ROAD TRIP!!!

Here I am, finally getting around to blogging about our adventure! We got home on August 3, and are settling back in to the rest of our summer quite comfortably. Chris is very busy now, pretty much until the end of the year, with work and his CA course, so we were glad to have our little getaway!

Are you ready? Here we go...

On the Monday of our departure, I packed the kids up in to the car and dropped them off at Grandma's for their 8 day sleepover! Then I hurried home and packed up the car with our suitcases, camping gear, and our entire backseat with over 74 bottles of water and Gatorade. Chris was home from a half work day by 12:15 pm, and after 3 or 4 returns to the locked house for forgotten (and quickly remembered!) items, we were off. Our road took us pretty much due south, and we crossed the border with no troubles.

Then we were faced with North Dakota. Let's just say neither of us wish to grace it with our presence ever again. In this state we encountered: road work. Can anyone tell me whose idea it was to tear up all the highways in North Dakota all at once? As soon as we saw a sign that said "End of Road Work", we'd see a "Road Work Ahead" sign within 2 miles. Honestly, I think they should have just added "and Road Work" on the "Welcome to North Dakota" sign. We were stopped at least 5 times, for at least 15 minutes each time as we travelled south. The highway was reduced to 1 lane - and when I say 1 lane, I mean for BOTH directions of traffic. At one point, the highway disappeared completely, and all that lay before us was a congregation of orange construction machines that had just proceeded to tear up the entire road. We then had to follow a pilot vehicle as it led us through a forest back road for at least 5 miles until we met up with the yet un-mangled highway on the other side. After the road work, we found ourselves caught in a 15 minute torrential downpour, including large hailstones that pretty much sounded as if they were tearing our little Chevy Aveo to shreds. All in all, I think our troubles North Dakota added over 2 extra hours to our day. We bid it farewell with much excitement!

Hello South Dakota! Unfortunately, because of our delay, most of South Dakota was veiled in darkness, and we did not reach our destination until 10:30 pm. We did however quite enjoy what we did see of the town of Deadwood, and a lovely winding forest highway by moonlight. We arrived at the Mount Rushmore/Hill City KOA quite late, and set up our tent by lantern light. Not quite ideal conditions for our first attempt at setting up a brand new tent, but up it went, and it housed us for the short night. I don't think the people in the neighboring tent even knew we had come and gone - we set up our tent after they had gone to bed, and were gone before they arose the next morning!

Tuesday morning we were up by 6:30 am. We packed up our tent, visited the washroom, and were on our way to Mount Rushmore about as early as it was open.

By 8:30 am, we had finished our sightseeing, and were on the road again - en route to Des Moines. We got to see a lot of South Dakota and Iowa during our 1000 km drive that day. Two things stand out the most as to what captured our attention: Corn, and Wall Drug.

I don't think either of us had ever seen so much corn in all our lives. As far as the eye could see, on both sides of the highway, for 3 days straight (as we were to discover).

Along the way, I began to notice signs for a certain store: Wall Drug. After seeing about 10 signs to this effect, I started to laugh at the random assortment of things that could be found at this extraordinary store.

"Wall Drug: Western Wear"

"5 cent Coffee - Wall Drug"

"Wall Drug: Homemade Doughnuts!"

"Fresh Apple Pie! Only at Wall Drug"

"Free Coffee and Doughnut to Honey-Mooners! Wall Drug"

"Free Ice Water: Wall Drug"

"Black Hills Gold - Wall Drug"

"Free Coffee and Doughnuts for Veterans! Wall Drug!"

We had to stop at Wall Drug for my own amusement, and for a homemade peach icecream. Wall Drug is, in fact, both sides of a street for an entire 2 city blocks. After some brief research on returning home, I find that Wall Drug even has a sign at the South Pole - offering Free Ice Water (9333 miles!) and that they spend an estimated $400,000 on billboard signs each year. I'm glad we stopped at this oddity of an establishment after all, if only to see the town water tower that read, "Welcome to Wall - Home of Wall Drugs!"

We arrived at the Des Moines KOA after suppertime on Tuesday. We popped in to the city for a late bit to eat, and spent another short night in the tent. Allow me to introduce you to our 8 person tent with front screen room.

Did I mention there were only 2 of us on this trip? Oh yes. We camp in style and comfort.

The next morning brought another early pack up and we were on our way. Within 3 hours we arrived in Nauvoo, Illinois. Our first stop was the Nauvoo Temple. We stopped inside and signed up to do the first available session - with just enough time for some lunch and a stop in the bookstore. After we finished our session in the temple, we had to get some pictures!

We then ventured out to find the campsite that we had reserved at "Camp Nauvoo". We did find it...sort of. The campground was apparently deserted - as in...no one was even working there. There was an old worn out painted sign that said something to the effect of: "Welcome RV'ers! If you are arriving late, please pick an empty spot and we'll come around in the morning to collect your money."

Really? Instead of staff, we get a vague sign? Having seen another campsite on our way to this one, we decided to try the other one. Unfortunately, it seemed no one worked there either. We asked some campers who were already set up there where the office was. Apparently camping in Nauvoo is pretty casual, because the answer was, "Oh, just set up your tent somewhere and you can pay in the morning."

????????

Not exactly our style. Chris could just picture the police showing up at 3 am with flashlights saying, "You can't camp here!" All in all, a little too ghetto for us. We pondered the thought of getting a hotel for the night, and decided to play it by ear and see how we felt as the day went on. So, we changed our clothes at the campsite washrooms and decided to do our Nauvoo sightseeing. (But not before we finally got a picture of our favorite vegetable...CORN!)

We stopped at the Visitor's Center's, toured around Historic Nauvoo, and saw all the church history sights to be seen.

We ate supper at the Hotel Nauvoo, and then - don't be too shocked - Chris actually sat through 2 musical theater performances in a row! : ) We saw a cute little program called "Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo" at the Cultural Hall, and then attended the masses to the Pageant in the park. We had an enjoyable evening, (despite forgetting to use bug spray) and stopped to see the temple all lit up at night before we.....headed back on the road.

Yes, less than 12 hours in Nauvoo. Aren't we swift travelers? We left Nauvoo around 10:30 pm and decided to drive for at least an hour until we found a hotel for the night somewhere along our path. We ended up driving for 2 1/2 hours and staying in Rock Falls, IL at a Holiday Inn, where we checked in at 1 am. Nothing like a little spontaneity to liven us up!

Thursday morning was lazy. We wrote an email update to our families, took nice long showers, organized the increasingly disastrous car, and got back on the road again - en route to the Chicago KOA (which I think is generously named, since it's actually 1 1/2 hours from downtown Chicago).

We made good time and set up our tent for the last time (since we'd be spending 2 nights at this campsite). Then we took a little drive to Woodstock, IL to spend the evening and check out the train station (in anticipation of catching the train to Chicago the next morning). After picking up a train schedule, we caught a movie at the oldschool Woodstock Theater (Despicable Me) and took a stroll downtown. There, we made a fun discovery!

Oh yes, NED. We stumbled accidentally upon the filming location of Groundhog Day! It was a fun little surprise.

Thus ended our lazy Thursday, and we spent another night in our cozy tent, hoping to get a good night's sleep in preparation for our long Friday in Chicago. Friday morning we set off early to Crystal Lake, IL (having found it a better place to catch the train than Woodstock) and we were on board the train to Chicago by 9:00 am.

10:30 am found us in the middle of downtown Chicago, with no map, and no idea exactly where we were headed. Isn't exploring fun? We walked 7 or 8 blocks towards the waterfront, and found ourselves in Millenium Park (where we picked up a handy map and tourist guide pamphlet). Here are some of the things we saw!

We decided to continue our walk northeast towards Navy Pier. We ate lunch at Harry Caray's Tavern, rode the ferris wheel, and walked the length of the pier.

Then we caught a water taxi to take us to the South Harbor. Goodbye Navy Pier!

Once we were off the water taxi, we debated stopping in the Shedd Aquarium, but the lineup was BEYOND long. Instead, we continued to pound the pavement southward towards McCormick Place, where the Health and Fitness Expo was taking place, and where we would pick up our race packets for our half marathon on Sunday.

We spent a couple of hours at the Expo, and then decided to...yes, start walking again. We headed to the nearest "L" station, where we planned to hop a ride to U.S Cellular Field for the White Sox game.

We were pretty early for the game, but there was quite a crowd already, and it gave us time to find our seats and grab some supper before the lines got too long. (Nothing like a hot dog at a baseball game! So sad I forgot to take a picture!)

It was MULLET NIGHT at the White Sox game! The opening pitch was thrown by Kid Rock, and before the game started, a parade of mullet wearing fans circled the field.

We left the game after the 7th inning in order to catch a train back to Crystal Lake that wasn't too late. First we had to survive the over crowded "L" again, then we walked back to the Metra station and caught the 10:00 pm train. Midnight found us safely back in our tent, ready for bed after walking over 50 city blocks. Unfortunately, the rain started to fall as we entered our campsite, and it proceeded to come down for the entire night. At least we discovered that our tent fly does do it's job well, and we woke up dry, although pretty unrested.

Saturday we packed up the tent and drove to Skokie, IL where our hotel for the night was. Of course we were too early to check in still, so we checked out an outdoor mall and hit the movie theater again (Inception). Then we stopped at a grocery store to pick up some supper and breakfast for our early morning, checked in to the hotel, and went to bed by 8:30 pm...

Sunday morning we were awake, dressed and out of the hotel by 4:55 am. We decided to drive in to Chicago rather than take the train, so by 6:00 am, we'd found a spot in a parking garage and joined the masses of marathoners en route to the start line in Grant Park. Chicago Rock N' Roll Half Marathon, here we are!

Chris and I were in different starting corrals, so after checking our gear, we found our own places for the start of the race. At 6:30 am the first corral started running - Chris was in corral 11, and I was in corral 28. By the time my corral was released, it was 7:15 am, and we were off! The race course started with a 6 mile route through downtown, then the remainder of the 13.1 miles went down, then back up the lakeside. Funnily enough, Chris and I had walked most of the route 2 days previously on our rambles! The weather was great - not too hot yet - and the shade of downtown and the breeze off the lake kept us cool.

Chris finished the race in 2:17:45. I finished in 3:12:39. Here we are, post race!

I was pretty much dead on my feet, but we managed to find our way back to our car in the parking garage, and we slowly found our way out of Chicago. Then we drove 700 km to Minneapolis, MN. Did I just say that? Oh yes, I did. 7 hours later we collapsed in to our hotel in downtown Minneapolis. Chris took out his contacts, put a cool washcloth on his forehead, and was sleeping before 7:00 pm. I enjoyed a tasty room service supper and a little TV before I headed to bed myself. It was a LONG day!

Monday we were up and out the door fairly early (since Chris woke up at 3 am starving...he ate my leftovers). We arrived in Winnipeg by 4:30 pm and enjoyed a nice dinner out with my family, who all laughed at my inability to walk without extreme limping.

And Tuesday brought us home to Regina! We stopped for groceries on our way in to the city, then we unloaded our car and headed out to Grandma's to see our darling kiddies! It was so great to see them, and Ella could barely contain her emotions when she saw that we'd come to pick her up (picture a 3 year old clinging to my leg). Eli was napping when we arrived, and after he woke up and saw us...he turned in to a mute, drunk toddler : ) He was very shy, and at one point started walking sideways dizzily and nearly ran in to the BBQ.

It took him a while to warm up to Mommy and Daddy again, but now we're all back home, happy to be together again!

So, we made it home safe and sound, after driving an approximate 4,662 kilometers. We had a great trip, and the kids had a wonderful week with Grandma, Papa Bob, and two of their favourite aunties. Now we are getting on, enjoying the rest of our summer - although this week we are enjoying it accompanied by Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease.

Welcome home.