Road Trip 2021--NC to UT

Wow. This year's BIG road trip was a doozy. We had two big events scheduled out west. And two weeks to kill in between them. And my parents have moved to Texas, so our normal routine of spending time with them was thrown off. That made for a super long, fun-filled month. But it was a bit much. I hope next year it works out to just to do one big road trip, not two. :)

It was just me and Caroline on the road this year.

LOTS of room in the van for all our stuff.

The trunk looked kinda empty.

And we're off!

We always hold our breath when we drive through tunnels.

Our first fun stop was in Charleston, WV

at Axes and Ales.

We were there for the axes.

You rent your lane by the hour.

Caroline had fun,

but was probably done after 20 minutes.

Bullseye!

We were the only ones throwing at that time,

so the owner came over and showed us some of his trick throws.

Fancy.

So I kept making up games for myself and trying to get the best

score that I could for the next 40 minutes.

It was so fun!

We had fun walking around downtown Charleston

for a little while, too.

Gas started out around $2.96.

The price kept going up as we went across the country.

We stayed our first night with Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Alex.

I love that Louisville is 7 hours away.

It's the perfect day of driving for us.

We had a great time visiting and catching up and had a yummy dinner.

Alex gave Caroline some pointers for billiards before we went to bed.

More pretty green

We LOVE St. Louis.

Got a glimpse of the arch as we were driving.

I took a wrong turn and we ended up

right by Busch stadium, where the Cardinals play.

We tried a new fun stop in St Louis this year.

It's called Grant's Farm.

It's owned by the Busch family, of beer-making fame.

We got to see some of their famous Clydesdales.

And then they have a cool farm that you can visit with

all sorts of animals. It is free to visit, but you have to pay

for parking, which was $15.

They take you on a tram through some fields.

You can see some pretty cool animals along the way.

Then you get to the zoo part of the farm.

We got to bottle-feed baby goats.

So fun!

They were adorable!

And kind of crazy.

We got to pet cows.

And saw Patagonian Cavies.

C loved feeding the llamas.

The most hilarious part was feeding the parakeets.

They are ALL over you.

It's kinda creepy to feel their little claws on your head!

I couldn't stop laughing.

But we couldn't stay in there for very long.

Saw this cool, colorful pheasant.

Cute baby camels.

A capybara.

We give two thumbs up to Grant's Farm!

Loved it.

When we left St. Louis, we drove to Kansas City

to spend the night with Jessica and Tyler and their family.

They have the CUTEST kitty, Kiki.

Caroline LOVED having some kitty time.

And it was fun to spend some time with the kids, too. :)

I liked staying up and playing games with Jessica and Tyler.

I got to sleep downstairs by Tyler's root beer bottle collection.

Whitney would have been impressed!

The next morning was Lyla's birthday.

So fun to celebrate with her before we left!

We love the Walkers!

The next stretch of driving doesn't have 

a whole lot of options for fun stops.

The best thing I could find was a stop in Lincoln to 

tour the University of Nebraska stadium.

While there, we got to see the world's longest telegram.

Who knew?

We also got a little theater to ourselves to watch

Husker hype videos. It was pretty fun.

They have an amazing weight room.

And we got to see their Heisman trophies!

So cool!

We walked around campus a bit.

Saw a random bat hanging out...

There's a part of the stadium where you can go in by the field.

Even Caroline, who doesn't care a thing about football,

said, "I bet it would be really cool to go to a game here."

I agree!

We also walked around campus a bit and visited the bookstore.

A friend who used to live in Lincoln 

recommended eating at Runza, a local favorite.

They serve sandwiches in yummy bread.

It was unique. I think it's better for people who like meat.

Not a lot of meatless options on the menu.

C liked her ice cream cone!

While C and I made our way across the country by van,

Andrew and Whit flew out.

Andrew got in some quality time with his dad on the golf course.

Drew pretty much only golfs with his dad.

So that means about once a year.

But he missed last year.

Somehow, he managed to play his best game of golf ever!

Crazy!

We made it to our hotel in Sidney, NE 

in time for C to have a quick dip in the pool.

Gas prices started to climb as we made our way across the country.

We stopped at Little America resort in Cheyenne.

They had this sad story about this penguin

that explorers sent up from Antarctica to live in Wyoming.

But it died on the way.

They offer cheap ice cream cones.

We were all over that!

Even though it was 10:30 am. :)

The employee said, "You're my first cones of the day!"

I wondered if she was judging my parenting skills...

We drove through LOTS of prairies.

Then made it into some rolling hills,

And cool rock formations.

We stopped at Bear River State Park near Evanston.

They are supposed to have herds of bison and elk.

We walked around trying to find them, but had no luck.

As we were walking along, Caroline spotted this...

A moose!

Right across the river from us!

It was so cool!

I don't think I've ever seen a moose in the wild before.

It was a little bit scary to have it so close,

but I'm so happy Caroline spotted it.

I would've just walked on by.

It was quietly munching on vegetation.

And we never did find any bison or elk.

At last, after four full days of driving and exploring,

we made it to Utah!

Right in time to catch a pretty sunset over the Oquirrh's.

Care Bear is a great travelling buddy and I'm so happy

to have this time with her enjoying God's beautiful earth!