Author: SilverEagle

Saturday night, we booked it to the St. Louis area and pulled in to the Glen Carbon Wal-mart at 2am. This was our second Wal-mart camp out. Not sure at what point one becomes a seasoned veteran at the Wal-mart camping routine? Also, just to update everyone in the west, the Mississippi River was still there, in case there was any concern. Sunday, we stopped to see the McCoy/Lee/Sanford crew in Worden, IL. It was great to see them and as luck would have it, it was brew day at East Wind Brewing Company. We got to sample some tasty handcrafted brew.  After the kids got some sufficient romping around time with the two Lee kids and the 4 McCoy kids, we loaded up and headed due east for 3 hours to Palestine, Illinois.  We were headed to see the Parrish’s with their 4 kids at their country house.

We met these guys 3 years ago at the Feast of Tabernacles in the Poconos. Our kids haven’t been lonely on this trip for sure. They treated us to a beautiful and tasty dinner and a nice slice of blueberry pie. We hit the sack (late again) and planned for a 6 or 7am departure for the last haul (11 hours) to central Pennsylvania. No need for an alarm, since a Midwest thunderstorm started rolling in. By the time we were trying to head out at 6:30 am, the storm was directly over us. The lightning flashing and the thunder was a-crackin’. Interesting morning in the Airstream as the downpour outside started to make its way inside. Towels, buckets and the like were needed to keep the water at bay (no pun intended). The radar showed a steady line of thunderstorms directly over us, so waiting it out wasn’t going to work. We all hastily said our goodbyes, hopped in the truck, soaking wet, in between lightning strikes directly around us and started driving. This helped stop the leaks and got us on our way. We are currently stopped for the morning fix. You know its a bad storm if it stops us from having coffee first.

Here are a couple photos of stops and of course, cooooffffeeeeeeee. Practicing making espresso with the Moka Pot… maybe by the end of the trip we’ll have it down. Making good coffee is a skill that takes patience. I think we’re getting there. The small critters that poop wherever they want are enjoying the grass outside while we eat breakfast. A much needed Sabbath rest today. Hopefully our photography during the trip is respectable… trying to limit our mobile uploads and stick to DSLR photos.

Parked in the Wuckerts “cul-de-sac”… aka, dead end street converted into a driveway.

Taking a short potty break in the middle of southern Wyoming.

Moka Pot Crema. This is a good thing. Of course it takes good beans to do this (thanks Steve Stoneking at Buzzjoy Coffee Roasting located in Richland, Washington and online at http://www.buzzjoycoffeeroasting.com/). Had to get that plug in there.

Kansas Latte from the Moka Pot. Pretty easy; put in whole coffee beans, add hot water, wait 2 minutes and it just comes out like that.

After enjoying an overnight stay at some friend’s beautiful house in the mountains outside of Denver, being conned by them into pulling the Airstream into their “cul-de-sac” (it was more of a slow vehicle turn out), we are now on the high plains. We are in Kansas. We didn’t realize we entered Kansas. We didn’t see any signs or anything that announced we were entering Kansas. No offense to those living in Kansas, but we kind of see why. Its almost as if Kansas is trying to hide. There was no big sign or giant stone structure with a big “Welcome!”. No fanfare or bragging about “Home of the… whatever”. We have to force it out of them to admit that, yes, we are indeed in Kansas. Admit it… this is Kansas isn’t it??

Anyway, we’ve noticed on this trip that we aren’t the fastest travelers in the world. Its OK I guess. We did plenty of speeding around this past year to make doctors appointments, treatments and the like. Every slow minute with our family intact is just fine.