Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Long Way Round road trip recap

Dave did a post about the different days of our road trip.

I will link them up here to keep them in one spot. 

here are my pictures: 

Day 1- Thursday May 15- Road trip begins!  introduction post.
Since we took a long northern circular route from our home state of North Carolina, through Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa to arrive in Missouri (see attached map), I decided to rename Plan B as the "Long Way Round".



Day 2- Friday May 16- Dr. Who Little Library Cache
This Little Free Library, made up like a TARDIS, is in the front yard of a private residence in Naperville Illinois.  We pulled up just after a rain storm at 4:30PM, after driving all day.  When we saw the box we all jumped out of the Geovan of Destiny, excited to take a closer look.

So lets go inside and see whats in there...

Day 3- Saturday May 17- Civil War Days
Dear Diary,

This morning was a busy one.  In just a few hours I met two Presidents, got caught in a battle skirmish, drank some home made root beer, watched a blacksmith make a horse shoe, and checked out some field artillery.

All of this happened before lunch.

Day 3- Saturday May 17 - Dave Caching with Ewald
Naperville is a really neat town.  If you're ever in Illinois you'd be doing yourself a favour by checking it out for yourself.  If you are there and you need a guide, and no one can help you, and you can find him, maybe you too can cache with the ewald.

Day 4&5- Sunday and Monday May 18 &19- Spy Restaurant and Wisconsin cheese
One of the best parts of taking road trips is going to places you have never been to before.  So far this trip have been to places at least one of us has previously experienced. 

This was all about to change, for we were to enter the brand new territory of Wisconsin.

Day 6- Tuesday May 20- Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota
So if you find yourself bumming around the upper mid-west, and you are getting bored, there is only one place you gotta go'ta.  Its the biggest ball of twine in Minnesota.

You should see the biggest ball of twine in Minnesota!

Day 6- Tuesday May 20 - Getting lost on the way back
So now the kids were ready for nap time, so we tossed them (gently) into the Geovan of Destiny and headed down the road once more. We were 45 minutes away from the hotel, but we needed to give the kids a couple hours to nap.  This was the moment where my wife told me to get lost.  So we did.

We turned off the GPS, took a left turn down a random road, and started driving.  

Day 7- Wednesday May 21- The Day the Music Died
This whole story (the historical one, not the one in this blog) is captured, poetically, in the immortal song entitled American Pie by Don McLean.

Today a memorial stands in the cornfield where the plane went down.  During this road trip we had the chance of making a pilgrimage to this famous location and pay homage to the forefathers of rock'n'roll (and to also claim the two related virtual caches).  This was a chance I could not pass up.

Day 7- Wednesday May 21- Field of Dreams
In 1989 a movie about a farmer who hears voices and ends up building a baseball field, was released.  Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones , became an instant classic, with the famous line "if you build it they will come".

As it turns out, they actually did build the baseball field in a cornfield, and now you can be the one that comes.

Day 7- Wednesday May 21 - American Pickers
American Pickers, if you are not familiar, is a show on the History channel.  It features two guys who search the back roads of America looking for hidden treasures of Americana and other historical artifacts that are buried in the back of barns, and in basements.  They purchase them, and resell them to their customers.   The show, while I am sure at times contrived and scripted, is based on their existing business, which is called Antique Archeology.

Day 8 - Thursday  May 22- Star Trek edition
Cache.  The final frontier. 

These are the voyages of the Geovan Of Destiny.

Its continuing mission: to explore strange new lands, to seek out new finds and new dramatizations, to boldly go where at least one person has gone before.
So we then head to St. Charles MO where Geowoodstock is being held.

Day 9 - Friday May 23-  I got to go to  3 quilt shops and get the fabric I was looking for. then we grab some caches and head back to the room for naps. After naps is a quick hop in the pool and then get dressed and head out to a meet up.

Day 10 -Saturday May 24th- we went to  Geowoodstock 12 they also had some great Kid Caches set up

Day 11- Sunday May 25- a rainy morning led us to an outlet mall followed by a trip to see Bigfoot
Turns out, when you are in St. Louis, you can see a bigfoot.  Specifically, the monster truck.   
Dave then went out for a bike ride in the afternoon

Day 12- Monday May 26 - Monday Morning we left really early from the hotel at 5:30 am. Stopping down the road for breakfast.  3 hours into our journey, thru road-weary early morning eyes, like a beacon of hope and light, I saw a sign that said "Superman Statue Next Exit".

We did the 10.5 hours in about 13 hours with the stops we had. The kids did a wonderful job on that trip!

This concludes the Long Way Round recap












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