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| Horse & Buggy Ride in Ohio Amish Country! |
It is probably not the wisest idea to keep your kiddos up until midnight but our extra drive today was well worth it. When we walked into the hotel, the kids did really great-everyone whispered and changed as quickly as they could. Graham and Campbell were almost asleep when I finally put Whitman into his bed. He was happily playing with his trains on the floor while we were trying to squeeze his pack n play into the bathroom.
Robby did have to potty this morning so he wedged Whitman out of bed and brought him to me. Whitman laid there for a bit and then put his head up and asked "Daddy go?" I told him that he just went to the bathroom and he said "oh" and laid back down We didn't lay around too long because my crew was going to need quite a bit of time to all get ready for the day.
The kids did good getting up and even though they are tired, no one complained too much. It did help that our first stop was just right down the road. We had planned on going to the Pro Football Hall of Fame this morning but had seen that they did not open until noon today. We had planned a different route but then Robby found out that they were having a special even today.
They were having a Day out with Dad where a dad and 4 kids could attend a football camp type thing this morning that included parking, lunch with chickfila vouchers and admission to the Hall of Fame. So Robby bought us tickets to that along with an additional adult ticket and that saved us about 40 dollars.
The even was supposed to be outside in their stadium which would have been really neat but it had to be inside the high school gym due to the rain. We were divided into groups and rotated around to different stations. Each station had high school coaches and players leading drills. Most of the drills the dads participated in-catching, back peddling (running backwards-new term for me), an obstacle course and many, many others.
The kids enjoyed it-some more than others. The boys all took it very seriously while the girls not so much. Keaton was sticking with us really well until some high schooler brought her back to us with tears in her eyes. I guess she got separated from us somehow though we never really noticed. She had followed Graham and had gotten into the wrong group along with him. We didn't notice that either until Graham came up to us and said "I was in the wrong group." Graham didn't seem to mind as much as Keaton since he knew that we weren't leaving him!
We did skip the last rotation and drove to the Hall of Fame so we could get in right on time. There was already a crazy long line out front but the doors weren't open yet so we made lunches and had ourselves a picnic (if you can really call it a picnic since we ate in the cars). When we finished, we headed towards the line and found out that we were able to bypass the line due to our wristbands. Skipping that line was worth at least 10 dollars since it was pretty long.
Inside of the Hall of Fame it was pretty crowded but we seemed to move fairly quickly through it and even stopped to watch the movie. Whitman was already asleep when the movie started, I dozed during the movie and Keaton fell so sound asleep that Tony had to carry her out. She was on the other end of the row than me and I was pretty sure that she would come and find me but she never did. Whitman eventually woke up due to the loudness of the film! It was only about 10 minutes long and Robby said that it told a really good story-but those chairs were really comfy!
After the gift shop, the kids played a bit on the field out front and then it was back in the car. We went to Chick Fil A to pick up our free meals-one for everyone so we sure couldn't pass that up even though it was the other way. Robby came back to the car with 2 bag fulls of food for just our car.
After picking up our lunch, we raced through the Amish countryside of Ohio to make it to Troyer's Bologna before they closed. Robby said that he felt like we were on Amazing Race. Then we also started discussing the many, many places that we have ventured to like this that have been wonderful stops and then we discussed the stops which have been few and far between that were complete busts.
Even if this stop was a bust, it would have been worth it because of the drive. We passed Amish buggy after buggy and so many shops that I would love to have stopped at-quilts, honey, jelly, Amish toys and baskets. But our bologna stop was a win-ish, actually Tony gave his big hunk of bologna a so-so but we really liked our bologna like sausage that we bought. The stop was a typical road trip stop in an old building but we didn't sample the bologna or pepper jack cheese so we don't know yet if it is really good. But I sure am glad I brought my box of crackers and we didn't have to buy any at the gas station as we did with our spam last year.
A few miles down the road, we went to Yoder's Amish farm. They had tours of a house and school but we opted for just the buggy ride. It was a 10 minute ride around a field but it was good taste of the Amish lifestyle and the kids really enjoyed it. As we walked in to buy our tickets, Graham lost a tooth on a rice krispy treat. The kids had a few minutes to play on a playset before we boarded our buggies.
We crammed all of our kids in our buggy and we now know that we could never be Amish-we wouldn't all fit in the buggy. Ha! Actually, if Robby had been the driver we would have been fine until we had 6 teenagers. Our horse was named Charlie and Campbell asked that Charlie go fast so the driver made him trot and everyone was delighted. Whitman could lean out a bit while sitting on my lap and was able to watch the buggy wheels go through the water-he loved that.
I really have never seen as many Amish people as we saw on this drive. Last year we did see a few Amish people working in the fields which was interesting but this was an Amish buggy traffic jam. We even saw some Amish children playing a game of volleyball. It was a really beautiful drive as we headed to the Smucker's store.
I had no idea that the Smuckers was such a large cooperation. The store was neat and full of fun stuff and all of their different brands of products. It could have only been better if the ice cream place was still open-we believe that Shannon will be disappointed if we do not eat ice cream every single day of this trip. We did buy a jar of jelly to hang on the tree and some ice cream topping-just to have ready in case we have to resort to store bought ice cream!
Then we settled in for another drive. Today the weather was pouring this morning but the afternoon has been cloudy and breezy this afternoon-as in, we will be wearing our jackets for the next few days. I do believe that this rainy weather has cooled these areas down from the temps that they were last week. Anything except rain is fine with me though (well, snow wouldn't be great!)
We just had a bit further to drive to Mansfield-home of the Ohio State Reformatory featured in the Shawshank Redemption movie. The prison was closed but after a drive around it, we went to another movie stop downtown. That took a bit longer to get to since many streets were closed-they had box car races there this morning (so much to see and so little time).
We made so many blocks looking for the one last movie picture stop that we almost didn't have enough gas to make it to the gas station. The Wilson's gas level stays about the same as ours so they were starting to sweat it too. At that gas station we all pottied and then decided that a car picnic was in order for the evening.
So as we drove along a country highway with fields and farmhouses everywhere, I passed out our supper-cheese sticks, crackers, squirt cheese, pepper jack cheese (for Robby and me) and our bologna sausage. There were brownies for dessert and a movie playing as Grannymom and Grandpa wrote to say that they had landed and were in Detroit.
Currently, we have one and a half hours until we arrive in Dearborn and Grannymom and Grandpa will already be there thanks to the hotel shuttle. We hope that the rain clears out and we have lots of sun tomorrow (or the next day but one of the next two days we need sun). Tomorrow is the much anticipated day of Greenfield Village or the Henry Ford Museum.
Our drive included butt clenching rain, miles of construction and concrete barriars, flooded roads, missed exits and even a detour which we then didn't follow correctly and added 15 minutes to our travel time. Memories! It was all fine and dandy when we made it to the hotel safe and sound (the Wilsons beat us because of our detour mess up) and when we got to the hotel Grannymom and Grandpa were waiting for us at the front door.
Everyone unloaded and Grannymom took the 3 little ones upstairs then the boys went up with Grandpa. Reagan helped us finish unloading the car and then we found our room (connecting to Grannymom and Grandpa and across the hall from the Wilsons). The room is huge and but the bathroom is ordinary-which means that Whitman didn't fit...at first. But with a bit of work and Robby having to climb in the bathtub, we were able to get him in his bed. This will probably be his last road trip with a pack n play since tonight he wanted to lay on the bed and almost refused getting in his tiny bedroom!
Laryn tells me it is time to publish this blog so she can go to bed so I guess I better close-looks like the rain is ending soon and tomorrow will be cool and dry (we hope!) I'm excited about trip day number 5 and hope the kids sleep well tonight (second night to stay up to midnight for them!)
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