Road Trip 2012-Hays, Kansas to Scottsbluff, Nebraska (5/20/12)

Farm Family of the Year?  NOT, but we are in Kansas!

(Click here for today's pictures)
Around one this morning, I heard Campbell calling for Reagan.  Then she stood up and walked toward the hotel room door.  On her way there she tripped over Graham and fell flat on her face.  I called her over to me (and don't worry she can't get out of the door) and she turned around and walked to me.  On her way she tripped over Graham again and fell right on her little face again. 
So yesterday I posted about the last nights beds being so high off of the ground and the beds from last night were just as high.  They were so high off of the ground that Graham was really shocked when he fell off of the bed this morning.  But he was not quite a shocked as Anderson because Graham fell on top of Anderson.  Graham was still sound asleep when Robby put him back in the bed and Anderson was upset but mostly stunned.  Seriously it is a wonder that anyone can ever get any sleep around here!

The breakfast area was pretty busy but Reagan was still able to make pancakes.  They have a little machine that makes the pancakes for you when you push a button.  I had never seen anything like that and Reagan really wanted to do it at our last hotel but it didn't work.  Today it worked and Reagan just beamed when she walked back to the table carrying her pancakes.  She was so proud of herself.  We ate and went back to the room to load up.  

The roof bag works out well and isn't too much of a hassle to load and unload.  We (mostly Robby) seems to get better at it each time.  But the one thing that makes loading and unloading much easier is that hotel cart.  This morning they were all out and Robby just carried our stuff down the steps to the van.  What does our family of 7 bring into the hotel each night-2 suitcases, 1 large ice chest, 1 small ice chest, my bag, Robby's backpack, the toy bag, pack n play and the bag of sleeping bags.  

The first stop this morning was right across from the hotel-a wheat field.  We just walked right into it and took a few pictures.  A lady driving by even stopped, got out of her car and offered to take a picture of us-now isn't that nice?  Anderson was the most adventurous walking far away, Graham was pretty much right behind him, Reagan couldn't get very far because she was trying not to knock any down and Campbell was having none of the wheat field walking.  

We were loaded and in the car at 9:21-a whole 10 minutes earlier than the day before.  Robby calculated yesterday's mileage and we had driven 389 miles and probably did a bit more today.  We drove without any real stops until after noon.  We did pull over when Robby's contact fell out so he could put it back in but there was a huge piece of farm equipment coming behind us so he got back on the road and drove some more.  This only happened two more times until we were able to stop long enough for him to get his contact in.  The kids were all turned around shouting "it's coming, it's coming" watching that large, large thing coming towards the car.  Their shouting probably made it hard for Robby to get that contact back into his eye.

Campbell spent her time shouting "it's working" every time she saw an oil well that was pumping.  Or she would shout "neigh, neighs" whenever she would see cows.  Robby or I would tell her that those were cows and she would shake her head at us as if to say that we didn't know what we were talking about.  

We stopped in the town of Gothenburg and saw a real live Pony Express station.  We had just read a book about the pony express and the kids were so excited-oh, they really weren't excited about the pony express station, they were excited about the playground behind it!  We did go through the little cabin and found out that a pony express rider had 2 minutes to change horses.  The boys mailed postcards to school and Reagan mailed one to one of her friends-they all put them in the satchel so the pony express could come and pick them up-how fun is that?

Then we let them play on the playground while we made lunch.  The park area was so very nice and we stayed there for a bit until we bribed the kids back in the car with oatmeal creme pies.  Robby turned on a movie for me this time (technology is pretty cool-he can stream a movie from his ipad over the van tvs while we are flying down the road in Nebraska).   I remember watching Seven Brides of Seven Brothers in college and we watched it.  The kids were all into it and Graham even watched the entire thing.  Of course the fighting, singing and dancing probably kept their interest.  Of course afterwards, Graham told me that he was the best fighter ever-not exactly what I wanted to hear.

We stopped for a potty/drink break at McDonalds and Robby picked up a movie at redbox.  Everyone had a drink but we still made it to Chimney Rock before any extra bathroom stops.  We looked through the gift shop, watched a movie, took pictures and got a few stamps for our national park books.  It was trying to rain but we did manage to make it back to the car before the sprinkles hit.
Let me add that the kids actually had a blast in the visitor's center at Chimney Rock.  They had one exhibit where they filled up the wagon with supplies and the light came on if it was over the limit.  The pioneers could only pack so much and often had to dump items in the mountains along the trail.  Anyway, they had a blast filling up that wagon-Reagan was very serious and had to okay everything the boys put in.  She only let them put in one set of bedding and told them they could share, said that didn't need applies and wasn't going to take the rolling pin even though Graham had loaded the wagon with 100 pounds of biscuits.  When Robby put the set of drawers in the cart, Reagan almost flipped out and he was told to remove it.  She would have been one tough wagon packing pioneer.  

On our way to Scottsbluff, there was a huge rainbow.  The kids were all so excited to see it and Graham said that was his first real life rainbow to see and it probably is.  Another big event in the car ride today was seeing a few trains-we followed tracks most of the day long.  We had supper at a hole in the wall Mexican restaurant names Rositas.  They gave you tortillas and they were delicious-if I had some butter and honey I wouldn't have ordered anything else.  

We had already passed our hotel while driving to supper so we found it quickly and went to our room on the second floor.  And I tell you we hadn't been in the room for 30 minutes when the front desk person called saying that there had been complaints of stomping from our side of the hotel and that he was calling everyone.  We don't know if we believe that he was really calling everyone but we really had any stomping-or any out of the ordinary stomping.  Robby was really starting to feel bad until he realized it was only 7'o'clock and no one should really be sleeping too soundly!  Makes me just want to stomp!  Ha!  Anyway, sometime during the day we gained an hour so that will be nice in the morning.

The girls took a bath first tonight and I put Keaton in with them.  She usually screams during her baths so I put her in slowly and she fussed for a minute but not too bad.  We have to get her used to baths!-maybe if she took more!  Then Graham and then Anderson took their baths.  Robby laid with Campbell first to get her to sleep and then I laid with her until she finally fell asleep.  Reagan and Anderson were watching a movie and I then laid by Anderson and fell asleep.    Eventually Anderson told me to move and I went to lay by Reagan for a few minutes.  Robby snuggled by Graham and fell asleep himself and we all snoozed until Anderson said that movie was over.   

Tomorrow is a big day-Mt. Rushmore!