Summer Road Trip: Utah and Nevada

We continued our journey through the states and made it to Utah. The first visitor center had a nice sign for photos just on the other side of the parking lot. Not sure if you noticed, but we stopped at a visitor center in each state because Adam insisted we had to stop to pick up a state map. Never mind the fact that we had a current Atlas for us, atlas' for the kids, google map print outs, a GPS, and maps on my phone. He has turned into a total DAD on these trips! Why do they all need more and more maps???

D and L were super excited to see more prairie dogs running around by the building eating food that had fallen.

One of the places along the route the kids were most excited to see were the Bonneville Salt Flats! Have you watched the movie The World's Fastest Indian? It's a great movie that takes place there and talks about the racing that has occurred in the area for decades. D was the one that was just itching to get out there and run on the salt flats, and Adam was happy to let her! We just pulled off to the side of the road in a safe place and let them run. We scrapped up some of the salt on the top layer and brought it home for my dad. My dad has a love of cars, racing, and travel and has not yet made it out west yet even though he has dreamed of it for as long as I can remember. It was the least we could do.   I found it really interesting to see all the tires marks as we drove along. People get out there and drive around all the time. I also thought it was really neat all the messages people left either spelling it out with rocks or writing in the salt. Very cool stuff!

The Tree of Utah

And just like that, we cross into Wendover Nevada. You can tell that gambling is all the thing here, there are slot machines in the bathroom!!!

Once again we found a camp site through the free camping website. This was South Fork State Recreational area in Nevada just south of Elko. We got in later than we wanted, we got lost in the park trying to find the tent camping, and tensions began to run high. We finally found our location, set up camp for the night, and ate a quick dinner. The kids and I got in the tent while Adam cleaned up, we had a lantern on inside the tent while we wrote about our day in our travel journals. It sounded like it was raining, and that was when I realized it sounded that way from all the bugs hitting the outside of the tent. YUCK!!!!

We set up the tent on the gravel by the picnic shelter because we saw tons of prairie dog holes in the ground. We didn't want to take any chances. In the morning, L had noticed that the prairie dogs has closed up their holes overnight. Hmmm, I guess we didn't need to worry. We packed up with the exciting knowledge that by that night we would be at our friend's house in the Bay Area! California here we come!!!

This casino houses the world's largest dead polar bear. We had heard that they have postcards with him on them so I headed into the casino to take a look. The place was pretty empty, and I struggled to find a worker, much less one that spoke English. I found the bear, looked around, and didn't see anything. The bartender finally saw me and asked if I needed help. I asked about the postcards and she looked at me like I was crazy. I explained how I read they had some postcards, and that maybe they were out of them. She laughed and said they haven't had those for about 40 years. Oh well!

This was at a really pretty rest stop along the way in Nevada, pretty much right in the middle of the dessert. The bathrooms themselves were horrible, but the rest of the area was really nice.

And finally on our last travel day before we arrive, we stopped at a pizza place for a pizza buffet lunch just outside Reno. The kids thought this little guy was so cute they needed their picture with him.

California bound, here we come!!!!!

Summer Road Trip: Wyoming, and Colorado???

Day 2 of our travels brings us to Wyoming, or Adam's favorite state. The views are absolutely amazing here, every where you look. One of the first rest stops/visitor centers is in Pine Bluffs. The facilities are perfectly fine, but the cool part is that you can go on a short hike to a real archaeological dig site and explore the area.  The kids did great on the hike there even though the temps were soaring well into the 90's at this point. Once there, we were able to find out a lot about the people that used this area as a mode of transportation. The kids were even able to "hunt" for arrow heads. We were just about to leave when the lady working there asked where we were heading. We told her our camp location and she said it was beautiful. Then Adam noticed a sign by the door, "Please don't tease the rattle snakes". He of course made light of it and a little joke. The lady then goes on to tell the kids that was why she had a shovel at both doorways, and that you can sometimes find them on the path back so to be careful and watch your step. THEN she says that they have grasshoppers there that make the same sound as a rattlesnake but they stop making the noise after a bit. What was just a 7 min hike there, turned into a 15 min hike back resulting in Adam carrying D because she was too frightened to take another step. Thanks lady!

 (see those super cool looking shirts we are all wearing? We made those the week before our trip so that we could have fun looking shirts to wear. All you need is a cotton shirt, Sharpie markers, and rubbing alcohol. Check here for more details)

 We made a stop at the tree in the rock just outside of Buford. D was super excited to see prairie dogs just running around by us while we stopped.

 We then made it to our camp site for the 2nd night. We stayed at Vedauwoo Campgrounds in the National Forrest in Buford Wyoming. Super cheap at just $10 a night. Tent camping was nice and quiet. Because we arrived on a Sunday night not many people were there.

 Our site for the night. Here is really where the Leave No Trace policy is super important!!!! The views from our tent were just amazingly breathtaking! We could not believe our luck and finding this wonderful little diamond in the rough. After dinner we went for a short little hike. The kids were still spooked by the lady's warnings of rattle snakes, but to make it worse, they spotted signs all over that said, "Bears love trash". So now not only were they freaked out about rattlesnakes, they were frightened of bears. (I must say, so was I)

 On our hike, we made sure to stay on the path way and to not disturb any of the rock formations. We only climbed where it was safe, and on the path. The kids found to rocks to be fun and silly at times.

(I spotted this one and thought it looked like a face)

Our site in the morning just before packing up.

Just across I-80 on the same road as our campground sits the Ames Brothers Pyramid. Once you arrive to the road, don't be surprised that it is a gravel road for about 3 miles. This pyramid just sort of showed up out of nowhere as you are traveling down. When we arrived there, a small group of college kids were hanging out. They had sent off weather balloons further down the road, and were waiting there for them to land somewhere so they could go and retrieve them. Pretty neat!

Just a little bit further down I-80 sits this really interesting rest stop. It also holds a giant statue head of Abraham Lincoln, and is the highest elevation point along the entire route of I-80. The kids joked that they were about to get sneezed on while standing underneath this head. There is also a museum inside the rest area. An added bonus is that a bunch of rest stops along the way were giving out Wyoming tourist stickers that have a fun vintage feel to them.

Now if you have ever looked at t a map of I-80 through Wyoming or even traveled it, you would know that it runs very close to the southern border. We were playing a game in the car where we had to look for someone picking their nose (fun, right?), and we missed what looked like a turn off for continuing on I-80. Next thing we know we see a sign that says Welcome to Colorado! Wait, what??? That was not a state on our list to go through, how did we end up here?? So we stopped at the visitor center to find out. We explained to the nice ladies inside what had happened, and she said that 90% of the people they get in are for the same reason. Who knew?!?!?!

So we added on an additional 30 min to our travel time that day, but got to knock off another state on our list! Next stop Utah and Nevada!!!

Summer Road Trip: Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska

We started out our journey on July 5th, we were packed up and ready to go by 8am that morning. We did stop at Meijer for ice and gas, and the new McDonalds to splurge on breakfast for the road. I took the first leg of the first day, driving all through Indiana, and Illinois to the Mississippi River. Adam napped, and I let the kids play on their own tablets through the entire state of Illinois. Our timing was perfect because it was a Saturday so no rush hour traffic, and early enough that we missed any weekend traffic heading to Chicago.

 Just after crossing the Mississippi River into Iowa, we stopped for gas, lunch, and driver switch. We made simple turkey lunch meat sandwiches and ate while standing at the back of the car. Simple, quick, and super easy.

 We did make a quick stop to see the founder of Boy Scouts grave and memorial. L was super excited to be wearing his old hat, and to give the salute while standing there. D had to get in on it as well. (She is well versed in the Cub Scout way after being a spectator for a few years now).

 Passing the Largest Truck Stop on I-80 (which is the road that took us the entire way and back)

World's Largest Covered Wagon (now a repair shop of sorts)

 A very interesting rest stop in Nebraska. The theme was wind turbines. They had one propeller from a turbine standing straight up from the ground. We have watched these go by multiple times on trucks while driving on the expressway before, but it was another thing to see one this close up. Amazing!!!

World's Largest Coffee Pot (as a side note, this is now used as the logo for this truck stop chain. We ended up seeing many of these along the way this time. On the way home, I just needed to get a cup of coffee from one of the stops. I was disappointed that it was just normal gas station coffee.)

Our first camp site, Buckley Park in Stromsburg Nebraska. This was one of the free sites, with donation accepted. There were plenty of RV camp spots, but the free tent camping was down a steep dirt path in a spot that was so hot, humid, and stagnant that the mosquitoes were like a giant itchy, biting blanket over us. We decided to set up camp in the grassy round in the middle of the RV camping as far out of the way as possible.

 2nd travel day and I again took the first driving leg. We each drove about 4-5 hours per day, so it never seemed like way too much. And if one of us got tired before our normal time, we easily switched before.

This is the Great Platte River Archway Monument and Museum. We were very excited to stop here on our trip. Unfortunately we got there too early and they were not open yet. We intended to stop of our way home, but plans changed (more on that later).

 Even though they were closed, they had some really neat things outside for us to explore.

 Our next stop of the Oldest Sod House and Museum. They were also one of the original Pony Express Mail stops, they even have one of the mailbags in the museum to mail post cards from. (funny side story: we dropped a post card in there on our first trip 10 years ago, and it never arrived)

 Our last stop in Nebraska was the Fort Cody Museum and gift shop! They have tons of really fun and sort of inexpensive touristy souvieurs. We picked up state magnets, a gold panning kit, sassafras root beer, and Juniper seed necklaces to keep the evil spirits away.