All 50 Road Trip-June 6, 2018, Day 26

(click here for today's pictures)

Independence, MO to Branson, MO

Robby left early this morning for his appointment to replace the glass on the windshield. My alarm had just gone off when I saw Campbell going to the bathroom. Next Graham went into the bathroom. A minute later, he came bursting out saying that potty was overflowing. I jumped up and headed in there. As soon as I set food in the bathroom, my feet were sploshing on the wet tile. It was nearly an inch deep when I struggled to turn the water off. Thankfully, I was able to get the water off otherwise, I don’t know what I would have done.

I did use up every single towel in the bathroom, and they were all sopping wet. The bathrooms were just across the hall so we were all still able to potty this morning. Robby had put the clothes in the wash this morning when he left, so I put them in the dryer before I got myself ready this morning.

Anderson was the first to get ready and asked to go down to breakfast. Soon Campbell followed him, then everyone else headed down to breakfast. We ate, and had just finished folding laundry when Robby came back. It didn’t take us long to zip up our bags-that is a sound I just love to hear: all of the bags zipping up. We loaded up the car and headed towards Independence.

Our first stop was the Truman National Historic Site. Last time we were here, Robby was able to tour the house but the kids and I stayed back at a playground. This time we were all able to tour the house. First, we watched the movie at the Visitor’s Center. Before we left, we asked for Jr. Ranger books to take home and work on. So for most of the National Park sites we have been to we have asked for those Jr. Ranger books. My kids will have lots of extra school work to do coming up!

We toured the Nolan house across the street from the Truman home. Then we went through the Truman home. The tour was interesting, though a teensy bit long. Graham asked lots of questions during the tour and soaked everything in. The kids were so attentive during the tour that rewarded them all with icees.

We drank our icees on our way to the Truman Farm. The farm,which is run by the NPS, is in need of some TLC. We still walked around it and listened to a short podcast about it. We have listened to so many podcasts lately that the boys ask for them.

We didn’t get too far before Keaton needed to potty. That was fine since everyone had just drank their huge icees. When we climbed back in the car, I took lunch orders, and then we started a movie.

We did stop briefly for a potty/gas stop. Once the movie finished, we put in another one and pressed on to Silver Dollar City, the stop the kids have been waiting on since the cruise. The park closed at 7 tonight, and we arrived at 5. Tonight was just a bonus but the big kids ended up riding all of the big roller coasters except for one. Everyone rode Thunderation and Fire in the Hole as well. We were shocked at how empty the park was tonight since we were expecting there to a bazillion people there tomorrow. In the morning, we can go in an hour early so hopefully we will be able to do a few more things then as well. 

Having a Silver Dollar City pass this year has been a lot of fun. And it does make it nice that we don’t feel like we have to stay all day long. The goal tomorrow is to stay until we are hot and miserable and then come back to swim. This will be our third visit this year to SDC, and we are planning on coming back 2 more times with the kids and then hopefully, Robby and I can come back by ourselves one time. 

We stayed until everything was shut down. Then we came to the hotel for a few minutes-mainly to check in, but Whitman also had a shower. His pottying skills (#2) have been lacking the past few days. Afterwards, we went to eat. I had found a restaurant that looked fun, but when we drove up, the place was deserted. We couldn’t figure it out since our phones even gave the hours and people were leaving good reviews there in May. Much later in the evening we discovered that the place had moved a few doors down so we may try it tomorrow night.

We did get to the Paspeghetti’s restaurant on the strip. It was decent food. Since it was late, it was lacking in atmosphere even though it was pretty cute inside of the restaurant. Robby just ordered stuff for us all to share. We probably would not have had enough food had it not been for the bread sticks that just kept coming to our table. 

Once we made it back to the hotel, we let the kids swim for a little bit. They all had fun in the pool, but by the time we all came back to the room and showered, it was incredibly late. On this trip, the kids have been staying up late each night. The earliest they have ever laid down has been 10 and the average bedtime is 11:30. I am sure that they will delight in some structure once we get home and back into some kind of routine. 

It was fun day today. At supper tonight, Campbell said that her favorite National Park site was the Truman home. Sure wasn’t expecting that. We do love our National Parks. Robby and I even spent some of our drive time planning another big road trip to a few new National Parks. Our next trips probably won’t be road trips though since we need to get to Disney and want to get to Panama soon. Gracious, we have quite a list!