Sunday again (11 April)

I posted Sunday's before we had really left, so I thought I would add a few more pictures. The first is of our campsite at Nelsin Lake State Park. Back in the hills of Kentucky, and a little hard to find, but a nice spot. Quiet, especially after the weekend visitors left Sunday morning.

Luke and I went out for some fishing Sunday evening on the lake, and although small, we did make a catch! Luke loved it! It was beautiful with red bud blooming, Canadian Geese on the lake.

I also wanted to post another picture I found of Luke making dumplings with some new Chinese friends, while we were in Wichita visiting friends. It is a little hard to keep track of pictures on 3 cameras! So far I think we are up to 1100 pictures that we have kept (after deleting the duds and many duplicates).

Thursday-Sunday 8-10 April, Day 29-32

We left the RV park on foot and walked over the Mississippi to head up to the top of the Arch. Cool. The kids learned about the many people who left for the west from St. Louis, including Louis and Clark. Took the train back across the river to the RV park, and headed for Louisville KY. Another multi state day, with Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky today. We finally broke our string of fantastic RV meals, because the kids have been begging us for KFC (rare, but a favorite), so we had told them that when we were in Kentucky we would have Kentucky Fried Chicken, and they got it!

Friday had some chores, and then to an apartment that Thomas Edison had rented in Louisville. Followed by the Louisville Slugger Museum/Factory tour, and a visit to the Farmington House which Abraham Lincoln has visited.

Saturday, as we prepared to head out of Louisville, we made a stop to Locust Grove, a house belonging to the sister of William Clark (of Louis and Clark), which was rich in history. Before stopping for the night, we visited the birthplace of Lincoln. Amanda was happy as wandered towards our selected campground for the night to run through a small Amish community, complete with horses and buggies.

This capped off a long and hard week. We have now covered more than 4500 miles, with the average road day this been being about 250 plus miles, plus 2 stops. We found a state park near a lake south of Louisville and set up for 2 nights, with a rest day on Sunday. Church in the RV, enjoying the spring time weather.

We are trying to decide where to head next. Will it be back towards the Mississippi and Arkansas, or Georgia, or up to the east? Stay tuned. We will let you know when we do!

Tuesday/Wednesday April 6/7, DAY 27/28

Tuesday we headed out with Wan to visit the Comosphere. An interesting space site, kind of out in the middle of no where, but they had an impressive array of exhibits including the Apollo 13 space capsule, an SR 71, and quite a presentation of German WWII rocket technology and its impact on the space race and cold war. After saying goodbye to our hosts (Thanks Wan and Mi Ying!), we headed up to Abeline KS to visit the Eisenhower Presidential Museum and boyhood home. It had a lot of WWII items, including the pen that the US and Germany used to end the war.

Then it was off to Topeka area for the night. We stayed at the Shawnee Lake Park, and hoped the Thunderstorm warnings would go way without tornados or golf ball size hail materializing! Amanda made a great chicken pot pie as we continued our string of a week or so without eating at a restaurant.

Wednesday morning we stopped in Independence Missouri to visit the Harry Truman Museum. Another very interesting presentation of history and significant events in our countries history. The kids are pictured in a replica of the Oval Office during the Truman administration. We pushed on to Saint Louis, and made a quick end of day visit to the Arch. The trip to the top of the arch was sold out, but we found an RV park just across the Mississippi river in walking distance from the arch! More for tomorrow.

Monday 5 April, Day 26

First stop this morning was the Dalton Gang Hideout. In the museum, we realized this late western gang had actually robbed a train in Tulare CA as well as being active in this area. They had a tunnel between the house and the barn, which the kids enjoyed going through.

Next up was Dodge City, and Boot Hill Museum. More interesting history of the period and the impact of buffalo hunting on the Indians. The kids ended up in Jail! They got released for good behavior, and even were allowed a "Sarsaparilla" in one of the "Saloons".

We also stopped along the road, where you could see the impact of wagons in the 1800's on the Santa Fe trail.

Kansas was windy and the RV has some striking similarities with a kite, making driving in high wind a challenge!

We ended the day with dinner with some old friends in Wichita. Wan and Mi Ying say hello to the rest of the Smith Family. They were hosting some visiting scholars from China, and we had a great dumpling/Chinese dinner with them.

Sunday 4 April, Day 25

Cadillac Ranch - I missed this picture in previous posts!. On our way to Amarillo, we stopped out in the field on "Cadillac Ranch", which is some cadillacs buried in the ground of a field as some kind of art. People bring their spray paint and "add" to it. Different!

Sunday - We visited Trinity Fellowship in Amarillo for Easter, then Cracker Barrel for our Easter Lunch. We ate family style and everyone enjoyed it! After resting in Amarillo, we headed towards Wichita, where Greg has a long time friend. We stopped for the night in Meade Kansas, after crossing the Oklahoma panhandle. Amanda had purchased some eggs and we had an egg hunt in the RV!

It was a nice spot right next to the Lake in the RV. We are starting to figure out that the State Parks are a good deal with hook ups for a low cost (usually $15 or $20 a night), and in a better environment than a RV park.

I took a long exposure star picture of the Kansas night sky. The North Star is the only one not "moving"/blurred, because the earth is rotating during the long exposure.

Thursday, April 1 - Saturday April 3, 2010, Day 22-24

(By Luke)At Bandalier National Monument we got to go in caves where Indians lived. Their really really old and cool! And one was the Long House. And the Kiava is a big under-ground room.

The dwellings at Bandelier were more Indian dwellings circa 1100-1300 AD. (some evidence of 300 AD). It was an interesting site because there was a large community structure in the valley floor, and then cliff dwellings in caves. The kids had fun climbing the ladders up in the caves. In the first photo, you can see the valley site walls, and then if you enlarge the picture and look at the cliffs you can see some of the caves in the Swiss cheese looking rocks.

We hiked another few miles today, and climbed up into the "Alcove House".

After leaving Bandelier, we drove to Los Alamos for a visit to the Bradbury Science museum. There was a lot on the Atom Bomb and nuclear research done at Los Alamos. Information Overload! We even had to go through a checkpoint and have the RV inspected because Los Alamos is still active today! Then back towards Santa Fe. We decided to go ahead and scout the downtown, for our planned next day visit. However, as we negotiated the RV through town (I was just hoping that I was not going to have to drive down the church steps to get out of some of the spots!), we did find an RV parking lot and decided to do it while we were there. We enjoyed a walk on the plaza (although the weather was changing and it started to snow!), and seeing the "oldest" church and house. Then we had dinner at a restaurant at the old Santa Fe train station.

We spent Thursday night in a nice RV park outside of Santa Fe, where we were planning on sitting for an extra day to rest and do laundry. However it was so cold and windy as a weather system came through (our water hose froze solid at night, low about 21 or less), that we decided to head to Amarillo for Friday night. After more than 2000 miles mostly on the highways and byways, it was nice to cover some ground on the Interstate.

Along the way, we stopped in Tucumcari, and while I got the oil changed, Amanda and kids enjoyed a lunch in a diner along old route 66. We are in Amarillo, taking a breather, and getting ready for Easter Sunday in Amarillo.

Wednesday, 30 March, 2010, Day 21

(By Grant)-We went into Albuquerque and went to a few stores. After that, we headed out to Petroglyph National Monument. We went on a trail and saw lots of petroglyphs.

And we almost missed this, but we stopped at Kasha Katuwe Tent Rocks NM. To get in, the road was so bumpy that the doors almost fell off (that's because the road was gravel)! The trails were really awesome, even though the trails climbed more than 650 ft,and were 4-5 miles long. You see pillars, caves, pinnacles,and a great view at the end. My favorite part was hiking through the slot canyon(You could touch both sides at once!).

We even got to climb in a cave! We drove up to Bandelier National Monument and stayed in the campground for the night.

Grant