Day 17: Sunday, May 27- Plymouth Indiana to Cherry Hill, NJ!!! -730 miles-

Our final nite' in the Holiday Inn Express Suites was thoroughly enjoyed by all. It was very spacious and comfy. Mercy and Odesco were thrilled to finally have a breakfast which included bacon. There was even a pancake maker...it looked like a large rectangular box and it made 3 pancakes in one minute in a cool conveyor belt set up...they were funky looking but tasted delicious:)

Today we drove through parts of Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and finally landed in NJ. Actually, we were not supposed to drive in Michigan but Mark thought he'd take a minor detour so we could add one more state to our tally for the trip!
Less than 2 hours into our trip we passed Manapogo Park, which is visible from the highway. This is the trailer park where we used to visit Mimi and Pop-Pop each summer in Indiana. We have so many wonderful memories of our times with them there...I was so excited as this seemed like we were 'almost home'. Such a funny perspective because when we were gearing up for a trip to Indiana with little ones it felt like we were driving to the moon! Now 10 hours away from NJ felt like 'almost home'!!

After lunch, Mercy spotted a place called "The Mad Cactus"...she was so excited because during our nites in the hotel she loved to watch the Food Network(no wonder she's getting so creative in the kitchen lately!!) Anyhow this exact restaurant had been featured on the show Restaurant Impossible just a few days ago... In each episode a famous chef is given the "mission" of making the impossible possible by renovating a failing restaurant in two days on a $10,000 budget. I was skeptical about this being the restaurant but Curtis looked it up and sure enough, obscure Strongsville Ohio was the address of the restaurant in the show!

We were excited to visit with Mimi and Pop-Pop in their welcoming Pa home around 8pm-just in time for a late home cooked dinner:) We all totally appreciated a home cooked meal. Mimi's head was spinning as all of us excitedly told her tales of our trip...simultaneously!

We finally arrived home around 11p.m. and everyone really pitched in to unload the van, sort laundry in the basement, and haul their own things to their rooms. The 4 youngest even had their duffles unpacked before hitting the sack at 1am...everyone was too wired to fall asleep much sooner.

Here it is...the famous Mad Cactus~

Another view of 'command central'!

Nothing like a home~cooked meal at Mimi and Pop-Pop's to welcome us (almost)home!


All in all we traveled 6,248 miles!! God was so faithful to us and really orchestrated so many special memories. As my one friend, Kim said,the verse that comes to mind when considering our trip is this...
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory Ephesians 3:20


Thanks for reading along,praying for us, and sharing in our adventures!!
We made memories that will last a lifetime :)

Happy Father's Day Surprise....

Mark had recently mentioned that he regretted not purchasing the disc of photos from our whitewater rafting adventure...so, the kids and I thought that buying it for him would make a great Father's Day gift. On Saturday nite', Curtis put the pictures on our digital picture frame and we waited for Mark to notice when we plugged it in on Father's Day...he didn't. Then we pulled out a framed 8x10 of the shot from above to put on our wall. We also had a 5x7 canvas copy of the above picture made for his desk at work. It's been fun looking at our crazy expressions as the cold water of the Shoshone Rapids plunged over us! Have fun laughing at us:)!!! We were able to shift positions during the calm spells in case you're wondering how the crew moved around toward the end!

Check out the huge rock our guide Tim had to steer us around! I'm pretty sure this set of rapids was called the Tombstone for obvious reasons!!

So grateful for these captured memories of our time rafting down the Colorado River:)

Day 16: Saturday, May 26th- Omaha, Nebraska to Plymouth, Indiana-562 miles~

Today we drove through Nebraska, Iowa, a bit of Illinois and finally, arrived in Indiana. Imagine my delight when 3 of our children asked for their school books! Mercy is finished with math and part of her Language Arts for Tuesday which will make our day a whole lot easier!! We’ll see if we get more accomplished tomorrow as we make the last leg of our journey home. The kids are doing remarkably well considering that the dvd player stopped working days ago and we already listened to the audio version of Holes and the latest episode of 39 Clues. Unfortunately, I can’t find our last audio book (Black Beauty)in the midst of the car clutter. They have been keeping busy with occasional games on my ipod, their game boy ,MP3 players, sleeping, snacking, and reading for short sessions!

Philip drove on the interstate for the first time this vacation. Mark sat in the passenger seat giving direction as needed since highway driving is quite different than tooling around town. Philip did well in spite of the gusty winds which seem to move our van all over the road and the many truckers he had to get around. Yesterday and today I sat in Curtis’ spot to work on a word document to cut and paste to the blog. I’m so glad I kept a detailed journal as all the days run together and there is no way I would have been able to remember what we did on each day!

It seems that each day we have inside jokes arise with different family members...all situations too inappropriate to share on here:) But today we had a good laugh when Mark was walking into the rest stop with his sweatshirt on backwards. We tried to warn him but he didn't hear us as he hurried in...he realized it soon enough and by the time he came back to us he was appropriately attired:)

Today enroute we definitely saw some sort of wildcat dead on the side of the road...Philip was driving so I didn't want to distract him but I'm pretty sure it was a bobcat. Odesco was crestfallen as he has wanted to see one alive since our trip out west last year! We arrived in Plymouth Indiana in the early evening and totally enjoyed our stay in the Holiday Inn Express Suites.

Philip takes the wheel...check out the trees blowing in the wind...it was a blustery day!

Philip is a very safe driver but for some reason Mark feels more secure hanging on! Actually, I think he may do that when I'm behind the wheel too!! :)

Lots of windmills today...reminded me so much of Iowa last summer!

'Command Central'...Curtis kept track of all our spending, searched for the closest and cheapest gas, and booked hotel rooms from this position. I traded seats with him the last few long drives to get caught up on this blog!! He and Mark built this wooden cabinet before our last trip last year.

Just a typical lunch time break for us...we are just a bit conspicuous...I have no clue what Philip is doing?!

Appetizing?! Only one more day of this!!!

A midafternoon nap...doesn't he look comfy?!

Enjoying the pool at the Holiday Inn Express before a good nite's sleep~

Day 15: Friday, May 25th- Louisville, Colorado to Rocky Mountain National Park to Omaha, Nebraska-657 miles

Another evening hot tub jaunt and complimentary breakfast were enjoyed during our 1 nite’ stay at La Quinta Inn and Suites. We pushed off around 9am. This day was overcast and the weather became more dismal as we journeyed on northwest toward Rocky Mountain National Park. It was quite cold and reminded us of our Yellowstone experience last June! We drove around the park to view the various famous overlooks but it was a futile effort as we were surrounded in thick fog. At one point we were on the highest paved road in the United States driving on a mountainous switchback road. It was eerie not being able to see what was off either side. I’m not sure which is worse: actually seeing the drop off or knowing it is out there and seeing nothing but fog! During our drive, Odesco could be heard chanting under his breath, “Lynx, golden eagle, bobcat, cougar, big horn sheep, rattlesnake…” He was very studious in the gift shop/museum, knew all of these creatures found a home in the park, and perused the landscape hoping to catch a glimpse of one of these…but it was not to be today. We did see plenty of elk, even a few with full antlers. As we were leaving the park we saw many cars pulled over and knew there must be an animal sighting. When we pulled closer, we could see a large nest in a pine tree with what looked like a white fuzzy head poking out. We all expected to see an eagle…but to our surprise it was a great horned owl! We could not get a better look at the fuzzy head but after googling it, I'm pretty sure it was an owlet! Either way, it was another gift from the Creator of all. After the owl sighting, we enjoyed the antics of prairie dogs standing guard near their burrows on the side of the road.

After leaving Rocky Mountain National Park we had a long day driving since that was our final 'touristy' destination before we head east to New Jersey. We stopped for dinner at 8:15 pm and arrived at the Super 8 Hotel in Omaha, Nebraska at 11:15 pm…we lost an hour due to the time zone change. Thankfully they were able to situate us in 2 rooms next to each other but there was no adjoining door so this was the 1^st time during our trip where Mark stayed in one room with Philip, Curtis, and Odesco, and I was with the girls and Luke next door. Luke could not wait until the morning when he could go hang with the guys in the ‘man cave’ before we all headed to the complimentary breakfast.

Like I said, it was a bit foggy!

Fog or no fog...this is still a beautiful place~

Lots of rushing water...and many posted signs warning tourists to stay out of the river due to the danger of being swept away~

Another somewhat 'fogless' view

A little more promising...is the fog lifting?

What do you think?

The higher we climbed, the thicker the fog became.This was just a bit unnerving since we were on the highest paved road in America and beyond those pine trees there is definitely a drop off....very thankful for bright yellow and white lines!!

Still pretty in an eerie sort of way!

A herd of elk...there were quite a few more in the distance...

A full rack...sorry for the rear view perspective!

See the little white fuzzy head poking out of its nest?

We were all surprised to see a Mama owl peering at us since we expected an eagle!

The lighting was tricky to capture this owl keenly peering at all the curious onlookers below~

How kind of the Lord to allow us to be driving out of the park when this owl was perched in plain view...another tangible evidence of Him orchestrating the details of our trip!!