Sunday, June 29, 2014

MP: Scenes from the last day

Chicago!

 Managed the El, the bus and the trolley

 Future trader(s)?



 Navy Pier and Lake _ichigan



 Cooling off after a lot of walking


A fitting end

We arrived home at about 4 minutes to midnight! 3 weeks exactly.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Kids: glimpse of the truck life


MP: where it all started

If Captain hadn't come to Chicago to pick me up from a summer internship 19 years ago, and taken me to meet his brother in Evanston at the fish market restaurant. ..

...then to the blues club for a little music...

...then to the lake -ichigan shore, where he asked me to be his wife...

...then we wouldn't have these 5 kids to take on a road trip, ending on memory lane. The kids enjoyed the story and the evening.  A perfect way to come full circle.

 Delicious seafood and gumbo. I got amazing tuna tacos.

 We didn't go down to the blues club but enjoyed Latin jazz in downtown evanston.

The twins are always willing to join in the dance.
Captain's Log: Trip Day 22. We have now traveled over 5750 miles. We are in Chicago today and will be home tonight.

C: Restaurant Review. The Tea Steakhouse in Tea, MN. I ordered a NY strip and it was excellent. They have a very strict aging process. Do not drink the Tea in Tea though (battery acid). SJ will describe the tea below. My favorite restaurant was a Deli on the mountain behind Monterrey, CA

SJ: The Tea in Tea: was like iced coffee with no sugar ,it din't even taste like coffee, it was bad.

FF: I had an AMAZING steak sandwich. I had it well done, and it was perfect!  

LMN: I ordered a small T-bone steak and in reality it was quite large. I ordered it medium well but it came medium. It was still very good.




Thursday, June 26, 2014

Exclusive: Inside the cabin

This is what SJ does when she is bored: the alphabet made from pretzels


 This what Hummingbird looks like when she gets the front seat; at least for a few seconds before she moves again

Sometimes MP gives up the front seat and gets to cuddle with the middle/middle passenger.  Only on flat stretches.

Strangely,  the captain has not taken MP up on offers to drive very much. This would be perfectly fine except for the rubber-necking-induced-swerves.

This technically taken from inside the truck, so it counts: GPS just had to touch the cactus at the McDonald's parking lot.

MP: Let's see south dakota

Some of the kids went to downtown Deadwood with the dads to see the evening shootout,  but other than that we didn't get much time there. We left early Wed morning and headed east.

Scenes from the Badlands:






Cattle, grass, prairie dogs, cattle, hills, grass, green everywhere,  then - Wheat! Corn! Now we all can nap. ;)





No, of course not! We stopped at the corn palace in Mitchell.  They are doing a major renovation,  so a lot of the building was blocked off, but we still got to see the walls and shop a little. Very neat history!

We planned a steakhouse stop somewhere but it didn't work out in CO or WY. So in the very east corner of SD we stopped at the Tea Steak House in Tea. Will let the captain and others give thoughts on this dining experience.  We stayed in Worthington,  MN which is pretty much all we have to say about MN. (Dad: they've gotten lots of rain and the corn there and in sd is pretty short;  LOTS of rain).

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

MP: ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts

One day, 3 states.  Tuesday morning we were packed and gone from our mountain house by 7 am. We knew we had to get moving, because we had an important meeting.

After loving northern colorado and the high rolling hills framed by the rockies, we traveled through Wyoming (above). Wide open spaces! Beautiful green grasses! Incredible forever blue sky! Why shouldn't we move there?!? Hmmm...strange that nearly every mile of the interstate was lined with snow fence. Like, serious snow fence. And when we stopped for a gas station break, the door into the store had a big sign saying "due to wind, please hold door when entering". Ahem.

Once we crossed the border into south dakota (beautiful forests and green mountains...lakes every 20 miles...I did not know) we started playing the cell phone signal game as we made final plan to meet our dear friends who are starting their own road trip. Little did we know that they were calling/ texting from a hike they won't forget.  Amazingly,  we did find each other at horsetheif lake (above) near mt Rushmore and then headed to the famous mountain.



We ended up in Deadwood at the koa together.  Friends, road trips, camping,  mountains, summer, and of course, fire. What more could you want?!?


MP: Gold in dem der hills

On Monday we decided we had to come down our mountain and experience a little more of Colorado.  We chose nearby Idaho springs,  an area developed when a huge gold vein was discovered in the mid 1800s.

We toured the Argo gold mine and got a great lesson in rocks and minerals,  mining techniques and history.  Then we got to pan for some gold ourselves.

 Beautiful mountain water with lots of rafters.

 The funny thing is, we did actually see mountain sheep. Of course I didn't get a picture of them.

 Entrance to the more than 4 mile argo tunnel that enabled and prospered the mine for many years until an explosion in 1941.

 We got to tour the mill and see the actual equipment used.

 Panning for gold took patience and perseverance.  Some had that. Others enjoyed swishing water around and starting over.

 All vagrants will be arrested.

Our results!

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

MP: mountain musings

* when captain and I first met, we asked each other if you could pick anywhere to live where would it be; without reading each other's answer, we both said in a cabin on the side of a mountain near Golden CO. No joke.


* Although we both knew a bit about the effects of high altitude,  it was still surprising to us and the kids living at 8400+ feet for several days. Thirsty and constant mild headaches.


* Good beds, great view, good weather,  no wifi as promised because router was taken out by lightening,  and the trip up and down the mountain was about more than we could take after weeks of driving.  It was 14 miles from golden, but took at least half an hour to get to it. 


* we loved Co and still do; we've decided our dream home should further down the mountain though. :)


Monday, June 23, 2014

MP: rock and roll

We decided not to do hiking in arches national park (100 degrees might have influenced us), but are so glad we drove through part of the park. Amazing formations like we had never seen.




Onward through utah to Colorado. We stopped for lunch at Randys diner in Palisade,  a long wait but worth it. As encouraged by MP's parents, we stopped to check out the valley because of advertised "perfect growing weather". We did find the beautiful orchards and produce farms and stopped for a chat.