Road Trip Recap {Part 1}

I say “Part 1” without having any idea how many parts there might be to this series.  But I know there are too many photos for one post.  There’s probably enough photos for 15 posts, but I will try to restrain myself.
Most of you know that this vacation was epic for us.  Not only because of the distance we were covering, but also because we were doing it without Jeff.  For Jeff.  Keeping a promise he and I had made to the kids a couple of years ago. In all we drove through 11 states in 18 days.  Some we drove through there and back. I have never driven that much before and was pleased to learn that I could do it. 
One of the nice things about driving rather than flying to your destination is that you can take a lot more ‘stuff.’  We packed one tote with audio books from the library and other things for the kids to do while riding.  Another tote was full of grocery items and we packed a cooler, too.  We had at least one picnic a day which, along with staying in hotels that offered free breakfast,  really helped cut down on meal expenses.
The first day we made it all the way to St. Louis.  On Day One, I already had to do a load of laundry!  At our very first picnic stop in Indiana, Ethan dropped his blanket into a mud puddle.  He was kind of tangled up in it, so he stumbled out of the car and stepped on the blanket further grinding in the mud.  Boy, mud stinks! 
Now, have I ever made reference in any previous posts to our family ‘curse’ when it comes to vacations?  Well, perhaps I should explain.  It’s not really a curse, of course, but over the years, we have racked up enough stories to write several movie scripts that would rival the Griswold family Vacations.  And it usually starts with something inconvenient like:  finding the only parking space in the entire rest area that is next to a giant mud puddle on the side of the car that your youngest son is going to stumble out of. 
Flash backs of other not-so-minor inconveniences flooded my memory, and I felt more than a little tense.  Half a canister of baby wipes later, the blanket was a least clean enough to put back in the car without stinking it up.  We had a wonderful picnic lunch, and I am pleased to say that we had no other incidents the remainder of the trip. 
Well, unless you count the time I couldn’t get the card key to work at the hotel in Kansas.  I tried inserting it into the lock several times, turning the key this way and the other way when, finally, I realized someone was opening the door from inside!  Most certainly blushing, I apologized to the man and then went to the correct door across the hall.   Oops!  My kids thought that was pretty funny, and I had a good laugh at myself, too!

Day Two started off cloudy and gray.  We decided to stop and tour the Gateway Arch before making our way across Missouri.  A man at the hotel suggested we get there early because visitors have to walk through a security check-point at the entrance, and the line gets long quickly.
My kids were excited to learn that you can ride up to the top of the arch.  I went along, but I was gripping my little seat the entire time since our pod swayed slightly as it made its way to the top. I made note of the stairs outside the window and wondered if they would let me walk back down. No?  *sigh* Very well.  We spent some time looking out the little windows and then rode back down.
Underneath the Arch is the Museum of Westward Expansion which highlights the expedition of Lewis and Clark along with artifacts from pioneers and the American Indians.  We listened to a fascinating talk about how the Indians hunted buffalo and used the various parts for daily living, wasting nothing.  It’s a very nice museum.  There are some films that you can watch as well, but we had opted to buy tickets for just the ride up to the top knowing that we wanted to get on our way.

We arrived in Kansas later that evening.  (Where we met a gracious man who said nothing as he opened his door and hopefully had a good chuckle as he watched us cross the hall to enter the room where we belonged.)