Day 23

This morning began in a panic.  I was up around 2:30am reluctantly zipping up the tent windows because I was awoken by distant lightning flashes.  I quickly went back to sleep only to be awoken again at 5:30am by huge gusts of wind.  I checked my phone for the current weather conditions and saw the whole state of Kansas covered in heavy rain and it was just about to hit us.  Not game for being drenched and all covered in mud again, I started packing as quickly as possible.

Within a few minutes the kids woke up and sensing my urgency did exactly as I asked for a change!  The girls got dressed and hopped in the car and Brayden was my flashlight holder.  I do believe we reached a new record for packing up.  We were headed to the comfort station and on the road just before 6am.

After about an hour we stopped for breakfast and headed to Wonderscope Children's Museum in Kansas City.  We've been to a bunch of museums in our travels that usually have a lot of the same exhibits.  This one was very unique and engaging.  And of course the kids had a blast.  I'm not sure we have ever stayed at a smaller children's museum for almost 5 hours before!

We do need a doctor in the family.

We need a veterinarian too.  Laney is doing surgery here and her rates are outstanding!  For tail surgery and a 15 day stay at the hospital, she only charged me $3.  I tipped her heavily.

This was a show Laney the scuba diver did for me for about an hour.  I would classify it as modern dance with an eclectic, new age twist.  She's booking up fast, folks.

Legos are always a hit.

I think the room we ended up spending the most time in was the art room.  The kids had an enormous selection of materials to create whatever they wanted.  There was everything from your standard paint, paper, glue and crayons to velvet, stickers, felt, cardboard, and all kinds of embellishments.  By far the kids' favorite part of that room was the wall of mirrors with face paint crayons.  Check out their handiwork:

While at the museum I checked the weather and found out the storm was choosing to follow us so we all made the quick, unanimous decision to stay in a hotel for the night.  We had a little bit further to drive than the campground, but the distance and time was quickly dismissed by all in favor of a quiet, dry bed and an easy, free breakfast in the morning!  We also were very excited to see a couple more hours of Olympic coverage.

After long, hot baths for all the kids I closed the curtains on the sunshine and they all fell asleep within seconds.

Day 23: Worry, wonder and wonderful beds!

Day 22

I am thankful we had the rough windy storm a few days back.  The wind with the storms out here is just crazy!  Of course, it doesn't help that we're sitting in a room made of thin, canvas walls.  I had been asleep for about 30 minutes when I was awoken by the familiar signs of a storm coming so I hopped up and zipped up the tent windows.  The same tent windows that were giving us some relief from the heat.

Within 2 minutes, the walls of the tent were noisily popping in and out.  The rainfly was fluttering so violently I thought it was just going to fly off at any moment.  This went on for 2 solid hours. The campground host had just talked to me earlier in the day about storms and mentioned the fact that they have a land line in case the sheriff's office needs to call to warn about a storm. After about an hour, I finally had to sit up and pull up facebook to keep my mind off listening for the train sound of a tornado.  And just has quick as it came, it left.  The crickets started chirping again, so I knew it was okay to fall back asleep.  Unbelievably the kids slept through the entire thing.  They actually slept until 9am!

Shortly after breakfast we said goodbye to Lake Scott State Park and headed further east.  We stopped just short of our campground to check out Mushroom Rocks.  The kids of course loved climbing all over them and throwing rocks off the top.

Once we got set up at the campground we immediately headed toward water.  We were so thankful we could swim today!  The water was about 80 degrees so it was very refreshing with the breeze and 97 degree heat.  The kids created a rock band and sang to me.  Watch for their debut songs "I'm a person" and "I love the outside" coming to stores near you.

After dinner and a check in with daddy we headed to the playground which had a very cool interactive music feature - the Neos 360.  I would envision this in a large city or children's museum, not in a small city campground.  The kids had a blast and were completely worn out and desperate for water after finishing all of mine.

There were serious light saber battles as I watched and photographed the sunset.  All in all a pretty calm end to a stressful beginning!

Day 22 - wind and calm.

Day 21

We were anxious to get moving this morning so the kids had cereal in the car once we got on the road.  I'm not sure who named the roads here, but we were on several on our way out that were questionable.  County Road 33 5/10?  I had no idea you could have a fraction road.  And shouldn't that be reduced to 1/2 anyway?  I'm guessing it might have something to do with how long the road is, but that is the only logical explanation I could think of.



About an hour into our trip we were surprised to see we were in a new state!  And an unexpected one!  We were only in the state for about 10 minutes, but we did actually have our feet there for at least 2 of those minutes.  So I guess this makes it 18 states in 32 days now.

We also ventured back into the Central Time Zone.  No more math!  I asked Ryan what time it was, but her watch was upside down.

After another hour we stopped at the official Buffalo Bill sculpture in Oakley, KS.  Brayden had been reading a book about Buffalo Bill all morning so he filled us all in on the parts of his life he remembered.  Mostly the stuff about guns and wars.  We learned a bunch more from the display that was set up next to the sculpture.

Rolling into the campground at 4pm, the only thing we could think about was jumping in the lake and getting a little relief from the heat.  It was 104 degrees at that point.  We were extremely disappointed to find out there would be no swimming that day.  Apparently the park had a problem with algae in the spring and we weren't allowed to go in.  When I asked for any ideas about beating the heat, she suggested we head to the playground next to the beach so I added that to the list to do after the tent was set up.  Except it was a metal playground set out in the 104 degree heat.  

Everyone was sad, quiet, and extremely hot so we headed to the nearest town to be treated to dinner out.  It was refreshing to stay in an air conditioned building for while and I just happened to notice a flyer for the summer reading program at the library.  I googled it real quick and made it our next stop.  

The kids loved this library mostly because it had a cool kids room off the main children's books that had a loft.  We stayed until about 10 minutes before closing reading piles and piles of books.  I only wish I'd had a library card there.  They had tons of fun audio books!!  I kept wondering how such a small city had so many more resources than ours.  Perhaps it covers a larger county or just happens to have more support or funding.  After stopping at a sweltering playground for about 15 minutes we headed back to our site to talk with daddy and take much needed (and free!) showers to cool off.  It was 7:00 and still 101.

Before the sun decided to drop, we decided to take a ride out to the local thing to see - Monument Rocks.  We were on some back roads that appeared to be going to someone's farm or feed plant, but after about 10 minutes as we made a sharp turn out popped a collection of enormous rocks.  These rocks were completely surrounded by grassland and prairie as far as the eye could see.  

Sunset on one side....

...moon on the other.

Of course the kids enjoyed climbing and throwing rocks the most, but we did have some humorous discussions about how the rocks got there.

Day 21: We should have tried to fry an egg on the sidewalk.