Oregon Trail - Part I

I finally did it! This is my recap on our summer 2009 family vacation in a four part series. I know there's a lot to read. But at least have fun looking at the pictures. The wording is more for record keeping but I hope you will also find our adventure a fun read! :)

Our family took a month long vacation back in August to drive out to Oregon & Washington to see family. Yes, I said DRIVE! I know most must think we have GOT to be crazy for doing so and looking back, I tend to agree. I seriously wouldn't recommend it to anyone with a young family unless 1) you're crazy, 2) you live for adventure (being the ref to a backseat full of children), or 3) you have to move! I don't think we'll do it again unless we have to move! The drive out there was a lot of fun actually. We had Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone and FAMILY to look forward to. The drive back home was another story. Half the family had terrible colds, we were missing everyone and our trip time home compared to our way out there was cut in half so we basically were racing against the clock to get back to school and work. It was worth it though. We experienced new things and saw new places as a family and enjoyed our time with our loved ones on the west coast.

We pulled away from our home on August 4th, with our sights set on our first main stop: Mt. Rushmore. To keep our family as healthy on the road as possible, we had arranged to eat everyday on the way there and back from the hotel's continental breakfast, provide our own snacks and lunches and eat out for dinner - which most of the time was "Subway - eat fresh" as our girls called it. We planned a majority of our stops along the way to be at parks & rest stops which worked out perfect! They could eat AND play! It was very important to get their wiggles out.

DAY ONE (Aug. 4th): Left around noon for a 28 day vacation! Getting out of DC is always a challenge with traffic and construction no matter what time of the day it is. We stopped around 2pm in Hagerstown, Maryland for lunch at a sports park. It also happened to be very hot and humid! The girls had fun running around playing on the playground while we made lunch. And guzzling a ton of water! After a late start, Andrew vomiting and a long day of many breaks and hours on the road, we still arrived to our planned destination of Elyria Ohio (426 miles).

DAY TWO (Aug. 5th): We didn't feel comfortable leaving all of our belongings in the back of our truck during the night so John had to unpack it all and stack it along the wall in our hotel room. This wouldn't have been an issue if we weren’t planning on camping at Yellowstone but alas we were so this became our traveling routine. While he did that every morning and night, I got the kids ready and bags repacked. We hopped on I-80 West after breakfast. We passed an exit to the Great Lakes - only 5 to 10 miles off the Interstate - but we didn't have time to detour from our already packed in traveling day. We had our minds set to one thing: Oregon! (and the other tourist attractions we had planned). Too bad we couldn’t stop. It would have been nice to see. Andrew has been asleep pretty much since we left the hotel. I’ve switched Aubrey seats so she could sit up front while I entertained Andrew in the back so he wasn’t sleeping all day. Aubrey’s reading Tom Sawyer and Jocelyn’s cuddling with her blanket while looking out the window. 73 degrees, sunny and partial blue skies made it a fun day on the road. Minus the "stop touching me...i dropped something - pick it up!...are we almost there?...I have to go to the bathroom" from the back seat! When it was time to feed Andrew his vegetables at dinner, we stopped at a gas station, parked in a spot, threw down the tailgate, put a blanket on top, took everything off but his onesie and fed him. I guess when you don't have a highchair around, you get a little creative! I wish I had taken a picture. It was pretty funny! John preferred to drive and I didn't mind. That gave me the chance to have fun with the camera! :) And of course I had the lovely job of being the navigator too! At 9:45pm, we made it to our destination: Madison, Wisconsin. (469 miles) We ate out for lunch today so we had our planned lunch for dinner: sandwiches, yogurt, chips & carrots. To sum up our day: we drove passed lots and lots of corn fields. Had no idea there were so many. Finished driving through the rest of Ohio, then on through Indiana, Illinois and then stopped in Wisconsin. While stuck in Chicago rush hour traffic, I "waved" and said hello to Oprah! I couldn't help myself! Every time we made a stop, Jocelyn would run around and chase birds or find sticks and THEN chase birds. Sounds like free entertainment, doesn't it? Being shoved into a vehicle for days on end is also really testing and at times strenuous on a marriage if I do say so myself. But we survived. Oh, and it was only day #2!!! :) Many more to go! Besides rolling up my own hand in the truck window while checking to see if it was cold outside (not too smart, I know), today turned out being a great day! We all got giddy once we pulled up to the hotel. Can we say a bit of freedom was needed?

DAY THREE (Aug. 6th): Got up at 6:30am. We're definitely learning what to do to save time each day. We picked out all of our clothes the night before and laid them out so most of our packing was done and ready to go. Loaded up the truck, ate breakfast and we were on the road before 9am. It was a good feeling to get an early start. (with 3 kids, that's early while traveling!) It was nice to also have a good continental breakfast. Sometimes they can be hit or miss. This one had the works! Oatmeal, hard boiled eggs, juice, whole wheat toast with peanut butter. I was in heaven! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right? :) The kids were pleased as punch to have fruit loops. I at least had them down a cup of orange juice for some good nutrition! We passed the Great Wolf Lodge - our first time ever passing one. Looks like a fun place! Around lunch time, we crossed the Mississippi River and went on through Minnesota. Since we left Virginia, there really hasn't been much to look at scenery wise other than cornfields, barns, cows & horses, tractors, windmills, construction, hay bales and semi-trucks! Not bad scenery...just different than what I'm used to. We thankfully were able to borrow our friend's portable DVD player (since ours broke before the trip) so the kids could watch movies while we were on the road. Once Andrew snoozed for his morning and afternoon naps (or whenever the boredom hit unfortunately!) the girls popped in a movie. The peace and quiet was nice! I started up a travel journal the first day of our vacation so I was busy writing in that while snapping pictures and taking care of the critters in the backseat. And hold your breath - we checked into our hotel in Sioux Falls, South Dakota at 6:30pm!! (427 miles) This was the first time in the three days we were on the road that we checked in at a decent time. John dropped Andrew and I off so I could check in and feed Andrew while him and the girls went to get dinner. They splurged and brought back SONIC! What a treat! :) Sandwiches were getting old. We then got the kids ready for the pool. We have told the kids that if the hotel has a pool and we get in at a decent hour, they can go swimming. They were beyond excited. Until we got there - where Andrew started screaming and clinging to me for life. I thought since he was a bath lover (water in general) that he would have a blast. Come to find out he was scared of all the other kids making noise and how loud it would echo so I opted to take him back to the room so John and the girls could have some fun. I don't really care for chlorine anyways so I wasn't too sad about that. :) We went back to the room where I fed him dinner and gave him a nice relaxing bath before bed. We had received an email from my brother-in-law that was currently undergoing chemo for Testicular Cancer and was extending a health challenge to anyone interested in exercising on a daily basis while he was going through treatment. It was the perfect thing for us to not only support and help him during this trialing time, but to have the motivation needed to stay active and healthy while on the road for the month. So as soon as the kids were in bed, I dressed for the gym and walked for 2 miles. It was nice to get some "me" time and release some much due stress.

DAY FOUR (Aug. 7th): When I woke up at 6:30am, Andrew felt really cold in his pack n play so we planned on him sleeping in our bed for the remainder of the hotel stays. Or at least if the rooms were cold like this one had been. John ate alone and quickly loaded up the truck as a storm looked to be approaching the area. Fed Andrew and took the girls down to have breakfast. While we were eating, Jocelyn mentioned that she missed her home and all her toys and wanted to go back. I told her that I knew she missed her home but she would have so much fun seeing family in just a few days. She almost cried when I told her we would be back home in a few weeks. Poor girl. I held Andrew on one side of my lap and her on the other and she finally calmed down. Got on the road at 9am. We stopped an hour later to feed Andrew at a place called the Corn Palace in South Dakota. It was an interesting tourist building - first built in the 1800's. They would redo the outside of the building that was decorated with hay (with things like Mt. Rushmore, etc.) and spent $160,000 a year to do it. We were all getting annoyed with each other at this point in the trip and I remember thinking "I can't wait to get to Oregon!" Our lunch stop was at a popular rest area (you know the ones that have a guest register to sign) that overlooked the Missouri River. We failed to realize during the planning of our trip that we would be traveling through this area during Sturgis week so there were a ton of bikers on the road with us - all heading to South Dakota for the event. We scouted out a covered picnic area and tried to eat with all the high winds. Made things interesting: trying to keep our food ON the table. I took a few pictures of the overlook - the Lewis & Clark Memorial Bridge and the river. It was a very pretty day. Sunny & 88 degrees. After lunch, we walked down a bit further to a lookout spot and while we were heading that way, a ton of grasshoppers flew past us. I had a hard time keeping my composure. I'm not what you would call a bug person! Andrew was having a lot of fun in his front pack that I was carrying him in. Happy I'm sure to be out of his car seat - and a full tummy helps too. He's always such a good baby but he's been doing so well on this trip. Sleeping a bit more than he normally would but the car lulling him to sleep doesn't help much. Before we headed back to the truck, we asked a couple walking by to take our family picture. This was of course in front of a sign that said "Warning! Poisonous snakes in the area!" Comforting!! Our last stop before getting to Mt. Rushmore was at a place called Wall Drug. I had never heard of it before but there were signs for the place miles and miles away from the attraction so we decided to once again, stop and use it to also feed Andrew. It was a huge shop with a bunch of shops inside. It felt like we were walking through a town along the streets looking at shops. It was a bit different. Wall Drug is in Wall, South Dakota near Badlands National Park. It opened in 1931. We grabbed freshly made donuts and got back on the road. Just a few more hours of driving and we finally made our arrival to Mt. Rushmore! $10 yearly pass was totally worth it! This was the first time for John and the kids to be at this national attraction. My first visit was when I was hugely pregnant with Aubrey so walking around brought me back a bit. Leading up to the monument is a walkway of state territory flags hanging and each pillar had the state names in alphabetical order with their number of when the state was accepted to the Union. Oregon was the 33rd state. We asked a family to take our picture and then we did the same for them. We checked how much the food was at the café. $7 or more for a burger or sandwich seemed pretty steep so we decided to drive back down the mountain and eat in the city at Subway. Before we left Mt. Rushmore – as we were walking back towards the entrance – we noticed two wild goats eating the terrain next to the walkway. "No petting wild animals" were posted all over but people still rushed towards them as if they were famous celebrities! We took a picture before it got too crowded and proceeded to leave the monument. Our final destination for the night was to be Sundance, Wyoming. John went in to see if a room was available at the only hotel in the area: Best Western. Because of Sturgis week (and I’m sure because it seemed to be the only hotel), they were charging $179 a night. And that was WITH military discount. We surely didn’t want to pay that price and it was a hard call to make as it was time for Andrew to have his last bottle for the day. But he was still snoozing in his car seat so we kept on driving. Hoping we’d make it to another hotel with a more decent price before he awoke. We ended up driving another 60 miles and stopped in Gillette, Wyoming at the Holiday Inn Express (483 miles). With discount it came to $127. It wasn’t as bad as the Best Western but we were too tired to find somewhere else. We asked for a nonsmoking room and when we got inside, it was very evident that it had smoke in it. We called the front desk and they said that the smoking rooms were on the 3rd floor and with it being rainy and stormy out, the vents didn’t carry it up and out like it normally did and instead pushed it down into our 1st floor room. We could have moved but we were much too exhausted. With taking 4 major stops today, our day was filled to the rim and it was 11:30pm before we all crashed. Andrew slept in the middle of the bed as the other days were really cold for him to sleep in the pack n play.

DAY FIVE (Aug. 8th): 7am came fast! Took a shower, got ready, fed Andrew while John got ready and repacked the truck and then we all finally had breakfast in the lobby at 9. Omelets, bacon, gravy and biscuits and orange juice. Back on the road at 9:45am. Our BIG DAY arriving in Yellowstone is today! Because we drove an extra 60 miles yesterday, today’s drive including stops should be shorter. Yesterday was fun but tiring! We pulled out of the hotel’s parking lot and Jocelyn was already asking if we were going home now. She really misses her house and all of the toys and books she wasn’t able to pack on the trip. After all we’ve already been through to get to this point; I didn’t even want to think about going back the other direction. We took a break at a little park in Ranchester. The girls played on the playground while I fed Andrew. It was a nice little area. For lunch, we stopped in Cody, Wyoming. It was a small town, compared to what we’re used to. Went to Kmart and Albertsons to get some last minute camping items and groceries. Our original plans were to have my brother-in-law Nick and my sister Erin and their little boy meet us at Yellowstone from Washington but the plans fell through last minute when my brother-in-law found out he had cancer again. It was very unfortunate and heartbreaking news. We all hope to be able to meet back up at Yellowstone within the next few years. We decided since this opportunity doesn’t come around often, that we would go ahead and keep our original plans to go camping as a family at Yellowstone. It was one of the main reasons we were driving all the way to Oregon – instead of flying! Between the park stop in Ranchester and our lunch stop in Cody, we passed through the Big Horn National Forest/ Mountains. Going up the mountain started to really make me nervous as we were making our way up. The roads were winding back and forth often as we kept climbing further and further in elevation. No guard rails whatsoever. Luckily John was still driving. The heights were really starting to get the better of me so I grabbed onto the side of the door with one hand and the baby bag sitting in the middle with the other. Don’t ask me why. I got made fun of for that one! How was the bag (or the door for that matter) supposed to help me? And I being nervous was making John nervous. Let me tell you, I was so happy when we finally got done climbing up and down the mountain and found the main road! I sighed with relief and told John that I needed a Snickers now for going through all of that stress!! Everyone laughed – including me! (By the way, when we stopped at a grocery store, he surprised me with that much deserved Snickers bar! What a great husband I have!) We had just passed Buffalo Bill State Park and a few miles down by the river we were driving next to had a sign that read “Grizzly bears in the area. Do not approach or a $5,000 fine.” Trust me! If I was ever near a grizzly bear, it would be completely on accident! Got into Yellowstone around 6pm (350 miles). We were all bouncing in our seats with excitement! Our reserved camping spot was in Canyon Campground. I had made sure it was centrally located and had flushable toilets. LOL As we were driving to Canyon, we drove right along Yellowstone Lake for a majority of the drive. The lake was HUGE! As well as it was a little creepy at times to be driving so close to the water’s edge. And Bison were roaming everywhere! Next to the road we were driving on, they would just start walking across the road and then everyone would have to stop and wait for them as they would grunt and eye us as they crossed to the other side. It was neat to see and we took many pictures. Aubrey and Jocelyn were in the back giggling and having fun watching the heard and their young next to them. Jocelyn especially loved the baby bison! Once we got to our D80 camping spot, we set up tent and built a fire. By this time, the sun had already set and it was getting very cold. Silly us thought because it was August that we wouldn’t be needing our coats. Yeah. Dumb mistake. Especially knowing we were camping in the mountains and were from Oregon. We weren’t as prepared as we should have been and we were definitely paying the price for it! We thankfully had sweaters and each other to keep warm. But because we set up pretty late (done around 10pm) we all decided to bag making dinner and settled with eating a granola bar and applesauce instead. We then crashed in our sleeping bags without changing. We didn’t want to lose the body heat we already had stored! (and we were tired!!) We had also been wearing flip flops all day so it literally took me what seemed like an hour to dethaw them in my sleeping bag with a blanket shoved down to help them get warm. They literally felt like icicles. I was so cold I didn’t dare move to search for socks! I’m thinking we need to go camping as a family more often so the kids (and us parents) are more used to how things run. I grew up camping and so did John and we’d really like to pass this tradition down to our own family. We could tell it was going to be a rough night. Jocelyn was upset and fighting us to get into her sleeping bag. It was new to her and her very first time sleeping in a sleeping bag. Should have gone over this loooooong before our camping trip! The pad (or should I say the hard rock platform) we slept on top of that was under our tent was so uncomfortable. We only had one sleeping bag laid out underneath the ones we were sleeping in and it appeared to not bring much comfort. Note to self: invest in some insulated camping pads! Without much complaining, we tried to overall enjoy our camping adventure here at Yellowstone as we were making the most of it and may not get the chance to come here again.

If you want to see more pictures of our first week's vacation, go here:

Oregon Trail - Part One

Coming soon: I will post Part Two of our Oregon Trail adventure!