Our summer adventure!

Well it is long past those luxurious summer months! We thought that it was high time that we put in the post that documents our travels. We did not make it to Oregon as we had planned but we did make it to Wyoming and had a lot of fun in between. We tried to drink in all the sites that we could. Though it was a once in a lifetime trip - we are hoping to do it again :-)!

Friday, July 13th 2007
This will be a long post as I try to chronologically put our trip together!
We started out on July 13th - ok, scratch that. We wanted to start out on July 13th. But we had struggled for so long with the distributor and oil leak that we had to give in a let Herk's Enterprises (in Sandown, NH) take over for us. We did not want to start our expedition with knowledge that things were not right. They were wonderful and did a LOT of things in a short amount of time. As a result, we were able to spend some days with Judy, Jeff and the kids in Albany, NY (our house was occupied by our wonderful housesitters). While were were there we painted, cooked, hiked and just had a LOT of fun!

Monday, July 16th 2007
Kurt and I went back to NH to get Sloth. We had to stay at the Super 8 in Keene. We were able to go to get our beautiful beast the next day. We picked him up, packed him, and took off! Unfortunately, we did have a little problem with a seal. We ended up sleeping our first night on the top of Hogback Mountain in Vermont. What a beautiful way to wake up!

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Tuesday, July 17th (our anniversary)
Today, we took over Jeff and Judy's driveway and started doing little things to the Vanagon such as resetting the seal and battening down the poptop. We also gave our awning an initial set up. We will start fresh tomorrow. The kids slept in Sloth tonight. Sammy had a rough time sleeping. She was on top and it rained! Poor thing!

Wednesday, July 18th
We said good-bye to our gracious hosts! We took off for Troy NY because we wanted to get the back lock working (Kurt can be such a nervous nelly!). It was a good thing that we went there because we found the BEST coffee shop ever! Delicious coffee and our locks are working! We made it to Buffalo NY made english muffin pizzas and jalapeno poppers!!! Delicious!

Thursday, July 19, 2007
Today we went to Niagra Falls. We started off the day at the local Aquarium and saw many interesting organisms from the area (what can I say, I am a Marine Bio nerd). We then drove to Whirlpool park to see the whirlpools caused by the falls. We decided to hike a trail to Devil’s Pool. It was about a 6 story flight of stairs down to the river, and then 6 flights back...ugh! We then went to see the falls, and all I wanted to do is dive in and enjoy the water. Finally after a long day’s walk and some excellent sight-seeing, we headed to Erie, PA.

Friday, July 20, 2007
Erie, PA! Today we went to Presque Isle and decided to rent some bikes for a ride around the peninsula. Sam and I rented a tandem bike while Kurt flew solo. Sam and I had a little trouble syncing our cycles and steering (remember the tandem kayak incident?) But soon we figured it out. We thought the bike trail would be about 4.5 miles, we ended up making it a 13 mile loop around the entire penisula... my butt kills. We then got in the car and headed towards Cleveland, OH to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We got there (there was some huge skateboard/bmx show going on) and found out that the Hall of Fame was going to close in less time than we needed, so we decided to stay in Cleveland. We are staying at the Holiday Inn Express (very classy and amazing) and we went to the Hard Rock Cafe (yummy). So now we’re watching Harry Potter and we will be purchasing the final book tomorrow morning, YAY!!!!!!

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Saturday, July 21, 2007
Today we went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! We weren’t allowed to bring cameras into the museum, so I have no pictures of all of the great stuff we saw. But we spent about 6 hours just looking at amazing pictures, and items from famous rock and rollers. As we left Kurt wanted to take a picture of us outside of the building after he complained about the camera and insisted that he didn’t need help, he dropped and broke the camera. Sam and I made fun of him (we had to!) On our way out of the city, we grabbed a copy of Harry Potter 7. Then we went from Cleveland to Grand Rapids, Indiana. During the long ride, Sammy read Harry Potter like a madman. Finally we found a State Park and camped for the night. We played a little frisbee and UNO and then hit the sack.

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Sunday, July 22, 2007
Today we were going to travel from Grand Rapids, Indiana to Springfield, Illinois. However, Sloth broke down in Galien, Michigan. We had an issue with the fuel pump/filter. So we got towed to a garage in New Buffalo and got a hotel for the night. Sammy was dissapointed to stay in a hotel with power, internet, TV and showers....or not. At least we were able to get on the internet and post to the Samba! They are quick, amazing and right on! We went to the garage the next day and shared the hypothesised diagnosis. We were off and running in no time!

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Monday, July 23, 2007

So today we waited for Sloth to come out of the garage. We moved from the overly expensive Holiday Inn Express, to the affordable Best Western (which also has a free belgium waffle breakfast... yummy!) After the move we walked down to the coast of Lake Michigan the lake was so big that it looked like an ocean! I sat on my sunglasses so we got some new ones at a local shop. We ate lunch at “El Rancho Grande” which had good food and great chips and salsa! We soon got a call from the garage that Sloth was up and running so we walked over and got the keys. We heard that there was an outlet plaza nearby, so we took sloth over for a test drive to the Lighthouse Outlets and we all got some great new outfits. We went back to the hotel and settled down to watch some Law and Order and The Closer.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007
We packed up Sloth and started for Gary, Indiana (the Main Character in the Music Man says that’s where he’s from in the movie, so Sammy wanted to see it). After we went there (there wasn’t much to see) we hopped onto Route 66 in Illinois and followed it down to Springfield. We stopped at the Route 66 History museum and talked to a nice old lady that had a lot to say about the famous route. Since Sammy had recently read “The Grapes of Wrath” for Film Seminar in high school, she gave all the info she knew about Route 66. We got some trinkets and kept on truckin’. We then stopped at Funk’s Grove for some Illinois maple sirup (different spelling than New England). THEN, we went to Dixie restaurant, the first truck stop in America and we also went to a Stuckey’s. We continued on to the Paul Bunyon statue in which he is holding a giant hot dog and a water tower with a giant smiley face on it(interesting I know, my parents are such tourists). That night we stayed at a KOA in Springfield, Illinois.
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Wednesday, July 25th 2007
We went from Springfield, Illinois to Kansas City, Missouri. For lunch we followed Route 66 to Ariston Cafe (a famous Rte 66 landmark). We got some magnets and new pint glasses. We ended at another KOA and made a nice camp fire.

Thursday, July 26th 2007
Today we woke up to Kurt making breakfast. We had some baked potatoes Sammy had started cooking last night with some Vegetarian baked beans...yyyyuuuuummmmmyyyy! Then we hopped into the Vanagon to go to Vee Village (a Vanagon garage) to fix a steering stabilizer (when we get back we’ll have a brand new car the way we’re going!). We had called Bus Depot and they were shipping the parts to Vee Village (thank you!!!). While Sloth was being fixed we went to Crown Center where was saw the headquarters of Hallmark. They also had shops there and Sammy got her college planner as well as some Silly Putty!!! After that we picked up Sloth and headed towards Colorado. We stopped at the Truman Library because we wanted to run Sloth during the night since it has become so hot during the day. So we got to see a little bit of the history of our 33rd president, Harry S. Truman. Sammy also learned that you should always knock on a bathroom stall even if the door is slightly ajar (She is sorry to the old lady she nearly walked in on if it weren’t for her quick reflexes, she doesn't think either of them would have had a good rest-of-the-day). Then we left and headed for Colorado.

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Friday, July 27, 2007
Today we drove through Kansas. Last night we drove until 12:30am and stopped at some dodgy rest stop and waited for all 6 of the tour buses to leave so we could park and sleep. We didn’t want to pop the top of the Vanagon, so we all piled onto the bottom bed which can barely be called a full-size mattress. We all woke up around 4:00 am and continued through Kansas. We finally stopped at a KOA in Limon, CO. We had gotten there around 2:00 and decided to spend the day there and make up for our lack of sleep last night. We saw some amazing lighting storms from miles away, it was nothing like I’d ever seen in New England. Then it started raining and lightning near our campground, so Sammy made Kurt sleep on the pop-top because she was too scared.

Saturday, July 28, 2007
Today we drove to Denver, CO and then to the Gerbino’s to visit our ex-New Hampshire family friends. The Vanagon died about 100 yards from their house and we coasted to their drive-way. Unfortunately, Vinnie had already left for work so we hung out for a while and then decided to comeback on Monday when Vinnie wasn’t working. So we rented a car and drove off towards the Rocky Mountains to hang out for today and tomorrow. We stayed at a Comfort Inn about 2 hours from the Gerbino’s but it took us about 4 hours to get there because of the rain and everyone decided to slow down. We stayed up to watch “The Good-bye Girl” which we hadn’t expected to get sucked into.

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Sunday, July 29, 2007
We headed for the mountains. We first stopped at the Cliff Dwellings and saw some really small living spaces that I could probably not live in by myself, let alone a whole family! The we went to the gift shop where Sammy got a dream-catcher and both Sammy and I got a pair of earrings and a ring. Then we continued to drive the sights were amazing. We stopped at “The Grill” for some delicious mexican food. We then drove to the Red Rocks to see the amphitheater, one guy was running up one row down another, he said it turned out to be a 3-mile run. We then went to Dinosaur ridge, but we saw nothing so we headed back to the Gerbino’s for tomorrow. It got late so we decided to stop at the American motel, which actually turned out to be one of the best places we’ve stayed. We had a Law&Order marathon and then decided to hit the hay.

Monday, July 30, 2007
It was back at the Gerbino’s for us! We all just hung out around the Denver area. They took us to a local mexican restaurant, and Sammy ate meat on accident. So for the rest of the day she felt like she was going to throw up. We went to see Audrey’s softball practice (so cute). After that the Maxine and I went out for a drink and the rest of the gang played in the park and then went home.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Boulder, CO is the game. We hung out for the morning and then the Gerbino’s took us to visit Celestial Seasonings in Boulder. After we went to Pearl St. for lunch. We ate at The Cheesecake Factory, did a little window shopping and headed back home. Vinnie and Maxine went out for a date so we set up the living room into a theater and watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks with the kids.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Today Kurt and I woke up early to pick up Sloth from the garage. We then packed up and left the Gerbino residence. We headed back to Boulder for some Veggie food and hiking. We went to an all-vegetarian restaurant called The Leaf for lunch (delicious). Then we walked up and down Pearl Street looking at some unique items. We piled back into the car and headed for the Flatirons. After a nice little hike we shopped for groceries at a Whole Foods grocery and then we drove to Laramie, Wyoming and camped for the night. Oh, and I made some amazing chili (if I do say so myself)!


Thursday, August 2, 2007
Today we woke up in Laramie, Wyoming. We started our day with some delicious pancakes and “sausages” and tea (we picked up the tea on the tour at Celestial Seasonings in Boulder, Colorado). We then headed over to the Wyoming Territorial Prison where Butch Cassidy was prisoned. No trip is a good trip until you have visited a prison! We then headed to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. I wanted to go there because it was where a large part of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” takes place, and being the movie buff that Sammy is, she HAD to see it. Our campsite was right at the base of Devil’s Tower and we had a wonderful view all night. We made a mashed potato sculpture of the Tower (just like Richard Dreyfuss in the movie). Then we made the beds and watched “Close Encounters” just to end the evening right.

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Friday, August 3, 2007
We made the decision to not go to Oregon. We just did not have enough time!

We hit 3 National State Parks/Monuments today. We started in Devil’s Tower and did a Ranger walk up to the base of the mountain. The only way to get to the top was to rock climb, so we never made it up there. We did take pictures of all the areas we think were used in the film Close Encounters... Then we drove off to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore, another filming location for a classic Hitchcock movie, “North by Northwest”. We did another Ranger walk around that area, then we headed toward our campsite in the Badlands of South Dakota. On the way we stopped at Wall Drug, “just 108 miles to Wall Drug.” This one little store was basically it’s own town, there were animatronic dinosaurs and gorillas as well as several little shops to look at. Then we drove through the Badlands, and set up camp.

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Saturday, August 4, 2007
Today was HOT! (I don’t mean that like Paris Hilton, it was really scorching hot). We wanted to explore the Badlands and we were going to drive the 30 min. loop through them and then a light walk through part. But I saw a trail that was titled Strenuous but it was only a quarter mile, so we went on that 10 minute walk, THEN that trail led into another trail that I thought she saw on the map as being 1-2 miles long. So we went on it, and we walked, and walked and walked. By this time it is the heat of the day, there is not one shady spot in sight and Sammy was a trooper! Turns out there are two trails that are part of the loop, the shorter trail was about 2 miles, and the second trail was a little longer. SO we started at 11:30 and ended around 3:30 and went on the longest short walk that Sammy had ever been on. It was fun once you got used to the heat, and she got a nice farmer’s tan (hee hee). Then we went to the only air-conditioned building in the area (The Visitor’s Center) and just hung out looking at everything! We then trucked back to the campsite to have ice-cream, rootbeer and chips and salsa. Then we all took frigid showers to cool off, did the laundry and set-up camp.

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Sunday, August 5, 2007
Today we left the Badlands for Minnesota. Our goal is to get to Dyersville, Iowa where they filmed “Field of Dreams.” A large part of today was driving, though we did stop at some interesting places. Our first stop was the Lakota museum where we learned about the local Native Americans. Then we drove over to the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota, where every year (unless there is a drought) they decorate this giant building with corn. A group of people select the year’s theme and then a local artist designs several murals to be crafted out of corn and hung around the exterior of the building. It was very interesting to see. Then we continued our drive, through South Dakota into Minnesota where we camped for the night. We had a little fire for s’mores and then we hit the hay.

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Monday, August 6, 2007
Today we drove to Dyersville, Iowa. You may be wondering why Dyersville? Field of Dreams. We saw the field where it all happened, my third movie site of the trip. We got some magnets, walked the field and headed towards Illinois, again. It began to rain in Dubuque, Iowa so we decided to stay at a Hampton Inn. If you ever need to stay at a hotel, make it the Hampton Inn, they had the most comfiest beds by far. We went shopping at Best Buy to get “Field of Dreams” and then we went out to the Olive Garden (try the Alfredo). Then we headed back to the hotel to watch TV and go to sleep.

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Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Today we drove from Dubuque through Chicago to South Bend. We took some back roads and drove to Des Plaines, IL. There we saw the first McDonalds ever built, as well as the State Police Station, Chicago Area. No we didn’t get into trouble (though Kurt is well on his way). It was once the filming location for Ferris Beuller’s Day Off as well as The Breakfast Club. It used to be a high school, but was closed down, then director John Hughes decided to use it for his films saying that it was in fictional Shermer, Illinois. Two years after the high school closed, it became the State Police Station. A little history lesson for the day. Then we continued to drive through the heat past Sears Tower and the traffic of Chicago. We drove through the night to a KOA in South Bend.

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Wednesday, August 8, 2007
We started off driving to the Studebaker museum. Where we saw the company grow from horse buggies to classic cars. We also saw the car they used in the Muppet Movie (above). Someone would sit in the trunk and drive the car by using a camera in the hole on the nose of the car. Then we drove past several Amish homes to camp for lunch. Mom made breakfast burritos. Then we packed that up and continued to past Amish bicyclists and buggies. And it was HOT!!!!! Then we just drove to a rest stop in Ohio where Kurt made reservations at a KOA for a cabin with AC. From there the rest of the ride was tolerable knowing that we would have AC for the night. We finally made it to Streetsboro, OH. We unpacked everything, Sammy made “chick’n”fingers and I made that yummy chili!
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Thursday, August 9, 2007
Today we just drove straight through Pennsylvania. Thats pretty much it. We camped out late that night at Delaware Water Gap, PA.

Friday, August 10, 2007
Today we went to FDR’s home and library. We learned about his life as well as Eleanor's. Sammy got a pin and then we continued driving to Saratoga, NY. We stopped at a Bob’s Big Boy for lunch (I’ve never been) and then we stayed the night at yet another KOA. We had a fire because it was freezing! A huge transition from the past days that have been unbearably hot!

Saturday, August 11, 2007
Today we went to Saratoga and Glens Falls. We got some fudge in Saratoga and ate it in the park, and Sammy finally found a DVD I had been looking for (North by Northwest). Then we went to the outlets in Glens Falls and got some items that Sammy needed for college. We finally decided to head for camp. On our way we stopped in Arlington, VT to visit a Normal Rockwell Museum. Very Cool!! We then drove on to Brattleboro Vermont. We stopped at this excellent Mexican restaurant (The Rattlesnake Cafe) and then headed for the KOA. This was the cleanest, nicest KOA of them all!

Sunday, August 12, 2007
Our adventure ends here. We woke up early and went off to our favorite deli off of exit 2 on I-91 (go there, it’s delicious)then we headed home. We got home and talked with Karen and Peter for a while (they were our house sitters) they really made this whole trip stress free knowing that everything would be taken care of, so thanks guys! They gave us the run down of our home and of course Mouser and then they headed back home while we settled back in. It has really been an amazing trip, we were a little nervous of the trip at first, but it was an incredible 31 days! Thanks to everyone who helped with Sloth, who housed us for a few more days that expected, and those who helped Karen and Peter while we were away. But now... WE’RE BACK!!! WAHOO!!!