From Saint Louis to our next stop visiting cousins in Kansas is about a 7 hour drive. Since Rob had to work half a day, we decided to drive to Kansas City and stop for the night in a hotel, then wake up and cross Kansas, arriving at our destination, Goessel, after lunch. Funny story. Kansas is Anne's favorite state. This year we read the Wizard of Oz and I let the kids watch the movie, which I think is why she loves Kansas so much. Well, when we crossed into Kansas we thought she would be so excited. Instead she said, "It's not brown." We explained, no it's not brown, but later in the summer the grass would be dried up from the heat. "No," she insisted. "Kansas is BROWN!" Why did she think that? "Well, it's brown in the movie." Ah... when Dorothy is in Kansas, the movie is in black and white. So she thought it would be like that in real life. Where do kids come up with this stuff? The second day of driving was about 4 hours, then we arrived at Ryan's house. Not my Ryan, the other Ryan, Rob's cousin. Ryan and Kelli Olson, who are our Ryan's godparents. It got confusing. Anyway, we hadn't seen these Olsons in about 5 years, since they came to Kentucky for the twins' baptism. The Olsons have 4 kids, Katelyn, Ben, Levi, and Maddie, all of whom have grown so much since last saw them, Katelyn is even driving now! Pretty much as soon as they met the 6 kids were getting along famously. All 4 Olson kids were so sweet to our two, but Levi and Maddie are closest in age and were instant BFFs. Once the camper was set up, we visited with the Olsons. Cousin Steven (another Olson) came down from Wichita for dinner. After dinner there was lots of farm fun. I think if you live on a farm you don't see chores like feeding the animals and milking the goats as fun. But to the city-slicker Schneider kids, seeing these things was a huge adventure. We are so grateful the Olsons have a camper hook-up on their property and let us stay with them. And since we were there three nights, the Kansas fun was just getting started!
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You are probably wondering how we managed to travel for 3 weeks. I mean, don't we have jobs?!? Well, Rob has two actually, so the first part of the trip was a working vacation for Rob. Then he had two weeks of vacation from his airline gig. So this time we were able to be together for a full three weeks! Here are some pictures from our first driving day, 5 hours from home to the family campground at Scott Air Force Base (fam camp). Once we set up camp, we passed the time fishing, riding bikes, doing a little school, all our basic camp ground activities. In the middle of all this camping tranquility, the air conditioner on the Four Winds started acting up. Turns out the something something was clogged, so Rob spent an evening fixing it. Luckily we travel with tools and the wifi was good so we had access to Youtube. The kids and I also passed an afternoon at the base pool, which brought back fond memories for me. Especially when they blew the whistle for Adult Swim. My kids were incredulous. Adults only? What! On our last day in Saint Louis I decided to venture out alone and took the kids to the Saint Louis Zoo. Unfortunately, we had a pop-up thunderstorm that really ruined our day. But it was fun while the sunshine lasted! And since the zoo is free, we weren't out anything. On our final morning, Anne caught a frog! Of course the kids wanted to bring him along, but I have a no amphibians in the camper rule. So we released Mr. Frog, packed up the camper and hit the road. Next stop, Kansas City! It’s time to start sharing our biggest adventure ever, and I am so excited. There are a few things Rob and I have tossed around doing for a while. Visiting family in Kansas. Visiting friends in Colorado. Couple these with the kids learning about American geography this past year, and we decided it was time to do it. Yes, the Schneiders headed West! Our plan was to go from our house in Kentucky to St Louis for a week so Rob could work. Then we drove to Kansas to see family. Our next stop was Colorado, spending a few nights in Colorado Springs and a few nights in Fort Collins. Then we took the northern route home, seeing Mt Rushmore and parts of the Oregon Trail, plus we squeezed in a trip to visit Rob's buddy from pilot training. We stayed primarily in the Four Winds, with a few nights in hotels when necessary and a few nights camping in people's yards and driveways. Sometimes we rented a car, sometimes we didn't. Griffey, our faithful companion was along for the ride. A trip this long required a lot of planning. Some campers say they just get in and drive. These people are not Schneiders. First we made a lose itinerary of where we would go. The return leg of our journey was a lot looser, but we had a date in mind by which we needed to be home. Then I made a packing list, hoping to bring clothing for 5 days for each person and doing laundry along the way. Also, each person needed a few specialty items, like a jacket, a swimsuit, jeans, boots. As the list grew I started to feel like I was bringing everything, including a brand new camping sink. Being totally type-A, two things I made for this trip were a “cookbook” and a pantry list. The cookbook isn’t fancy, just a laminated page I posted in the camper with dinner ideas for cooking while camping. The pantry list is also laminated, and it has everything we should have in stock. When we run out of something, we can mark it on the list, making restocking the camper easier. I also made a travel guide for us. We did a lot of research into things we wanted to see in each place we stopped. So I started printing things off and put them into a book. Yes, all the information is also still available online, but if we needed opening hours for a National Park Visitor Center, it is much easier to just open my guidebook and find what we need. While I was at it, I made one more thing with my laminator and book binder, travel journals for the kids. This was a huge trip and I wanted to make sure they have a way to remember it. So I made a simple journal page, with date, travel day, weather, and what we did that day. My idea was to complete one page each night with them writing or drawing what their favorite part of the day was. On our recent trip to Mammoth Cave, we bought a pin as a souvenir. I decided to make this pin board for the camper so we could buy pins as souvenirs in all the places we stop. That way, we get the fun of buying a souvenir but don’t come home with a ton of junk, or worse, more stuffed animals! Then I began the process of gathering all the stuff we would be packing, buying groceries, doing all the laundry so we have the right clothes to take. Man, there was a lot to do before a trip! So with a full two days of cleaning and packing, we were all set to hit the road! First stop, Saint Louis! |