Just recording My Own Pioneer Trek

I really wanted to post a nice organized, witty post or two or three on everything that went down in the last tree to four weeks but I can't, for one thing I don't have pictures I can post on here and lets face it posts with out pictures are just not as fun. And for another thing, SO much has gone on for us Harker clan that it would be impossible to do it all in one or two or three witty organized posts. So what you'll get instead is this bullet point post of our trip and possibly another "catch up" post. Your favorite type of posts to read, I know!
I thought of just not putting anything down at all but I love having record of our lives and this is where I record things, so suffer through it or skip over it I really don't care, this is for me.


So here is the run down on the happenings since my last post, of packing up my entire house into boxes:


*We packed up our whole house of boxes on July the 15th/16th into the tiny space of 11 linear feet in our moving truck. And when I say packed I want you to picture tetris style, where everything fits almost perfectly together to make one big tall rectangular box, yeah it kind of looked like that. We used a shipping company so after it was packed we called the company to have them pick up the truck and they got to drive it across the country for us, the only way to go!

*The kids, Allison and I got out a day later than we originally planned but it was for the best......

*My sister Allison's flight was canceled the day before we were supposed to leave, WITH HER. But then we found a different flight that got her in slightly earlier than her original one.

*E got a UTI the day before we were supposed to leave (hence this is why we did not leave the day originally planned) and yes she had to pee a lot along our trip, but we only had to stop on the side of the road and make her pee off the highway twice, which is surprising it was ONLY twice.

*We finally got out of Indy on Sunday the 17th with my van packed (picture no floor space, packed) so full of who knows what and with three kids and two crazy women.

OUR TRIP ACROSS THE COUNTRY:

*First day: We took off on Sunday the 17th with ambition to go hard the first day (a whole ten hours of driving). We survived ten hours and the kids only watched one or two movies, not bad. We stopped just outside Omaha (as we approached Omaha I could not help but sing Counting Crows over and over "Omaha! Some where in the middle of America!").
FYI: the first day we traveled through three of the four states that start with the letter I. Indiana, Illinois and Iowa. And our trip later included the I state of Idaho. I find it kind of funny for some reason that we went through all the states starting with the letter I, don't ask me why I find that funny.

*Second day: We did another some-what long day of nine hours. Just for the record, the new dual screen portable dvd player we bought just for this trip, the second screen died, stopped working this day, after just two movies were watched on it the day before. So we rigged the one screen between the two older kids in the back for this day. Stupid dvd player.

Anyway......This was the day we got to Rapid City SD (Mt. Rushmore) where we would stay and play for a day. BUT on our way to Rapid City we stopped in a little tiny town call Wall SD, because about 100 billboard signs along the way told us we HAD to (and so did my sister who once made this drive and saw those 100 signs for Wall Drug and did NOT stop.) It has a cute touristy little store (ok LARGE store) called Wall Drug. It was so fun! If ever you go to South Dakota you have to go see Wall Drug it was very family friendly and it was just 50 miles east of Mt. Rushmore. And Yes, I know for a fact that there were 100 signs because we were so bored going through SD that we counted them, all :)

*Third day: We played in Rapid City all day. By the way it was THE HOTTEST day of the year. I think the heat index was something like 115, if I'm wrong on that, that is what it felt like to me. So we let the kids swim a bit in the hotel pool and then we decided to go visit a reptile garden (with some a/c rooms inside) where we witnessed a fifteen year old boy wrestle an alligator. OK he wasn't fifteen and he didn't really wrestle and alligator, but he sure looked like he was fifteen, and he just sat on an alligator but it sounds so much more intense to say "wrestled". Then we saw the same "boy" show us venomous snakes, the kids loved both shows and we all survived it, even the fifteen year old snake charmer/alligator wrestler.

That evening when the temps were about 20 degrees cooler we headed up to Mount Rushmore. It was SO worth the stop. It was fun to see it up "close" and to go through the Museum and learn how it was made, it was just so cool! The kids loved it too, even though they were on the brink of meltdowns at nine thirty at night, I'd say they did alright. Apparently they do a cool "light show" at night at mount Rushmore with Stadium seating and everything, but since the kids were on the brink, we left just before it started, the melt downs AND the light show :)
I wish we could have stayed in the area longer. The Black Hills look AMAZINGLY beautiful, the small glimpse of them that I got. Who knew South Dakota could be beautiful?! I want to go back and see some of the other cool touristy things to do there. I hear there are cool wind caves and other caves you can tour and explore, maybe some day, maybe.

*Fourth day: We were off again, for another nine hour drive. Oh and that nice new dvd player we bought JUST for this trip, both screes stopped working after only watching a total of four movies on it. LAME! So we used my sisters laptop for them. We will be returning it. I don't know that we would have survived with out some source of movie entertainment. How did our parents do road trips with out movies?!

Surprisingly the kids didn't put up much of a fight to get back in the car and drive all day. I think the smartest thing I did was plan to take a "day off" from driving, it saved my kids' sanity and MINE! This days drive was through the long and some what boring state of Montana. Okay that's mean, Montana isn't all boring just that days drive of Montana was slightly boring. Our destination was Helena MT where we'd stay with some Family Friends of ours. She has three kids almost exactly the same ages of my children so the kids were more than excited to stay there and play. Helena is really a cute small town feel, city in Montana I think we'll look there for a practice and move to Helena :)

*The Fifth and FINAL day of our trip: We knew it would be a short 5 hour drive to Spokane so we took our time in the morning and let the kids play a little while longer before we took off. I thought for sure, knowing it was our last day, it might feel like the longest even though it was to be the shortest, but to me it felt about right, not too long at all. But poor Allie got stuck being the "kid wrangler" and not the driver and got car sick. You see the drive from Helena to Spokane is a rough and windy one. You have to go through like three Mountain Passes all of which have to be uphill and downhill windy, really windy. I felt so bad for her. So to her it probably did feel like the longest travel day. She survived it, barely. The kids were so excited to FINALLY be at Grandma's house. Every day they'd ask "Are we going to Grandmas house TODAY?!" our response was "NO, not today!" So to hear "YES, today we'll get to Grandmas house," must have felt like a dream to them.

So here we are in the beautiful NW part of the Country. When we got here it was like 60 degrees. I was FREEZING! My body had a hard time adjusting from 115 degrees to 60 degrees in just one day. While people here were sporting shorts and t-shirts with sandals on I was in long pants and a sweat shirt. But I think I've gotten used to the cool air in the evenings, and the comfortable warm temps in the day. Aahhh it really is a nice refreshing change from the muggy 80 degree evenings and the scorching humid days, I was used to having in July.

I forgot how beautiful Mountains are, and can I just say Small Mountain-Valley towns are the best! So cute and in an amazing location. And did you know there are stars in the sky? Like LOTS of them. I almost forgot about them. I missed seeing them. There are so many things I Missed about being out West, where I grew up. But I'm starting to find many other things I am missing about being in are Midwest big City that we got so used to after 5 years of living in it. I feel torn between my 2 "homes", it's a strange feeling to want to be in two places at once.

There it is, my own Pioneer trek across the country. Except My trek included an airconditioned mini-van with dvd players for my children to watch movies on. AND it only took me five days and not five months! Yes, it was a tough journey for me but then I thought of those who crossed that land with out the luxuries I had and I was humbled and I am grateful to my pioneer ancestors for their faith and amazing courage. It was kind of a neat experience to do that journey and arrive out West just in time to Celebrate Pioneer Day, it really made me think about how truly blessed I am.

(Stay tuned for a brief documentation of the Harker Family reunion we enjoyed shortly after arriving out West.)