“I’m worried about Dad getting tired” was the catch cry today. Ross decided to spend a day driving to catch up on the miles we had hoped to have done by now. It has been a LONG day in the RV! We have covered 638 miles and across two whole states – Nebraska and Colorado.
We met up with Ross’ parents in their RV a few days ago and they have been travelling with us through the National Parks. That is code for we have been inflicting our punishing schedule on them! They have done really well to keep up with us. We only have three more days with this motorhome and have to be back in LA on Wednesday morning whereas they have several more days and can travel at a leisurely pace. So we said our goodbyes to them at 8am and set off.
I served up morning and afternoon tea as Ross drove, so our only stops today were for a quick lunch and dinner. There was plenty of time for homework while travelling, and we made the focus the boys’ Biblical Studies homework after the little three looked horrified we weren’t going to church!
We did tour through Denver before we stopped for lunch. Denver belongs to a select group of US cities with teams from four major sports. We drove past the baseball field as people were arriving for today’s game. Denver also has the dubious distinction of being the only city to back out after winning a bid to host the Olympics (the 1976 Winter Olympics). It’s official elevation is one mile or 5280 feet above sea level, making it the one of the highest major cities in the US. See: we did our research…and I had a lot of time to read today…
We also spent some time in the Colorado Rockies, more beautiful scenery, and travelled through snowfields (which in summer actually still have patches of snow on the higher mountains!). I will be interested to download all my photos, but am not convinced they will do all these amazing places justice.
Our accommodation tonight is in Durango, purely for its proximity to the Grand Canyon which we plan to visit tomorrow. We are actually close to the border of where New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Arizona meet. I am now off to do several loads of laundry – aaah, the “comfort” of home! 😉

Having explored Deadwood at night, we decided to get up and moving on the next morning. We did all choose a few places at home before we left to research and have printed and brought our research with us in a plastic sleeve display folder for reference. Deadwood underwent fires, decline, and financial stresses last century which spurred the “Deadwood Experiment” in which gambling was tested as a means of revitalising a city centre. The new revenues and developments it has brought are obvious from our little nighttime stroll.
Our goal today was Mount Rushmore, with a quick stop at a Crazy Horse Memorial we hadn’t previously researched. I expected it to be a small sculpture, but the whole site is on a massive scale. The monument currently being built to Crazy Horse (the American Indian who defeated Custer) is so big up high on the mountain that the four heads at Mt Rushmore would fit inside Crazy Horse’s head! There was a very informative movie showing the history of the site and the plans for the future, including the sculptor’s desire to fund the project through the free enterprise system rather than government grants that would come with conditions. (That made us far more willing to pay the $27 entry fee!) There were exhibits, information about Custer’s Last Stand, stalls where American Indians were selling their wares (such as musical instruments and jewellery), just so much to look at and learn about. There are also plans for a university campus for Native Americans on site once the memorial is completed. For a project which began in 1947, there was no talk of a finish date. It’s hard to predict when the big dream will be fulfilled.
From there we moved on to Mount Rushmore, which has always been a dream of mine to see. I have an interest in politics in general (which most don’t understand), and usually follow the American primaries each time and read about previous Presidents. So it has been on my Bucket List to go to Mount Rushmore. As excellent as it was to achieve this and see the monument, I haven’t so much ticked something off the bucket list as replaced it! I am hoping the Crazy Horse memorial is finished in my lifetime so I can return to see it!
We then drove another two hours through Rapid City (which offered such points of interest as a free taxidermy exhibit) to the town of Wall, just to see a set of shops called Wall Drug that Ross’ grandmother had talked about. This is an example of the American Dream. A pharmacist and his wife in the 1920s moved to the little town of Wall to run the local drugstore. They suffered poor sales and few passersby stopped, so to encourage customers they offered free iced water. The water is still free, the coffee is still 5c, but the growth of the business is astronomical. The site houses a restaurant, cafe, gift shops, bookshop, clothing stores, and all manner of souvenirs. We enjoyed our first chance to really shop!
From there we drove through the Badlands National Park. More amazing scenery, but different to previous National Parks we have seen this week. After a couple of stops at lookouts, we exited the Park but not where we expected, so had our first experience of getting, not lost, but out of our way. The time taken to get back on track was costly. We had planned to be in Denver Colorado tonight, but had to adjust our schedule when we found that was still 350miles away at 7pm! We decided to travel as far as Ross could drive and the kids could handle. We stopped in the town of Gordon, Nebraska at 9pm for dinner Grandma had cooked us, and decided to find an RV park in Nebraska for the night.
A couple of hours down the road we found an unmanned RV park called Eagle’s Rest and set up there for the night. After a big day, and knowing tomorrow will be a day of catch up driving, we felt quite exhausted – ironically, we were in bed at 11.30pm which is earlier than most other nights have been!

We enjoyed the free pancake breakfast at the camp kitchen before setting off at 8.30am this morning. While we had planned to visit the museums and exhibits in Cody itself, it seemed it housed artefacts from nearby towns we would pass through, so we decided to keep moving forward and see actual locations rather than museums.
Our first stop was unplanned at Shell Falls in Bighorn National Forest, chosen purely because of the breathtaking scenery there. From there we moved on to Buffalo, thinking as it was the centre of a lot of Butch Cassidy action and near the Hole in the Wall (which was also the name of his gang), we would see and hear a lot. Straight to the Visitors Centre we went to make the most of our visit. Pleasantries completed, the lady behind the desk could only suggest the historic Occidental Hotel across the road (“but make sure you only look in rooms that aren’t occupied”) and a park with children’s playground! It appears there is nothing else to do or see in Buffalo!
So to the park we went, and had lunch which allowed the kids some free playtime. I used that time to read a booklet from the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce that was much more informative than Visitor Centre personnel! If I wasn’t sitting in bed writing this while everyone else sleeps, I would retrieve the booklet and tell you some cowboys and Indians history. However, just one example: the owner of the Occidental invited locals to meet one night to choose a name for their town. They all put their submissions in a hat agreed that whatever name was pulled out would win. A young man there from Buffalo New York put that name in, which of course was pulled from the hat. And thus the town of Buffalo Wyoming came to exist. Oh what could have been here…
Being a little disappointed in Buffalo, we moved on hoping to get across the border to South Dakota before day’s end. Another unplanned stop was a point of interest Ross’ Dad had told us about from their last trip here: Devil’s Tower. An amazing column of rocks and boulders reaching up into the sky, and looking out over such green pastures and ranches. Another example of such amazing scenery this week. We saw a storm in the distance as we climbed to the base of Devil’s Tower, so sat to watch the lightning strikes over the distant valleys. Awesome.
Of course, that storm met us as we drove away from there, and we were caught in our first bad weather of the trip. Ross was keen to see Deadwood after seeing some of the series on Foxtel and knowing some of the history surrounding the gold rush period. I convinced him to drive through Sundance on the way there – he thought because of my lunchtime reading about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but I was thinking about Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival!! – but Sundance is just a small country town with nothing to see…and no Robert Redford…
A family we had met at the Devil’s Tower had suggested being at Mount Rushmore for the ‘lighting ceremony’, but I rang ahead and found out it was at 7pm which we were not going to make, so we settled at Deadwood instead. The RV park here offers a bus on the hour to take you a mile back down the road into the town, so after dinner we jumped on the 9pm bus and walked the Main Street of Deadwood, an interesting excursion. There are at least twenty-odd casinos in the one street, which is all lit up at night and quite busy. It looked like something out of a movie set, and some characters standing in doorways smoking and dressed up looked like they were from gold rush times themselves. While waiting for the 10pm bus to return us to our RV, I noticed the local elementary school in the same street as all the casinos and hotels. I would love to poll those children about what they want to do when they grow up.
Sidebar about Main Street: a friend gave us before we left a Navman his brother had bought on a visit to the US last year. With its current maps and ease of use, it has been SO so beneficial to our travels. However, it doesn’t like when you just want to program in a town in general, it likes an actual address or point of interest (which we often don’t know until we get there). With all my previous research of the US (well, their television shows…), I started programming in to the Navman not just the town but “Main Street” in each town. And it works!! Hilarious! 😉
PS. To my Dad: yes, don’t worry, the kids’ holiday from schoolwork is over. We have started scheduling some time each day for home schooling, which is an experience! And works just fine when they are not all asking me questions at once 🙂

So to end the suspense…we survived… It was a cold night though, and interrupted by Belle having nightmares about bears, and Abi deciding to go sleepwalking. No refreshing shower this morning, so we all stayed in bed while Ross set off as early as possible.
We drove through Grand Teton National Park – which we have been calling ‘Tet-on’ but should be ‘Tee-tonn’ with an appropriate American drawl. Beautiful scenery led us to Yellowstone from there. We stopped at Lewis Lake for a picturesque breakfast – still chilly outside so I sat in the cabin and have added below my view while I ate. From there we travelled on to Old Faithful, just in time to see the geyser erupt. The visitors’ centre there showed a very informative 15 minute movie on the geology and how geysers occur, and a ranger was very helpful in suggesting places good for the kids to visit in the Park. She also gave them a list of birds and animals to find, and the ones we were successful in seeing were a chipmunk, pelican, raven, elk and bison amongst others.
Following the map containing the ranger’s suggestions, we visited several locations containing geysers and boardwalks making for easy and close up viewing, and had a late (!) lunch near Gibbon Falls which was very impressive.
Our last suggested viewpoint was a Mud Volcano, which Zac thought smelled like bacon and eggs (maybe more rotten eggs than bacon…). Jarrod went to use the restroom, and returned in an absolute panic, crying and shaking, because he had accidentally dropped his iPod down the pit toilet. Ross went to retrieve it but changed his mind when the he saw what was down the 9foot pit. A park ranger nearby suggested we report it at the visitors centre near the Park exit in case it could be recovered.
And so began a conversation I had never before thought about having. Everyone waited in the RV (poor Jarrod had fallen asleep sobbing by now) while I (sans shower or enough sleep) went to put in a report about an iPod with a green cover (which the ranger suggested would be brown by now) that was down a pit near the Mud Volcano. Jarrod Jones, never doubt that parenting involves sacrifices. And so the Joneses made memories at Yellowstone…
An hour on from Yellowstone (and I have not made mention enough of its beauty and gorgeous scenery), we decided to stop at Cody for the night. While not as far as we had hoped to travel today, I did my research and found an RV park with free wifi, 24hr laundry, heated pool and spa, playground, and free pancakes for breakfast. It was great to eat dinner by 7pm-ish and get some laundry done! And the 8 of us enjoyed some time in the pool and spa. There was a rodeo nearby to which the RV park offered free transport, but we reluctantly decided to give it a miss for the sake of an early night.at 12.30am now though, I will sign off…xx

Perhaps that’s a slight exaggeration, but we did cover three states today. We left the little town of Salina by 8am, and headed straight to Salt Lake City. We spent some time looking around the city centre, including the impressive State Capitol, and the Temple Square. This city is the headquarters for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and while there were many Mormons around the square and the town, apparently less than 50% of the city’s population today are Mormon.
We had stopped at a Kmart on the way into town to pick up some supplies as we could not see a Walmart anywhere (which is generally superior in bargain prices and choices). Leaving there, we found Zac crying in his seat a few miles down the road because he had dropped his Bobba Fett (a Star Wars character) key ring in Kmart he had bought with his own spending money at Legoland. While in the Temple Square Assembly Hall, Zac found his key ring deep in his pocket and decided God must have put it there because he was visiting a church!
We enjoyed a leisurely but late (2pm-ish) lunch a block up from the Visitors Centre on grass looking out over the city and Capitol Hill. From there we left Utah for Idaho to visit Idaho Falls, which was impressive but not what I expected! We stopped to have coffee and admire the falls which are actually the result of a hydroelectric plant, and continued on to Wyoming.
Side note: decent coffee has been surprisingly hard to find so far. I know I am spoilt at home, but we have found it difficult to find decent cafes that don’t give you a polystyrene cup and direct you to a push-button machine. Business opportunity anyone?
So we did leave Utah, visit Idaho briefly and arrive in Wyoming in a few hours. We decided to get as close to Yellowstone National Park as possible, planning to spend tomorrow exploring there. We toured through Jackson Hole, but had difficulty finding an RV park. And by this time it was so late at night, visitors centres had closed. We finally found a campground near Grand Teton National Park, with some difficulty as it wasn’t well signed, and finally parked and served up dinner at 10.30pm!!! The hours we are keeping do not sit well with a routined mother, but can’t be helped!
Tonight we are “roughing” it – there is a toilet a short walk away but NO showers, no electricity and no wifi! Aargh! And signs to “be bear aware” everywhere because bears reside nearby. I will post this entry tomorrow if I survive! 😉

We left Las Vegas at 8am this morning, knowing we had a lot of ground to cover today. Tim and Sam were still asleep when we left, so I sat near them to helicopter parent around any bends and fed them while on the road, which was a novel thing to be served cereal and milk at a set of traffic lights!
We were so tired from yesterday’s big day of driving, that we never read the information provided by the RV park and didn’t realise we had free wifi or a 24hour laundry, so I will have to get myself more organised and informed! We headed straight for Zion National Park, and at the visitors centre quickly realised any hikes were out of the question given the heat, our unpreparedness of footwear, and the time each suggested trail would take. We did do a lovely drive though, including through a long tunnel cut out in the rock wall. Some of the bends freaked me out slightly, given the sheer drop and the size of our vehicle hugging such bends, but I would rather Ross be behind the wheel in such circumstances than anyone else on earth!
To take my mind off it, I retrieved a book from my bag I had brought to read. I usually only get time to read novels in the Christmas holidays, so was quite excited to think I could achieve such a feat mid-year! Until I started to read… A book called ‘The Shack’ was recommended to me ages ago, so I thought would be a good choice while travelling for long hours through beautiful countryside scenery. HOWever, its premise is around a family’s CAMPing trip in the US SUMMER holidays where the youngest child is ABDUCTED…. As if this worrywart needs any NEW fears… And the setting was Oregon which is only a state over from here!!
ANYway..speaking of states, we went from California to Nevada yesterday, then briefly through Arizona today to Utah. Tim has expressed a real interest in Geography, so once I got over the shock of Tim asking to do something academic on holidays, I decided we must capitalise on this! Geography 101 lessons start in the morning 😉
From Zion we moved on to Bryce Canyon which was actually breathtakingly beautiful. We watched a 22 minute movie at the Visitors Centre which was a good history summary, then drove to a lookout. Ross had planned to visit a couple more lookouts but decided against it given his plan to get as close as possible to Salt Lake City which we plan to explore tomorrow. And we lost an hour once we entered Utah. We found a little town with Subway for dinner at 8pm, and the RV park next door offered us bargain accommodation. I have since discovered it is bargain for a reason though, and with no wifi, we will just connect with the world when next we can…

Postscript: just arrived in Salt Lake City. Am sitting in a park while Jarrod and Ross are in the visitors centre, and have discovered the accommodation next door has free wifi that reaches here! How naughty, but here are the posts I couldn’t do earlier!! 🙂

We decided to enjoy the buffet breakfast in the hotel this morning to ensure the kids had a decent meal, not knowing when the next one would be! (Goodness that sounds like a third world problem when it is really a first world one…)
Ross dropped us to the location to pick up the motorhome while he returned our rental car. The kids happily played in the parking lot for the three hours we were there (!) and I went through our paperwork. In the months leading up to the trip we made a list of locations we knew we were visiting and invited the kids to research cities so we would be informed once we arrived there. Now that we have left San Diego I have reviewed the research done on it, and we didn’t even try to scratch the surface! We didn’t leave Carlsbad or even Legoland, so will have to add it to the list of “places to return to one day”.
Our motorhome was finally ready just after 1.30pm, which the kids boarded with great excitement. We then began the five hour trip to Las Vegas, stopping just after 3pm for lunch when the excitement wore off slightly and their hunger took over their interest in anything else. We found a new franchise chain, Ono Hawaiian BBQ, which actually served rice and salad with their chicken and beef dishes – no fries in sight! – and congratulated ourselves on the choice.
We arrived in Las Vegas about 7.30pm, and went straight to an RV park behind Circus Circus which Ross’ parents recommended because they had stayed there the previous night. It is the only RV park on The Strip, so is great for its proximity to all the action, but does charge accordingly for the privilege. After a quick dinner, we tried to unpack properly and set up the motorhome, but that task is ENORmous, so we drove down the Strip to show the kids the lights and then returned to walk through Circus Circus. Being a Monday night, the Adventuredome inside (a mini-carnival/Timezone setup) had closed at 10pm instead of midnight, which I wasn’t really sorry about because it saved me money! There was a stage set up like inside a circus tent and the next acrobatic show was scheduled for 11.45pm but it was already 11.20 and we didn’t think we could keep the kids on their feet that long, so we returned to the RV for sleep. On the walk back, Sam produced a dime he had found on the casino floor. He had wanted to put it into the adults’ games (ie. poker machines), but I told him to just be happy to be one of the few people who left such a place with more money than when they arrived! 😉

The motto of Legoland is “have an unforgettable day”. I was going to use that as my title today, but seeing as the goal of the trip is to make EVERY day unforgettable, I didn’t want to just attribute it to Legoland!
We walked straight out of the hotel to the special entrance to Legoland at 9am as hotel guests have an hour early entry before the general public. We were immediately onto a kids’ roller coaster (the Coastersauras in DinoLand). Sam and Belle have been surprisingly brave on every fast or jerky ride we have been on – Zac is still my SNAG, and often feels motion sickness (or a little vomit in his mouth as he so delicately puts its). Sam is trying to “speak American” (starting with calling me Mom) and Zac has decided to learn some Spanish words, insisting on saying “gracias” to everyone for everything.
We underestimated the size of this theme park, taking leisurely strolls through the first few “lands” and stopping to have a group caricature drawn which took an hour because there are so many of us! So we then had to pick up the pace, but still managed to achieve everything we wanted to before park closing time of 6pm. Despite the thrills of rides and 4D movies, the absolute highlight for all of us was “Miniland” – Lego models of famous people and places. There was an international section, showing models of the Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal, and Opera House (at which point we called out “Aussie Aussie Aussie, oi oi oi!!”). There was a Star Wars section which the kids loved of course, and Zac filmed – with commentary about the scenes of each movie that were represented. And the was a US section showing different cities – which I was excited about because we are going to all of them! We took a massive amount of photos of Las Vegas, New York, San Fran, Washington DC, New England…and I plan to show the kids the real life version to compare!
Early to bed tonight as tomorrow is a big day of driving, and the kids are admitting exhaustion. They are very excited about picking up the motorhome. With them all asleep though, I have been channel surfing and came across a tv show called “Extreme RVs” – Simon Cowell’s is two stories with a jacuzzi! I need to sleep before the bar of expectation is set impossibly high…;)

We left Anaheim for San Diego today. Mistake no. 1: Ross left us packing up while he went to pick up our hire car, a large 8 seater…with no boot space!! Nowhere for our 7 bags of luggage to be stored, so we had to go to John Wayne Airport to swap it for a similar car with room in the boot (or is that the trunk?)
The trip to San Diego from there is listed in guides as an hour long, but it took HOURS… The freeway was at a standstill in places, and we have no idea why. We turned off to Oceanside Harbor to find lunch at 1.30pm, which is a seaside haven full of boats that reminds me of Hamilton Island Marina. We then decided to follow the coast rather than return to the highway, and really enjoyed the scenic route. We toured through Carlsbad and arrived at Legoland at 3pm.
The Legoland Hotel where we are staying for the next two nights is amazing. It has only been open though for five weeks, and some of its teething problems are obvious. For example, I overheard some discussions with housekeepers about people being let into rooms that weren’t yet clean, and when we asked for information about breakfast options such as restaurant or room service, no one could tell us!! Checkin is from 4pm but they forgot about us until I asked at 5pm if our rooms were ready. Rooms take a maximum of 5, so we have booked two rooms here – one with a medieval/castle theme, and the other with a pirate theme. Which will make sense once I post some photos!
Mistake no. 2: not including a rest day amongst all these theme park days. Jarrod and Tim had a disagreement, which was difficult to deal with as I looked at their very tired eyes and felt guilty about the hours they have been keeping!
We went to the in-house restaurant for a buffet dinner, which was GREAT. Salads and vegetables galore, as well as many other dishes, soups, entrees and desserts. And no fries in sight! I had a plate full of corn, broccolini and zucchini! We the went to the pool to watch a Ninjago movie. And a bucket of Lego is provided in every room. And a treasure chest safe containing mini Lego figurines and chocolates for the kids. Zac, Sam and Belle are in heaven for yet another day!

So my birthday in Australia flew by, with plans to celebrate here with a third day at Disneyland. However, there has been some discussion today about the fact if it is another birthday I must be AnOTHEr year older – and I ain’t adding two years at once!!!! Ross told the people at the gate about the celebration and they gave me a badge to wear, so everywhere we go people wish me a happy birthday! I will never celebrate with so many people again in my lifetime!!
We started the day at California Adventure, looking at exhibits and shows while Ross queued for a fast pass for the CarsLand ride. After queuing for half an hour at 9.30am, he managed to get us Fastpasses for between 5 and 6pm!!
So we decided to head back to Disneyland to do Mickey’s Toontown (the only land we missed entirely) and to give everyone one more chance to do something we have missed or their favourite ride again. On the way in we saw Princess Belle, who had a photograph with the girls, signed her autograph, and gave our Belle a special hug. It was so sweet. Grandma cried, and Belle skipped all the way to our next ride.
After Toontown we went on Zac and Belle’s choice, ‘It’s A Small World’ – I promise Luke I did not influence their choice!! We then went to Sam’s choice of the Peter Pan ride and Abi’s choice of the Finding Nemo submarine but both had 40+ minute queues, so we admitted defeat and went to Maccas for lunch and free wifi again. It was 2pm after all. We are now back in our hotel for another forced siesta before returning to finish off the day at California Adventure.
Catnap complete, we returned to California Adventure for the parade and the Radiator Springs ride. While the standby queue was 75 minutes, our queue with fastpasses totalled 12 minutes. The ride was great, and worth the wait! We then explored the Wilderness Adventure Park while Ross and Tim did the roller coaster at Paradise Pier, and then I got to take Sam and Belle on the Little Mermaid ride together. I have never been such a third wheel in my life nor enjoyed it more! It was so gorgeous watching them discuss every scene as we rode around.
Grandma then requested ice cream for dinner. Just icecream. The kids thought it was a great way to celebrate, but I am salivating for some salad! We then returned to Disneyland to finish off the requested rides and watch the fireworks. Our night finished with the Peter Pan ride, which was the first ride my Mum and I went on 18 years ago on my last visit here. A fitting finish. We said goodbye to the grandparents and theme parks.
And so ends this part of our trip. Everyone is sad to leave although Zac and Sam are quite excited about our next stop, Legoland in San Diego. Abi and Jarrod discussed plans to come back with friends when they are older. While I am a little sad they are making plans to grow up and holiday without me (sob!), my indoctrination of the wonderful world of Disney is successful and complete 😉