http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/mstaedt/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from mstaedt en-us Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:52:56 +0000 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:52:56 +0000 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 wrapup. So here goes...Even though we traveled 3000 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 mo http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/North-Carolina/blog-307432.html 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 12 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 driveins. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Ohio/blog-305952.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Illinois/blog-305368.html 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 6pack 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 http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Minnesota/blog-304043.html 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. RhondaWe 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 http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Wisconsin/blog-303405.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Missouri/blog-302960.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Indiana/blog-302683.html 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 900a. So far we have had an awesome trip. Wersquove seen the shell shape gas http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/West-Virginia/blog-302550.html 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 tr http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/North-Carolina/blog-301612.html 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 mustsees. Of course we wi http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/North-Carolina/blog-299823.html This is our first entry. Even though we are not scheduled to leave for another week we wanted to see if we could figure out how to use this travel blog.Our original trip was to travel from North Carolina to Iowa however Kerry got involved and now has us traveling 3128.42 miles for a road trip that should actually only be 1230.52 miles. What a trip he has planned for us We are actually look http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/North-Carolina/blog-298722.html