So the Kennelly Chronicles hits the road this week! What a fun trip we had!!
We packed up early Monday morning and headed out for Missouri passing through Kentucky and Illinois along the way and hitting parts of old Route 66.
We also decided to keep stats of various things we saw along the way including – Animals: living and dead (road kills – with unknown road pizzas being classed as UFAs – unidentified flat animals), bodies of water, gas station stops, and anything else we could think of. Cathy was kind enough to keep the stats for us and if you scroll to the end of this week’s entry you’ll see the official totals.
Passing through St. Louis we saw the Gateway Arch, something we hope to see closer up on the trip back.
And even stopped at a retro tourist shop where Cathy found yet another pair of sunglasses to add to her collection (she could outfit our entire family two times over – just ask her).
Finally we arrived at our hotel and it was HOT – 90 + degrees inside and out (they didn’t pre-cool our room with the AC) so we all headed for the pool and enjoyed some smoked chicken for dinner (kinda spicy but good).
The next morning we headed for Liberty Jail, site of Joseph Smith’s imprisonment on false charges (that were eventually dismissed) in the Winter of 1838-39, one the coldest winters on record….and they had no heat!
Don’t know if I could have toughed that out. On top of that they were fed poisoned or spoiled food most of the time they were there. I think we gained a new perspective on how good we have things and how much people have sacrificed for the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We then continued on our way to Independence, MO where Joseph Smith dedicated a site for a future temple that has yet to be built. Along the way we found a Tastee Freez so we HAD to stop and eat lunch.
At the Visitor’s Center in Independence they had a unique interactive exhibit about the family and then one on the history of the church in Missouri that also gave us a glimpse into their lives at that time.
We even saw the Community of Christ (formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and their temple but we didn’t have time to go inside (they offer tours). Quite a unique structure though.
The rest of the day we worked our way north through Iowa and into South Dakota where we actually found a Cracker Barrel – something you don’t normally find out west of the Mississippi. We all had a nice meal and then continued on to Mitchell, South Dakota where we stopped for the night.
When we awoke the next morning we found we were just down the street from the world’s ONLY corn palace…so we had to go see it, of course.
Apparently they decorate this building with corn of different colors and varieties each year in the summer. This years theme was America’s Destinations, some of which we would visit later that day!
Of course we got to feelin’ a bit CORNY. Yeah I know, bad joke, but we were up to our EARS in it. <grin>
Once we finally dragged ourselves away from the latest touristy gift shop, we found blue skies and bugs.
Not sure I could ever keep the windshield (or the luggage carrier) clean for more than a mile or two but the rolling prairies were beautiful and eventually we got to Badlands National Park where we did a bit of hiking and posing.
At the end of the day we finally made it to Mt. Rushmore,
where we hiked the Presidential Trail,
got some nice photos and even spotted a chipmunk (though I only got video of him).
And for those of you who have seen National Treasure 2 – THEY LIED!! There is NO lake behind the mountain. Only a sheer cliff. The lake they used is actually in the area but not immediately behind the mountain AND there is no public path up to the top unless you want a team of forest rangers chasing you.
Finally, we got to our camp site near Crazy Horse Memorial (the privately funded mountain carving of Crazy Horse on…his horse).
Okay this wasn’t our campsite, but it looked good.
And while we did NOT go to the memorial, we DID go into Custer, SD and enjoyed some pizza before going back to camp to roast marshmallows (the only thing that cooks over an open fire with minimal effort).
And more posing
When we awoke the next morning, we discovered that it gets cold at higher elevations – even in June. And that we were tired of traveling. So we geared up for the long drive and drove through Wyoming…
Waterfalls… (okay, we didn’t drive THROUGH the waterfall)
Yellowstone… (where the mosquitoes were HUGE)
Saw some buffalo with their babies…
Baby in back! (see the small legs?)
And caught a great sunset!
But we paid for these last photos with BLOOD. It’s never a great idea to stand by a river at dusk after a very rainy month in Wyoming and the mosquitoes were SWARMING. I had a swarm that followed me like the Peanuts character, Pigpen’s dust cloud. There must of been 50 + mosquitoes and half of them landed on my arms as I tried to snap a photo.
Needless to say I had had enough and ran to the van, killing anything that happened to make it inside. When the kids saw how they followed me, they finally believed that I am a living bug magnet. To spare them the cloud, I pulled up the trail and they all hopped in swatting bugs at they went.
We were SO glad to not be camping that night and found a great little KFC in West Yellowstone, Montana that hit the spot.
And just for fun we put Newdale, ID in the GPS and ended up in the middle of some farmers’ fields down bumpy dirt roads searching for our destination. Seems GPS works best with a STREET address not just a city. Had I known that then, I could have spared everyone my rantings and ravings about being lost in the middle of nowhere with NO LIGHT – no street lights, nothing, nada. Try finding your way out of that mess even WITH a GPS.
Well, we did find a road, hit a dead skunk (for added fun) we finally got to the Harpers!!!
We were SO grateful to sleep in beds and the Harpers are the best for allowing us to come in SO late (they’re farmers – they go to bed early and get up early).
But now the REAL adventure starts!!
And now the STATS:
Day 1: No live animals, Dead - 5 dead deer, 2 dead raccoons, 13 UFAs, 4 Gas station stops, 7 mobile homes being transported by wide load semi, 5 bodies of water AND almost run off the road by a sleepy truck driver.
Day2: Live – One crazy bunny(who frantically hopped all over the road and nearly became a road kill under our tires) and a field mouse (I’ve NEVER seen one of these cross a road and he likewise almost became road kill under our tires), Dead – 5 possum, 3 deer, 1 raccoon, 1 skunk, 20 UFAs, 3 gas station stops, 17 bodies of water, 1 drive-in theater, 1 windmill farm, and 1 army convoy
Day 3: No live animals, Dead – 1 coyote, 1 deer, 1 ferret, 5 UFAs, 2 bodies of water, and 3 gas station stops
Day 4: Live (do mosquitoes count if they’re really BIG?): 20 + buffalo, 4 elk, 1 chipmunk, Dead – 1 dear, 1 beaver, 1 prairie dog, 8 UFAs, and 12 bodies of water (I think Cathy was too tired to count gas station stops on the last day).
Until next week….Happy Trails!!!
Sean “The Dad” Kennelly
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