The Mittelstaedt Family

mstaedt

The Mittelstaedt Family

A family of crazy, whimsical people that love to travel.

Mark (CODENAME DAD): He's the tour bus driver and financer for our trips. He always makes the GPS recalculate and never lets mom drive. Although, I don't think she minds terribly. He was the one that had the idea for the first trip. And I don't think these trips are a thing we'll ever forget (we've been talking about that first one for three years).
Rhonda (CODENAME MOM): She's the navigator (even if she doesn't really know how to read the map, it's a good thing we've got a GPS). She's also the "mom" of this operation. The one that constantly asks "Did you forget anything?" and "Are you sure we're not lost?" She also is the one that took the original trip plan and made it a bit more... doable.
Danny (CODENAME DANNY): He's my little brother and my co-blogger. If you go back through the blogs of the previous trip we took, he and I both wrote a blog per day. He won't be writing one today because A) no one knows I'm writing this one and B) he's asleep, but I'm sure he'll be joining me in December when we start our trip.
April (CODENAME APRIL): That's me! One of the bloggers of these trips and the older sister of the family. I'm in college now, so I haven't been able to bug them about taking this trip, but I think they came up with the idea on their own. I'll be writing in here soon with what we're going to do when I start to know. Hopefully we can convince Kerry to make up another itinerary.



North America » United States » Ohio » Columbus December 21st 2011

Danny's Blog Today we left a about 8:30am. Our first stop was at Hillbilly Hot Dogs in West Virginia. This was our second time going to that. They had more items to choose from like new colored t-shirts and hats and more food! Our second stop was a in Columbus Ohio, our destination was a little on the outside but HUGENORMOUS on the inside, book store. It had over 500,000 books!!!! We got a few books. Surprisingly I got most books, well I guess they weren’t really books. I got nine individual comic books and a graphic novel. The nine were all Marvel Comics and the graphic novel was Scott Pilgrim Precious little life. April got some book and a graphic novel. We stopped for dinner right down the street from the bookstore, at a German ... read more

North America » United States » North Carolina » Kernersville November 27th 2011

Yes, yes they are. And by they, I mean us. It's been a while since I've been on this blog but then, it's been a long while since we've gone on a road trip. When I Googled this blog to find it again, we were third on the list for Mittelstaedt Road Trip! In case you were wondering, I'm on this blog again because we're going on another road trip! This time, the final destination is my gramma's house in Dodge Center, MN. We're going to start here, in Kernersville, and drive to gramma's! I think mom said we were going to head out the day after she's done with class and, if I remember rightly, that'll be the 19th of December, so it's not too far away! (I have to go back to school tomorrow ... read more

North America » United States » North Carolina August 2nd 2008

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 doing 70mph. There were a lot of "oops I missed it." This trip was definitely unlike any we have ever taken since we really weren't sure what we'd find at our next stop and sometimes ... read more
2 1/2 Days on the Road - Whew
I'm Tired of this Small Space

North America » United States » Ohio July 28th 2008

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 into words the awesomeness of "the big gam" aka the giant lady's leg sun-dial? Big? Incredible? Unbelievable? Gamalicious? Naked?? did I mention that it was smack in the middle of a nudist colony? This attraction ... read more

North America » United States » Illinois July 27th 2008

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 Okoboji, IA. It has been six years since we attended the tri-annual reunion. It was nice to catch up with the Mittelstaedt side of the family and as an added bonus, some of Mark's mom's ... read more
Largest Bicyclist - Sparta, WI

North America » United States » Minnesota July 23rd 2008

"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 gentleman apparently kept everything he ever received. When he passed on, he willed the entire building to the town of Wykoff. The lady that took us through the museum told us that it took them ... read more
World's Largest 6-pack
Lock and Dam #7
Danny, April & Rhonda

North America » United States » Wisconsin July 22nd 2008

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 and it was like awesome beyond awesome. Then we went to the Swinging Bridge in Columbus Junction Iowa and my dad, April and I went across while my mom stayed at one end of the ... read more
Santa Ana Restaurant
Lover's Leap Swinging Bridge
World's Largest Strawberry

North America » United States » Missouri July 21st 2008

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 don't do, we never made any hotel reservations because we really didn't know where we would stop for the night. Here is where Jill comes in handy. We just type the name of the small ... read more
Gateway Arch
Mark, April & Danny
Rhonda, April & Danny

North America » United States » Indiana July 20th 2008

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. Garmin has already had 11 seizures today and its only 10:07. We stopped at the J Taylor auto collection. We didn't get to go in but we peeked through the window and it was awesome!!!! ... read more
Buffalo Trail Distillery
Tangerine Restaurant
Colonel Sanders Grave

North America » United States » West Virginia July 19th 2008

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 a ford econoline, and one of April in front of the Welcome to Virginia sign. We went to the Mystery hole oooooooooooh I’m a ghoooost! HAHAHAHA When you got down there the room was slanted. ... read more
Shell Shaped Gas Station
April & Danny at Pilot Mountain
Mystery Hole




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