be able to regularly post each night going forward, or I hope to. The only problem may be when we go up to visit my Uncle in Wisconsin tomorrow. He does not own a computer, so it may be rough.

Over the last couple of days I have posted about 6 days of happenings, so make sure you get yourself all caught up.

Day 12 (June 29th) – Chicago, Illinois

Today we went to downtown Chicago. We wanted to avoid traffic as much as possible, so this meant that we would only have a few hours to see some sights.

We made into downtown without incident which was a nice surprise. We decided to head down towards Millennium Park and Navy Pier. As we got there, they were holding a Taste of Chicago Event in the park. I thought this was a great thing, since we could go there and eat. The problem was that it made parking difficult and the traffic getting around the park very difficult. We did find some parking and headed out. Now, I wanted to get some eats at the Taste of Chicago, and I was the only one. Everyone seemed to ignore me, or wasn’t ready to eat. We walked to the shore of Lake Michigan and towards Navy Pier. When we got to the pier, everyone got hungry. I was not amused by this. We could have had better eats and at a lower cost at the Taste of Chicago. After eating, we walked the pier which is a lot like the Santa Monica Pier.

The next stop was the Sears Tower. The name has now been changed to the Willis Tower. I wonder if this is going to stick. Everyone in the United States knows the building as the Sears Tower. I guess if you purchase naming rights you can change the name, but that doesn’t mean the name will change for everyone else. To get to the Sears Tower, we decided to take the water taxi, which went from the Navy Pier to the Sears Tower via the Chicago River. This was the favorite part of the day for Lisa. She enjoyed the view of the buildings and skyline that you get from the river.

We went up to the observation deck on the Sears Tower, scratch that Willis Tower. Before you get to ride the evaluator up to the top, you have to watch a little film about the tower. We went into the theater and sat down on one of the bench seats. The theater isn’t really all that big and doesn’t look like a theater. I made a joke about hearing how fast this elevator moves. Samantha thought I was serious and said this is a really big elevator. I told her that it was a joke. The real elevator takes you to the top in a minute. The tower is 1,450 tall. You ears pop as you go up. The view at the top wasn’t all that great. The weather all day long has been cloudy and on the way over to the tower it was drizzling.

Once we got back down to ground level, we walked over to Millennium Park and walked along Michigan Avenue. There were your usual street entertainers and lots of people walking around and enjoying themselves in the park. Since we wanted to leave before rush hour really got started, we headed to the car and headed back to the campground by 3:30 PM.

I did want to head over to the United Center and take a picture next to the Michael Jordon statue with a Kobe Bryant jersey. There is a certain someone who loves Jordon and hates Kobe. I thought it would have been funny to have the picture taken, but we ran out of time. I did see a billboard for the Michael Jordon IMAX film. I guess people still love Jordon here in Chicago.

We drove a total of 116 miles to day. We have driven a total of 3741 miles for the entire trip. We purchased $38 dollars worth of gas today.

Day 11 (June 29th) – Columbus, Ohio to Chicago, Illinois

We got up early today, and actually left for Chicago on time. We said our goodbyes to my Aunt Jerry, who thought we were going to leave later in the day. It was a sad good-bye as we drove down the road. We hope that she makes it out to Los Angeles soon. She said that she would like to travel and see everyone in Los Angeles, so I am hoping to see her soon. The weather in Columbus was great. The temperature all weekend was in the low 80s with about 40% of humidity, which was a welcomed relief after the hot and humid weather that greeted us in southern Illinois.

I had mentioned to my dad that if we left Columbus on time that I would like to stop and see the Air Force Museum, which is outside Dayton, Ohio. Since we did leave on time and made great time to Dayton, we decided to stop. Lisa and my mom were not exactly jumping up and down by this little detour, but Miles was all for it. The price was right, since there was no admission fee.

The museum has five areas, which are early flight and World War I, World War II, Cold War era, modern era and space. It was all very impressive, but I found the early flight, World War I and World War II planes the most interesting. My dad and I could have spent the entire day in the museum, and my mom had to keep telling my dad to catch up to the rest of us. If you remember, my dad and I like to read all the information and details about the exhibits. Today, I was reading less than usual, since I knew our time was limited. We did want to get to Chicago by the end of the day. My dad, however, was reading just about everything. He did give up after my mom told him to hurry up after about the sixth or seventh time. We did end up spending two hours at the museum and did see almost everything. We didn’t get to read everything, but we did walk through most of the galleries.

The rest of the trip to Chicago was pretty much uneventful. At one point, Miles let loose some gas, and Samantha, who in the last year has decided that any gas is disgusting, gave out her usual response of “eeewww.” It doesn’t matter what type of gas or even if you politely excuse yourself. It is always “eeewww.” This time Miles didn’t agree with her as he stated that it wasn’t just “eeeewww,” that it was “totally eeewww.”

As we got to Chicago, it was prime time rush hour, which made our drive to the campground that much harder. It’s bad enough that the freeway system in Chicago is poorly designed, but they always seem to be working on the roads to make them that much worse. Maybe it is their way to deter people from moving there. It was making Lisa crazy, which isn’t hard. She hates traffic and she especially hates it in places that she has no idea of where she is going. I believe that my dad and I mentioned that Chicago traffic is bad, but she wasn’t prepared for how bad it can be, which added to her displeasure. At one point, she mentioned she didn’t want to go into town tomorrow because the traffic is bad. I told her that we are going to go downtown. We did make it to the campground without a whole lot of trouble. At least, we didn’t run into any physic experiments.

As for the weather, let me say what a difference a week makes. I know that we are about 300 miles north of where we were last week, but the weather in Chicago is very cold by comparisons. The wind was blowing pretty hard and the temperature was about 70. I guess that I shouldn’t be surprised by this. It is Chicago, and it is called the Windy City.

We drove a total of 451 miles to day. We have driven a total of 3625 miles for the entire trip. We spent 78 dollars on gas today.

Day 10 (June 28th) – Columbus, Ohio

This is our last full day in Columbus. We have several things and people that we want to see today, so it’s going to be a busy one. Last night, we decided that we would rest in the morning and go to church at 11 AM. This was a welcomed decision, as it gave us all a chance to sleep late and not have to rush. The day before Lisa had bought some bacon that beckoned to her from a deli case when we were in Amish Country. It was thick country style bacon that was peppered. She cooked it up for all to eat, and it was devoured very quickly.

Our first stop of the day was at Jake’s farm. Jake is a cousin of my dad, and he owns about a 100 acres of land. On part of this land he has a pond and a lake. The area by the lake is called Jake’s Ville. When you own something, you can call it whatever you want. The lake is spring feed so the water is real nice. He did actually build several buildings in this area. There is a Saloon, a Cathouse, log cabin, a barn, a beach area by the lake (that’s what he called, but it’s no beach by Californian standards), and a dock/dive platform on the lake. The lake is deep enough that you can dive off the platform. The highest dive is 14 feet. The dock also has a swing that you can use to swing out over the water and a small slide. The kids went crazy when they saw it all, and promptly put on their bathing suits. They both were a little timid at first, but they eventually got into the swing of things. They tried to paddle a raft across the lake to a floating trampoline in the middle. The wind was blowing kind of hard and they went speeding by it and eventually ran into the shore. After some coaxing, they both started to jump off the platforms. They first did the small one which was about 3 feet. After a few jumps off this one, they went to the 10 and 14 foot high platforms. I was surprised that Miles made the leaps. He is usually pretty cautious around water. On his last jump he what I can only describe as a butt flop. Yup, he hit the water square on his bum. He didn't care for the feeling that this dive left so he decided that he had enough. This was fine since it was time to get back on the road to see Don and Carolyn.

On the way to Don and Carolyn’s my brother calls my dad and says that we have to get to a TV right away. He sounds really excited as if something has happened. It wasn’t any big deal. He just wanted to let us know that USA was up 2 to 0 on Brazil in a soccer match. As he was calling us, I saw a sign that said Hoover Dam. I bet you thought that Hoover Dam was over in Arizona and Nevada. Well, you would be wrong. We found it in Columbus, Ohio. It’s real close to Don and Carolyn’s home. In southern Illinois, it would be in the next town over, or at least to the RV sales man.

While we were at Don and Carolyn’s my dad gave up on visiting with them to sit down and watch the soccer match. Don was watching it when we arrived, so no problem there. For those of you who don’t know, Brazil dominated the second half and beat USA 3 to 2. Carolyn had some watermelon and asked if we wanted some. I told her be ready for it to be all gone. Now, we talked about Samantha’s eating habits earlier, but I didn’t mention that she loves watermelon and cantaloupe. She always has. I bet at some point this changes. She used to eat hot dogs and chicken patty sandwiches almost every day. Now, she won’t touch them. This wasn’t a gradual thing either, it was like overnight. Carolyn said that she had two big containers full of watermelon, so we should be alright. Let’s just say that Samantha devoured both containers. She did have some help as we all had some, but by the time we left she may sure that there was no more watermelon in the house. I did warn her.

After visiting with Don and Carolyn, we went to go see a covered bridge. We were going to see one yesterday, but it got late and my mom wanted to get back to Aunt Jerry’s home. My dad had forgotten where the closest one was, but he had some general idea. Well, he couldn’t find it, so he wanted to go back to get John to help navigate, which was about a 15 minute drive back to Aunt Jerry’s home. This would have been this next county for some in southern Illinois, but as we started back I remembered that we were close to Ralph and Peach. We got directions from them and found the last covered bridge in Franklin County. This is the same one that I saw when I was a kid. You can’t drive over it anymore, but you can walk over it. There are a couple of reasons that they give for the covered bridges. One is because horses don’t like to go over water and the other is during the Civil War it gave protection to the troops. They both sound like Grade A Bologna to me.

Our last stop of the day was at my Grandmothers Grave site. Since she is buried in the family plot, Lisa was asking my dad about those buried in the plot. My Great Great Grandparents and my Great Grandparents are in the family plot.

Jolynn, who is Aunt Jerry’s daughter, came by for a visit. We sat and chat, and then Aunt Jerry wanted to play some Eucher. It’s a big card game that is played in this part of the country. It was Aunt Jerry and Jolynn against my dad and I. My dad and I won 3 games to 1. By the time we played the last game, it was already late, so it was time for bed.

We drove a total of 73 miles to day. We have driven a total of 3174 miles for the entire trip. We didn’t purchase any gas today.

Day 9 (June 27th) – Columbus, Ohio and Amish Country

Our first full day in Columbus was a full one. We wanted to go see the Amish country and view a couple of covered bridges, but what has become a common theme, we once again got a late start. This late start can be contributed to sleeping beauty, Samantha. She didn’t want to get up and then when we did get her up. She moved at a snail’s pace. It also doesn’t help that when she takes her shower that she takes upwards of 45 minutes. We were all waiting on her. This really isn’t anything new. She has always taken a long time to bath or shower, but it has gotten worse in the last year. It makes Lisa really mad. I’m not sure why she gets so made at this. She herself can sit in a bath tub for hours and read a book. She hasn’t done that in a long while, so I guess she doesn’t like that Samantha takes her time every day.

Before we made our way over to view the Amish, my dad wanted to show the kids his boyhood homes and schools. The kids didn’t seem to be very interested in this little tour. Although they thought it was funny that grandpa would wash a car in a creek near one of the houses that he had lived in. They would just drive the car into the creek and wash it. You don’t see that anymore, or at least I haven't seen it.

Amish country is close to the Pennsylvania border and half way between Columbus and Cleveland. Holmes County, which is Amish country, is as far east as we will be getting on this trip. My dad took the scenic route, so Lisa could see the houses. She likes to look at house. Remember, she likes HGTV. She kept saying, “Oooohhh, look at that house”, especially to the ones with a wrap around porch. During the drive, we passed a cemetery, and my dad pointed it out. Miles looked up and exclaimed, “Cool dead people, awesome!” We all laughed. After sometime we passed yet another cemetery, and Miles once again exclaimed, “Cool dead people, awesome!” Sam then informed him that the first time it was funny the second time it wasn’t. He them exclaimed, “Ahh, shucks!” You had to laugh at that.

When we arrived in Amish Country we saw the horse and buggies and the Amish hocking the wears. It is just like what you see in the movies or TV. My dad who wanted to eat lunch at this place in Charm, Ohio didn’t want to stop at an Amish market or cheese factory as we passed them by, because the kids and my mom were hungry. He simply stated that we would stop on our way back to Columbus, so no big deal. Well, as you can probably guess, this did not happen. Remember, I told you about the New York trip and as we crossed the bridge my dad points out the Statue of Liberty. This is one of those days. Lunch was very good. We had some Amish style eats that were very tasty. The place was called Grandma’s Homestyle Cookin. They gave you some bread, and on a lazy-susan they had some preserves, butter and something that looked like mustard. After tasting it, we could quite make out what it was. It poured out like mustard and had a sweet taste. Lisa said it tasted like Bit-O-Honey candy bar. I thought it tasted like a sweet butter. The waitress walks by as we are discussing this and said it was peanut-butter. All I can tell you is that it is the best tasting peanut-butter that I have eaten. I could have had a sandwich and would have been happy. On the way out, I bought some for the trip. Such a delicacy as this should be savored over and over again. What makes it so good? It could be the sugar that they add or the marshmallow. Either way, it is simply sinful. I was completely stuffed after eating the bread and peanut-butter, a pulled pork sandwich and home-made blackberry pie with home-made ice cream. It was all very tasty.

Now that we have satisfied everyone’s stomachs, it was time to go back to the Amish market and cheese factory, but my mom made a comment about going another way. I stated lets go back to the market and factory before heading out another way, but I am told there is another one on the not so scenic route back to Columbus. I should have stuck to my guns, but my dad is driving so I just agree to go along for the ride. I really should know better by now. We head toward the highway and see some Amish parties taking place in the yards and more in their buggies. I see a sign that says winery and cheese factory. My dad states that isn’t the place that he wants to go to. We totally miss it and end up on the highway. At this my mom and Lisa ask what happened to stopping a market or cheese factory. So my dad has to turn around to try to find the place. It so happens the place that he was looking for is next to the winery that I spotted. Overall, I am not impressed with the winery and the cheese market. I should have really stuck to my guns. I can’t completely blame my dad on this one, since my mom wanted to go the quicker way back to Columbus.

Lisa is disappointed in our little trip to the Amish country. She was expecting a town where they have lots of shops that you could go in and view there wears. Many of them would set up shop on a corner or next to a restaurant to sell their goods. Lisa was expecting an Amish Wal-Mart.

When we got back to Columbus, we went and saw my dad’s cousins Ralph and Peach at their home. We drank some wine and talked, while the kids drank soda and played in the nearby park. At one point, they played hide-and-go-seek. Miles doesn’t play this game very well. Almost immediately after someone finishes counting, he stands up and says “Hello” or “Here I am.” He has done this for as long as I can remember. He also doesn’t seek very well. He seems to expect people to return the favor by standing up and saying “Here I am.” Peach had showed me some photos of my Great Great Grandmother, who had 15 kids, and my Great Grandmother who got married at 16 to my 36 year old Great Grandfather. Overall, we had a nice visit with Ralph and Peach. The pictures were ones that my dad hadn't seen before.

We drove a total of 233 miles to day. We have driven a total of 3101 miles for the entire trip. We didn’t purchase any gas today.

Day 8 (June 26th) – Benton, Illinois to Columbus, Ohio

We left Benton today and made our way to Columbus. The trip was another long day. It didn’t help that we got a late start. This is beginning to be a common theme of this trip, so you can say that we left on scheduled.

This trip was not very eventful. We didn’t see any largest fill in the blank. We did cross the Wabash River as we entered Indiana, and also crossed the Ohio River twice as we entered Kentucky and Ohio.

We made it through Louisville without a problem, but as we came into Cincinnati we ran into trouble. There was a truck that ran off the road. I guess he was going so fast that when people applied their brakes he could stop and bailed out into the center median. The reason for the stopped traffic was another semi wreck. It looks like another semi side swiped the one to the right. We are happy to know that those in Kentucky enjoy physic experiments as well. We also got caught in rush hour traffic in Cincinnati. This all delayed us about an hour to hour and half. We got into Columbus about 6:30 PM.

When we arrived at my Aunt Jerry’s home, Don and Carolyn Mullen were there along with John Mullen. We sat around and talked for a while after we setup the trailer. My mom and dad are staying at a Comfort Inn. Their trailer wouldn’t make it over a railroad track that you have to go over to get to her home. We ate dinner and talked until midnight.

Aunt Jerry, who is 88 and a great cook, had made some zucchini bread that was fantastic. It was so good that Samantha had two pieces. This surprised me because when she tries something new she usually spits out and says yuck. Her diet consists primarily of peanut butter, chicken, pizza and fruit. She will eat beef. She hates cheese but loves pizza. The only time that she eats cheese is when it’s on a pizza. If that confuses you, it has been confusing Lisa and I for many years. It’s so bad that she won’t eat anything that has cheese in it; Macaroni and Cheese, sandwiches, cheeseburgers, you name it. Pizza is the exception to the rule. As for zucchini, she won’t touch the stiff, which makes it even more confusing, since she ate like three or four pieces of the bread.

We drove a total of 409 miles to day. We have driven a total of 2868 miles for the entire trip. The total cost of gas purchased today was $74.

Tomorrow we are off to the Amish country.

Day 7 (June 25th) – Benton, Illinois and Springfield, Illinois

The main goal for today is to go to Springfield, Illinois and see the Lincoln historical sites. We are going to discover Lincoln. This is the bicentennial of his birth. We got off to a late start. We wanted to be on the road by 8:30 AM, and ended up leaving around 10 AM. This wasn’t all that bad, since it gave Lisa one last chance to see here cousins from Georgia, as they stopped by to say good-bye to Lisa’s Aunt Lil.

I thought that I would feature Miles in this posting since he was funny. Samantha was grumpy and moody since we woke her up. On the way to Springfield, Samantha wanted to watch the movie Twilight… again. My dad then asked her if she knows the movie by heart, which she said “Yes”. My mom jumps in that she probably can recite the movie from memory, and again she said “Yes”. At this point, Miles jumped in and said “I know all the words to the movie, and that’s just sick.” I had to laugh at that because he said it as if he was totally disgusted. Everyone else laughed, except for, you guessed it, Samantha, who was insulted by the comment.

The first stop in Springfield was Lincoln’s tomb. This was very impressive and awe inspiring. Everyone there showed a lot of respect. Inside the tomb itself was decorated with marble and many statues of Lincoln at various stages of his life. The tomb had an ante chamber where the staff answered questions and the visitor log was kept. You take a hallway to where the burial chamber is located. The burial chamber is very plain with only a single headstone that sits in the middle of the room. He is actually buried to right of the stone. You then take a second hallway back to the ante chamber.

Our second stop was the Lincoln house, which is the location of the only National Park in the state of Illinois. When we got in front of Lincoln’s house, Lisa asked which house is his. I pointed and said the one on the corner. She replies that’s not it. I asked her why she thought it wasn’t his house. She then asked where is the log cabin. It is then that my dad and I started to laugh. My dad stopped enough to inform her that he was born in a log cabin, but lived in a house in Springfield. It just shows you today that people still believed Lincoln lived in a log cabin when he was elected President. The house was amazing. They mentioned that the furniture was made of black horse hair. My dad has a piece of furniture that had horse hair, but it has long been replaced. He said his mother had reupholstered it. At the back of the yard was the outhouse that had three seats. The kids had never seen an outhouse and Miles thought it was cool and Samantha just went “eewwww!” I thought the three seats of different sizes was interesting; his, hers and theirs.

The kids are into the junior ranger program. The National Park Services has a junior ranger program at every national park. The kids have to fill out a book, which is filled with activities. The program differs from park to park, but once you complete the requirement. You are sworn in as a junior ranger and given a badge. Miles is really into this. He was so excited that he can become a junior ranger for the Lincoln House that we had to wait for him to complete the required activities. Samantha started doing the junior ranger program after Miles got his first two or three badges.

Our last stop of the day was the Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library. This was a fantastic complex. My dad and I just loved it. We could have spent an entire day there. Lisa, my mom and the kids liked it, but they weren’t into reading everything. The museum has the log cabin that Lisa was expecting to see. The museum went through his entire life and had a lot of exhibits and movies. My dad and I spent time pouring over everything, since we enjoy history. We were told often that we need to move faster. It wasn’t said in those words but that is what was conveyed to us by Lisa and my mom. As my Dad says, my mom tries to take everything in by osmosis.

The kids and my mom wanted to go into the museum store, so when my dad and I were through walking through the galleries. Lisa escorted us to the store. I think she thought we might try to go back into a gallery. Miles who likes to spend money if he has some in his pocket wanted to buy something. I expected this. He actually wanted to buy a couple of things, and I reminded him that we have a lot to see, so he may want to save some money. My mom tells him that we will see Mt. Rushmore. He then tells her that “Mt. Rushmore. Big deal. You just go see a mountain and leave. It’s not like this.” I said “like what?”. He said, “this is awesome and cool and Mt Rushmore is just a mountain.” My mom and I laughed. We will let you know what he thinks of Mt. Rushmore when he sees it. I did let him buy something. Samantha who didn’t want to buy anything at first decided to get something as well. She likes to save her money, but does spend freely on cloths. A girl who like to spend money on clothes… go figure.

When we got back to Lisa’s Aunt Lil’s house, Lisa’s cousin, Allen, was under our trailer welding the piece of metal that got a gap at the seam when the tire blew. He was just finishing up as we drove up. He also had a hydraulic jack, so we put the new tire that we bought on Wednesday. We figured that the other tire, which was as old as the one that blew, could blow at anytime, so we changed it. The old tire is our new spare. Allen then took out the riding mower. Miles who spotted an opportunity to try something new goes running into the house asking if he could ride the mower. He was given the okay, and he spent the next half-an-hour driving the mower. Once he got the okay, Samantha thought she would ride it as well.

We drove a total of 350 miles today. We have driven a total of 2459 miles for the entire trip. We purchased $58 in gas today.

Day 6 (June 24th) – Benton, Illinois

The second day in Benton began with the pursuit of a replacement for the blown out tire. We were given directions to a trailer shop outside of Benton by Lisa’s cousin Allen. When we arrived at the shop they did a quick look, and said they didn’t have the needed tire. They called their other store, which is their main store. While we waited for them to check the availability of a replacement, Lisa decided to look at the trailers on their lot. She of course found two trailers that she really liked, and ran to get me. Now, you are probably thinking that instead of buying a replacement tire that we bought a new trailer. Well, you would be wrong. The two trailers were Coachman Catalinas, and were very nice. I asked the price of the trailers and was floored by the cost. The 28 footer was $16,500 and the 32 footer was $21,500. For those who don’t know trailers, that is really cheap.

We got the call that the main shop had the needed tire. We then made our way some 10 to 15 miles to the main store. Now, this distance is considered really far here in southern Illinois. In Los Angeles, it is just right around the corner. The man at the first store told us the distance before quoting $145 for the tire and rim. He was apologetic about the distance. He did notice that we were from California, so I don’t know why he thought 10 to 15 miles was a long distance to travel to get a replacement tire for a trailer. We already drove 2,018 miles to get the replacement tire.

When we got to the main store we checked that the tire and rim were the correct ones. The tire and rim came to $124 dollars, which made me happy, since I was expecting something in the $200 range. He then told us that we would have to go to their third shop to have the tired mounted on the rim. This shop was only 3 to 5 miles away, which is just down the street for those from Los Angeles.

After Lunch, we headed over to Lisa’s grandmother’s house. The house is in Du Quion, which is about 25 miles away. This is half day’s journey here in southern Illinois. Lisa’s grandmother had died about 18 years ago, but her uncle was living in the house. Lisa wanted the kids to see where her mom had grown up, and Lisa had a lot of fond memories of visiting her grandmother in this house. The house itself is about a 20x20 house. The house has 4 rooms that looked to be equally divided, so the house was very tight. When the house was originally built, the house didn’t have any plumbing. The house eventually got plumbing and an addition was added to the house to include the only bathroom in the house, so today the total square feet of the house may be 600 feet. When Lisa’s mom lived in the house growing up, there were six people in the house.

The kids spent the afternoon in a pool and riding scooters and ATVs. This was the first time that the kids got to ride an ATV. Miles who isn’t afraid to try anything was really excited, but Lisa is the cautious mom, so she had Amber, the daughter of Jun who is a cousin of Lisa’s, ride with Miles. Miles didn’t need any help riding the ATV. He just gunned it, and Amber wasn’t expecting this. She really doesn’t know Miles, who isn’t afraid to try things. Amber almost went flying of the back of the ATV, and then grabbed onto the ATV for dear life. Samantha rode the ATV as well and she had fun as well. The kids also found out what it was like for us adults to ride bikes and everything else without a helmet. Illinois doesn’t require people to wear helmets. The day ended with us having a barbecue at Lisa’s grandma’s house. A lot of the same folks who were at dinner on Tuesday were there at the barbecue.

We drove a total of 78 miles to day. We have driven a total of 2096 miles for the entire trip. We didn’t buy any gas today.

Day 5 (June 23rd) – Benton, Illinois

This is our first full day in Benton. We are all tired and slept in today, since we didn’t have to get on the road. Miles slept late for him. He got up at 8 AM. Samantha slept almost to 10 AM.

We didn’t do much today. We went to Walmart to get some food and a few items. Miles, who went to Walmart the night before with my parents, wanted to by a BB Gun that he saw there. Lisa told him that he would shoot his eye out. Not to be deterred, he said he would wear protective eye gear. He also through in that it was only $10 and he would use his own money. Lisa still wasn’t swayed. When this tack didn’t work, he asked if he couldn’t get the BB Gun could he get a paint ball gun. Lisa started to laugh and then said “No.” You got to give him credit for trying.

We found a coffee shop that had Internet access. While I stayed at the coffee house to post a blog entry and reading email, Lisa, my mom and kids went to the antique shops in the area. My mom found a few antique tea carts that she would like to get. My dad who stayed with me did his signature “that’s nice but so or not going to happen”. He does a half nod by moving his head up and says hmmmm. Lisa and my mom saw some other antiques, but the one thing that they were amazed with was the cost. The cost of the antiques are a fraction of the cost that you would pay in California.

The rest of the day was spent at Lisa’s Aunt. Lisa, her Aunt and her Aunt’s grandchild started cooking for a party. The party was a mini reunion. Lisa’s two surviving Uncles, lots of cousins, spouses and kids came for dinner at her Aunts. There must have been forty people and maybe even more who showed up. The amount of food was crazy. Everyone commented on that they wished Lisa’s mom had come with us. We tried to get her here, but she didn’t want to make the trip. We even told her that she could fly out and back, but she wasn’t going to make the trip. She can be very stubborn. I met a lot of the people that Lisa has talked about over the years. Miles finally had someone to play with. He was bored most of the day, and disappointed that he couldn’t buy a BB gun. Lisa’s cousin Alan, who is 40 something, brought out what can only be described as a 50 caliber machine gun that shoot Nerf darts. Miles was in heaven.

After dinner, we played several games of volleyball, which wasn’t easy since it was hot and humid. Everyone was dripping wet after the last game was played. The last of Lisa’s cousins left at midnight. I couldn’t tell you the names of all the people I met or how they are related, but it was nice to put a face to name.

We didn’t traveling to day so our total miles driven is. We drove around town with my parents. See as today was a reunion day all the pictures are of Lisa's relatives.

Day 4 (June 22nd) – Joplin, Missouri to Benton, Illinois

Today, we got back on the interstate at 8 AM CST toward Benton. This was the day that we would start to see something worth seeing. Not that the big cross wasn’t exciting, it really wasn’t.

Our first stop of the day was the Meramec Caverns. We did drive by the World’s Largest Gift Shop on the way to the caverns. When we stepped out of the car we were hit with a blast of heat with a big dose of humidity. At the caverns there was a picnic spot along the Meramec River, so we ate lunch before taking a tour. The caverns were nice and cool, which was a relief from the heat outside. The tour lasted about an hour and twenty minutes. The tour guide had two voices. His normal voice and his tour guide voice. The tour guide voice reminded me of the conductors in Japan. They would lower their voice a couple octaves and slow their speech to a deliberate rate. In other words, he was very annoying. It was so made that we almost got lapped by a tour that started twenty minutes later than our tour. We would have been lapped had the other tour guide not stopped his group in its tracks. The caverns have the third largest stalagmite in the world. It looked like a big fat blob. So far, we haven’t seen the largest anything. I hope to turn that trend around. As we came out of the caverens that same wave of heat hit us once again, but this time our glasses fogged up instantly. It was so bad my mom couldn’t see.

Soon after we got back on the Interstate we ran into our first traffic jam since leaving Los Angeles. The freeway was completely stopped, but we were lucky to get to an off ramp and bypass the experiment. It seems people in Saint Louis are into physics experiments. This experiment was a pretty bad crash involving two trucks. We were able to see it from a side street along the interstate. You can see two trucks on their sides and the really odd thing was one of the engines was about 50 feet down the road. If we were a few minutes faster, we would have seen the accident or been in it. It took us an hour to detour around it.

We arrived at the Gateway Arch in Saint Louis without any other issues. The Arch is supposed to have RV parking, but we couldn’t find the lot. The lot we did find was filled with cars. So we did what everyone else did and park along the Mississippi River. This is actually a no parking area, and Lisa didn’t like it. She was sure that we would get a ticket or towed away. Yes, the city is going to tow our car with a trailer attached. Lisa always thinks of the worst possible scenario and is sure that it is going to happen. It doesn’t matter what it is, but usually death or dismemberment is involved.

My dad wasn’t in favor of stopping to see the Gateway Arch. He mentioned you can see it as you cross the bridge, which reminds me when I was a kid. As a kid, we took these cross country trips often. The itinerary on one of the trip was to include a stop in New York. My mom was looking forward to this stop. But fate got in the way and we weren’t able to stop in New York. We arrived in New York on a Sunday morning and proceeded to drive down Broadway and out of the city. As we were crossing a bridge my dad says, “There it is… There’s the Statue of Liberty.” It was hard to see and looked really small. This made my mom very made, as we toured New York in 30 minutes.

We went into the visitor center at the Arch. It had a nice display of western expansion. They also had a couple of movies, but we opted not to see those. We did take a ride up to the top of the Arch. Today, we are featuring Lisa. Lisa can be a stick in the mud. She gets this from her mom. When we go places, she tends not to want to do things. Not always, but enough to take notice. She just wanted to leave. I wasn’t going to have any of it. We got our tickets and took the ride up to the top. The Arch is 628 feet high. To get to the top, you go through a line that looks like a ride at an amusement park. They even have eight lines. Each line is for a pod that sits 5 people. These pods are small and it looks like the inside of a dryer. The ride up takes 3 minutes. It was worth the effort. The views from the top were magnificent.

From the Gateway Arch, we crossed the Mississippi River to enter Illinois. We made our way Benton, Illinois which is 90 miles from Saint Louis. We arrived at Lisa’s Aunt Lily’s house around 8 PM. Since we are featuring Lisa this entry and the kids were boring today. I have nothing to report on them.

Today we travled 403 miles for a total of 1996 for the trip. We spent $98 in gas today. Tomorrow we will be visiting with Lisa’s relatives. There will be a big party tomorrow night. The next few entries will be posted when I can. Lisa’s Aunt doesn’t have internet, so I have to go to a coffee house to connect. The weather here in Benton is 90+ with humidity of about 80%. It is miserable. I really miss the dry heat of So Cal.