Well, this will be the very last of our blogging, for this trip anyway. We made it home safe & sound. Mark has challenged all of us, including Gillian, to create one last blog entry as a wrap-up. So here goes... Even though we traveled 3,000 miles, it didn't seem like that many until the ride home. I'm glad we made the trip and I think all of us are ready to jump in the car and go again. My most memorable moments were the moments in the car. Especially when I was trying to take a picture out the windshield [View Full Entry]

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We have one more short day (only about 5 hours) of travel to go and we are home. Gillian, I think, was not aware that it would take us 2 1/2 days to get home. The kids did get the chance to go swimming in the pool tonight. We really didn't stop to see any attractions today, other than the "big gam," and Mark will have to summarize it, nor did we eat at any "awesome" diners, dives & drive-ins. All in all, it was a very, very long day of driving. - Rhonda Wow - how can I possibly put [View Full Entry]

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Sorry it took us so long to add another blog. WiFi was rather difficult to obtain and when we had access, it was expensive. We survived the couple of days with my family in MN. It was the first time in probably eight years all four of us kids were at mom & dad's at the same time. The only person missing was my nephew, Tim, and he's currently in AZ completing his higher education. It was nice to see my family and the kids had fun with grandma & grandpa. It was then off to the Mittelstaedt family reunion in [View Full Entry]

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"Over the river and through the corn to Grandma's house we go!" We finally made it to my parents house this afternoon. First though, we stopped at the world's largest 6-pack and fortunately ran into a brewmeister while taking pictures. His information was very interesting. He told us that this was the largest US owned brewery in the states, since Budweiser was recently sold. Our next stop was Lock and Dam #7. We did not get to see any boats/barges go through the lock which was a disappointment. Our final stop of the day was Ed's Museum in Wykoff, MN. This [View Full Entry]

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As you can see, I was able to upload some pics from yesterday. We are almost done with the first half of the trip. Tomorrow will be our last day of attractions. :-( But we will get to see my family before heading to Okoboji, IA for Mark's family reunion. - Rhonda We started at the same time again. Now we're on our way for the 4th day in a row. We ate at this Mexican joint called Santa Ana and it was awesome! He had like a million different flavor drinks on the wall. After we ate we got desert [View Full Entry]

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Sorry guys - there won't be any pictures as of this writing due to the fact that the chip for the camera is in the car and all of us are too tired to go get it. The kids are hanging with us on this road trip. Today was a very long driving day and only two stops which made all of us pretty cranky. April & Danny did manage to squeak out at least one paragraph describing the events today. We have been very lucky these last couple of nights in getting a hotel room. As we always do, or [View Full Entry]

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I'm actually surprised that the kids didn't mention "Jill" in their journals. Jill is a persistent voice who definitely tells you where to go. In our case, she says she's "recalculating" quite a bit. The kids call it her "seizures." Mark was saying last night that he can't figure out how we ever managed to travel without Jill in the past, although we still had to get the map out once. - Rhonda We're on our way for the second day in a row! For breakfast we ate at Waffle House. It was O.K not the best I have ever had. [View Full Entry]

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My original thoughts for this TravelBlog was for me to write about our adventures. Lo and behold, the kids are enjoying having a laptop in the car and have started their own journals. Since they are writing about our entire trip, I'll let them continue and upload the trip from their point of view. Today we started at 9:00a. So far we have had an awesome trip. We’ve seen the shell shape gas station, Mayberry, and a BUNCH of cool cars and Kermit's Hot Dogs. We have a lot of pictures already. We have 20 pictures. There is a picture of [View Full Entry]

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One day to go before we leave and we aren't even remotely ready to go. Mark needs to fill the garage and I'm still doing laundry. Danny has been packed since Wednesday, April, I do believe, is finally packed. Mark and I have not even started. It's like Mark said, we will be ready to go when we are packed and we won't be packed until we are ready to go. I think we have finally nailed down our travel plans and if all goes well, we will be in MN no later than Thursday morning. I never realized how stressful [View Full Entry]

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After mapquesting Kerry's route, I figured out he is totally insane. Believe me, I spent all weekend trying to figure out what that man was thinking. But then again, he might not have been thinking at all when he put our itinerary together. I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be a carefully crafted practical joke! There are a couple of stops on his itinerary that are must-sees. Of course we will stop at the Shell Shaped Gas Station, the Mystery Hole and Mark really wants to see the Giant Lady's Leg Sundial and a couple more. However, we won't be [View Full Entry]

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