We begin our road trip on Friday June 19, 2015. We leave Milford, California without much in the way of a plan. We know we want to go to Yellowstone and Mount Rushmore. Everything else along the way will be my latest discovery.
Papa John says I have to learn how to read a map so I can tell him where to drive.
For our first stop we have decided to visit Uncle Chad and Aunt Jen's in Reno, NV. Grandma wants to get a Grandkid fix to hold her over while we are gone. I get to babysit and play with my cousins Hudson and Addy till Sunday morning June 21, 2015.
Uncle Chad, Aunt Jen, Hudson, Addy, and of course ME!
Mrs. Urquizu said I needed to practice my reading so Grandma Roxanne and Papa John trade reading time. I got a new book at Wal-Mart to practice my reading. It's called Dork Diaries.
I hope you figured it out that I am doing the picture part of my journal and Papa John tells the story. Also if you don't know already you can double click any of the pictures on my blog and they get BIG so you can see them better.
Papa gave me a book of maps and a map of the United States. I learned that Interstate highways like Interstate 80 (I-80) run East and West. US Highways like US Highway 395 run North and South. We followed Hwy. 395 on the map from Canada to Mexico. Then we followed I-80 from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean on the map.
Here it is Saturday afternoon. We had a fun day. We went shopping in Reno to Costco and WinCo. Grandma Roxanne got a new cell phone. Her jelly case matches my Gizmo Pal, see?
My cousin Hudson got to spend the night with us in the motor home.
Well it's Saturday night. It's bed time. Sad we have to leave in the morning but excited we are on our way to Elko, Nevada to see Uncle John. Goodnight!
UPDATE...UPDATE...UPDATE... Hudson came to my motor home and we got ready for our sleep over. We watched 101 Dalmatian's till 11:00 PM. I said "Lets go to sleep now" Hudson said "I want my Dad" over and over and over. We called Dad and Dad came and got him. Maybe next time he will want to stay.
Please comment so I know you dropped by and anything else you want to share to encourage me to continue.
Sunday morning and Chad, Jen, Addy, Hudson, Grandma, Papa and Jen's Mom, Sheila and Dad, Greg, all went to breakfast. I had a short stack of pancakes. Afterward we said our goodbyes hooked up the car to the motor home and FINALLY we are beginning the real road trip.
Well almost... We had to stop at the gas station and get fuel 66 gallons. It is 12:00 PM and NOW we are finally, finally on the road.
I was supposed to wear my black skirt ONLY for going out and dressing up. We are on the road and I am traveling in my wrinkled black skirt eating Cheetos.
5 hours 26 minutes later 284.7 miles 26.3 gallons of fuel 10.8 miles to the gallon (For those that like stats) with we arrived at Elko Nevada. Parked at the Elko Wal-Mart with the rest of the Gypsies. We're too cheap to spend $60.00 to stay the night at the local KOA RV park. That means we can afford more Cheetos.
We called my Uncle John and got directions to his house.We picked him up and we all went out to dinner at the Mexican restaurant. I had a bean and cheese burrito and a glass of root beer. I did my best to hog all the chips and salsa. NOTE TO MOM: Next reader has got to be Miss Manners!
After dinner we walked across the street where a full sized train engine and caboose were on display.
I got to climb in the engine where I started swinging like a monkey on the railing (In my wrinkled black skirt) and almost jumped down where I was YELLED AT to stop and act like a lady!
We dropped Uncle John off at his house and went back to the motor home. I read 20 pages from my book to Papa while Grandma went shopping in Wal-Mart.
It's been a good day. I'm tired. More Cheetos for a bedtime snack. Sweet dreams!
Please comment so I know you dropped by and anything else you want to share to encourage me to continue.
Monday 6-22-2015
We got up and had cereal with cut up peaches on top. We then we went to the Elko Museum to find it closed on Monday's. RATS! We did get to see some outside exhibits.
Next stop we went to the California Interpretive Center. On the way we stopped and watched a crop duster.
We continued to the California Interpretive Center. where we learned how pioneers came from back East to California.
We forgot our books to get stamped so we can look back in time to remember our visit.
We went back to the motor home and started the generator so
we could run the microwave and air conditioning. Then we took a 1 hour nap.
At 2:20 PM we went to the theater and saw Inside Out in 3-D.
When we got out we went BACK to the California Interpretive center. This time with books in hand got the proper stamps.
Gracyn typing here. She's getting the bug to have a hand in the blog entry.
Then when we came home my Uncle John came and visited for a while then he went home.
Then we walked over to Wal-Mart and bought some food. Then we came home and ate some cookies and then we went to bed. GOOD NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!
Tuesday June 23, 2015
We are going to give the museum a second chance. This time on a day they are open. We spent about 2 hours there and went back to Wal-Mart to pick up the motor home and head for Jackson, Wy.
We got as far as Heyburn where we stayed at the Heyburn Riverside RV Park along the Snake river.
FINALLY!! I got my bathing suit on and got to go swimming. We came back to our campsite and cooked chicken on the Bar-B-Q. After dinner we went exploring and found a creamery across the street where they had all kind of cheeses and really creamy ice cream.
Wednesday June 24, 2015
We left Heyburn Idaho about 10:45 AM headed for Jackson Hole. We thought there was quite a distance from Jackson to Yellowstone. A road sign said Jackson 23 miles and Yellowstone 93 miles. We are closer than we thought. Traveling down Hwy 189 we saw a Forest service campground sign that said Long Pull Thru Sites. PERFECT, 4 PM and we found a camp site next to the Camp Ground Host. Normally $14.00 reduced to Half price because their water was off. No cell service, no Internet, so we played the board game SORRY. Another sort of boring travel day but I could be at home hugging my brothers. I miss them.
We made it to Jackson Hole. We just drove through. We drove through the Grand Teton National Park.
We Left the Tetons and FINALLY arrived at Yellowstone National Park. The campgrounds were full so we stayed at an RV park outside of Yellowstone.
We saw lots of wildlife in Yellowstone.
We got to see Old Faithful and lots of other Geysers, bubbling pots and TONS of walking. We had lunch at the lodge. LOTS and LOTS of people here from all over the world.
On the way home we saw more bison.
We came back to camp had dinner, visited with our neighbors and I went and played in the Madison River. Well I goofed up! Don't have a picture of me in the Madison. This is a picture of me playing in the Snake river when we were staying at the Heyburn RV park in Idaho. So use your imagination and picture me in the Madison! Problem solved.
Well it's 6/27/2015 at 6:05 AM and we will leave Yellowstone this morning. I got to call Grandma Terry last night. She made me feel a little homesick. We have a few more stops before leaving the park. I will try to update this evening if we have Internet.
After leaving the park we will head toward Cody, WY. Then after that we will head to Deadwood South Dakota. We are trying to plan our stay in the Mount Rushmore area for July 4th. They should have a spectacular 4th of July celebration. Don't forget to leave me comments. See you later!
We arrived at Cody, Wyoming and stopped at Wal-Mart for stuff. We spent the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot. What a mistake. It was HOT!
The next morning 6/28/2015 we went to the Buffalo Bill center of the west. It was five museums in one. Firearms, Plains Indians, Draper Natural History, Whitney Western Art, Buffalo Bill Museum. We spent the day there.
The first thing we saw was The Raptor Experience.
A couple more pictures from the museum
After visiting the museum we headed for Deadwood, South Dakota.
We stopped for the night at Prune Creek US Forest Service Campground. It was pretty high in the mountains and temperatures were comfortable.
6/29/2015 We spent most of the day driving to Deadwood, South Dakota so named because of all the dead wood on the hillsides.
We stayed at the Steel Wheel Campground. We spent the evening relaxing and planned to spend the next day in Deadwood.
6/30/2015 We went to Deadwood and shopped. I got this.
Kids were encouraged to participate.
We saw gunfights in the streets.
We went to the No.10 saloon and saw a reenactment of how Wild Bill Hickok was killed by Jack McCall.
I got a picture with the actors.
Later that night we went to a play of the court trial of Jack McCall.
Jack McCall on trial for the murder of Wild Bill Hickok.
Before the Trial the actors sang a few songs for us.
Just ME hanging out....
It was a really fun day.
7/1/2015 A one hour drive from Deadwood to Hermosa, South Dakota took us to Heartland RV park. THEY HAVE A POOL!! This will be our base home till 7/6/2015. We plan on seeing Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse 1880 train from Keystone to Hill city, Jewel Caves, Wall Drugs, the town of Custer, Wind Caves, and more.
7/2/2015
First stop today was Mount Rushmore. "I thought it would be BIGGER!" but I still loved it. I learned that they used dynamite for 90% of the making of Mount Rushmore. They used other tools for the remaining 10% I bought a couple of souvenirs.
Afterward we went to Hill city and had lunch.
Next we went to Crazy Horse. Crazy horse is still under construction.
Here is a picture of how it looks today. It will look like this when it is finished.
We got some rocks from the blasting of Crazy Horse.
Next we went to the town of Custer. We bought some buffalo burger. There were painted buffalo's in front of the stores.
Next we went to Dairy Queen and we all had Blizzards.
On our way back home there was a turtle terrified in the middle of the road. We rescued him and put him in the grass next to the road!!!! I named him terribly terrified turtle.
After that we drove back to the RV park. Highlight of the day, I went swimming for an hour and a half. Life is GOOD!!
7/3/2015
We got up early to be at the train station at Hill City. We left at 10:00 AM for the 2 hour 20 mile round trip to the town of Keystone and back to Hill City. This was my very first train ride. The train had 20 road crossings.
A friendly moth enjoyed the train ride with me. My first train ride was exciting.
A local man named Fred rode along with the train BOTH WAYS on his bicycle. Fred is 70 and a half years old.
After our train ride we went to lunch. We took our time getting to Jewel Caves. We arrived around 3:00 PM but we were too late for the 3:00 tour. The 4:00 PM tour was already sold out. The lady told us that was the last tour of the day. She told us to arrive early tomorrow if we wanted to get in. We will try again tomorrow.
We had a quiet ride home but I am looking forward to swim time back at the RV park.
I made a new friend at the pool. Her name is Kaitlyn. She is 10 years old. Her brothers name is Brian. He is 13 years old. Kaitlyn and Brian came over to our motor home after dinner and we played outside.
7/4/2015
HAPPY 4th of July everyone!
We arrived at Jewel Caves at around 11:00 AM.
We returned to Jewel Caves and got to watch a show about birds of prey.
At 1:15 PM we reported for tour check-in. This and the train was the BEST thing I liked for the whole trip.!!!
Afterwards we drove back to the campground and went swimming.
About 7:00 PM we decided to drive to Rapid City to watch a fireworks show. We were told of a special place where we could see a great show. When we arrived in the area it was PACKED. We found a parking space and waited for the show. It was nice.
7/5/2015
We went to Wall Drug today.
Lots of tourist stuff. Grandma Roxanne wants a Black Hills gold ring. So do I. We had lunch. Grandma and Papa had the hot beef sandwich. I had a hamburger and fries.
We also tried the famous Wall Drug donuts. Grandma bought a dozen to bring home.
Lots of stuff for kids to do.
7/6/2015
We went to Wind Cave National Park today.
Wind cave is a lot different from Jewel Caves.
Jewell Cave is a wet cave and has Stalagmites, Stalactites and cave bacon formations. Wind Cave is mostly a dry cave and has lots of Boxwork formations.
I learned how caves breathe because of barometric pressure change. I took Papa's black light and a flashlight. I got to see so much more by using these flashlights.
The tour was 1 ½ hours.
This was the original opening discovered by cowboys in the 1800's. Only skinny cowboys could enter the cave so they brought back dynamite and blew up a big entrance so anyone could enter the cave.
Here are some Boxwork formation pictures of the cave.
On the way home we found a Prairie Dog town. Prairie Dogs are so cute!
These two are hugging. Double click the picture to enlarge.
These two are keeping an eye on things.
After the tour we went to Custer for lunch and then went back to Mount Rushmore to get our Passport stamps. Next we went to Wal-Mart in Rapid City. We had to stock up on "Junk Food".
Next we went to Cabalas to get Grandma a Thermos cup. Papa John stole Grandma's old one. After Cabalas we headed for home and had a good swim in the pool. I'm getting better. My dog paddle is slowly developing into a splashing breaststroke. I need more pool time. Mosquito's bit me a couple of days ago and I'm still scratching like crazy.
7/7/2015
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! I'm 10 years old today. It's my day and I get to pick what we do. I picked swimming and lazing around watching cartoons.
For dinner we drove to the pizza parlor and had pizza.
We came home and watched some more TV. My friend Kaitlyn that I met here at the RV park came over and we had cake and ice cream.
We all had blue lips and tongues!
Grandma and Papa bought me a Black Hills Gold ring for my birthday.
After my birthday party Grandma Roxanne walked us to the playground so we could play. The highlight for the day is FINALLY swam the length of the pool from the deep end to the shallow end with no help! I need more practice but I CAN SWIM!
7/8/2015
This is it.
Our road trip is almost over. We are leaving around 10:00 AM and headed for home. It should take between 3 and five days. I'm anxious to see my family. HERE I COME!!!
