Erie, PA or Bust!

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Home Sweet Home

I told Dan I was not even taking a shower this morning - I just want to get in the car and get home! We drove 353 miles yesterday! Gas up and hit the road by 11. We stopped in Rocker to go potty and a hail storm came through - kind of hurt - OUCH - to get hit by those little pellets! 341 miles later and we are home...Awwwww.... And a chocolate lab puppy dog was pretty excited to see us!

It was a trip in actuality we shouldn't have taken. We couldn't afford the trip but I'm so glad we just went for it. It was fun to see and visit with family and friends and to see the country!

Funny sayings along the way - at one time Dan and I were talking about Benjamin and said out loud "what's not to love about Benjamin?" and Hannah so quietly, and middle child like, whispers "BENJAMIN!"

On a bumper sticker - if life gives you lemons, squeeze them into someones eyes and run!

Hannah's hand always "falling" right into mine and her looking at me and saying "funny how that happens"

A semi driving by - "Be A Flirt and Lift your Shirt"

Big Sky Country Here We Come

572 miles we drove yesterday! We are packed and headed out by 9:15, breakfast at Hardee's. Mt Rushmore is cool and majestic but I really pictured it bigger, more massive.

We are trying to take our picture with our camera stick thingy Tana got me for my birthday and I see this BIG bug fly by and I feel a little landing on me. And then I can see it's massive antennas peering over my shoulder and I freak out screaming trying to get the thing off my back. Dan is telling me to be quiet and help me but the damn thing doesn't want to get off. It finally does and all the people standing around stop and look at the thing and take pictures of it. It was massive!!!

Through the walkway at Mt Rushmore they have all the state flags and when they were adopted into the union. Benjamin found Hawaii, as that is where his teacher was from, and said I bet I know they were the last one in. He was right and said it was because his "brain was so magical".

Gas in Bella Fouche for $2.45 a gallon. We get stuck for half hour waiting for the Follow Me Truck - ugh - just get us to Montana already!!! We finally get to Dennis and JoAnn's (Grandma & Grandpa's) at about 6. We got to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse - again yum!!! and Steve Schubert, Dan's best friend from high school comes and eats and visits with us.

So Close...Yet So Far Away

371 miles we put on Mike yesterday! We are up and on the road by 20 after 9. Long day ahead of us we are trying to get to Rapid City, SD. We have lunch in Hartford, South Dakota at the Pizza Ranch - yum! Gas up for $2.39. We stop at Wall Drug - if you have ever driven thru SD you understand you gotta stop. There are about 60 signs telling you to stop. Wall Drug was fun enough and a nice little break. Get gas $2.44. Get to The Happy Holiday RV Park around 6ish. Get set up and while doing that I'm walking around the tent and had kicked my shoes off - well I stepped in a pile of dog doo - ewwwwwww! Kids swim for awhile and we then decide to hit Mt Rushmore to see the lighting of it. We will go back in the morning too but since we are like 15 minutes away we should see both! We get up to the park and wait and wait for the lighting. It finally starts at about 9pm. There is probably a 15 minute taped show they show before on a big screen talking about how Mt Rushmore cam to be and about the 4 heads. James Earl Jones does the narrating and there is just something about his voice! It was cool to see but we are ready to head back and get ready for bed. We start a fire and eat some Smith hotdogs and smores!

Sing it Willie - On the road again...

So since we decided not to spend the next day in Chicago we played on line and found a campsite in Austin, MN (Home of Spam) that had a little water park. That was to be our next destination. We drove 473 miles yesterday. Got gas in Chicago ($2.59) before we head to The Encore Restaurant - Pancake House. Tolls to get us out of IL - cost us almost $4 - we'll worth it though :)

Not much of a day - we did stop in a cheese store in Wisconsin. We got to the campground at 4:45 and got all set up for the night. Swam and played, then headed into town and got some dinner at Culver's (was pretty yummy) and headed to Wallyworld to stock up on some essentials. We made some yummy smores in our campfire!!

I Don't Heart Chicago

By 8:52 est time we are on the road, got gas in Erie $2.32. On to our next destination - HOME! But, first a stop in Chicago! When Benjamin realized this morning that we were getting up and heading home he was in the bedroom getting dressed singing a little song "going home, yeah home". I didn't realize that he wanted to go home, I thought he was having a good time. I think the truth is we were having lots of fun but it was time to go home, back to our neck of the woods and get back into our routine.

We spent over $20 in tolls again heading to Chicago - my goodness. We did have Benjamin's first experience peeing in a bottle though. In Chicago traffic trying to get to our hotel, poor little buddy had to go and had to go bad. He had been doing the potty dance a lot, finally I asked him if he wanted to pee in a bottle. He looked at me like I was crazy and his sisters got so grossed out I could even suggest such a thing. I think that really was the BIG push for Benjamin to change his mind. If his sisters wouldn't have made such a big deal about it he might have let it go but then when he realized that they were going to be so grossed out - he had to give it a try! He did pretty good he did drip a little but it was okay. It only dripped on Emily's flip flops! Hee hee. Afterwards he says "that would be gross if a girl did it". Emily says "it's gross if a guy does it" and Benjamin looks at her so serious and says "I'm not a guy, I'm a kid".

We finally got to the hotel about 3:45. It's a dreary day here, what is it following us??? We stay at the Quality Inn in Schiller Park, we found it in one of those travel magazines, we had a coupon, it was cheap! Dan had separated the girls in the car before we left Erie. They just pick on each other all the time. We decide that the hotel has two beds and Benjamin gets to sleep on a bed, not just the floor all the time. Him and Emily share a bed tonight and next time we are in a hotel - Emily gets the floor!

Our experience in Chicago was not a good one. I'm used to big cities and lots of people and traffic but nothing went right in Chicago. I'm tempted to write Oprah and ask her what she thinks is so great about it. Our plans were to go down to the Navy Pier that first night and then the second day we were going to hit the Aquarium and then head out of Illinois and try to spend the night in WI or MN. So, once we are all settled in our hotel we decide that maybe we should take the train down to the Pier, it will be an adventure. Something the kids have never done. To make a very, very long and painful story short. It took 7 people including 3 Metra workers, 1 security guard and 1 police officer to tell us how to get to Navy Pier. We walked many blocks, rode a bus or two and the train. It was horrible. It's one of their BIG attractions in Chicago, you think they could make it easy to get to!!! Once we were there the kids had a blast - they rode some rides and we played mini golf.

Dan wanted to take the train to the Aquarium the next day and I just told him I was done - I just wanted to get out off Chicago and head towards home.

One More Day In Dreary Erie

So guess what? We had planned to go to the beach again today and it rained all day! So no beach for us - I swear something horrible was going to happen to us there that is why God never allowed it to happen! One last day in Erie, where to go for lunch?? Hmmm - that wasn't hard - The Plymouth, again! Boy, I love that place ~ wish I could bottle it up and take it with me everywhere I go! I then drove everyone around to see my old hood. It was rainy and icky so it was pretty blah! We made a stop @ an old friends house to pick up some of my belonging they came across after all these years. We stopped at Whippy Dip, even though the weather was crappy and had yummy ice cream. Headed to Dick's Sporting Goods store we had a coupon on the back of our Seawolves tickets and we actually got Hannah some shoes for school, discounted, mind you and Benjamin a Pittsburgh Steelers hat. We ran to Walmart and stocked up on some groceries for the trip home, got back to Aunt Mary Kay's and got the car cleaned out and kind of ready for the BIG trip the next day - we start to head home! We were going to visit my cousins that evening and say goodbye to the Kunik's. We went to Nunzi's for dinner, which I had never been there before. OMG - it was so delicious and so much food!!!! We then headed to Laurie's and hung out with Laurie, AJ, Tony and Lisa and Briana came over too. It was nice to see them - I wish we would've been able to spend more time with them, but as Dan told me this trip was about my Mercyhurst reunion. There was a lot of my St Bens friends I would've loved to catch up with but even though we were there for 6 days it wasn't enough time! Next time...We drove 285 miles around Erie on our visit!