Summertime: Girls' Trips and Family Gatherings

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Summertime: Girls' Trips and Family Gatherings

After we returned home from camp, I had almost a week in Pittsburgh before I headed out again for a girl’s trip with my sister Brenda and sister’s in law, Carol and Val. We have started an annual winery and shopping trip. This is the second year for the girl’s trip and we went closer to Val’s home since she had to travel the most last year. We decided to rent a cabin near Lewisburg, PA. Since Val was familiar with the area, she had a list of wineries, antique stores and artist shops to visit.

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Celebrating America's 250th

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Celebrating America's 250th

When we arrived back home in mid June, we were pretty tired from our long trip and just wanted to relax for some time at home. Well, that certainly did not last long, because we had a family trip planned for the 4th of July. For many years when our kids were growing up, we spent first week of July with Tim’s family at the camp both he and his father were members of: Baker Run Hunting and Fishing Club. It is located in Potter County, PA, i.e. “God’s Country”. This is a beautiful area in north central Pennsylvania filled with woods, streams, rolling hills and mountains and many small towns. Definitely a place to get away from it all and relax.

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Visiting the Land of Abraham Lincoln

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Visiting the Land of Abraham Lincoln

Springfield, IL has been on my bucket list since we started traveling and we finally made it there on our trip back home to PA. After an overnight stop in Davenport, IA, we headed to Springfield, IL and arrived late morning. Plenty of time to tour “all things” Lincoln, and believe me, there is quite a bit to see.

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Visiting Friends and Finding More Mid-West Roadside Attractions

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Visiting Friends and Finding More Mid-West Roadside Attractions

I left off the last post as we arrived in Trempealeau, Wisconsin located just across the Minnesota border on the Mississippi River. I didn’t expect to find much to do in the area and thought we would just relax for 2 days and enjoy small river town life. Well, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that there were a couple of parks nearby, Perrot State Park and Trempealeau Wildlife Refuge, as well as a winery near Trempeleau. Plenty for us to fill a full day of activities.

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Roadside Attractions in Minnesota

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Roadside Attractions in Minnesota

As we left the Dakotas, we headed east into Minnesota. When we visit a new state, I do research online to select a few stops that we will enjoy. One of our goals is to see National Parks and Monuments as well as historical sites. I knew that I wanted to stop in Walnut Grove to visit the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum so the goal was to find something along a route that would take us near there.

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Visiting the Land of Teddy Roosevelt

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Visiting the Land of Teddy Roosevelt

We enjoyed our time in South Dakota and didn’t really want to leave this magical place. So we decided to head northwest to North Dakota and visit Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This way we were staying in the Dakotas and Badlands. It was a beautiful day for a drive although it was probably the windiest day that we experienced on the trip. I was happy that the van was not a high top van during this drive. The wind was really pushing me but I was able to maintain it and enjoy the drive.

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Amazing South Dakota, part 2

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Amazing South Dakota, part 2

After 2 days of touring near Rapid City, SD, Tim needed a break. He decided to stay at the campground for a day with Trent and relax. Well, he did catch up on our laundry so it wasn’t total relaxation for him. While he did that, I decided to drive Needles Highway through Custer State Park. I knew that Tim would not like this drive with the tight hairpin turns, rock tunnels and lots of steep drop offs. I told him afterwards that the drive through Badlands National Park was kiddie land compared to this drive. Needles Highway is not for the faint of heart!

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Amazing South Dakota

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Amazing South Dakota

After our stops in Deadwood and Sturgis, we headed to Hart Ranch Camping Resort in Rapid City, SD for a 4 day stay. I picked this spot because it was part of our RPI membership and it appeared to be centrally located to the places we wanted to visit in South Dakota. It turned out to be the perfect place to stay in this amazing area and the price through RPI was fantastic - only $30 a night. There is so much to see near Rapid City and it was a perfect location for our bucket list stop: Mount Rushmore.

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Fun Times in the Wild West

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Fun Times in the Wild West

We had a great time visiting Deadwood and Sturgis over the Memorial Day weekend. Deadwood was very busy when we arrived early Saturday afternoon; filled with a mix of families, gamblers and many who just wanted to party. Definitely a great place to people watch.

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Time for More Unplanned Stops

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Time for More Unplanned Stops

As we prepared to leave Scotts Bluff, we had a decision to make, i.e. where to go??? I think that I had mentioned that the only reservation that I made in advance was for 4 nights at a campground in Rapid City, SD so that we could visit Mount Rushmore, which was our main destination for this trip. I didn’t want to go there over a holiday so we planned to get there on the Tuesday after Memorial Day. Well, it was only Friday, the start of the holiday weekend and we had no plans.

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Resort and Spa Time

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Resort and Spa Time

After the winds blew us out of Kansas, we headed further west to Colorado. Our first stop was Pueblo where we planned a night at a Cracker Barrel.

When we arrive at a Crackle Barrel, we always check with the manager to confirm we can spend the night. This is the first time that the manager said no. He explained that they had too many people stay for days and wouldn’t leave. It was near other businesses including a Walmart and he said none of them allowed overnight parking.

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Blown Away

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Blown Away

We drove out of Branson and the Ozarks and headed into Kansas and the Great Plains. Yes, this is truly flat land with the wind constantly blowing. On that first day in Kansas, we really felt the winds. It was blowing at us pretty hard for most of the drive and with higher profile vehicles, we could really feel it. I guess I should be happy that the van isn’t any taller. It would have been more of an impact with a higher van.

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