We Arrived In The Show-Me State

We made good time and had better gas mileage today.   We arrived at the St. Louis West KOA, which wasn't too full.  It's location is outstanding for what we want to do.  The kids spotted Six Flags on the way to the campground which amped up the excitement quite a bit.  However, we will make them wait until tomorrow for all of the fun.

We need to head to the grocery store and get caught up on laundry first.  Luckily we aren't very far from a Wal-Mart and were able to find everything we needed.  An added benefit to staying at a KOA campground is that they have laundry rooms.  I make sure that we save any quarters and they go into our laundry money bag.  We also found this collapsible wagon at Costco which fits the laundry baskets perfectly for a more convenient way to transport the laundry to and from the trailer.  When we are not using it, it folds up and stores easily under one of the bench seats in the van.

While James was "helping" me with laundry, Daniel took the other kids to the nice, big pool here.

 

Before we embarked on this 2 month cross-country voyage we practiced by taking small trips not far from home to see what we really needed to bring and where/how we would store items.  One storage dilemma we faced was what to do with ALL the dirty clothes.  Well we have this large storage area under our bed and it is perfect for 2 laundry baskets, plus other miscellaneous storage.  As I toss the clothes into the laundry baskets I sort them by lights or darks.  Then when we need to do laundry I just remove the baskets from underneath the bed with the clothes already sorted.

Get your walking shoes ready tomorrow because we are headed to Six Flags St. Louis.  The kids have waited long enough.

Nicole

In Route To Missouri

We knew we would have 2 days of driving ahead of us as we left Mt. Rushmore and headed to Missouri. What we didn't know is how windy it would be.  We ended up losing a hubcap to the van and the spare tire cover on the trailer somewhere in South Dakota.

While we didn't stop at Badlands National Park, we caught just a glimpse of the "badlands" from the road and they were beautiful.  They reminded me of a "mini" Grand Canyon.

We continued through a portion of Iowa and into Nebraska where we stopped for the night.  We lost another hour today as we crossed into the Central Time Zone, which made it feel like an even longer day.

We made reservations at the KOA in Gretna (West Omaha) just the day before.  We were ecstatic to have cell service and a better wi-fi connection.  And we were finally feeling the humidity.  This KOA had a great area for the kids to play, which is exactly what they needed after being in the car all day.

They also offered freshly-made pizza and boneless chicken bites inside the store & delivered them to our campsite.  Since we had been eating/snacking in the car all day, this was a nice and unexpected treat.  Our camp site had a little table area on a brick deck and lots of shade.  It was also a long enough site that Daniel didn't have to unhook the trailer from the van.

All the kids had baths and went to bed without any complaints.  They were forewarned that tomorrow is another "driving day" and we will be waking up early.  The kids are "extra" excited to arrive in St. Louis because they are aware we will be visiting a Six Flags park there.

Nicole