Billings, MT

Our plans changed because of snow/ice in the Butte, MT area. So, we decided to stay here at a KOA park in Billings, MT. The park is huge and only 1/32 full! Time to do the laundry, vacuum the truck and let the kids run around. I have started a bag of special "Granola" from the food I have found in, under and between the kids back seat. I figure if I add some M&M's and raisins to the bag, they will munch to their hearts content! They will never know where it came from :) If the roads get better tomorrow west of Butte, MT, we will head out and hope to get close to Idaho. Pray for summer!

Buffalo, WY

On to Wyoming for Tuesday. They have fun rest areas with plenty of space for the kids to play! The weather has started to change some and we heard that there is a good size winter storm heading to Montana and parts of I90, which could cause some delays for us. No problem, I'm retired...but have things to do...We stayed in Buffalo, WY today and a real nice RVpark. I cooked dinner at a local steak house and the girls ordered some "high calorie" pie afterwards and held me down until I ate some. No worries, I just didn't east breakfast the next day. We are going to try to get to Butte, MT tomorrow but will have to see how the weather holds.

Soggy Shelby, Iowa

Traveling today was "interesting" and very long. Due to a rather large weather system producing hail, heavy rain, strong winds and Tornado's, we tried to keep ahead of things. The 2 hour rain storm washed all the bugs off the truck and the front cap of the 5th wheel, but that slowed are progress some. We are trying to add some additional miles each day so we can spend a extra day in Spokane to visit family. So, if things work out okay, we will be in Spokane by Friday and will have to leave Sunday morning to get to Tacoma. We are currently parked along side a motel in Shelby, IA after trying to park in their "RV Park". If I didn't have a 4 wheel drive, we would still be parked in the RV Park. The manager didn't bother to tell me there was parking available on asphalt with power/water hookups. We took one of those spots :) It's currently raining hard and we are watching the lightning and listening to the thunder. I'll be happy when it passes and we will be on our way tomorrow morning.

Champlain, Illinois

A gem in Champlain and all for $20 a night. If it wasn't for the 35 MPH wind, the visit would have been better. With temps in the mid 80's, we couldn't complain much though. We took a 1/2 day off for laundry and to rest from the long drives. The girls had fun exploring some and breaking into the "dinosaur dig eggs" they purchased at the Creation Museum. We also walked around the small lake, but picked up the pace as the male Swan was nearby guarding some eggs in a small nest. On our next trip through, we will see if we can drown some worms and catch some fish!

Creation Museum

We had a fantastic opportunity to stop in the Kentucky area and visit Ken Hamm's Creation Museum. We spent over 4 hours there and the girls had fun exploring and more importantly, validating why we believe in creation over the "big boom" theory. We viewed a Planetarium presentation that was just great, strolled though the Garden of Eden, (I made sure that Adam and Eve were properly clothed before the girls came by) watched the 6 days of Creation and viewed fossils and life size Dinosaurs. After the inside viewing, they had a childrens petting zoo which included one of my favorite animals, the "Camel". This one didn't smell as bad as the ones in Kuwait and she didn't growl at me when I gave her some food. Overall we had a fun day and unfortunately, we are back at it on the road tomorrow.

On a mission

As you can see, we are not sure where exactly we wanted to park the RV today. We had so many choices and the weather was great! I think we settled for somewhere in Indiana.

West Virginia

We left Virginia Beach this morning on our quest for the West Coast! It was a very long day today, 475 miles which according to Lindsay was, "the longest day in her life!" We probably won't do that again for some time, but we wanted to get closer to Columbus, Ohio. We will be traveling there tomorrow to spend a 1/2 day at a "creation museum" which looks like fun. The weather has warmed up and for now, the Tornado's have past! Nikki still wants to see one in person, so we will tent "Twister" tonight so she can see why I really don't want to get too close. We plan on staying at KOA Campgrounds on the way back, since I'm going to be reimbursed for the RV parking. At least we know there will be fun spots for the kids to play while we are in camp. More updates soon!

T.G.I. Friday's

Lindsay is again working her way though a rack of ribs. If she ever decides she is a vegetarian I have a lot of evidence to sway her thinking!

One more day at the Virginia Zoo!

The weather here has been so fantastic the last 2 days that we had to take the opportunity to visit the zoo once more. We've had low 80's the last 2 days and of course, more rain is coming tomorrow. We are beginning our preparations to move back to the Tacoma area. My Navy job originally was going to be here in Norfolk, but the position was moved to Ft. Lewis in Tacoma. So, that will give us the opportunity to see more of the USA on the trip back! Our family photo was the result when we told the girls we were going to spend the next 11 days driving across the U.S. in our truck :)

The Easter Bunny has arrived for the last time...

We all had a wonderful time today celebrating The Lord's resurrection! We visited the NAB Little Creek Chapel for church this morning, then headed home to look for Easter eggs. The girls always have had fun coloring eggs and eating them later after "we" hide them. There were a couple of other kids who joined in the fun at the RV park, so we shared our egg adventures with them as well. We finally have more flowers now as I couldn't help myself at a local Lowe's store. I finally found some Petunia's and bought a couple of baskets to take with us on our trip back to Tacoma later this month. Happy Easter!!

Day 3 in D.C.

Our travels continued on day three to a visit at the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Navy Memorial, a ride on a tour bus (not that good of an idea) and more museums. The day went so fast, the girls mentioned they were hungry and we looked at our watch (7pm)...wow. We all slept great at night! We stayed at a Holiday Inn right downtown, which made exploring perfect. We will be back again!