National Parks, Monuments, Sights etc.

This is a list of the National Parks, Monuments, Memorials, Sights etc. that we have visited on this trip.
Lewis and Clark Caverns
Little Bighorn
Devils Tower
Mount Rushmore
John Adams Houses
Statue of Liberty
Ellis Island
Valley Forge
Independence Hall
Gettysburg
Constitution Gardens
Washington Monument
Lincoln Memorial
Arlington
Korean War Memorial
Vietnam Memorial
WWII Memorial
National Mall
Fredericksburg Battlefield
Mammoth Caves
Gateway Arch
Tetons
Craters of the Moon

Gateway Arch and the Way to the West

July 11, 2010
We woke up and hopped in the car to head the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO. I had prepaid for the tickets online the night before so the whole thing was very easy. We parked in the specified parking lot and walked straight to the arch which is in an open park. So we get to where we are waiting for our tram and we are all lined up in front of the small doors that will open to let us in. I have to say, the whole thing was kind of freaky. Like we were being herded to our deaths. Just as I was thinking these paranoid thoughts, a kid around the age of 6 just a few feet from us, starts wigging out. I mean he was seriously freaking out. He started by saying things like, "mommy you never told me we were going do this." He was begging to leave, yelling that he was afraid, screaming to let him go and that his parents were breaking his arms. Everytime he would say something it was getting louder and louder to the point where he was shrieking with fright. At first, Steve and I just looked at each other like, oh he is having a little temper tantrum. Then it became very obvious that the kid did not want to be there and that he was terrified. Steve told me that they needed to take him out because he was scaring the other kids. Are you kidding, he was scaring me! I could tell that Steve was becoming more and more uncomfortable with the situation and so was everyone around us. At the height of the childs screaming, Steve could take it no more and in a loud voice he asked the man to take his son out. The guy gave Steve an attitude and made a few arguments but eventually he took him out. I don't know if they ever got on the tram.
Shortly after the episode the doors slid open and the people coming down exited and we got in. Then i freaked out. There is only room for 5 people and the trams are kind of podlike and small. I immediately became very uncomfortable. Did I mention I am claustrophobic? The thought of those tiny doors closing and being trapped in that tiny pod of death was almost overwhelming. I was a second from getting out but I knew I had to be brave or Madeline and Abbey would see a scaredy cat mommy. Luckily when the door slide shut I saw that they had tiny windows in them. They were the only thing helping me hold onto my sanity. In less than four minutes we were up 635 feet at the top. From the observation windows you could see down to the Mississippi and over to St. Louis. There has been some flooding there and you could see trees and debris floating down the muddy river. My fear of heights started kicking in and we decided it was time to go back down.
Once we got down, Abbey and Madeline earned a new junior ranger badge (Abbey's ninth) and then we were off to hook up the trailer and head to Dara's house.

July 10 Mammoth Cave

We left the KOA at Natural Bridge and after trying to find propane for what seemed like an hour, we were off through Virginia, into Tennessee and then to Kentucky. The highlight of this day was we stopped in London, Kentucky and chicken. No wait, let me say it correctly. We stopped in Kentucky and had Kentucky Fried Chicken! We had to. That night we stayed at another really nice KOA in Russell Springs. At a nearby campfire there were men singing and playing Bluegrass music on guitars and banjos. It was very cool.
When we woke up we made our way to Mammoth Caves National Park. This is the part where i would like to talk about the National Parks pass we bought in Devils Tower, Wyoming. Thinking we were going to go to a whole bunch of National Parks etc, we would definitely make our $80.00 back quickly. NOT! Either parks are free, or the charge you for something that the pass doesn't cover like tours or parking. We have only used it twice including the time we bought it. Of all the things to get ripped off on, this one was worth it. National Parks are awesome. Besides Abbey has probably gotten a couple bucks out of them with the junior ranger badges.
So the tour of the Mammoth was not free (cheap though). Mammoth caves are the largest caves in the world. In fact, if you took the 2nd and 3rd longest caves in the world and put them together, Mammoth is still bigger. I liked this cave much more because of this roominess and the 55 degrees wasn't too bad either.

July 8 We leave DC. Fredericksburg

One of the things Abbey enjoys doing at each National Park is the Junior Ranger program. Almost every day she has an opportunity to take part in it. Today was no exception. After leaving Smallwood and good riddance to gigantic spiders, we headed to Fredericksburg Battlefield State Park. On another very very hot day, we toured the Civil War Battlefield south of DC. This part of the battlefield is small compared to Gettysburg and that was kind of nice. We felt like when we left we had gotten as much out of it as we could have. We got a nice tour by a ranger that sounded a lot like Forest Gump but was considerably smarter and Abbey participated in the 7th of her Junior Ranger programs. After competing a short workbook that quizzes you on what you have learned about the particular park you are in, you take the book to the ranger and he or she gives you a badge. Some of the rangers look at the kids work and tell them good job and give them their badge. Some of the rangers go a step further and have Abbey raise her right hand and repeat a pledge that they will take care of the parks and then give them the badge (like the one at Independence Hall in Penn) and some of them go all out and announce to everyone in the room that Abbey Neff has completed the Junior Ranger program and is now officially a Junior Ranger (like at Fredericksburg and Mammoth Caves) Abbey really likes that. Sometimes Madeline participates and sometimes she doesn't care too.. At this point its a bit of an obsession for Abbey much like my cancellation stamps. She hangs the badges on her curtain in her sleeping area. She has 8 now.
After Fredericksburg, we stayed at our favorite KOA yet in Natural Bridge, Virginia. It was everything a KOA should be. It had a pool, trees, friendly people and a nice convenience store. They were even having Christmas in July and the girls got to do a candy hunt after they went swimming. That night we had a doosey of a thunderstorm and finally the first rain we have seen since Chicago.

Washington DC

July 1 We made it to Washington DC. Driving into the city in the evening on our way to Maryland and Smallwood State Park, where we are staying, was a beautiful sight. From the highway you can see the Washington Monument, the Capitol Building in the distance and the Lincoln Memorial among other sights. We made our way to the state park we were spending the next 7 nights at. It is in Maryland on the Potomac River. That sounded really exciting to me when i booked it. The park only had electricity and no water or sewer hook ups but it did have a water sight and a sewer dump. It was probably a mistake to book this sight because we had to dump 3 times while we were there. That means taking everything down including the awning and packing everything up that might fall or break while the trailer is moving. The whole process took about an hour every time. On the first day, we noticed that the daddy long legs there were enormous! I mean huge! Crazy big! Disgusting really. But, there weren't too many so it was okay. That changed by the last day. Either it was the lights from our trailer or the condensation coming off the trailer from the AC but the spiders were everywhere! We left a towel outside to dry and it was literally crawling with them. OOoo! It gives me the heebie geebies just thinking about it! We started having flashbacks to the movie arachnophobia. Smallwood State Park will forever be remembered to us as Daddy Long Legs State Park.

On one of our days in Smallwood State Park we decided to head to the Chesapeake Bay and try to find a place to swim. We ended up at Calvert State Park. You have to take a walking trail about 2 miles to get to the bay but it is well worth the walk. The ocean was like bath water and the girls had a great time swimming. Abbey didn't like the salt water. I spent the time looking for fossils and I found quite a few. Steve sat and watched the girls play.



I could go through our trip to DC day by day but I will just give you the run down. We went to the museum of natural history (night at the museum) and it was probably the best of them all. Something fun for everyone. These Smithsonian museums (which are free) are huge and you could spend a day in each. We also saw the Museum of American History. The highlight of it was the flag that was the actual Star Spangled Banner. Very exciting for me. We went to the Air and Space Museum too. We didn't spend enough time there so that was regrettable, especially for Steve. The overwhelming theme to our trip to DC was the heat. The unbearable, sweltering, unrelenting heat. It dictated everything we did and how we did it. You literally could not walk from one museum to the next without dripping in sweat. The girls wilted under this heat. Record breaking heat day after day. It was insufferable. As much as we tried it kept us from doing what all the things we wanted to do. DC is a very walkable town if you are in any decent kind of shape, unless it is hot. And its not just the heat, there is the humidity to add to it. 80 percent on most days. Not to mention the air quality was terrible. Through all of this we saw the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Korean, Vietnam and WWII memorials (WWII was awesome). Took a tour on a non air conditioned trolley and saw Arlington cemetery (with JFK's grave and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier). We also saw a tour of the Capitol Building and got to go in the Senate Gallery thanks to our Senator Mike Crapo and his tour tickets. A highlight was our tour of the White House (also thanks to Sen. Crapo). The white house is beautiful but surprisingly small. Of course, they didn't let us see the whole thing. Actually, it was about a 1/3.

I think the best thing we did in DC (and we were very nervous about this) was seeing the fireworks on the 4th.) What could be better than celebrating our independence in our nations capital? We were nervous because of the crowds and riding back on the metro. We had used the metro once before (finding out later we had used one of their new parking areas that was a bit risky) and were now comfortable using it. But, we knew the crowds would be enormous. And what would we bring. I had read that there would be some tight security into the mall so i was worried about bringing too much or not enough. In the end, we brought the perfect amount. A lot of water, a blanket and some snacks. We spent the early afternoon in the air and space museum and then around 7pm headed toward where we thought might be a good spot for the show. We ended up in the best spot possible. I couldn't have planned it better if i had tried. We sat directly in front of the Washington monument with the Lincoln memorial straight in front of us with the white house at our direct right. The fireworks were the best ever (Steve thinks Bostons 4th of July fireworks were better). But how can watching a great fireworks show all set to patriotic music on the Mall in Washington DC not be the greatest place to be?

God Bless America!

If I had any regrets about what i missed in DC it would have to be not going up in the Washington Monument (tickets go early every morning) not seeing all of the Holocaust Museum and not spending more time in the air and space museum. As it was, we stayed an extra day to do some of the things i mentioned.

Maggie, Simon and the Laptop

Steve decided before the trip that we needed a navigational devise. One that would get us around in the big cities. We started off with a middle of the line Magellan that we shortly named Maggie. Maggie was pretty stupid. Well, not stupid but uninformed. You see, they need updates for road construction and road changes and she didn't have any. So, in Maryland we switched to Garmin. We changed the settings on him to an English accent. We call him Simon, after Simon Cowell because of the accent and because he is bossy. We had high hopes for Simon but he has been a bit of a disappointment too. Steve is also a weak link in this particular chain. He does not have the ability to convert the image on the screen to the road image. Consequently, he takes turns too early. Steve really doesn't need navigation. He is very good at driving in the city and reading signs. We thought it would be handy in the city but the cities are constantly changing their roads and the navigation systems aren't updated enough. So, we end up not listening to him a lot.

Stickers, stamps, charms, postcards and pennies

I now have acquired a routine for each major stop that we make for example, Mt Rushmore, Niagara falls, Boston. For each stop I must get a sticker for the back of the camper, a few postcards to send home and a charm for the charm bracelet I am making of this trip. A couple other things that I am obsessively acquiring are the smashed pennies (i even have a holder) and cancellation stamps. If you aren't familiar with cancellation stamps, they are something that the National Parks are doing. You buy a "passport" that is divided up into regions of the united states and every time you visit a National park, museum, monument etc, you stamp their cancellation stamp in your passport in the correct color coded region. I started this in Yellowstone last year. I have gotten stamps at Mt. Rushmore, the John Adams House, the Statue of Liberty and even the Capitol to name a few. This has been fun but can be a source of irritation when I forget to do it (the little bighorn) or mess up and put a stamp in the wrong region (the statue of liberty and Arlington which is not in Wash DC but in Virginia as the cashier at the visitor center so kindly pointed out.) This is a great thing for kids to do too and they even have a kids passport book. My kids have helped me but I am the one that is obsessed with it in the end.

Gettysburg, June 30

On our way from Philadelphia to Washington DC we decided to see Gettysburg. Steve and I have already been to the battlefield but Madeline said she wanted to see it. We felt like since we have been there we would know the lay of the land. You just drive through town and the battlefield is on the southern edge. Boy were we wrong. The didn't move the battlefield but they did move the entrance. They added a large visitors center that is where all audio tours start from. This change messed us up for the better part of an hour. Once we got to the visitor center and got bearings, we were on our way. We listened to a CD tour while driving through the park. I could spend days looking around at Gettysburg. It is huge and there is so much to see. But we only had a couple hours to see the battlefield. The Cd tour is very interesting, even though Steve found the mans voices annoying.
You may be wondering how we are doing at this point on the trip. Are we arguing, fighting, driving each other crazy. yes, yes and yes! I have already had two pretty good melt downs and in the parking lot at the Gettysburg visitors center, Steve has his. His is quieter than mine and doesn't last as long. The girls are doing exceptionally well. Abbey has gone through almost all of her money very quickly. She pretty much buys a stuffed animal at every gift shop. Madeline as been pretty tight with hers. She saw a toy at a gift shop in Wall, SD that she thought was pretty cool. I told her not to buy it because i saw one at a store at home that was much cheaper. She has been saving the bulk of her money ever since to cover the cost of the toy when she gets home.
From here we are off to the main destination for this big road trip across the country... Washington DC!

Valley Forge and Philadelphia

When last I wrote, we had just visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. On our way to Philadelphia, we stopped at Valley Forge. The weather was becoming very hot and it was becoming hard to explore anything that involved being outside for any length of time. So we drove around Valley Forge and tried to get the most out of it in a short time. There was hardly any visitors there, possibly because of the heat. Next we ventured onto Philadelphia where we saw Independence Hall and toured the inside. We got to see where our founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence and the rest of what was once the State House and is now referred to as Independence Hall. Across the street and housed in a separate building, is the Liberty Bell. It, like every other building,monument, memorial etc we have been in, has security at the front door where they check your bags for weapons. Upon entering the building a boy next to us, without warning, threw up all over the floor. I hustled Madeline and Abbey to the back of the building as quickly as I could to get away from the germs. I don't need any sickness on this trip. Having a kid throw up in your camper is no fun. We did that last summer. Anyway, the Liberty Bell looks just like you would think it does. Almost like a big chocolate bell. The crack is huge and apparently was made worse by repairs that were attempted when it was first cracked. The girls also got to ride a beautiful carousel in a nearby park.
While we were visiting these sights in Penn. We were staying at a RV Campground close by. I picked it off the Internet. It had a great website and promised to be a fun place to stay for a couple nights. This is a prime example of the old saying "don't judge a book by its cover". It wasn't that the campground itself was so awful, it was more that the inhabitants were on the sketchy side. This was more of a year round habitation than a vacation spot. Every single camper there, was there permanently. They had decks and yard decorations and the tops of all the campers had at least a years worth of debris. It's not that there is anything wrong with that but its not exactly what you are looking for in a overnight camping area. By the way, the pool didn't use chlorine, it used salt. not sure about that.