Days 5-9: The Burg

I'm from a little house on the prairie.  Not the show, an actual little house on an actual prairie.  I love calico, ice cream socials, and green rolling hills.  Galesburg is home to the Birthplace of Carl Sandburg, the Landmark Cafe, a Lincoln vs. Douglass debate site, and two of my favorite bloggers!  

These women know Galesburg and they know travel!  When I post about my silly little US road trip, I dream of going the places these people go.  Katie and I were good friends in kindergarden. We often pretended we were Anne of Green Gables characters walking a path between our houses, young girls with great imaginations.  You'll enjoy here thoughts on life at Nonbillablehours.  

Christy and I were in high school together and I recently accidentally bought some belts from her on E-Bay.  That was a fun invoice to see!  She is also a Galesburg native and suffered through high school volleyball with me at our super-small Christian school.  You'll love her photos and travels at Laneletters.

But I digress....Galesburg.  

Galesburg is where my kids go fishing at Lake Story

Galesburg is where Middle D JC climbs higher than the house in the same tree I climbed when I was young

Galesburg is The Taste Of Galesburg with Turtle Crepes from the Landmark, and Baby JC eats the cherry.

Where my son holds my daughters hand as we walk

and grandparents take time with little folks for waffles in the early mornings.

We made it up to Rock Falls to see my favorite Aunt and Uncle, and my niece with her parents.

Its a sad, dying town since Maytag took its business out and stole jobs from thousands, but it is where my heart is, where my parents are, and one of my children's favorite places to be.  We only make it back a few times a year, but we love Galesburg.  It has been a wonderful break from being on the road, in the car.  We've played, built with legos, played in parks, visited with folks, and enjoyed our time.  Galesburg, I love you.  Days 5-9  are in the books.

Off to Omaha and DENVER!!!!!!!!!!!

The Jolly Camper Makes Contact

I have another blog.  It's supposed to be about the crazy things my kids say, but our family camping trip started to take over....so I am making contact as The Jolly Camper.  My four kids and myself (the JC's) are heading on a grand adventure.  24 days, 14 states, camping in our 2008 Nissan Quest.  No no no, you misunderstood.  Not camping in a  tent OUTSIDE our van, camping IN our VAN.  Down By The River!  (Sorry, but I had to).  Here's the rout.  Follow along as we have 36 hours till departure!

Our Rout.

 We start at our humble abode in Cibolo, TX....

First order of business in HOUSTON!!!!!  We'll spend a few hours at the beach, just letting the kids and I enjoy a picnic lunch and relishing in the fact that we are ON VACATION!  Next we're off to New Orleans, LA where we'll spend two days exploring the French Quarter, Bourbon Street, and some other cool FREE sites.  After car camping in NOLA (see a later post on car camping), we head north to Memphis, TN!  Mud Island boasts a to scale replica of the Muddy Mississippi where kids can play and learn.  Looks fun to us!  From there, ahhhhhhh, up to Galesburg, IL, my home town!  We'll spend several days with mom and dad, eating delicious spinach bisque from The Landmark, exploring Starved Rock, and playing at Lincoln Park.  

From there, we head WEST!  Good bye Galesburg, Hello Omaha, NE!  I don't really know why I put an exclamation point there....its Omaha....BUT there is the Lewis and Clark Landing.  Have you picked up on the fact that I'm a nerd and I'm raising nerdy kids?  One day in Omaha is about all the fun we can handle before we head to......DENVER!!!!!!!!!  We are super excited to stay with my sister-in-law (but more like sister) while we adventure around Pikes Peak and the Garden of the Gods.  Siri hasn't seen mountains since she was one, and Annika never has.  I'm excited to see their reactions!  Two days is all we can spend in the Mile High City, then its off to Salt Lake City, UT!  Goblin State Park was featured in the 1999 version of "Galaxy Quest" and looks like an amazing playground for kids.  We can putz around SLC for a day and a half before we make the long trek to Redding, CA!  Home of the Sundial Bridge and very close to Mount Shasta, Mount Lassen, Whiskytown Lake, and Bumpass Hell, and most importantly, FAMILY!  My in-laws, out-laws, and so so so many friends, we'll stay several days in Redding before we head south-east

Bakersfield, CA is the ONLY place we'll be staying in a hotel.  A nice one.  Yay, Bakersfield!  From there, it's only a short jaunt to Lake Havasu City, AZ.  Do you know what's in Lake Havasu City?  The London Bridge.  Yup, the real one.  The one that was falling down.  It has been fully reassembled right over Lake Havasu!  Quick stop to see a landmark, then its off to the big one...THE GRAND CANYON!!!!!!!!  We are spending two full days at the Grand Canyon, camping in the National Park.  Alia was there once when she was MUCH younger, and I KNOW the kids are going to love seeing the amazing sites.  From there, more caves as we spelunker on over (is spelunker a word?) to the Carlsbad Caverns!   We will spelunk, explore and bat-watch before making our final leg back home.

I am so unbelievably excited to show my kids SO much of God's GOOD work in the parks and lakes and rivers and mountains of the 14 states we are visiting!  

So yup, thats our rout.  Is there anything/anyONE else we need to see/visit?  Let me know in comments bellow :)  Thanks for reading!