more Road Trip

Facebook has been taking up all my computer time, so it's taken me a really long time to post these pics of our June road trip back to Chicago/Evanston. We left AZ June 5(I think) and got home around the 27th. We had a crazy busy time and lots of fun visiting with friends and family. First pic I took of our trip. We are on Interstate 40, heading towards New Mexico. I thought the clouds looked cool.

We had no DVD player, and one PSP, so, we found other activities to pass time in the car. I think this was the only time Max got the Sharpies out.

First rest stop just into NM. Saw some really cool belt buckles, but did not buy one. i will now be on a mission for sandcast belt buckles....

Between the camera, Louetta(our GPS), and The band game, I'm thinking of an animal/celebrity, we did pretty well in the car. We spent a total of seven whole days in the car-three on the way there, and four home.

This was probably in Oklahoma....The Western Hemisphere's Largest Cross. We didn't stop.

St Louis Arch. We didn't stop there either. We were on a mission....

We made it! I completely lost the previous two days of driving when we got onto the 294. Not a bad drive at all, and only about three and half tanks of gas!

First things first, to the skate park with some friends. The boys spent a ton of time hangin with their old homies. Lots of fun was had by all.

I spent a lot of time meeting with long time friends, usually over some food of some sort :-) Our places to eat list was pretty long. Marcia and Danny at soem bar in Glenviw. I met them out there with a few other peeps that were having a party planning meeting. Fun night!

Bob and Eileen.

Marcia and Jean.

My niece Carly, graduated from eight grade while we were there. Look out ETHS....

My dad turned 85 on June 1st, so we had a family night to Ravinia. We rode in a private bus, owned by a friend of my sister, Meg's. It was a fun night and Ramsey Lewis was fab!

Our spread on the Ravinia lawn.

We sang Happy Birthday, and ate cupcakes and smiley face cookies!

Sister Cathy, and Danelle

Sister Meg and moi.

I was so comfy laying on the lawn under some blankets.

Next was the Wells St. Art Festival. Meg and Cathy helped me set up Saturday morning, which was rainy and chilly. I forgot to bring my signage, so i woke Eric up to pick some photos off the computer, had him email them to Kinko's, where my mom picked them up a few hours later. thanks everyone!!!

The Sunday morning ride to the show. It was a beautiful day!

My long time friend Katy, helped me at the show on Sunday. Back in the day, she would do shows with me, so we had a blast!!! THANKS woman XOXOX

My dear friends, and former next door neighbors came to see me at the show. I so miss having them next door, and keep mentioning that the house next door here is on the market.....

In addition to the Ravinia night, we had a Birthday lunch for Dad, with about 30 of his friends.

Doug and cousin Pauly. Doug thought it would be fun to eat his steak with his hands.

More visiting with friends. Karen, Marcia, and I sat at Portillo's for about three hours.

Marcia is a photographer, and had to have a shot of the greeter at Portillo's. Nice shot!

Gelato in the park with Heidi and Tracy. Kids too :-)

David Taylor and I tried to get a little Lincolnwood reunion together, but the weather did not cooperate, so it was the two of us :-) We headed over to the Mark II, where we saw Angie and Marty(in the backgroud).

It was a really fun trip, and Facebook hooked me up with a bunch of people I had not seen in a very long time. Sorry I did not have pics of everyone!!

Road trip camera 1

The first stop on our ride home was the Wisconsin Dells. I thought we would stop for an hour or two, play some mini golf and ride some go karts. Well, the Dells has become a water park heaven, so we ended up at a huge water/amusement park for about five hours :-) Luckily, I had discovered five hour energy shots, so another five hours of drive time to the western edge of MN wasn't too bad. Pirate's Cove mini golf.

Mt. Olympus go karts. It was almost worth the 45 minute wait in line :-)

The boys had a blast at the water park part of Mt. Olympus. From then on, we looked for places to stay with water parks. Found a good one in Rapid City, SD

Crossing the Mighty Mississippi into MN.

My co pilots were pretty accomodating when it came to clicking pics. "Quick, get a picture of the sunset!!"

The camera also helped pass the time in the car :-)

While in Wall, SD, we walked through a wax museum. I thought this sample of barbed wire was the coolest thing EVER. Who knew there were so many different varieties of barbed wire?

Couldn't pass up "The Blacksmith" The anvil was fake.....ha

Another shot of Crazy Horse from inside the visitor's center. The small sculpture represents the finished product. I think it will be many years before completion of the big 'un. Did I mention that all of Mt Rushmore could fit into the small space behind his head? Amazing

Road Trip-South Dakota on the Olympus

OK, since I'm working backwards, and with pics from two different cameras, these posts are probably all over the place. This is my first post of our trip. Bear(?) with me. These pice are of our leg through South Dakota. We left Chicago on Sunday morning, and drove to the western edge of MN, so we got into South Dakota Monday morning.

Our first stop in SD was Mitchell, home of the Corn Palace. More pics on another post....We stopped at the Corn Palace, and a few souvenier shops. We also ate at a cute little coffee shop, where I traded jewelry for our meal. Great to meet you Vonda and Laura!!!

On to the Badlands National Park. Nobody wanted to get out of the car but me, so we kind of just powered through. The Badlands reminded me of The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. The grasses or whatever was blooming smelled SO good, and I envied all the bikers riding through the wonderful smells.

I was remeinded of the Indian Wars that went on here and thought about the people that called this land home as we drove through.

Towards the end of the badlands National Park, there were a bunch of cars pulled over on the side of the road, and I wondered why, there was nothing! A closer look revealed a prairie dog town! The boys were willing to get out of the car to check that out :-) We watched as a badger came sauntering through, and all the prairie dogs started talking to each other....Very cool. One of our favorite moments of the trip.

As it happens, the Badlands Loop ends up right in Wall, SD, home of WALL DRUG. We were in no mood for a souvenier shop fest, but ran through right quick anyway and made a couple purchases :-)

This is the downtown area of Wall. We also checked out a wax museum while we were there. We spent the night In Rapid City, at a Hotel with a water park. The boys were in heaven and had a blast!

Spent the morning waterparking, then...........

Next stop, yeah, you guessed it Mt Rushmore! This is a shot after we left the park, from the side. I had more pics on the D70. Again, noone wanted to get out and take a little hike, but I managed to stop at a trail to get a cool rock ;-)

This is Crazy Horse, another favorite stop we made. All the heads of Mt Rushmore can fit into the space behind Crazy Horse's head. Amazing! We saw a little movie about the making of Crazy Horse, which was very impressive.

We wanted to tour a cave after Crazy Horse, but the scheduling wasn't right, and the boys were tired and crabby, so we drove through Wyoming, and ended up spending the night in Ft.Collins, CO.

So, This should be ending up at home, since in the blogging order it's at the end, but oh well. Kind of Naked Lunchish....

Last weekend was the Verde Valley Fair. The kids actually got Friday off of school, so we went on Friday. typical carnival, we got the kids bracelets, so they could ride all they wanted. of course, this jumpy thing was not included with the bracelets, so an extra $5.00 per kid. I think carnivals are one the fastest ways to empty your wallet. We did get out of there without playing any games...

OK, I had never seen these before...Frozen pickle juice! I thought they were gross, but Max's friend Chance liked them, and had at least two.

Didn't have any famous lamonade, but Max got a deep fried twinkie.

In addition to the Twinkie, Max had curly cheese fries for dinner. Eric and I had BBQ pork sandwiches, Doug had nachos, and Chance had a giant pickle. He was on a pickle binge :-)

That's the deep fried Twinkie. They also had deep fried Oreos and Snicker bars. You gotta love carnival food!!

Max and Chance finished out the night on The Zipper. I recently got a new camera, so I had to check out the night time setting. Not bad. It is waterproof, so stay tuned for some underwater pics....

Long Time Friends

Our latest set of visitors were Marcia and Danny. Long time friends I hung out with in Junior high and high school, and hadn't seen them since high school. We all reconnected through Facebook, which, by the way, if you haven't joined, i highly recommend, but that's another post. Anyway, Marcia and Danny came out together, leaving both their spouses at home, and becoming travelling buddies for the weekend.
We had a BLAST reminiscing, eating, shooting, and siteseeing. Our sightseeing day began in Sedona. This is Bell Rock. We didn't climb it that day, too much to do :-)

These are out of sequence, but whatever. Saturday, we began our day with a little shooting lesson. Danny is shooting the 9mm here. Eric is a certified instructor.

No visit would be complete without a trip to Cathedral Rock! Danny actually went swimming that day. We did all our sightseeing in one day. We spent Saturday haning out by the pool :-)

After Sedona, we drove up the hill to Jerome, and got some killer chocolate cake From the Haunted hamburger. Marcia took all the pics, so none from Jerome this time ;-)

The Century plants are blooming now. Part of the Agave family, they bloom once in their lifetime, sending up a huge shoot that produce clusters of flowers. the shoot takes all the energy out of the plant, eventually killing it. The plant then tips over and spreads it seeds, beginning the process over again.

I'm gonna start collecting century plant pics, stay tuned...