Gage and Cutter: "Take us with you!"

Courtney and Saylor

Darin grills in Meg's front yard while Eric mans the kitchen

Visiting with the Thomas family

We arrived in Louisville Wednesday afternoon in time to see Aunt Megan and Uncle Eric before they head to Fairfield Mountains. The kids enjoyed visiting with their cousins, and Eric and Darin cooked us a great meal of kabobs, corn and salad. After playing until after 10, everyone was beat and we headed out for Uncle David and Aunt Lisa's house.

Only a souvenir Corvette to take home :-(

On the riverboat tour

The 'Oprahland' hotel

We found a campground in the heart of Nashville, and the kids headed off to the putt-putt course, then played some video games. Matthew and Beau had fun on their scooters, and Amy taught us all to play Rummikub. We had a leisurely morning, then headed over to the Opryland hotel (or, as Beau puts it, the Oprahland hotel). The hotel was gorgeous...we all took a riverboat ride and the kids looked at all of the fish that have been brought in to their Delta River. After our tour we headed north, stopping at the ever popular roadside BBQ joint for some lunch. The National Corvette Museum was next on our agenda. Matthew was very disappointed that Lynelle wouldn't let Darin buy a Corvette (no room in the garage!!). We enjoyed looking at all of the cars and the kids had some fun dancing to the juke box in the museum. We wrapped up our stop with some souvenir shopping and headed to Louisville.

Amy, Beau and Matthew ready for the sharks

Courtney hanging with the fish

Hey, that smells like fish!

After our go-carting fun, we made a mid-day stop on Ivan's recommendation at the Chattanooga Aquarium. The kids enjoyed touching the sturgeon, petting the rays and climbing into the tubes placed inside the aquariums for a better look at all the creatures. The hit of the day was the IMAX theater, where we saw 'Sharks 3D'. We finished up our aquarium tour and moved on to Nashville for the night.

Matthew being 'Sirius'

Courtney and Beau on the track

"Roughin it" in the woods of Tennessee

We arrived at our campground in Chattanooga, equipped with all the necessary conveniences, and...WAIT, a go-cart track right on site! We had three smiling kids! They all piled into the go-carts and drove around the sometimes slippery track. Darin, Lynelle and Aunt Amy watched, cringing as they spun around and crashed into the barrier wall. We wanted to give Amy a taste of roughin' it on the camp trail, so we suffered through a dinner of steak (with bernaise sauce), mushrooms, and salad, followed by some fresh baked chocolate chip cookies! Once back in the RV, the kids conned Aunt Amy into the never-ending game of LIFE, which lasted long beyond when Amy had hoped it would! Everyone woke up the next morning begging for more go-carts! After a long run (the go-cart place was empty so they got to go longer), we headed for the Chattanooga aquarium.

Beau's beautiful butterfly

Aunt Amy joining us for some fun!

In front of Amy and Ivan's

Matthew and Beau after enjoying some ribs at Dreamland BBQ

BBQ in Birmingham

We left the 'Hill' and headed to see Aunt Amy and Uncle Ivan in Birmingham. We got there Sunday evening and enjoyed Aunt Amy's gourmet cooking for dinner. On Monday Uncle Ivan took us to Dreamland BBQ for some incredible ribs! We convinced Aunt Amy to join us on our trip, so while Uncle Ivan headed off to work, Amy hopped in the RV with us, headed for Tennessee!

Mom and Dad at Spring Hill's Stewartfield

St. Josephs Chapel

Visit to the Hill

After one last breakfast meal, we headed off to Alabama for our next stop, with one more passenger in tow. We were excited to be taking our cousin Beau along for a little while on our vacation. We were headed to the 'place where it all began'...Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama. This is where Darin and Lynelle met many years ago, and many other family members have enjoyed spending some time as well. Though it was Sunday and fairly empty, the adults enjoyed seeing all of the improvements that have been made to the campus since our last visit. The kids tolerated the visit, assured that something a little more exciting was coming soon!

Courtney after the streetcar party

Cleta and Courtney on the streetcar

Resting on one of the Oak trees

Oak Alley

Courtney, Matthew and Joseph at Oak Alley

Darin and Carlie fighting over an 'ETIL'

New Orleans: The food festival continues!

Well, as usual, New Orleans was full of family, and of FOOD! We were very busy with our activities, and we were all happy to see everyone. We parked the RV in Uncle Michael and Aunt Dawn's driveway, and Matthew and Courtney were excited to see their cousins. On Thursday we went and picked up Joseph Pistorius, Matthew's friend from Phoenix who was in LA visiting his grandparents. Matthew was so excited to see his buddy. We also visited with Lydia (aka "Nanny"), and Lynelle was very excited to see her buddy! Thursday night Darin and Uncle Michael boiled some crabs (oh so yummy) and we ate until we were stuffed. On Friday we took the kids to Oak Alley Plantation, which was a really fun trip. Friday night Darin and Lynelle enjoyed a 'big people' night out with Michael and Dawn, eating many oysters and winning big at video poker! Saturday brought more fun, when we all headed on a streetcar party with all of our cousins (thanks to Judy for organizing), then back to Michael's house for more family time....oh, and more food! Uncle Steve cooked us all up some crab pasta and marinated crab claws, not bad for a throw together meal. Quite some time later, we said goodbye to all of our cousins, but assured everyone we would see them more now that we would be living closer.

Helping out Uncle Steve!

Good Eatin' in Gonzales

After leaving Ville Platte, we headed to Uncle Steve and Aunt Renee's house in Gonzales, Louisiana. As usual, no one goes hungry here! Uncle Steve cooked us up some crawfish etoufee and seafood gumbo. We all really enjoyed visiting with Cleta, Jean Paul and Katherine. In the morning the kids swam, then we had some po boys for lunch, and it was time to head to New Orleans. But first, Matthew had to ride on Uncle Steve's lawn mower, just for fun. It was time to head to New Orleans to Uncle Michael's house!

At Ville Platte, Louisiana

Welcome to the swamp!

After a late morning breakfast and visiting with the neighbors, we headed for Louisiana. Both Darin and Lynelle are getting used to our late morning coffee and not being in any hurry to do much! Courtney and Matthew are slowly getting used to their journaling...sometimes it is still a challenge though. We found a great site at Chicot State Park in Ville Platte, Louisiana. Darin grilled outside alone because no one else would face the humungous bugs that were everywhere! Darin and Matthew did some Louisiana wildlife viewing...armadillo, hawk, and some frogs. Darin tried to convince Matthew that all these things were edible, but Matthew didn't buy that story. In the morning we enjoyed another lazy start (leaving after coffee and breakfast around 11), then headed for Steve's house in Gonzales.

At the lake in Arkansas

Veggin' at the lake

We headed for Arkansas, ready to get back to our relaxing. After getting to Hot Springs, which we thought would be a good stop, we had some trouble finding anything…a campsite, a grocery store…so Darin did what he does best, hit up one of the locals at the gas station, who recommended a site for us on a nearby lake. It turned out to be one of our most beautiful stops yet…the lake on both sides of us and nice, wooded campsites. We had a great Father’s Day steak dinner (except Darin had to cook it himself), a cutthroat game of family Scrabble and enjoyed our campfire before retiring for the evening.

Busy busy Branson

We are running a couple days ahead of schedule, so we decided to add in a stop at Table Rock Lake. We secured a nice campsite on a smaller lake, not too far from Table Rock. One of our ‘neighbors’ pulled in with a large horse trailer. Courtney was pretty excited, right up until he showed her the golf cart he stored in the back (no horses)! The Branson is much larger than we expected, so Darin hit the local A-1 rental car place and got us a car. Branson itself is like a mini-Vegas…lots of shows and activities. We all really enjoyed Silver Dollar City, and the kids rode all the roller coasters they could find. Since the lake was part of the reason we stopped, we rented a deck boat and headed out on the water. The kids tubed and hit one of the lake’s popular spots, a cliff you could climb and jump off of. They both looked a little nervous the first time, but shortly became pros.

After our second night in the KOA campsite, we decided to move to our scheduled location, a place called “The Wilderness”, affiliated with Silver Dollar City. The main reason was for their advertised ‘wireless internet’. We have been without connectivity for over a week now (thus why you haven’t seen this log til now) and thought this would be handy. After our move from our lakefront site to one that backs right up to the main road, we realized that ‘wireless internet’ really meant sitting in the lounge…and even that was a stretch! Oh well, live and learn. We decided to go and see David Copperfield, which was an amazing show. We were sitting in the front row, and were still amazed at the illusions…appearing and disappearing cars, people, etc! Our final night we hit another amusement park, Celebration City. On the way, a nice police officer stopped Darin for speeding, and Matthew asked “Does this happen every time we go on vacation?” (We had a similar experience in Colorado). Luckily, the nice man quickly let us go with just a warning…once again Darin lucks out! We hit a few more roller coasters, and a pretty cool fireworks and laser light show. After 4 days of being on the go 7am-11pm, we were exhausted, but all agree that this was a great stop.

Napping on the boat

Jumping off the cliff

Tubing on Table Rock

Visting with family...

We arrived in Tulsa after another long driving day. We visited with Aunt Doris and Uncle Tommy for the evening. The kids swam and played with Kaitlin and Matt. It was very nice to see everyone, especially because it had been years since we had last visited. Wednesday brought more swimming, then Uncle Tommy brought Kaitlin and Courtney to see Boo, Kaitlin’s horse, while the boys scootered and skateboarded. We finally left Tulsa around 3, headed to Table Rock Lake, just outside of Branson Missouri.

Kids enjoying Aunt Doris' pool

Nowhere Kansas

Well, these are the really boring days. Driving through Nebraska and Kansas, there just isn’t much to see. The kids are enjoying movies, computers and the ever popular iPod. Darin has spent hours on the phone trying to get a chip in the windshield fixed…what excitement! After driving as far as we could, we stayed at a rest area somewhere in Kansas for the night. Hopefully we won’t have to do this again! Trucks were in and out all night…not the best place we’ve been!

Free Water turned Tourist Trap

We woke up to more rain, so we decided to head out to our next stop. Darin had seen a place called Wall Drug on the Food Network so we decided to make a stop there. What a sight! What was once a struggling pharmacy in the 1930s is now larger than a city block, selling everything you can imagine. The store made its turnaround by advertising free ice water to travelers, which they still give out today. We enjoyed breakfast (chocolate shakes for the kids), then taking in store after store, and headed to what is called the ‘Back Yard’, with a shooting gallery and a giant toy T-Rex that roars every 12 minutes. We wandered for quite some time, then headed back to the RV to continue our journey.

Wall, South Dakota

Late Night BLTs...

After enjoying an awesome pancake breakfast at the campground, we headed for Rapid City, South Dakota, to see Mount Rushmore. We intended to see the monument at night, but Darin suggested that we stop in once during the day, so we headed for the park. Everyone was a little amazed at the monument and at the fact that 90% of the ‘sculpture’ was actually done with targeted dynamite blasts. The whole thing was pretty interesting. We decided to head to the campground and come back later that night for the lighting ceremony. We were settled in the campsite with Lynelle doing laundry at the campsite facilities (what a treat!) and Darin and Matthew playing catch, when the rain began. So much for the nighttime ceremony…the rain lasted pretty much all night, so we snuggled in for some family time. Later Darin decided to head out in the rain to get us some dinner, but since everything was closed he hit the general store and ended up cooking BLTs around 11pm…Yummy!

Kids at Mt. Rushmore

Hot Tubbin' it at the KOA!

We decided that we had spent enough time in Yellowstone, and it was time to move on. We headed out of the East entrance along the road to Cody, Wyoming – another incredible drive. There are lots of interesting rock formations along the way, and more wildlife (despite all of the warning signs, still no bear, though). We arrived at our campsite late in the afternoon. The campground had a deluxe site, complete with a fenced yard, picnic tables and a hot tub! The kids played on the playground for a little while then headed into the hot tub. Later, Darin grilled us some delicious steaks, we all enjoyed the hot tub and the fire.

Courtney and Matthew enjoy the hot tub

Jenny Lake

Waterfalls and Cantelope

We were off to our second campsite in Yellowstone this morning. First, we stopped to see the Norris Geyser Basins, where we saw (and smelled) all of the hot springs. Matthew did not like the sulphur smell, and hurried past the springs that were steaming. We decided to take a few back roads to see the sites. The wildlife on the sides of the road is pretty cool, and Matthew announced to all of us that he saw a cantelope!! Once again, Lynelle missed a great picture opp, this time because she was laughing hysterically at Matthew’s comment. We continued on to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, with two incredible waterfalls and some beautiful colors in the canyon. We continued on to the campsite at Canyon Village. Since this is the first day the camp is open, we have the woods around our site all to ourselves. We took a hike through the woods, looking for wildlife, but didn’t see too much. Darin started another campfire…but it was warm enough this time for him to have company. The kids explored the woods and gathered firewood. We moved inside for dinner and a game of family Scrabble, then attempted to watch Shark Tales but all fell asleep…this vacationing thing is exhausting!

Rain, Sleet, Snow, Hail and Sunshine!

Our day today began with a boat ride across Jenny Lake. We started our hike up to Hidden Falls, in some rather chilly temperatures. The sun shortly peeked out, and our persistence was rewarded with the stunning view of the waterfall. We enjoyed that for a few minutes, then started back down to the lake. Hmmm, what was that falling from the sky…snow! We continued our hike down, and by the time we hit the dock it was raining on us…we had a similar boat ride back across….very chilly! After a lunch break at Jenny Lake, the sun began to shine (now that we were inside!).
We began our ride to Yellowstone,….not too many miles but moving very slowly due to the roads and the number of cars, trucks and RVs. Traffic in front of us came to a quick stop…a herd of bison, complete with babies, walking up the road was quite a sight! After waiting for them to move (and they were in no hurry), we continued on. We stopped to see Old Faithful, with perfect timing, just before it erupted. Though it began to rain on us a little more, the site of the geyser was worth it. Driving to our Madison campsight we saw more bison, elk, but none of the much sought after bears! We settled into our campsite, and it proceeded to hail, but for a very short time. The sun came out again, and we hiked down to the creek, wandered over to an old ranger’s lodge where a plaque indicated that this was where the first National Park was dedicated. Darin left to take care of the hookups, and returned an hour later after making friends with the retired couple in the next campsite (some things never change). They were traveling with their grandson, who Matthew quickly realized had video games in his camper too (so we’re not the only ones roughing it!), and they were off to play. Darin and Matthew left for a father/son hike and saw some deer in the woods. Darin started a campfire after dinner, and he and Courtney enjoyed the fire while Matthew and Lynelle stayed in the very warm RV, reading and watching TV. Courtney came inside and Darin was left at the fire, enjoying his ‘alone time’, while everyone else turned in for bed.

Courtney and Matthew at Jackson Lake

Cold Water!

Adjusting to unemployment

Mom and Dad at Jackson Lake

A Grand First Day Outdoors...

This morning we woke up to see a moose (and baby) strolling right in front of our campsite. Unfortunately, Lynelle is yet unfamiliar with her camera and pressed the on/off button instead of the shoot button and missed the picture!!! Now she is reminded constantly of that moment, but even so, it was really cool to have the wildlife that close to us. Once the excitement of that was over, we decided to take a hike down to Jackson lake. The scenery here is incredible…the lake with the snow covered mountains as a backdrop…simply beautiful. The kids had a great time running around and exploring trails. Later that day we headed back down to the lake where we had rock skipping contests – Matthew won with 4 skips! Darin laid down on the rocky shore and tried to convince Lynelle that ‘this is just like the spa!’...but she wasn’t buying that. The kids rolled up their pants and went wading in the FREEZING water while Darin threw rocks to splash them even more. It was a wonderful day in the Tetons!

1000 Miles and Counting...

We’ve crossed the 1000 mile mark, and already deviated from our well devised plan (as Darin chuckles at that remark). Instead of staying in Salt Lake, we decided to do a marathon driving day and head for Grand Teton National Park. After a run out of gas scare and a missed turn due to Lynelle not paying attention, we made it to the park in 15 hours, rather than 12. For the record, Lynelle wasn’t paying attention because she was focused on writing this journal (that’s not winning her any points, though). Our stop in Salt Lake to purchase a couple of movies made the drive painless for the kids. The adults were also OK, sitting in the 2 front barka loungers with seat heaters on, watching the standoff on the interstate in LA and waiting for the jury to come back on OJ...I mean Michael. We arrived in Grand Tetons, already amazed at the scenery. We settled in for a late dinner, compliments of a gift from Shea (boy we’ll miss her!). More tomorrow from Grand Tetons!

Mom and kids

Dad and kids in Las Vegas

That Dam Las Vegas

We stopped Sunday night just outside of Seligman, Arizona, where Darin gave the kids some lessons on grilling over charcoal. Seligman is the alleged birthplace of Route 66, so after taking a leisurely drive down the highway and snapping a few photos we headed back to the interstate towards the Hoover Dam. Courtney and Matthew both enjoyed the tour of the Dam and thought it was pretty cool. After lunch in the RV, we headed for Vegas. Darin suggested we drop him off so that he could win enough money to pay for our trip - NOT! Instead we headed to the campground at Circus Circus, put on our walking shoes (Heelys for the kids) and hit the strip. Kids with wheels on their shoes are quite a spectacle, even amongst the other spectacles found in Las Vegas! We took a quick trip to Venice, enjoyed a serenade on our gondola ride at the Venetian hotel, then grabbed some sushi at Yakimoto’s and headed for the monorail to M&M world. Matthew wanted to get a pound of yellow and orange M&Ms, so he loaded up his bag from the dispensers and headed to the scale to see how much he had. His 1.6 lb bag of M&Ms quickly weighed a lot less, as the bag tipped over on the scale and M&Ms went bouncing all over the floor. Darin yelled “Cleanup on aisle 3!” and we all scurried out of M&M world. Exhausted, we decided to take a cab back to our home sweet home. Tomorrow we head to Salt Lake!

Dad giving grilling lessons

Day 1 - The Beginning

Well, we are off! As most of you know, we are travelling in our 40 ft motorhome across the country for the summer. After a whirlwind trip to Charlotte to unpack our house, we returned to Phoenix to begin our adventure - one day early! We are headed to Las Vegas, but will be stopping tonight somewhere between Flagstaff and Kingman, Arizona. So far, so good...of course it is just the beginning!!!

Outside the Pistorius house getting ready to leave