On Friday, the last day of school, I took Bella in the morning to get her cast off and new brace on, then loaded up the car, and picked up Victoria from her last day of school, headed over to Carol and Dick's to pick them up, put the car in cruise, and thus began our Summer Road Trip. Ten states in 9 days! TX-AR-TN-KY-IN-IL-IA-MO-KS-OK
The old Arkansas capital, located beside the Mississippi River. Inside was a history museum that had a playroom for kids to dress up and pretend to be on a train.
Carol and Dick bravely came along :)
The new capital of Arkansas
Jer stands beside Le Petit Roche,"the Little Rock", and points down river. The bridge behind him was a pedestrian bridge and we took a stroll across after lunch.
Little Rock had an amazing playground next to that bridge with underground tunnels, neat slides, spider webs to crawl on, and a splash park.
Graceland, the home of Elvis
Elvis had some funky decorated rooms, like the all fabric pool room from floor to ceiling.
The girls had a couple of chances to go swimming in the hotels.
Shiloh, Civil War battlefield
Confederates pushed through here and drove the Union under Grant back to the river. The next day Grant received reinforcements and took the Hornets' Nest back from the Confederates.
The neatest thing that I saw was the Parthenon in Nashville, TN. It's gigantic!!! These pictures don't do it justice.
We posed on a statue next to the Parthenon, on the "Law" side of the statue.
There was a park next to the Parthenon.
We saw the Country Music Hall of Fame.
We did a walking tour of downtown Nashville.
Fort Negley- battle command center for the Union on the western front of the Civil War.
It was neat how the fort was laid out with points, on each point was a canon. We walked around the entire fort, took about 45 minutes in 100 plus degrees.
Victoria found a giant dandelion and gave it to Bella. Make a wish!
We visited Jer's relatives in Iowa and went to the Children's Museum.
We feed the ducks and Canadian geese on the Mississippi.
Our cousin Micheal Patrick
Someone gets a haircut.
Dick and John at the Antique Archeology, home of the PBS show American Pickers.
We took a water taxi around the Quad cities and stopped at each one- Bettendorf, IA, Ravenport, IA, Moline, IL, and Rock Island, IL.
It was cold on the taxi, despite being summertime, so the girls cuddle up with Daddy.
Victoria and Bella were so in love with Micheal Patrick; they fought to sit by him. He is such an amazing kid- at 18 months he was carrying on great conversations with everyone. And did I mention he's a cutie pie.
The old Arkansas capital, located beside the Mississippi River. Inside was a history museum that had a playroom for kids to dress up and pretend to be on a train.
Carol and Dick bravely came along :)
The new capital of Arkansas
Jer stands beside Le Petit Roche,"the Little Rock", and points down river. The bridge behind him was a pedestrian bridge and we took a stroll across after lunch.
Little Rock had an amazing playground next to that bridge with underground tunnels, neat slides, spider webs to crawl on, and a splash park.
Graceland, the home of Elvis
Elvis had some funky decorated rooms, like the all fabric pool room from floor to ceiling.
The girls had a couple of chances to go swimming in the hotels.
Shiloh, Civil War battlefield
Confederates pushed through here and drove the Union under Grant back to the river. The next day Grant received reinforcements and took the Hornets' Nest back from the Confederates.
The neatest thing that I saw was the Parthenon in Nashville, TN. It's gigantic!!! These pictures don't do it justice.
We posed on a statue next to the Parthenon, on the "Law" side of the statue.
There was a park next to the Parthenon.
We saw the Country Music Hall of Fame.
We did a walking tour of downtown Nashville.
Fort Negley- battle command center for the Union on the western front of the Civil War.
It was neat how the fort was laid out with points, on each point was a canon. We walked around the entire fort, took about 45 minutes in 100 plus degrees.
Victoria found a giant dandelion and gave it to Bella. Make a wish!
We visited Jer's relatives in Iowa and went to the Children's Museum.
We feed the ducks and Canadian geese on the Mississippi.
Our cousin Micheal Patrick
Someone gets a haircut.
Dick and John at the Antique Archeology, home of the PBS show American Pickers.
We took a water taxi around the Quad cities and stopped at each one- Bettendorf, IA, Ravenport, IA, Moline, IL, and Rock Island, IL.
It was cold on the taxi, despite being summertime, so the girls cuddle up with Daddy.
Victoria and Bella were so in love with Micheal Patrick; they fought to sit by him. He is such an amazing kid- at 18 months he was carrying on great conversations with everyone. And did I mention he's a cutie pie.We had an amazing trip, filled with everything from a ritzy Fairfield Hotel :) to at least 3 episodes of bugs scaring the beegeebees out of Victoria, and maybe me on one of those occasions.
The brief intinary of 10 states, starting from Frisco, TX-
Little Rock, AR- old capital, new capital, Le Petit Roche, Farmer's Market, bridge, & playground
Memphis, TN- Graceland, Beale Street, stayed in Germantown and girls went swimming
Shiloh, TN- battlefield (bug incident #1- giant bugs in their restroom made for an interesting and funny time, but traumatic visit for Victoria)
Nashville, TN- ate at White Castle (not as good as I remember from childhood), Parthenon (AMAZING!), Country Music Hall of Fame, Ft. Nashbrough, walking tour of downtown, TN capital, Ft. Negley and short hike, tried to see Grand Ol'e Opry, but saw Gaylord Opryland instead, ate at Bob Evans- great food for a family stop. (All in all, Nashville was my favorite city- very family oriantated with lots of activities and music- fun atmosphere with impressive buildings and history.)
Momoth Caves, KY- Fun facts- longest cave system in the world, 392 miles, so far, got its name from a reporter in the 1800s because it was a "mamoth" (large, something to see) of a cave, was discovered by a hunter in the 1700s when his prey went to die in the cave. By far the neatest cave I have gone to- decended 250 feet below ground with stairs squeezing into small spaces- it had the AWE factor- got to see cave crickets and rats. Bug incident #2- after the tour, on the bus ride back to our car, Victoria saw a Daddy Long Legs on her seat and started screaming bloody murder! Our hero, the Ranger, picked it up with his bare hands and threw it out the window. On the road again, ate at Big Bubba's BBQ- great corn pancakes, pulled BBQ, fried green tomatoes, saw the sun set on Kentucky- beautiful, drove past Louiville's neat city with lighted skycrappers and many bridges into Seymour Indiana and stayed the night at a great hotel the Fairfield Marriott, let kids go swimming in morning.
Indianapolis, IN- horrible time finding parking in downtown (not a visitor friendly place), IN state capital, Civil War Monument, ate at Rock Bottom Brewery, Eiteljorg Museum- American Indians & Western Art, WWII Memorial, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, passed through Peoria, IL (wanted to stay the night there, but they were all booked), stayed in Galesburg, IL (got the last 2 hotel rooms in the hotel)
Bettendorf, IA- tour of the Quad cities (Bettendorf and Davenport, IA & Moline and Rock Island IL), stayed at Sandy's house and visited with relatives, Children's Museum, fed ducks and Canadian geese on Mississippi River, Iowa visitor center with sceneic overview of Bald Eagle sanctuary, Antique, Archeology- home of American Pickers,German restraunt on the river, Channel Cat Water Taxi tour of Quad cities, Isle of Capri, Bug incident # 3 - the whole time we were in Iowa, little Chad flies were everywhere- I mean everywhere! It made the girls a little jittery. Appearently, they only come out for a week, then all die. (What is up with us and bugs?)
Traveled home in 2 days (was going to be 3, but we were all growing tired and wanted to sleep in our own beds again.) Went through Des Moines, IA, Missouri, Kansas City, KS, Witchita KS (once again, wanted to stop here for the night, but all the rooms were full), stopped in Blackfeld KS at a nice Best Western, traveled through Oklahoma City, OK to our Texas home!
10 states in 9 days (was going to be 10 days, but exhaustion wore us out :)
TX-AR-TN-KY-IN-IL-IA-MO-KS-OK
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