Oklahoma - State Stats

By Madelyn

In Oklahoma, when the government pushed the Indians back, they gave the settlers 160 acres each. They told everyone to line up at a line and when the gun went off, they could race to get a piece of land on the prairie. 

All they had to do is when they find a piece of land they had to find the flag and then they had to find the flag and then they had to pick that flag up and put down their flag. Then they would go to the office and give the flag and fill out a bunch of forms to have that land.

Not everyone did all of that. A lot of people who wanted a cirten piece of land would go in and hide close to that piece of land so they could claim it real fast. They had to do whatever they could to prove they came after the gunshot. Running horses, panting, popping up after some people passed and eating onley a little bit that night before with no fires are all things the "spooners" did.

My family and I went to a museum based on the land runners and spooners. We saw things that they brought with them. We saw the forms they had to fill out. We saw picture and paintings of them. We learned that most of the houses were tiny and the biggest house was about the size of a dining room these days. Everything about the sellers were cool but I'm still glad I live in these days.

Cruise - Castaway Cay

Our second day on the cruise included a stop at Castaway Cay. Castaway cay is an island in the Bahamas, owned by Disney. They have worked hard to build it up into a resort style paradise. There is a lovely beach and welcoming surf. There was a BBQ lunch but after the morning spent on the beach, we were ready to head back to air conditioning and the very tasty food we knew awaited us on the ship.

While in Castaway Cay, we signed up to feed and pet some stingrays. The stingrays were pretty freaky. The guides gave us a talk first and assured us the barbs had been cut and that the rays were not the least aggressive. They were just an unfortunate animal given an unfortunate name. Even with the pep talk, it was still a little freaky walking into the cay with dozens of rays swimming all around you and brushing by your feet.

The freakiness was too much for Erin and Maddie. Within minutes of being in the water and with the first ray a couple feet away, both girls freaked out and ran, splashing and crying back to shore. With Peter and I coaxing, all Maddie would say firmly is: "No, no, no!" She wasn't budging. Erin was a little more willing to discuss it but anxiously, she repeated: "Mommy, I'm not comfortable with this. Mommy, I'm not comfortable!"

This is where it is tough. We have a pretty good idea of what the girls can handle and felt the girls would like this and would probably regret missing it once they left. It took some time and we missed quite a bit of the experience but we did eventually coax the girls back in the water as long as they were held in our arms clutching both their arms and legs tightly around our body!

The experience, although sadly too short for us, was good. Peter and I got to feed the rays little pieces of shrimp. We held our hands very flat on a target board, with the shrimp sticking up. The ray swims along over the target and takes the shrimp from us. It was a strange sensation having the shrimp sucked up so and feeling the velvety, sliminess of the ray as it passed over our hand. One ray was so eager that Sandra didn't get her hand flat on the mat before it grabbed its target and started chewing. Unfortunately, the target was the shrimp plus Sandra's finger! After a few milliseconds of munching and much to Sandra's relief, the ray spit out Sandra's finger. It had two rows of tiny flat teeth impressions but the teeth weren't sharp or tough enough to break skin. Hmm. Maybe there's something to the girls' sense of self-preservation. Lol.

After feeding time, we had the opportunity to snorkel with the rays. It was surreal swimming along with them. However, we spent most of the time along the shallow edge with the girls who were finally willing to try petting a ray. Erin found quite a bit of courage and eventually got right in there but for Maddie, this was just too much. She stayed in the shallows and preferred to watch.

Hmm. Well, it wasn't quite the experience we hoped for but we still enjoyed it. We loved the rays! Wish we had had longer and do wish the kids had enjoyed it more. Ah well.

Cruise - Bahamas

Our first port of call was in the Bahamas. The girls weren't interested in going on shore so they stayed behind with their cousin at the Oceaneers club and Peter and I took off to enjoy Nassau. 

Nassau was a lovely little town. We enjoyed the straw market and walking along the streets, gazing at the beautiful, colorful buildings. Of course, being in Bahamas, we felt it was necessary to taste some rum cake. Yum.

Cruise - Totally get the hype over a Disney cruise

 Okay. I get that I our efforts to get here might be coloring our experiences but seriously, this is awesome.

Our room is wonderful. It is so much bigger than I expected a cruise cabin to be. Also, everything is so cleverly designed so it doesn't feel crowded. There is a double bed and the sofa turns into one child's bed and the other bed pulls down from the ceiling. There is daily housekeeping service and evening turn down service where they make the pull down bed and leave extraordinary, cute towel animals.

The food is unbelievable. It is all-inclusive and we don't have much will power when it comes to good food so several Mickey waffles, key lime pie slices, steaks and salmons later, you can imagine how snug our shorts felt by the end of the cruise. Yum yum.

The pool deck is fun. The kids enjoyed the pool and we all enjoyed the Aquaduct - an enjoyable mix between a waterslide and lazy river and was especially cool as the slide stretches over the side of the ship and you are suspended over the ocean.

The kids also really enjoyed the Oceaneers club where they hung out with over kids, made crafts and played games. There was one really fun activity for families where you go around the ship and solve a mystery based on clues you find. Very clever!

Dinners were rotated through three restaurants plus a fourth night themed night. All the nights were good but the night in Animator's Palate was amazing. The walls had interactive screens and Crush, from Finding Nemo personally interacted with each table. The kids faces lit up when he had a real conversation with them. Pretty magical. Nicely done, Disney.

Florida - I can't believe we made it

I can't believe we made it. I can't believe we made it. I can't believe we made it. That's our chant this week that just can't stop drifting through our minds.

Today, we had a 7 am flight scheduled for Orlando from Minneapolis. Arrival was supposed to be at 11. Easy. Even with delays we figured we would make it by the 3 pm deadline. Obviously you can tell where this is going.

We got up at 4:30 to make our 7 am flight. By 7, we were resting easy on the airplane waiting for it take off. I let my mind wander to all the exciting thing we were going to do on board the Disney Fantasy that afternoon and I leaned over the kids to grin at my husband and said: "This is working out great! We'll be there in plenty of time!" I blame that moment for the rest of the day.

About 5 minutes later, the captain got on and said sorry folks, we just need to have something checked out. We'll be about 15 minutes. 

About 20 minutes later, the captain got on again and said: "Sorry folks. It seems we have an unusual problem with the hydraulics. The engineers are not sure what to do with this one. They are really scratching their heads. If you have tight connections to make, you might consider going back in a rerouting your flight."

Crap.

Not to worry. Things usually work out, don't they? We head back into the terminal and line up with all the other folks. About six people in front of us, there is a man who starts getting loud and rite. "What do you mean, 4:40? That's not gonna work! How are you going to get me there for my curse?" After a few more words, he storms off to the side. A quick conversation with him and we find out that the only available rerouting has connections and the earliest possible arrival time is 4:40 pm. Ya. That's not going to work. For the first time, the realization hits that we will probably not make our cruise. 

We still wait in line, praying somehow that the agent will tell us something different. Just then, we here of another flight boarding for Orlando a few gates over. We decide quickly to check it out. Peter runs over while I wait in line. He gets back and says they can get us on the flight now but we wouldn't have bags. Crap! A cruise without luggage? It is our turn at the agents. We ask and learn, yep, the only routing possible is the 4:40 arrival. Quick decision. To heck with out clothes. We'll beg, borrow, or buy as needed.  We start racing down the terminal to catch the other flight. We are seriously hoofin it. Erin trips on her flip flop and whines: I can't! I yell back over my shoulder: "You have to! Run Erin! Run!" 

We arrive at the gate and the look of pure kind regret is on the face of the flight attendant. "I'm sorry. I had to close the gate." I burst into tears. We just missed our cruise.

But unlike the AirTran attendant, this attendant was sweet and helpful. "There must be something you can do, she says. Let's look at the other flights. A few minute later, she reports there is a Delta flight leaving from another terminal in 90 minutes that arrives at 2:50. Peter's on the phone in a matter of seconds. They can get us on! We thank the lady who helped us so and ran back to AirTran. We told the other cruise guy about the flight and he gets on the phone. We tell AirTran we need our baggage back and they comply. By this time, they still haven't cancelled the flight but we did hear that they were flying in engineers from Atlanta to look at it. Seriously? And you still haven't cancelled the flight? Those poor passengers!

We grabbed our suitcases and see the other cruise passenger. He's distressed because even the delta flight wouldn't get him there on time. That was the last time we saw him. Poor guy. We don't know what he ended up doing.

Delta was very helpful and sweet. We get assigned row 1, 2 and 3 (we couldn't be seated together). It's at this point, it dawns on us. W have first class tickets. Peter rolled his eyes. Good thing he didn't know that when he booked, he might have hesitated. We even ran into the Delta pilot in the terminal. He was sweet and gave the girls a pilot pin each and upon hearing our story, assured us he would try to get us there on time.

Thank goodness the flight was uneventful. We landed and had ten minutes to get to the check in desk at the airport. Of course it was in a different terminal and of course, we had to wait for a train between terminals. Of course, we had to run again and of course, Erin  collapsed at some point crying she couldn't do it but with coaxing, she did. W arrived at the check in desk 4 or 5 minutes past the deadline. They smiled and said, we've been expecting you. You are the last passengers to check in." 

"We made it? Does this mean we made the cruise?" I checked, heart racing. She smiles and said yes. You've made it.

Some whooping, hollering, collapsing and crying (all very quietly of course because we are a pretty reserved family). We made it. 

Disney put us on our very own bus and helped us collect our bags. They drove us to the port where we boarded the ship. Again, one of the last on board but we did make it on board. As we boarded, we saw the neighboring ship, the Festival pull out. That was the ship our co-passenger had been trying to make. We hoped he did but he probably didn't. 

We gladly made it to our room and saw my sister and her family. "Kind of cutting it close, aren't you?" They teased.

I can't believe we made it.

Day 5 Fun day on the prairie

At dinner tonight, I sat beside the man in charge of the wagon train. He doesn't have much to say but when I thanked in for this very cool experience, he smiled and he said all was going well. He said Day 3 was always good because finally everyone loosens up, relaxes a little and really begin to enjoy themselves. I think he summed it up well. How true.

We only had a half day of riding today. After lunch, instead of setting out again, we were able to set up our tents early and spent the afternoon playing old family picnic style games such as sac races and a three legged race. The games were abruptly cut short when a big, dark cloud rolled in. We could see it coming. There was huge bright blue sky for as far as your eye could see plus this huge black thundercloud. One minute, it was hot, bright and sunny and literally the next minute, we were all diving into our tents taking cover from the heavy driving rain that pushed heavily against the sides of our tent with us giggling and cowering inside. The whole storm ended as quickly as it came.

When the rain passed over and the sun started shining again, everyone soon emerged feeling pretty ebullient. Someone soon gleefully jumped into the nearby, pretty, little swimming hole. We were warned there might be leeches in there but the kids didn't care and begged to go in. We relented and soon after, we adults also jumped in. Three days of no showers, dust, ticks and hot, whipping wind made that just about the best swim ever! Fortunately, after our carefree swim, only one leech was found and the young teenager said it was worth it!

Really, overall, we have been very lucky. The weather so far has been pretty good. We've been so lucky! Last night, a fierce storm raged through North Dakota. Instead of staying on the wide open prairie, we camped out near someone's barn which would be our storm shelter if necessary.  We were warned to make sure our tents and belongings were pegged down well, covered and water proofed as best as possible. Then around midnight, we heard the storm thunder in. Looking out the tent flaps, we saw a brilliant lightning storm off in the distance. It was lightning bolt after lightning bolt, streaking and lighting up the whole sky like bright red and orange fireworks. We kept waiting for the storm to descend on us but it didn't. The wind raged and the lightning flashed but no rain and nothing more than the occasional low, background rumble of distant thunder. We were lucky. The next day, we received reports from the land owners that the nearby highway had been closed due to flash flooding. We hadn't even received a drop.

Day 3 First day on the Prairie

"LOL. I am so not cut out for pioneer life. I spent the afternoon in the ambulance hooked up to an IV for heat exhaustion, two hours after being released found a tick in my back and tonight huddled in my tent with my contraband Internet device hoping I don't get caught. LOL yep, not a pioneer woman."

 I put this quote on Facebook. It is really funny and was meant to elicit lots of laughing and teasing. Surprisingly, it also elicited a lot of sympathy which was sweet but not necessary. Even with such an eventful first day, we recognize how awesome this trip is.

We set out early this morning in our wagons. Riding in the wagons is as bumpy, noisy, windy and  outdoorsy as you can imagine. We spent the first part of the morning riding in the wagon but after the morning break, Maddie and I decided to try walking for awhile. It was equally fun walking along the wagons as it was riding in them. What a scene - the white wagon tops, the chestnut brown horses, and the groups of people all in 19th century pioneer dress. 

Since it was the first morning, we learned later that the horses were setting a pretty fast pace since they were still very fresh and energetic. Unfortunately, that meant it was difficult to keep up. Maddie and I weren't paying attention and soon realized we had gotten quite far behind our wagon. We didn't have our water on us and the sun was so so so hot. We tried to catch up but it was too difficult. We ended up walking the whole way to lunch which would have been fine except for the lack of water and hot sun. Maddie did okay but when we finally stopped, I gratefully climbed into the back of our wagon. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. Within an hour, I was feeling so bad that Peter got the paramedic who recommended an IV and an afternoon drive lying in the bed in the ambulance. How embarrassing! But I was so relieved. The IV did it's trick and I rejoined the group later that afternoon.

That should have been enough for one day ... But no, there's more. 

When we made camp that night and set up out tent, we did tick checks. Oh, there were so many ticks!  Some people reported having dozens on them. We fared out a little better and only removed a couple. Only one was attached - poor mom. The rest were easily plucked off.

What a first day. This is such a cool experience but does stretch our comfort level.

Day 2 Bismarck and Fort Mandan

We spent the morning in leisure at the hotel, finishing up laundry and packing our clothes and supplies in our new duffle bags. But before lunch, we headed off to Bismarck to see the capital and visit Fort Mandan, the site of Lewis and Clark's winter camp.

We are currently reading a book about Lewis and Clark's travels and Maddie has done a lot of research on Sacagawea, so it was neat to see some of where they lived and travelled. I think we willbe seeing a lot of Lewis and Clark stuff this summer.

 

At Fort Mandan, we saw a replica of their fort and a little museum of their travels. We marveled at samples of their journals, filled with detailed drawings and writings. We also learned that everyone was required to write a journal (kind of like our summer travels lol) and try on a buffalo robe.

Soon, it was time to head back to Jamestown to check in for our Wagon Train trip. On the way, we made sure to stop in Jamestown to see the world's largest buffalo statue and see a few buffalo (including a rare white one they called White Cloud) in the cute little Frontier Land site.

Time to check in for our Wagon Trip. Eeeee. So excited and nervous at the same time.

Welcome to North Dakota

Today, we arrived in North Dakota. We wish we had time to go to the Peace Garden and the Theodore  Roosevelt national park but we only have one day before we need to be at Fort Seward for the wagon trip.

There's a storm coming in and we need to buy some duffle bags for our trip so our first day in North Dakota was spent hopping in and out of Walmarts trying to find duffle bags and tin cups and then speeding along the highway trying to get to lodging before the storm hit us. This storm is expected to bring hail and possible tornados so everyone has been warned to find shelter before the storm hits.  Eeks.

In the end, we had hoped to make it to Bismarck but ended up taking shelter in Jamestown instead. 

Welcome to Minnesota

Minnesota is our family's 16th state. We are just driving through today to get to our prairie wagon trip in North Dakota. We were stunned when we landed in Minneapolis. Driving through town we came across intimidating traffic jams, a lack of traffic signals and lights, closed restaurants and tree branches and complete trees littering sidewalks and roads and debris everywhere. Being in tornado alley, it was hard not to let our imaginations run wild. In the end, we did learn that one of the largest wind storms had been through the night before and half the city was subsequently without power for days! What's worse was that another storm was predicted to come through that night with a moderate tornado index of 4 out of 8. We drove fast to get to North Dakota before the next storm hit. What an intro to tornado alley!

Ready for the second summer

So last year's blog didn't go so well but I'm hoping this year will be better. We are about to head on our second summer I. Our tour across America. Our plan is to spend some time with family, spend a week in a wagon on the prairie, a week in Florida and on a cruise and three weeks touring the Great Plains states. Our theme is Westward Expansion.

Minnesota - Retell of Today

By Erin

When we wowk up, we look't at the clock. 8:15. Hurry! Hurry! Get ready. Rush out of the door. 20 minutes left of breakfast. Everything's still there. Let's get some cereal, waffles, cream and jam. I have dry cereal, cereal with milk and waffles. We're on time so we can talk and rest. Back up in the room, writing, typing, math, doing buzzniz. Now in the car, at the mall.

Florida - Universal Studios

by Madelyn

When my family and I were in Florida we went to Universal Studios. In Universal Studios after we parked my Uncle Mike said: "Okay, we need to remember the purple Spider-Man."

I looked up and saw him pointing to a purple Spider-Man poster on the wall next to his silver car. We ran to Universal Studios. Inside we got to a sign that said "Spider-Man" on it.

"This is it." My mom said, panting.

"I don't want to go on." My sister Erin said as we were walking down the long halls to the ride. My mom hugged her and said it would be okay. I was not scared one bit. We went down the hall and found a man there handing out 3-D glasses. My mom took 6 of them. We sat down in our car and took off. 

"Hi guys." We heard a voice. W looked around and saw Spider-Man on a window. He jumped down and onto our car. I got scared and closed my eyes. The next thing I knew was we were done.

That was not my favorite ride! My favorite ride was a Harry Potter ride where we got in a car that did a whole bunch of flips and turns and bumps with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. It was great!