A Little House Tour

We are currently driving across South Dakota.  It’s 90+ degrees outside and there is not a whole lot to see!  We just put gas in the car at Ghost Town Gasoline (that is really what it was called).  The pump was reminiscent of the ones our parents used to fill up our cars when we were children!

Today we completed our time learning about Laura Ingalls Wilder. Our first night we stayed at a lovely little campground in Walnut Grove called Plum Creek Park.  We enjoyed meeting a mom and 12 year old daughter who are staying at the campground (in a tent!) for six weeks while they practice and perform in the Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant in July.  We toured the museum in town and also drove out to the site of the Ingalls dugout on the banks of Plum Creek.  We promised our girls ahead of time that they could dip their toes in the creek and when we got there the creek was very high and the banks were very muddy.  We let them do it anyway though as we knew it would be a great disappointed to come all that way only to skip it.

From Walnut Grove we drove to the Ingalls Homestead Museum in De Smet, South Dakota.  We camped right on sight with three other RVers (the tent area was in another location) and enjoyed S’Mores with our neighbors and their grandson.  The best part of camping here were the stars!  Out on the prairie we had an unobstructed view in all directions and there were no city lights to filter out the stars.  In the morning we toured the various buildings, many of them having hands on activities for the children from the time period.  There was a dugout we could go in and kitties to play with in the barn.  The girls tried their hand at washing clothes and made simple toys.  We rode a horse drawn wagon (the girls each had a turn driving) out to a schoolhouse where we learned what school was like for Laura and her sisters.  Although the buildings were not the original buildings that Pa built, this was the location that the Ingalls lived in the book On the Shores of Silver Lake.

It’s hard to believe that our trip is coming to an end.  We are staying three nights in the Black Hills area in South Dakota and then it’s time to head home.  In some ways it feels like such a long time ago that we headed out to Salt Lake, yet at the same time it has gone by very quickly!  What an amazing trip it has been so far.  We’ve had some wonderful times that won’t soon be forgotten.

Now this is our kind of camping - Plum Creek Park!

Annie and I went for a morning walk along Laura's Lake.

This is where they think the dugout was located.

Dipping toes in (muddy) Plum Creek

Sunrise on Ingalls Homestead in De Smet, South Dakota

I was not up for the day - just needed to use the restroom.

This sandbox was right next to our campsite.  Annie loved it!

Alaina driving the team

(There was someone right behind her in control of everything.)

Rebekah and mom on the horse drawn wagon

Rebekah, as Laura, the teacher in the one room schoolhouse - she happened to

sit in the actual chair that Laura used while attending school.

Even Lillian got to try her hand at washing laundry.

The kitties in the barn - loved by all the girls.

The Ingalls family in 1891 - Carrie, Laura, Grace (in back)

Ma, Pa and Mary (in front)

Keri

Adventure in Wisconsin Dells

One thing we've learned on this trip, is that there is an entirely different type of camping out there than we even knew existed.  I guess you'd label it resort camping.  Maybe some of our readers are familiar with it but had we known to look for it as we were making reservations, I think we would have avoided it.

Jellystone Park is an example of this type of camping.  Just like Basswood Resort that we blogged about earlier, Jellystone Park was bustling with activity.  Unfortunately, we pulled in after dark which I think influenced how we felt about the place.  When we arrived at 10:00 p.m., there was a campground sponsored street party going on with free champaign.  The music could be heard throughout the entire park.  We arrived at our site to find that it was a challenging site to back into (very little room for error and very little room to manuever our vehicle on the one way road).  As previously mentioned, we are not experienced at backing up our trailer and this spot would have been difficult for a veteran.  We were thankful yet somewhat humbled when the family across the way helped direct us into our space.
The stress of arriving after dark, trying to get into our space, along with the loud music playing caused our children to not want to stay.  Of course, we went ahead and set up camp, and thankfully by morning everyone had a little bit of a better perspective.
We were staying in Wisconsin Dells which happens to be the "Waterpark Capital of the World."  It was fun to see all the various parks as we drove around town.  The older girls would have loved to go to one, but with all the little ones it wouldn't have worked very well.  Instead we played at the small waterpark at our campground and then rode the Wisconsin Ducks for a tour of the area in the afternoon.  These WWII amphibious vehicles took us through the woods and into the Wisconsin River where we were able to really enjoy the scenery of the area.  After our tour, we then attended the Tommy Bartlett Show on the lake.  This evening show consisted of waterskiing stunts and a variety show.  It was fun for everyone.
Our time in Wisconsin Dells ended up being a pretty good one.  From here we were off to Walnut Grove, Minnesota!

The water play area at Jellystone.

At first these two were frustrated that they couldn't go on the big slide (they had height

requirements here) but they finally had a good time on the smaller ones.

Lillian and Annaleigh really enjoyed the shallow water.

Meeting Yogi Bear - a real treat for the little ones!

Getting ready to ride a Wisconsin Duck

Daddy and Lillian

A view from the Duck

The Tommy Bartlett Show

Keri

A LEGO Discovery Center Interview

On our way from Indiana Dunes State Park to Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, we made a stop just outside of Chicago at the Lego Discovery Center.  It was a highly anticipated stop on our trip.  Here's an interview I did with the girls telling about their day.

Rebekah, what is the Lego Discovery Center?

Rebekah:  "It is a little indoor Legoland.  It has a miniland Chicago built completely out of Legos, a big Lego jungle, two rides, a playground, a legoland hall of fame and a place where you can build with legos."

Michaela, what was special about the day that we visited?
Michaela:  "They had a Star Wars Fest going on.  They had Star Wars characters walking around including Storm Troopers, Rebel Fighter Pilots, Jengo Fett, and Darth Vader.  In Miniland Chicago, they had Star Wars characters hidden around the whole city which you had to find in a scavenger hunt.  They re-did the city to look as if Star Wars had invaded Chicago." 

What did you enjoy most about the day?

Rebekah:  "I enjoyed the Princess Palace building area where I made a palace.  My palace was completely white with three little veranda areas and cool designs in the back.  I made a steeple like thing on the top."

Michaela: "I liked the hunt for the Star Wars Characters in Miniland Chicago, as well as getting my picture taken with Jengo Fett (who according to him had five boys).  He was very funny.  When mom was taking the picture, she told us all to smile, and from under his mask he said, "I am smiling...you just can't tell.""

Bethany:  "I liked the rides and I liked making cars.  I also liked taking pictures with Jengo Fett."

Bethany, can you describe the rides for us?

Bethany:  "There was one where you were going into this castle sitting in a dragon.  All the people inside were made out of Legos.  There was a spot where it said, "Smile for the picture" and then at the end you could look at your picture.  At the end there was a large dragon.  The other ride would spin around and it had bicycle pedals and it would make you go really high as you were spinning."

There it is.  A snapshot of a very fun day.  We took many pictures and here are a few of our favorites.

A Photo with Jengo Fett

Being silly with Einstein who greeted us on our way in. 

He is entirely constructed out of Legos.

Chicago Miniland - look close, it's being attacked! 

It took over 120,000 Legos to construct the Sears Tower (not pictured).

It was fun to see how they changed up miniland!

On to Jungle Land

This ride took you through a Lego Kingdom.

Bethany in the mouth of a lion!

The whole gang with Lego Darth Vader and R2D2

Keri, Rebekah, Michaela and Bethany

How Do We Do It?

For the most part, our trip is going better than expected!  At this point in our travels, we thought we'd share some of the things we've learned along the way and give you a bit of a taste of how we are doing this on a day to day basis.

Setting up the tent trailer isn't too complicated.  When we arrive at a campground it takes us about 15 to 20 minutes to set up.  We still are not very good at backing our trailer into a site, so if we cannot find a pull through, it adds a bit of additional time.  I keep thinking we'll improve with practice, but so far, I haven't seen much improvement (but veteran RVers are more than willing to help us out).  :)  On the other hand, packing it back up takes more like an hour.  We have to fold all the blankets back up to store them.  Then we have to make sure everything is in just the right spot for our trailer to be closed back up.  I envisioned the children helping more with this process, but we have found that with all the time we spend in the car, it's better to let them run off energy whenever they can.  They do help some, but the best help from the older ones is entertaining the younger ones by taking them to a playground or playing active games with them.

There were a few things I found before our trip that have helped us to stay organized.  A friend recommended that I buy plastic drawers to pack our clothes in.  This has saved us a lot of hassle as I cannot imagine how we would have done it with individual suitcases.  I bought two sets of drawers, each with one extra large and two medium sized drawers.  Everyone except Ron has a drawer or shares a drawer with their sister (Ron has his own suitcase).  I purchased them to fit perfectly into the existing space in our trailer so when we arrive we just put them up on the counter and when we pack up they just go back down on the floor.  We packed about 5 days worth of clothes and then I do laundry.

Another item that I have really appreciated having is called a Peapod.  I had never heard of this until I was reading someone else's travel blog.  This is a portable bed for the baby that looks like a little pup tent.  It has mesh sides and I can zip her in.  This enables her to sleep up on the king sized bed with Ron and I without me having to worry about her.  The Peapod collapses down into a much smaller space than a portable crib would.  Annie has grown to really like it, and her thumb usually goes right into her mouth as soon as I place her in it.

We are learning as we go, too.  I packed too many items for the children to try to keep them entertained.  If I could do it over, I would have only packed a few things to begin with and then purchased new things along the way.  We are packing around a lot of stuff that the children haven't touched since about day 3 and it makes for a messier car!  And at this point, I'm not going to get them anything else as we are maxed out on space.

I also packed too much food.  We filled our cooler to the brim on leaving the Seattle area and then found as we travelled that we were not arriving at our campgrounds until after dinner.  Unfortunately some of our food was wasted. I only planned for us to drive around 4 to 5 hours a day.  However, it seems to take us a long time to do anything.  A bathroom break can take 45 minutes!  I thought that having the tent trailer would enable us to save money by eating out less, but our days are packed pretty full.  I told Ron this morning that we could have used about three more hours each day (he thinks if that were the case then we would probably packed three more hours of activities into that time).  We have pretty much stayed on Pacific Time during our trip, so when we are pulling into a campground at 10:00 p.m., we can tell ourselves that it's really just 7 or 8. :) 

Our trip has been full of amazing experiences that we will never forget (at least those of us that are over the age of 5).  The highlight for me is seeing the country and the girls have enjoyed many of the activities!  Ron and I are so thankful that we have been able to do this.  There have been some trying times as well (just today we drove 30 minutes on the wrong road on an already long driving day) but we just kept plugging along.  We have come up with a slogan that we repeat whenever we experience tough situations:  "It's all just part of the adventure!"

This KOA delivered pizza to your site.  It worked perfectly for us as

it gave us just enough time to set up before eating dinner.

Alaina and Annie hanging out inside the tent trailer.

There isn't a whole lot of elbow room!

Virginia is up on our bed.  You can see the peapod and one of the set of drawers.

Annaleigh loves crawling around when she has the chance.

Bethany is helping take care of her here on the other King bed.

Our van looks big until we pull into a rest area along with the semi-trucks.

One of our trying times.  A semi-truck overturned on this highway interchange.  We were stuck here for about an hour.  All of the cars eventually turned around and drove back off but we were too large to do it.  Fortunately, we had picked up Subway sandwiches for lunch and we used the time to eat.

Alaina and Virginia playing at one of the KOAs. 

We found them to be great campgrounds.

Playing after a long drive in the car.  The younger

girls have so much fun with their older sisters!

Keri

A Dip into our Trip Quiz

And now, here is a quiz created by Rebekah and Michaela for your amusement.  Answers are below. No peeking!

1.  What do you do when you’re bored in the car (besides making up a quiz for our blog)? 

A. Play clapping games

B. Take a picture of your sister making funny faces

C. Take pictures of car license plates

2.  What’s the best way to let dad let you get out of the car?

A. Say you have to go potty

B. Say you are hungry

C. Say you need to stretch your legs

3.  How many different kinds of license plates (states and provinces) have we seen on this trip?

A. 47

B. 39

C. 27

4.  How many water parks (not counting swimming pools) have we been to? 

A. 3

B. 5

C. 9

5.  How many different states are we going to drive through on this trip?

A. 13

B. 16

C. 20

6.  Who enjoys the driving the least on this trip?

A. Virginia

B. Alaina

C. Lillian

7. Which of these things have we not done?

A. Been inside a duck

B. Seen Yogi Bear

C. Swam in Lake Michigan

8. How many times have we had ice cream on this trip?

A. 13

B. 7

C. 3

9. How many books on tape have we listened to so far?

A. 3 ½

B. 7

C. 5 ½

10. Which hotel have we not stayed at during this trip?

A. Best Western

B. Home Wood Suites

C. Oxford Suites

Hi, I'm here to make sure you don't peek!

Answers:

1. B - Take a picture of your sister making funny faces which Rebekah did , as shown below.

Nice face, Bethany!

2. A - Say you need to go potty. Definitely the most used and most effective. Today Virginia started whining that she needed to go potty which Alaina immediately followed up as she always does whenever someone says that. As soon as we got out Virginia said “actually I don’t need to go.”

3. Wait a minute absolutely no peeking on this one!!! 
Now for those of you who aren’t peeking  B - 39
Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, California, Missouri, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Alabama, Illinois, Maryland, Nebraska, Indiana, Nevada, Arizona, Iowa, Michigan, Florida, Kansas, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, British Columbia, South Carolina, Washington, South Dakota, West Virginia, New Brunswick, Ohio, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Texas, Wyoming, Oregon, and Utah

4. A - 3  We went to one with Aunt Lori, one in Grand Island, Nebraska, and one at the camp ground we stayed at last night called Jellystone National park were we met Yogi Bear.

5. C - 16  In order - Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Montana

6. A – Virginia.  She loves running around outside and it’s hard on her to have to sit in the car for 4 hours straight.

7 - Swam in Lake Michigan.  Unfortunately the one cold day we've had on our trip was at Lake Michigan so we just put our feet in the water. We met Yogi at Jellystone National Park as I stated before and in Wisconsin Dells, which we just left this morning, we rode a The Original Wisconsin Duck which is car that can ride in the water.  It was very fun.

Virginia, waiting to meet Yogi Bear

8. C - 3 We had ice cream with Aunt Lori, with Mom’s Uncle Loren and Aunt Delma, and at the Creation Museum where they had an ice cream stand that had delicious Cookie Dough, my favorite flavor.

9. A - 3 ½  An English family in the American Wilderness by Rebecca Burlend, narrated by Victoria Botkin; A Bride Goes West by Nannie T. Alderson and Helina Huntington Smith, also narrated by Victoria Botkin; Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and we are currently listening to On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

10. C - Oxford Suites. We stayed at a Best Western in Moab, Utah, and Homewood Suites when we were at the Creation Museum in Kentucky.

If you got 1-4 right, better luck next time.

If you got 5-7 right, you’re pretty smart.

If you got 8-9 right, then you’re a genius.

And if you got all 10 right, you’re brilliant and a genius!

Thanks for taking our quiz!

Indiana Dunes State Park

From the Creation Museum we went north to Lake Michigan.  We had reservations at Indiana Dunes State Park for two nights with no agenda other than to enjoy eachother and the scenery. 

It was wonderful to be in a "real" campground.  Other than our first night on the road, we've stayed in RV parks and we found Indiana Dunes to be a real treat.  There was a playground and areas where the girls could play in the sand at the base of the dunes.  They took walks and enjoyed having a little bit more freedom than they are used to.  

Together, we hiked to the lakeshore up and over the dunes.  It ended up being quite a hike.  We took two different trails on the way there and back and both had us almost 200 feet up before we headed back down.  What made it most challenging was that much of the way we were walking in sand.  The view of the lake was beautiful and the girls felt quite a sense of accomplishment by the time we returned to our campsite.

Up and over the dunes on our way to the lake

Satisfaction!  We've reached the top.

Our first peek of the lake

Almost there.  You can see the older girls down on the beach already.

Dipping our toes in Lake Michigan - so much fun!

The rocks on the beach were pretty - flat and full of swirls.

Rebekah and Alaina building tunnels in the sand

Keri

The Creation Museum-by Michaela

The creation Museum was very cool!  I really enjoyed the remaking of the Garden of Eden.  Everything was so lush! In the Bible when God told Adam to name all beasts of the field and birds of the air the exhibit showed how their might have been just one kind for the horses, zebras, and donkeys as well as other combinations of animals so Adam might not have had to name so many animals and their wouldn’t have been so many animals on the ark. Their was also an interesting  exhibit about the ark with a huge life size section of the ark that was only 1% of the volume of how large they think the real ark was, based on the bible. We were all sad to leave the museum but exited to move to the next stop.

Daddy and Annie hanging out in the garden.

The garden of Eden must have been so perfect and beautiful!

Eve offering Adam the forbiden fruit.

Bethany and a portion of the ark.

Michaela