Recap Day 1 and Day 2 - July 20 & 21

by Brie

I am so tired!  It's a good tired though.  We have just been so busy that I haven't remembered to blog. Actually, I remembered yesterday but thought I would do it when we arrived in Keystone, SD.  I would like to take a minute and recap our trip thus far.

We left Midlothian around 5 am so we could get to Lynchburg to pick up Brenden.  He was at scout camp all last week and we had some logisitcs to work out with his (and our) departure.  A friend of ours was able to take him to his parents house on Friday night so we could easily get Brenden and be on our way.  Going into this we knew that we wanted the first day to be as long as we could take so the rest of the days would be shorter.  Actually, today I told the kids that we have a 6 hour drive tomorrow and Dylan said, "Is that all?".  We filled up our gas in Lynchburg and traveled uneventfully through Charleston, WV, Cincinnati, OH, Indianapolis, IN, Peoria, IL and ended up at a Fairfield Inn in Cedar Rapids, IA at 11pm. central time.  I should mention that we stopped for dinner at The Tamale Place, a restaurant featured on the Food Network.  My spicy chipotle beef tamale was super delicious!

Sunday we left by 8 (even though I wanted to be out by 7:30 at the latest).  I love staying in hotels that have free breakfast.  Then everyone is full and happy when we get on the road.  The night before we had filled up with plus gasoline.  I guess around here it is cheaper but it also has ethanol in it.  Taylor noticed a significant decrease in our gas mileage.  We are going to try to avoid ethanol if we can.  We headed straight up to Minnesota, which has lovely rolling farmland, and then across to South Dakota.  In Mitchell, SD, we stopped for gas and I ended up chatting with a woman inside.  I mentioned that we were planning on going to Wall drug and she said to go to the Badlands first.  For some reason I had taken that off of my list of things to do because I didn't feel we had the time.  After the gas (more ethanol), we took a brief side trip to see the corn palace.  It's a crazy place that has a new facade put up every year made entirely from plant material, mostly corn. 

We hopped out, took a picture and went on our way.  Next, we drove to Wall Drug via the Badlands.  It was a detour but totally worth it.  I can't even describe how cool it is.  These pics will help....

Ok all, sorry this post took so long to get online.  I had some serious photo upload problems.  Hopefully, what I am doing now will work out for us the rest of the trip.  Stay tuned for day 3.... going....to.....bed.  

Side note:  It's really hard to sleep past 6 when your brain thinks it's 8.........

Day One

       What a day! Although we came close a few times, our whole family managed not killing each other within the 16 hours that we were crammed in the car together. We have finally arrived with sore legs (and butts) to our destination- Cedar City, IA! The boys are excited to go swimming in the pool at the hotel we are staying in for the night. Kylee will probably still be snapchatting with her friends, which is really all she's been doing today except for sleeping and complaining about everything. Taylor can't wait to be further out west to see sunsets even better than this one!

As far as the trip has been, it's been great! We haven't hit any bad traffic (yet), and we are only 10 more hours away from Mount Rushmore!

And so it begins.....

This morning at 5:15 am we rolled out of our driveway with 3 kids, 2 parents, 1 hitch cargo carrier and a car full of stuff.  All the kids were great about getting up.  Chay even had the brain power to pack himself 2 IBC cream sodas.  He's awesome like that.  Our odometer read 149910.

I can't begin to describe how much time it has taken to think about all the little things we will do and see, figuring out places to stay and collecting all the stuff we think we will need to make our trip comfortable and fun.  Even now there are a few things Taylor and I are still planning.   AHHH - I forgot tea!  I guess anything we forgot can just be purchased, as long as we don't forget a computer or a kid;)  

Taylor is driving first and has already had his first roadkill.  It was unavoidable but he killed 2 raccoons.  I have no idea why in the world 2 racoons would be hanging out in the road together (I guess they still are - gross!!).  Brenden has been at scout camp for the past week and we are picking him up at a friend's house in Lynchburg.  We are so grateful that we didn't have to drive all the way there, especially since we have a 16 hour drive day planned.  If all goes well, we should get to Cedar Rapids, IA just past Iowa City.  YIKES!!!!  Maybe we should have made a sign on our car that says California or bust.  Do you think it's too late????