Home at last!

This is the final post for our epic trip of four months, dozens of states, and dozens of National Parks.  Many thanks to the faithful readers out there!

On Sunday, May 21, we arrived back in Ohio! 

And here's the familiar Columbus skyline.

 

We've been back for four days and people have asked when our next trip will be.  It seems that this trip happened at the perfect time - a number of different events all came together.  Bill retired, Matthew is in the 4th grade (and we felt comfortable with home schooling), and Bill's mom passed away just over a year ago, leaving us some "extra" money.  We still have not decided whether to keep the RV or sell it, so we will take some shorter, local trips.

This was perhaps a once in a lifetime trip.  Beth had been planning it for years and her dreams came true.  The trip gave us a chance to bond as a family and also gain new knowledge and appreciation for this great country of ours.

Crossing the midwest

After Oklahoma City we had a few days of long drives, crossing many states.

From Oklahoma to Missouri.

 We stayed in a great RV park in Springfield, MO where Matthew was able to burn off some energy.

 For dinner we had pizza and Route 66 Beer (or is it Route Beer/Root Beer).

After that we crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois.

 Just inside the state line we visited Cahokia Mounds State Park.  This contains the largest set of Indian Mounds in North America.  At one time (before about 1300) there were 20,000 people living in this area.  They had a very organized society with burial mounds and worship mounds, etc.

It was interesting to visit this site because it tied in with the Mound builders who Matthew has been studying in Ohio history and it was also around the same time period as the ancient Pueblo villages we had seen in the west.

Matthew leaned a new game of "toss and catch."

 The main mound is over 100 feet high.

 We spent the night in Casey, Illinois (not much to say there) and drove into Indiana the next day.  (Sorry, no sign saying Welcome to Indiana).  We are staying at a state park where there are lots of trees and we can have a fire (in a pit).  Here is part of the family enjoying the campsite while Bill prepares for the Culver reunion.

Oklahoma City

From Amarillo we traveled to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  We had a whirlwind day seeing as much of the city as we could.

As we traveled across Oklahoma, we noticed it was much greener than Texas.

 Also, the cattle seemed more sociable.  They were usually standing in a group whereas the Texas cattle were usually spread out.  Here they're enjoying some shade.

 We also saw windmills.

Along the way we also crossed the Chisholm Trail, where cattle used to be lead from Texas to Kansas.

 It was Sunday and we joined a small group in RV park doing Bible study.  After that we went to the Museum of Cowboy Life and Western Heritage.  This is a huge facility showing art related to cowboys and the southwest and also displays of cowboy life and work.  There was also sculpture (a large one of Ronald Regan) and a section of Hollywood westerns.

 After the Cowboy Museum we went to the Oklahoma City Memorial, commemorating the attack on a federal building in April, 1995.  This was a very moving memorial.  There is a large reflecting pool where the street used to be and there are 168 chairs along the side, representing the adults and children who were killed.

We also drove over to the state capitol building.  We believe that this is the only capitol building that has working oil rigs on the property!

From there we visited the famous Oklahoma City Stockyards where there are cattle auctions twice a week.  We were there on Sunday so we missed it!

We still had some gas in the Jeep so we decided to drive along historic Route 66, which runs just north of the city.

Our final destination was Pops - a gas station/diner with a 50 foot bottle of soda out front and 500 flavors of soda on the menu.  Matthew had Root Beer with blackberry flavoring.  Yum.

 There were cool neon lights that would change color.

 As the sun sets on the soda bottle, we headed home to the RV after a very full day!

Amarillo Texas

We're on our way home, slowly.  I'm a little behind on the blogs, but maybe I can catch up and have one final post once we arrive (which will be this Sunday, May 20).  We are currently at Culver, Indiana, for Bill's high school reunion, but we won't blog about that!

We drove from Albuquerque into Texas and stayed in Amarillo (maybe I've already mentioned that....).

Here we are crossing the state line.  We were surprised to see a town named (maybe) after a former present (and maybe his dad).

One big attraction in Amarillo is Cadillac Ranch.  In 1975 there was some "sculpture" done by half burying 10 Cadillac in a field.  It turns out that it's viewable from interstate 40, so we just had to have a look.

Here you can see the cattle appreciating the art.

 As we got closer, we considered how the art represents the pointless pursuit of possessions, or something like that.  It turns out the cattle had given their own evaluation of the art and we had to be careful where we stepped!

 Over the years people have added a lot of graffiti (it's considered part of the art) and so Matthew jumped right in.

 The paint was really thick from the accumulation over the years.  We decided the whole family should contribute.

 This was Matthew's contribution (the Pokemon ball, not the "love").

As we left town we also saw another famous Amarillo destination - the Big Texan, where you can have a 72 oz steak for free (if you eat the whole thing in an hour).  There were signs for this place all along the interstate.

If you'd like another interpretation of Cadillac Ranch (a la 2001 Space Odyssey), check out the Youtube video at this link.

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