Day 129

August 20

We finally made it home! It was after 11 p.m. by the time we got to the church due to some delays - including car problems that hung us up for about an hour and a half while we waited for a part. Thankfully it was an easy fix, and it happened in a flat section of road on a nice day - not one of the pouring rain/lightning storms we passed through on a mountain! It felt a bit déjà vu to me... When I was in high school my family spent several hours broken down on a two-lane desert highway one summer.

Day 128

August 19

Today we drove some more.  Rawlins, WY to Elko, NV. We hit several more rainstorms.

Best part of the day? Spending our lunch with Rhondi in Salt Lake City!

Worst part of the day?  Lunch with Rhondi was only a half hour. 

We stopped in the salt flats at Booneville and walked out on the salt.  There was shallow water near the edge and we walked barefoot to see if we could exfoliate our feet. It felt like extra crunchy sand at the beach.

Our plan was to get to Elko early enough that we could take advantage of the swimming pool.  But we're 43 miles from the hotel and it's raining and there's lightning. Not sure if we'll be able to use the pool or not.  I don't think it's an indoor pool.

Day 127

August 18

Today we drove.  Nothing new. Nothing exciting.  Just Lincoln, Nebraska to Rawlins, Wyoming.  We hit a hail storm at one point. There was a rainbow behind us when we got all the way through, and it was low! It must have been something to do with the curvature of the earth,  I don't know.  We stopped to check on the trailer vents and took advantage of the stop to take a couple pictures.  I was rather disappointed that I took a picture of the rainbow and no sooner did I put my phone down and start to turn back to the car than a lightning bolt shot down right next to the rainbow!

The tiny (35 member) church in Rawlins treated us to a lovely homemade meal of vege-chili dogs,  potato salad,  cucumbers, tomatoes,  pasta alfredo, and more! We sure appreciate all the churches and schools who put us up on this trip.

Day 126

August 17

Today we packed up and hit the road for home.  I added two more States to me list. We crossed Iowa, and stayed the not in Lincoln, Nebraska.

We had dinner in Des Moines at Cici's pizza & pasta buffet.  I've seen commercials for them but never had the opportunity to try one.  It was pretty good, and good prices with plenty for the variety of tastes in our group to choose from.

Coming into Nebraska we saw lightning lighting up the whole sky on the horizon. So glad we decided Saturday night to get a hotel for Sunday. Within just a few minutes of checking into our hotel, the Thunder started rolling and the rain dumped in buckets.

Day 125

This morning I was invested as a Master Guide! For anyone not familiar with the Pathfinder program, it's similar to Scouts, and is the highest level of classwork. Kind of like becoming an a Eagle Scout, I think. Anyway, it took me about five years of working on it on and off to finish the program.

I was so excited to find out an old, dear friend, like a second mom to me, was going to be here at Oshkosh and would be able to invest me. She was a staff member in the pathfinder club I belonged to as a kid. It was somewhere over 15 years ago I last saw her and her husband.
After lunch we went to the ventriloquist program.  Then Sarah and I went to the White Estate tent and sat in on the class for the newly released God's Messenger honor. She was so happy to have earned an honor this week! And especially that she could call grandma,  who worked at the White Estate for over 20 years, and tell her about it.

The evening program is just getting started. Can't wait to find out two things... is God going to answer the prayer of nearly 50,000 pathfinders and send the rain past us without drenching us? And,  is Daniel going to get out of the lion's den??

Day 124

August 15

Today was amazing! Best day at camporee, without a doubt!

In the morning, the club got to go on EAA Young Eagles Flights. The kids were able to take a short flight in a small plane.  Hannah even got to "fly" the plane for a minute.

In the afternoon, we went to visit the EAA museum.

But the best part of the day? The week? The year? Maybe even EVER? Witnessing our oldest daughter in her public display of her acceptance of Jesus.

Day 123

August 14

Today I got to see my friend Melody from Academy days! She lives in Minnesota and we haven't seen each other since around 1999.  Her camp is only about a five minute walk away from ours, so she came over for a visit this morning before breakfast. She took Sarah back over to her camp to trade some pins and brought her boys back with her when she came back with Sarah.

After breakfast most of the staff and Pathfinders went out to find some of the activities to do.  I had shower monitor duty from 10-11, and Charlie had it from 11-12. After we were both done, we caught one of the golf carts over to the events area too. 

We wandered through the pathfinder museum,  then went over and found some lunch. We ate at the " Jamaican Patty King", where we both had chicken wraps, Charlie had the Haitian Patty and I hada Soy Patty.  All veggie, of course. The chicken wrap was my favorite. I'll have to make something similar at home.

Later in the afternoon we went back to the museum so we could visit with friends from California,  Sam and Elda. Been way too long since seeing them!!

The evening meeting was wonderful as usual.  We bought the Dvd set that will have all the programs to watch and share at home.

Day 122

August 13

Today we learned about shower trailers.  I don't care if it was in a trailer, I was just glad it was a real shower.  Even if they did limit everyone to 5 minutes each.  I think the shower monitor was impressed that I got myself and both my kids through the shower inside the 5 minute limit.

After showers I had to run into town for more groceries with Charlie.  We also gave the cook from a neighboring Club with us because they flew so they didn't have a car.  We towed our wagon behind the golf cart they used to give us a ride to the south entrance. It was awesome! Especially coming back full of groceries. I don't know if anyone else has had sturdy enough wagons to do that.

It was lunchtime by the time we got back and we knew while we were at the store we workshop have time to prepare a meal when we got back,  so I called ahead and ordered some pizza that we picked up after shopping. When we pulled up with the groceries, I hopped off the golf cart and went quickly (I can't say I ran) into the kitchen area of camp. "Did somebody order a pizza?" The kids didn't know we were bringing it back so I got quite a reception! They all cheered enthusiastically.

The girls both had to show me all the pins they had traded for this morning. They both have some really neat ones, I but the one I think I like best is  one from the Mentone, Ca Club.  How could I not? That was my club when I was a kid!

Day 121

August 12

It rained and rained and the wind blew like crazy all night last night. One of the tents actually ripped a little where the tie down attached to the window. And several of the tents had at least minor leaks.

It finally let up before noon,  and at least the main activities didn't start until after that.  The rest of the day was quite nice, especially once the sun came out. The group of girls I was in charge of today did some pin trading, and we checked out once of the display hangars. I happened across the club I was part of as a kid, and the director looked familiar but wasn't someone I knew well at the time.

The evening program was great! The play about Daniel was well done and totally funny,  too. It was quite a mob of people trying to get out of there, though.  47,000 from what they said.

Way too much walking today.  My feet are killing me!

Day 120

August 11

We're in Oshkosh! We got our tents set up just in time for a thunderstorm to come through and dump water in buckets on us. This place is huge.  I can't believe how many people are here. I haven't seen the whole camp and I already feel like I could get lost really easily.

The weather report says the rain should blow through by tomorrow, I sure hope they're right!

Day 119

August 10

Today we went to see the falls at Sioux Falls.  I thought they were pretty but I thought they would be taller. 

Then a few hours at the Great Plains Zoo. A nice, small zoo so it didn't take long to see everything. Sarah was disappointed they didn't have an elephant. And of course Hannah was sad there was no panda. Still, it was fun, though.

A quick stop for ice cream and then we headed for Albert Lea, MN to stay at the church there for the night. Lanee, Lanett, and I went to the laundromat and did everyone's laundry.  Thank goodness for large capacity washing machines. Even then, we used 4 machines that did 4 loads each, and two that did double loads.

Day 118

August 9

Today we went to Mt Rushmore. It was a lot more impressive than I expected. But still not much I can say about it, lol.

A car pulled up next to us as we were parking, and the man driving asked if we were heading to Oshkosh. He and his family were on their way to be the new pastoral family at Gemstate Academy in Idaho.

We saw two or three other clubs visiting the monument also. One from Washington, another from Maryland,  and I'm not sure about the other.

After a nice picnic lunch we hit the road again. We ended up on Sioux Falls, SD for the night.

Day 117

August 8

Oshkosh adventure day 4

What an absolutely gorgeous morning in Yellowstone.  Pictures don't even do it justice.

After we packed up camp we drove through the park heading East toward Gillette, WY.  We saw American bison feeding near the road and slowed with the other traffic to take pictures. We stopped to eat lunch on the shores of Mary Bay on Yellowstone Lake.  Shamar found a huge agate and I was jealous.  Lol...

After leaving the park we were back on the long stretches of Prairie, so I pulled my crocheting back out and got a lot more done. 

It was 11 p.m. by the time we arrived in Gillette.  Everyone was pretty wiped out.

Day 116

August 7

Oshkosh adventure day 3

Today we left Twin Falls, ID early.  I actually saw part of the sunrise! Not a sight I see often.  We arrived at Yellowstone National Park early in the afternoon.  After setting up camp we quickly ate some lunch and headed out to see the sights.

We went to the paint pots (boiling mud), saw some boiling pools of water,  small geysers, and more. It was really cool weather, so there was a lot of steam and several of the pools were hard to see. Then we drove a little further and went down to Old Faithful. That was really cool! I knew it was tall,  but I didn't realize it erupted water for so long. We saw another club there and talked to them briefly.  Part of them were from Walla Walla, and I don't remember where the other club sharing their bus was from.  A brief thunderstorm blew through while we were down there, but it passed on by and the skies are clear now as we head to bed.

Day 115

August 6

Today we saw lots of high desert heading through eastern Oregon into Idaho. There's a whole lotta nothing out there. I was going to take a picture of the Welcome to Idaho sign when we crossed over, but didn't get the camera open in time.

I spent the day alternately working on joining my granny squares, and unraveling Sarah's yarn. 

We had a stowaway join us for a little while - a tiny green inch worm.  Hannah wanted to keep it but we made her put it out after awhile.

We saw a little Brown bat at the rest area where we picnicked for lunch. It was nestled up against the outside of the bathroom under the eaves.

Twin Falls, ID was our evening destination. We arrived around 10 p.m. and had the kids settling in bed by 11. 6 a.m. tomorrow is going to come early!

Day 114

And we're off! 18 of us heading out for the 2014 Forever Faithful International Camporee in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, by way of Yellowstone National Park, Mt Rushmore,  and more!

Day 58

And they're off... Traveling with grandma & grandpa to go spend 9 days with Auntie. Flying home by themselves! They're getting too grown up.

Day 2

Vacation is awesome... The pile of work waiting when I come back, not so awesome.

Day 1, take 2014... Now that we're homeschooling again...

I was talking to a friend about this project this afternoon, and decided to try again. Maybe I'll actually make it to 365 days this time.
Today's photo was taken on the last day of our vacation to Sunset Bay State Park on the Oregon Coast. What a fun week!