St. Louis Science Museum

The St. Louis Science Museum ROCKS! Absolutely fantastic experience, very hands on, even rode a jet simulator that moved in all directions. Emily and I laughed the whole time.

We didn’t get to the famous St. Louis arch but drove by and waived – promising to visit again when we didn’t have Tess along. Finding shady spots and seeing things early in the day has been our working mojo.

Did manage to snag a Cardinals ball cap and mug before heading out of town.

Driving into Illinois, I kid you not, I literally didn’t know if we were in Illinois or Indiana. It was the first time in my life I truly didn’t know what state I was in, and it felt kind of neat! Like a mystery or something I knew would eventually reveal itself.

Our drive through Indiana and Illinois was fairly uneventful – naturally we stopped in each state to pick up a rock. Have quite a collection of them now, each marked with a Sharpie and slowly filling up a plastic container.

We ended our day at this fantastic KOA campground just south of Louisville in Shephersville, KY.

"Indiana wants me, Lord I can't go back there..."

I don’t think I’d even fully parked before Emily had flung open her car door and was off and running, having spied a giant jumpy “pillow” and a ton of kids her age.

We are apparently “fire challenged” as we were able to build a fire long enough to make S’Mores but not long enough to keep it going for too long. And our roasting stick broke. But never let it be said that any challenge can dampen the spirit of girls who want chocolate, melted or not!

Found a cool cave!

Tess went nuts over the squirrels and even managed to sneak up on one and sniff it! The squirrel leaped in the air causing Tess to do the same, both having freaked the other one out. Too funny. I don’t think Tess ever expected to get that close and seems to have added a little strut to her step now.

Jumpy Pillow

Great way to get around the campgrounds

Tess Isn't Too Sure About This Whole Camping Deal

Tess and I started the morning with a brisk walk which included a 180 degree turn upon finding a snake curled up on the sidewalk. Pretty sure it was dead but it was big and scary and we weren’t going to hang around to find out.

A second walk with Emily before we departed the hotel included a return to said snake upon which we confirmed it was definitely dead. And still scary.

First stop of the morning was the Air Force Academy. Fantastic B52 bomber on display at the entrance. The movie they show at the visitor’s center, about a year in the life of a new cadet, was outstanding. Viewed the cadet parade field and exterior of the chapel, unfortunately not open for visits due to scheduled weddings.

It was extremely windy and, although it was sunny and June, it was cold. I can only imagine a dark day in January out on the parade field. Drove by Falcon stadium and reminisced about being there for the Navy/Air Force game in 1992. Good memories.

Hit the road and, after a brief sojourn through the black forest, we hopped on the highway, queued up the cruise control and pointed the car east. Crossing into Kansas we informed Tess she would heretofore be called Toto until we left the state. Kansas is beautiful – I’m struck by how far you can see in all directions and really only recall being able to do that in one or two other places, including out on the ocean. At one point Emily said, “Look, it’s the little house on the prairie” and darned if she wasn’t right.

Listened to comedy channels on Pandora, stopped for Subway at a truck stop (“attention professional drivers, driver #62, shower 4 is now available”) and showed up in Hays, Kansas six hours later.

One thing’s for sure, there is never a line at the salad bar at Golden Corral, and it is one of the best salad bars around.

Grabbed a 20 minute workout on the Precor to get the blood flowing this morning and hit that huffing and puffing point earlier than usual due to the altitude. Then played fetch and “bubbles” with Tess on the front lawn of the hotel. She loves jumping and snapping at soap bubbles, loves the taste or something and it certainly doesn’t hurt her breath. An equal love is anything that squeaks and her squeaky soccer ball is a favorite. Never knew a Westie that fetched before her and it sure is fun to watch her bounding across the lawn for another round.

I can almost hear the original framers of the state lines saying, “let’s run a state line across here by color – brown is New Mexico, green Colorado.”

Traveling through the Colorado mountains made me reach for the John Denver CD I’d stashed in the center console – just had to listen to “Rocky Mountain High.” Spectacular scenery, including a little leftover snow, and a few songs later I found myself welling up with thoughts of my mom. Lyrics that meant only one thing in the past now seem to reach out and choke me.

Note to self: never, ever, ever, ever, ever eat at Long John Silvers again.

After a brief stop at a fast-rushing river where we skipped rocks and Em attempted to build a fire from rocks and sticks, Tess spied her first cattle and had a stare-down with an equally inquisitive steer.

Dinner at Outback, dipping my legs in the in the hotel hot tub, and a chocolate cookie in bed and I don’t remember a thing after that.

June 6, 2013

Well, I must say I have had enough of the desert. I miss the cool beaches of the California Coast. The day started unintentionally early. Though we were awake since 6:00 some how it took us four hours to leave the hotel. We were on the road at ten. Tess had spent the morning sniffing around tumbleweeds and chasing geckos. Oh what a life! Our venture into the desert was filled with wide open spaces and tiny dirt tornados. We stopped at a local gas station to grab some food as, to my surprise, McDonalds is not everywhere, at least not in the desert. If you have ever spent long hours in the desert, you know that you go just a little bit insane for a few hours until you make it back to civilization. On one of our longer stretches threw the desert I, being the wonderful singer that I am, sang 99 Bottle of Beer on the Wall. It took me forty-five minutes to sing the entire thing and I am shocked that my mom did not just pull over and push me out of the car by the fifty-fifth beer. To my surprise towards the end she also went a little insane and started to sing along with me.

In the desert you seem to run across weird things. Such as we were driving along and one the side of the road on the other side of a fence was a single llama. He was facing away from the road and he had this look on his face like:

“Well, Carl you did it again, you lost the herd.”

One of the cooler things we did, was we went to the four corners. I had never been to Utah so I stood in the corner of Utah!

Chilling back at the hotel with my little buddy!

I love travel and heading out on a “round the country” adventure with my FAB daughter is the trip of a lifetime. I hope to grow as a mother, a mentor, and a friend.

I plan to learn everything I can from her and simply soak in her presence.

And of course, I fully intend to laugh so hard I spit water out of my nose.

Packing light is the way to go – seems we have more stuff for Tess, our wonderful Westie, than we do for ourselves. It all fit in the car and we were ready to launch.

We left San Diego at high noon, driving for a few miles behind my husband as he filmed our departure with the Go-Pro camera attached to the back of his car.

Traveling in the heat with a dog has some added challenges. The temps hit triple digits so the goal was to keep the car running. Since we are not eating in the car, we had to find areas outside where we could sit with the dog. And in Arizona that means we’ll take anything with shade and had to remove anything from the car that might melt or explode, like chocolate, cosmetics, and computers.

June 5, 2013

The trip begins! At 10:00 this morning when I returned home from my graduation breakfast, I dawned on me that we were not ready. I had not fully packed my bag, the car was not loaded, and the dog who was supposed to come with us was giving us the evil eye because she knew that suitcases meant people leaving. (little did she know that we had spent several days packing for her and forgetting to back for ourselves) At 12:00 sharp (one hour behind schedule) we departed San Diego and headed off on our big adventure. Five minutes into the drive Tess (our dog)  was already sound asleep, I not far behind her. If you have never driven about an hour away from the beachy southern California coast, let me give you a visual of what is out there: NOTHING. It is a hot, flat, dry, hot, dirty, hot wasteland. Did I mention it is hot? The temperature rose to a balmy 111 degrees. About two and a half hours into the drive, (we would have stopped at two hours, but we had to keep going because every time we wanted to stop, we were gently reminded that we were in the middle of nowhere.) we stopped and I dined on Panda Express and my mom had In and Out. We ate outside with Tess while she chugged down a bottle of water. We then spent the next four hours in the car together. I would like to take a moment to applaud my mom. She sat in the car for four hours with me of all people…and Tess.

The conversation gets pretty dull when your in the middle of nowhere. I decided that it was time to play some “fun car games” the only one I was ever good at was I Spy. For the next hour my mom sat patiently in the car playing I Spy with me. Let me explain a normal conversation between two people playing I Spy in the middle of the Arizona desert:

Me: “I Spy something white.”

Mom: “That truck”

Me: “No”

Mom: “That sign”

Me: “yep, your turn”

Mom: “I spy something brown”

Me: “That bush, dirt, tree, tumbleweed, that bush, a tree, dirt, a tumbleweed”

Mom: “Emily you can’t say more then one thing thats cheating”

Me: “You can’t at I Spy”

Mom: “Well it doesn’t matter none of those were correct.”

Me: “Mom only so many things are in the desert and I just named all of them.”

Mom: “It was a shrub.”

Me: “Mom a shrub and a bush are the same.”

Mom: “No they are not”

Me: “Yes they are”

Once again I would like to applaud my mother for putting up with all of this. Not only did she put up with this, but she put up with Tess having to go to the bathroom almost every hour. Us pulling up on the side of a highway because she is whining, me getting out and walking her so she can use the restroom., but no false alarm she just wants to sniff around. We get back in the car and repeat. Though we did this trip last year, I am very excited for this years trip as we are also driving back cross-country, too. We arrived at our hotel in Phoenix in time for dinner and to go swimming. It was a great day and I am excited to continue on the hot, dry adventure tomorrow!

Good night to all,

Emily Vertel