Observations from the Road

 Observations from the road:

1. However much over the road truckers get paid, it is NOT enough.  To share the road with these people is nothing short of amazing, if not completely terrifying.  We traveled through mountains yesterday and to see them inch their way up the hill and then inch back down the other side with constant signage for them on the sides of the road, about the steep decline and runaway truck lanes.  We saw multiple UPS truck with three trailers attached to one cab!  Our questions is always, "How DO you back those things up?"  We automobile drivers think traffic back ups are bad, imagine driving one of those beasts at a snails pace and all the while having to put up with the rest of us and our terrible driving!

 

 

 

            We questioned, "Is this a place for parents that just can't deal with the kids any longer?"

2. This was our second time through Idaho and all apologies to any Idahoans that may be reading this blog, we don't feel the need to ever come back. 

 3. When we travel such long distances, we always have to have a few days that consist of nothing but driving.  Yesterday was one of those days.  They can be long, painfully boring days, but we always know there is a light at the end of the tunnel, per se.  Our light yesterday was quite dim...Pendleton, OR.  Let's just say that Pendleton is the town that civilization forgot. 

Portland is the destination for today.  The drive is short and quite beautiful.  Mt. Hood is guiding our way.

State number 47, check!

The lone van in a sea of motorcycles in our hotel parking lot!

 

 

Today was a driving day.  We crossed the state of Wyoming from corner to corner!  We had planned on an 8 1/2 hour drive, but ran into a bad traffic jam from a car accident up ahead and we were delayed about an hour.

 As we got closer to the Utah border, the mountains began to grow and grow!  This is sign number 47.

                                      Park City is beautiful!  Every street looks like a picture....

                                                              Ted found a new friend.

 

 

                                           The kids are doing great.  They are real troopers!

Sturgis, Devils Tower and Sundance

We arrived in Sturgis bright and early this morning and there were a few motorcycles milling around. We had breakfast and by the time we were done, it was wall to wall motorcycles!  Way too hard to move around with four kids, but Mark got a little bit of time to look!  Best people watching outside of the Minnesota State Fair!

 

Devil's Tower was next. It is the first national monument in the United States, dedicated by Teddy Roosevelt.  We love Teddy and all he has done for this country and it's park system!   We weren't expecting what we saw.  It was amazing!  We walked a trail around the monument and watched many climbers that were going up and coming down.

  Today's weather has been beautiful!  About 80 and sunny with no humidity...perfect.

There is also a prairie dog town near Devil's Tower also...they are soooo cute!

It's to bed early tonight...no sleep last night is catching up with me.....

How can there only be 2 states left?

The Kyllo's are on the road again!

We left Hopkins about 9:30 tonight, and after two stops back at home for some forgotten items, we are headed west to Sundance, Wyoming.  Sundance is not far from the South Dakota border, which is not far from the 75th anniversary celebration of the Sturgis motorcycle rally. When we planned the trip back in December I didn't realize that the Sturgis rally was opening this weekend, with more than a million people and their motorcycles, leather jackets, bandanas, booze and tattoos expected to converge on the area, my first thought was to find a different stopping point, but then I thought, "Ahh, what the heck, it might just blow the kids mind!!"  After all, they have been on the Vegas strip at midnight on the 4th of July, walked down streets lined with abandon buildings at 10:00 at night in Buffalo NY, been on Hollywood Blvd and exposed to scores of other questionable situations, so what could shock them at a motorcycle rally?

We have only two states left to complete our journey, Utah and Washington State. We'll take our time making our way west this week and will be staying in a home in Port Townsend, WA for a week, and then making our way back home east through Glacier National Park (if it hasn't burned completely down) and Big Sky, Montana. 

We are all so excited to be back it!  It's our favorite time of the year!

We decided to start out our drive by doing an overnight in an attempt to avoid SOME of the traffic heading west. The kids watched a movie and are now falling asleep. Ahhhhhhh.....peaceful bliss.

 

The end is near, but Chicago is first!

Chicago was our last stop and it was a great way to end the trip.  We have all been there before, but it has been a few years since the kids were there and they loved it.  It is great city to explore, so much to do, and everything is pretty close together, so the walking isn't overwhelming for kids.

                     We went to dinner at Rosebud and ate enormous amounts of delicious pasta.

You can't visit Chicago and not make a stop at Garrett's Popcorn for some carmel corn...yum!

We talked with a police officer that let us know there were fireworks at Navy Pier that night, so it was perfect timing because we had missed out on 4th of July Fireworks due to the hurricane in Boston.  We bought tickets for the Ferris wheel and the fireworks went off as soon as we got to the top! 

We had to end the trip with more sugar, so we headed to Eataly for gelato and they just happened to have a Nutella bar, so I had to order a Nutella crepe...delicious!

Ted commandeered the camera that night and the guy seems to have a knack for pictures.  He took quite a few great ones!  See below...

Before we started for home the next day, we stopped at Millenium Park to see "The Bean" and then to the top of the John Hancock Building for the views.

And it so it ends.  3985 miles, six more states off of our list, fun times, lots of laughs and many memories once again.  Thank you to my traveling family for always being willing to take on these adventures even though it can be hard to be so "close" for so many days in a row.  We are stronger for it and it will be something that we will remember for the rest of our lives.  It's amazing to think that we only have two states left, Washington and Utah for summer 2015!  We have already started to talk about what 2016 could bring.  Do we decide to add on Alaska or Hawaii or do we go big and try for Australia?  Pennies will need to be saved either way.  I'm not sure that it will be the same if we are not driving it though.......

Taking on Day 2 of The Big Apple

We are getting the hang of mass transit, hope the LRT really comes to the Twin Cities some day.  This day started with a Port Authority bus ride from New Jersey to Times Square, then it was on to the subway headed toward the ferry port.

 I love this picture!  We were putting the kids through the subway turnstile like cattle and the Metropass ran out of rides, so they were stuck on the other side until we went and put more money on the card. 

 We then took the ferry out to see the Statue of Liberty.  We decided not to do the tour, but it was super cool to see.  Beautiful views of the NY skyline also. 

After lunch we walked to the 9/11 museum.  They had a great 15 minute video that we watched that explained what happened in a clear way that wasn't overly graphic, so the kids could understand.  It is hard to imagine that they really have no idea what happened that tragic day.

                                                       The brand new One World Trade

 A statue that was left outside of one of the fire stations after 9/11 that was gradually covered with flags and patches and thoughts and prayers for the firefighters.

That evening we attempted to go on a night tour on the open topped bus, but it started to rain and was not much fun, so we bailed and headed to Times Square and M&M World instead!!  Much more fun!

The next day ended up as a mad dash from one end of NYC and back again, then to Brooklyn for Grimaldi's Pizza "under the bridge".  By FAR the BEST pizza we have ever had!

                                               Haven't seen pepperoni like since Shakey's!


 Then off to the Bronx to see Yankee Stadium.  We didn't have time to look around much, but Thomas was able to shop for a bit.

As with most of our trips, we have to add in time to visit a reality T.V. locations...no, we didn't go find any of the Real Housewives, (I tried), but to Hoboken, NJ to check out Carlo's Bake Shop from the show Cake Boss.  We bought way too many things(cannoli's, cupcakes, cookies, etc..) and it was ALL great!  The kids were excited to see the bakery, Mark and I were excited to eat the sugar!

  Last but not least it was off to Philadelphia.  It was later than we had hoped to be there, but it was fun to run the "Rocky" stairs, even in the dark.  "Aaadrian"!   It was a whirlwind, but we got it all in!