For our big vacation this year, we planned a ten day road trip to South Dakota and back. Our convoy included our family, the Hughes, the Bassets, and my parents. In short, this trip was amazing and so much fun. We drove around 2,800 miles and our butts were so tired but the scenery and sights along the way were absolutely worth it!
This trip was months in the making. We searched the Internet as we planned our stops, the sights we wanted to see, as well as the best places to stay along the way. Russell and I had looked up so many things that our trip agenda was starting to get overloaded. We had to cut it down to only the main things we wanted to see. (Which was very hard to do...) We were also getting so excited that we wanted to leave right away even though we still had a month to go. We decided to take our camp trailer on the trip and stay in campgrounds or where ever we wanted along the way rather than make expensive hotel/cabin reservations. I was a little worried about this but it turned out to be a great blessing to have our own bed and kitchen (and toilet) with us as we traveled. I think we saved a lot of money doing it this way too. It was also fun and comforting to travel as a group.
I think I took around a thousand pictures during our trip and I am not even exaggerating! (Thank goodness for 16GB memory cards!) The next ten posts will tell you all about the fun we had on our 10 day road trip:
Well we started our trek east on Thursday, June 12, bright and early at 6:00 am. We met up with the Hughes' at my parents' house so we could all travel together. While we were there, Lacie gave us a surprise box. Inside was a packet of travelling games, a case of CDs she had burned to listen to on the road, and a little backpack, filled with coloring books and colored pencils as well as treats, a water bottle, and a small toy, for each of the kids. We were so amazed at all of the work Lacie and my mom had put into these surprise boxes. And the things in the box were very well used, especially the Disney music CD and the "Keep Me Awake Music" CD. Thanks Mom and Lacie! Above is a picture of all the kids and their matching travel backpacks. Also, so they wouldn't get lost, each backpack had the owner's name sewn onto it. The backpacks were so nice because each kid was able to carry their own water bottle, snack, and toy to every place we went and because they all matched, we were able to keep track of all the kids in our group by looking at their backs!
So we finally got on the road at around 7:00 am rather than 6:05 like we should have (ha ha). Our first day of travel was probably our longest. We were driving from St. George to Martin's Cove in Wyoming. This was a 625 mile trip which took us about 13-14 hours to drive. Yeah it was along day. The kids were troopers though.
Our first top/break was Krispy Kreme in Orem, UT.
This place is a tradition of ours whenever we travel up north. This time, however, it was the Hughes' idea to stop. If you bring in your report card, Krispy Kreme gives you free doughnuts for every A you receive. Well Jacee, Becca, Taylor, and Tyrel had a lot of A's so their family ended up getting like 3 dozen doughnuts for free! We love Krispy Kreme!
We still had a long way to go so we got back in the trucks and headed through Provo Canyon to Wyoming. We stopped for lunch in Evanston, WY.
So Evanston must be like the firework capital of the US. There were huge stores full of different fireworks everywhere. As you can see, we ate lunch in the parking lot of the Phantom Fireworks store. (Another benefit of having the trailer.) After letting the kids run for about an hour, it was "on the road again."
As we drove through the flats of Wyoming, we saw a lot of these windmill farms generating electricity. The windmills were so huge they could be seen for miles. We passed though Rock Springs, and Rawlins, WY before heading up the highway to Casper, WY. Martin's Cove is about half way between Rawlins and Casper. We also met up with the Bassett's in Rawlins and they joined our convoy.
Like I said before, we had been in the car for 13 plus hours this day and the kids were getting restless to say the least. They had colored, counted cows, listened to books on CD, listened to their Disney CD multiple times, and they had just ran out of things to do. I was trying to think of anything to entertain them. Colby's new favorite game since the trip is I Spy. We played that quite a bit. Finally, they found the big cups (the ones we keep in the car in case of car sickness...don't worry they were clean at this time...) and started using them as unicorn horns and I guess snorkel masks. Logan found Emily's baby, Rosella, and was loving on it. What silly kids and what good kids for travelling so long in their car seats.
We finally made it to Martin's Cove just before dark. We stayed at the Martin's Cove missionary campground. As we pulled in we saw a lot of antelope (or "cantaloupe"). Wyoming is full of antelope and we saw them everywhere. The area was so beautiful and peaceful. We were glad to finally be at our destination for the night.
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