Traveling West to East

In the midst of travels and homeschooling and... life, this blog has fallen by the wayside. I am making a resurrection attempt, and we'll see how long it lasts! 

We have traveled many thousands of miles over the past year (30,000 miles would be a safe guess), and we have tried to make the travels fun, exciting, and educational for our growing kids. They have been great travelers, and have mostly enjoyed our trips. Audio books and Christian radio dramas have helped SO MUCH! We've listened to the entire Narnia series twice in the last year, as well as many many other things. Thankfully our kids love audio books!

They are such troopers, having spent hours endless upon hours in our trusty van this past year!

The journey east

 The following is a photo recap of our 3,000 mile trip east in May 2015, beginning in northwestern Washington state (about as far north and west as you can go in the continental U.S.), traveling through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and finally ending in southwest Virginia. 

Traveling the Lewis and Clark Trail along the Colombia River

 We'd been learning about the Lewis and Clark Expedition in school, so it was exciting to get to follow along on parts of the Lewis and Clark Trail, stopping at some of the places they stopped.

Visiting Travelers Rest State Park, the one archaeologically proven place where the "Corps of Discovery" (as the expedition group was called) camped both on the way west, and then again when traveling east.

Checking out the campsite

Trying on some replicas of Lewis and Clark's gear

The white poles show where tents would have been

 We also visited Pompey's Pillar, a big rock that William Clark and his group stopped at on the way east when the expedition was divided into three different groups. Clark named the rock after Sacajawea's son, and carved his name in the rock.

Posing with Pompey's Pillar

On the rock in front of Clark's signature

A replica of one of the long boats Lewis and Clark used to take themselves and their supplies down river

In the Pompey's Pillar visitor center posing with William Clark - their favorite member of the expedition because he was a fellow red-head. :)

Our next stop was the Battle of Little Bighorn. It was a little heavy for the kids to fully absorb at this point, but they understood a lot of it.

Trying on some soldier's gear - hats, bugles, canteens

You could drive through parts of the battlefield, and there were markers everywhere, showing where U.S. soldiers as well as Indian soldiers were killed. 

At a new monument at Little Bighorn remembering the Native Americans who fell there.

 Devil's Tower! It is a very impressive "igneous intrusion" (essentially a lava plug) in the Black Hills. There is a trail around the base of it, and we enjoyed that. It did clear up enough at one point to see the entire thing well, but we didn't manage to get a picture of it. Nathan says we have to return someday so we can get some better pictures. :)

The rock is all rocks that have fallen from the tower columns over the years

One of the huge fallen columns

An enormous fallen column! Wouldn't want to be in the way when one of these things comes crashing down!

Met a field full of curious little prairie dogs at Devil's Tower. Everyone enjoyed watching them.

Our next stop was Mount Rushmore. This was quite a hit with the kids, especially Daniel who talked about it for weeks afterward. It was by far the most crowded and "touristy" place we visited on our journey east, but it was definitely worth stopping to see.

Their first good look at Mount Rushmore

It was very impressive, especially hearing the story behind it all!

When the Native Americans saw Mount Rushmore, they asked one of the Mount Rushmore's workers to carve a monument to one of their heroes: Crazy Horse. One man began working on this singlehandedly, and now his family is continuing the work. It is so huge that all four faces on Mount Rushmore would fit on the cut-out rock beside Crazy's Horse's head.

The unfinished Crazy Horse monument as it looks now

The kids with a model of what the finished product should look like (eventually)

Exploring a tepee in the Crazy Horse visitor center

Traveling through the prairie...

And into the Badlands

The Badlands were very interesting, and had their own sort of beauty

They were especially beautiful once the sun started to set!

Taking a break at a rest stop

There were times when the road seemed endless! 

Stopping to visit some dear friends - Rebekah with Jordan Happ

Visiting family - Hannah having fun on the swing with Uncle Ron

Having a blast playing kickball with Daddy and Uncle Ron on our last night of the trip east

Having a great time getting out all that pent-up energy!

The next day we drove the last 8 hours from Ohio to my (Rachel's) parents' in Virginia. This picture shows the kids' faces when they realized that we were heading up the side streets toward Grandma and Grandpa's house. Happy cousins, grandparents, and aunts and uncles awaited us! It was a fun and memorable trip, but it's always nice to reach the end... to be in one place and be able to unpack after traveling for two weeks and living out of suitcases!

Happy Kiddos