Road Trip--Part 1

Yesterday we arrived home after a two week long road trip. We made memories that will last us a life time while driving across the country. In all, we traveled over 5500 miles and visited 20 states (Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona.) Rob's family lives in South Carolina and had never met our boys. We last saw them 5 years ago when Shalyn was 8 and Avery was 20 months old. When gas prices began falling in the fall of 2008, we began planning a trip back east to visit them. During the months of planning, the trip evolved into a 2 week cross country road trip. We took 80 for a good chunk of the way out there, and then returned home on a southern route.

Day 1--Tuesday June 30
Rob had to work today. We wanted to get a little bit of the driving out of the way, so when he got home from work we all got in the van and headed for Green River, Wyoming. Before we even hit the Provo Canyon (20 min away), we had to make two potty stops. We decided from there on out, that we'd put Zane in a diaper on our driving days. We got to Green River around 8pm and found our hotel, the Super 8. Unless you like to live dangerously, please take my advice and NEVER EVER stay there. That place is Nasty. It's one of those hotels where you're afraid to touch anything for fear you may end up with a disease. The curtains had moth holes chewed through out them. The beds were the epitome of a 'taco bed'. Several of the walls had holes in them, not to mention tons of dirt. The bathroom was disgustingly filthy and the entire place smelled horrible. I guess this is what you get when you cheap out. Actually, this hotel one of the more expensive ones we stayed in. We got the three older kids to bed fairly easily, but Cole being the little turkey he is refused to go to sleep. So in consideration of the other suckers staying at the hotel Rob put him in the van and drove around until he fell asleep.

Day 2--July 1
We had a long day of driving ahead of us so we'd set our alarm for 5:30am. When Rob and I woke up, we found Avery sleeping cross ways in the taco she was sharing with Shalyn. Shalyn was teetering on the edge of the bed while Avery was sprawled out. After a quick breakfast we got back on the road heading for our destination of the day, Des Moines, Iowa. Des Moines is about 900 miles away from Green River and the drive took us just about 13 hours. We had to make an unexpected stop about 30 miles into Nebraska when Rob got pulled over. The cop came to my side of the car and asked for license and registration. Then he asked Rob to step out of the car and he'd tell him why he'd pulled him over. He had Rob walk back to the cruiser and get in with him. He told Rob that he'd been pulled over because he'd been swerving and suspected Rob was drunk. But Rob's sober walk to the cruiser and the conversation he had with the officer proved he was wrong. Rob was swerving because he'd turned around to look at the kids in the back of the van to see what they were doing. Anyways, after a warning we were back on our way. We reached our Hotel, The Holiday Inn near the convention center after dark. The hotel was so much better than what we'd endured the night before. We all crashed fairly easily that night.

Day 3--Wednesday July 2.
We had two fairly short drives planned for this day. The first part was to Nauvoo, IL (3 hours away). Unless you're a member of our church, you have probably never heard of this place. In the 1840's most members of our church resided in the Nauvoo area. When the Saints arrived here, it was nothing more than a swamp which through hard work and sacrifice was turned into a thriving Mississippi port city. Shortly after the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, the Saints were driven from this area and eventually ended up in the Salt Lake Valley. Today, the temple that was once burned to the ground has been rebuilt, and there is a historic part of town where the houses and shops have been restored to their original design. The kids had a ball . They went on a wagon ride pulled by oxen, they visited a blacksmith shop where they were given prairie diamonds, the post office, listened to a band, and went to 'pioneer pass times' where they got to dress up and play games from the 1800's. On our way out of town, we made a quick stop at the fudge shop where we all indulged in some yummy treats.

After leaving Nauvoo, we drove about 20 miles south to the town of Carthage, IL. We visited the historic Carthage Jail. It was here, while the Prophet Joseph Smith was in jail that both he and his brother Hyrum were shot and killed. Our boys were acting horrible and wouldn't listen, cooperate, or sit still for the tour. The girls and I went on the tour while Rob and the boys ran around outside. After our tour, we switched and Rob went on a tour of the jail while the girls and I stayed with the boys. The doors of the jail are still original and you can see the bullet holes left in them. It was a pretty sobering experience being there.

After we left Carthage, we drove to our final destination of the day, St Louis, Missouri. After we checked into our hotel, the Hyatt Riverfront we walked across the street to the Saint Louis Arch. The six of us squeezed into one tram (there are seats for 5) and climbed our way to the top. Zane was scared so he sat on my lap and held on as tight as he could. From the top there are great views of St Louis from one side and from the other the Mississippi river. On the Saint Louis Side, you can see the stadium where the Cardinals play. There was a game going on that night, too bad Rob forgot his binoculars (he was really disappointed when later that night, he found out the Cardinals had been playing and beat his beloved SF Giants). After we went back down the arch, we walked around downtown for a bit and had dinner. The drivers in this city are completely nuts. We watched several near misses, and Cole even yelled at and shook his finger at a driver that nearly hit us as we were crossing the street. Rob used to say he thought the worst drivers were in Utah, but that was before he went to St Louis. We had a very colorful experience in the hotel that night. Both Rob and I were awaken at 2am by the people in the next room to us. There were 4 guys in their late 20's with a prostitute/escort, all were drunk. Seriously, every other word out of their mouths was the F word. At one point they were checking to see if the windows could open because they wanted to throw the hooker out. We thought about calling the front desk, but figured the only thing they would do was to offer to move us. Being that all 4 kids were sleeping, we didn't want that. So Rob and I decided that so long as the kids were sleeping we'd be fine. After about 90 minutes and way too much information heard on our part the room next door quited down and we got some sleep.

Day 4 --July 3
Today was the last day of the first half of the trip. We were driving from St Louis, to South Carolina. The drive took us down through Kentucky and into Tennessee. The drive was beautiful. We stopped for lunch in Nashville, TN. When I was a flight attendant there was a restaurant in the Memphis airport that I loved, Corkys. We found out they had a restaurant in Nashville and made plans to eat there. Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as good as I remembered it being. It wasn't bad by any means, it just wasn't the amazing BBQ it was in Memphis. Oh well I guess we all have experiences like that. After lunch we drove through the winding mountains of southern Tennessee. Rob fell in love with Chattanooga and wants to move there. But his mean wife wont let him. The drive then took us to Atlanta where we stopped heading south and turned East. Three hours later, six tired travelers arrived to a warm welcome in South Carolina. Dinner was waiting for us and the kids were so happy to be free from the van and get reacquainted (or for the boys, introduced) with their grandparents.