Somewhere Has A Name

After three days of non-stop driving, Somewhere turned out to be Kimball, South Dakota. We arrived to this sleepy town on Monday afternoon.  Kimball is a town of about 700 located just off I-90. Most people would never stop in a town like this unless you needed gas!

Monday afternoon was beautiful. We sat outside in the RV park enjoying the warm weather. We toured the town - that took about 10 minutes - then just relaxed. Tuesday morning the fearless hunters woke up to a torrential downpour. I'm so glad that I didn't sign up to go hunting :)

After the hunters set off, Dena, Addison and I drove east to Mitchell. Mitchell is famous for the Corn Palace. The corn palace isn't really a palace. It looks like some random Russian building decorated with corn cobs and stuck in the middle of a prairie town. We toured the corn palace, went to a few antique shops and then to Cabelas to pick up some forgotten hunting necessities.  While we were in Cabelas, Joe called and asked me to get four sets of rain gear. All the hunters forgot their rain gear. The store was all sold out. Of all people to forget rain gear, you wouldn't expect it to be Oregonians! My plans to take all these great pictures of the hunting and scenery never happened. I didn't get some cute photos of Addison and Joe, but can't seem to find the cable to get them off the camera...maybe when we get home I'll find it. 

The rains continued almost non-stop until Thursday. The hunters braved the cold, wet weather and went hunting as scheduled. The rest of us had a little cabin fever, so Dena, Addison and I left Friday morning and headed west toward Mt. Rushmore. We couldn't take another day of Kimball life. We drove through the Badlands National Park, had donuts and coffee at the world famous Wall Drug, toured the South Dakota Hall of Fame and found a great stopping point in Keystone, South Dakota. Plus, there was no rain! 

Today we met up with the rest of the family and visited Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse. After  a fun afternoon, Joe, Addison and I are headed home while the rest of the family goes to Nebraska for more hunting. We're taking our time getting home and planning to go through Yellowstone. 

Except for the rain and cabin fever, the family road trip to South Dakota was great fun. Who knew that at 1600 mile road trip could be so much fun :)

Road Trip

Yesterday we left Redmond Oregon headed toward Somewhere South Dakota. I'm not exactly sure where we are going, just that we are supposed to arrive tomorrow in South Dakota. South Dakota is supposed to have excellent pheasant hunting so that is the reason for the craziness of this road trip. 

On this trip "we" is Joe, Lindsay, Addison, Carla (my mom), Scott (my dad), Dena (g-ma), Lauren (g-pa) and three dogs. We set out in two cars at two different times on Saturday morning and met for the evening in Missoula Montana. Here are some stats from day one:

550 or so miles

4 states

3 stops in the first 2 hours

1 toddler meltdown

1 tire on fire (thankfully it wasn't ours)!

1 run-in with Johnny Law

The first day was pretty uneventful and I wish I would have been able to take some pictures of the beautiful fall colors in Idaho. The tamarack trees are a brilliant gold color accented against the pines. It really is beautiful. 

Day two brought LOTS of driving.  We left Missoula around 7:30am and drove for about 12 hours. Montana also has beautiful fall colors. Most of the day was a good drive. Addison has been a super trooper and has adapted to all day in the car seat. She's actually getting pretty good at putting her shape toys in the right spot. Today also brought a bit of frustration. Carla, Dena, Addison and I were in one car while Joe, Scott and Lauren are pulling our house. We ended up having a little misunderstanding about where we were going to stop for the evening and drove an extra 31 miles. Usually this isn't a big deal, but Addison was letting us know that she was ready to get out of her car seat. 

We didn't have very good directions to the RV park that we were supposed to stay at and we were lost. After turning around on the interstate once, passing our traveling partners as we were going the other direction, and then each car getting two different sets of directions to the same place, we decided to bag our original plan and drive to the next town. Hence the extra 30 miles. I really wish I had been able to record some of the conversation in our car today. I was laughing so hard I really thought I would wet my pants! Good thing this isn't tourist season or we probably wouldn't have been able to find a spot in an RV park. We really would have had to camp at Wal-Mart as Dena suggested (except I doubt that there is a Wal-Mart within 100 mile)! 

So tonight we are in Sundance Wyoming and we haven't seen the sun all day. It is very cold! Tomorrow we are planning to arrive in Somewhere South Dakota. I sure hope we have directions to Somewhere South Dakota!

More Pony Pictures

Addison is getting into leading her pony around the "field" (our back yard). She is very happy to let him eat when ever he wants. She'll even sit down and take a break every 10 steps or so. If Jose' gets too close, Addison will drop the lead rope run away screaming. For Addison, too close is Jose' not staying at the absolute end of his lead rope. I think that we are making improvements since the first day that he arrived!

Addison knows how to make the clucking noise, so she stands at the end of the rope and clucks. Jose' usually doesn't respond...the green grass is just too inviting. 

Addison's second favorite thing is to feed the animals. She's getting pretty good at carrying the dog food bowls and usually only spills a few bites. She feeds Jose' by the handful. We had to put a chain on the feedroom door so Addison can't get it open. The other night she had a tantrum when I shut the door and told her it was time to go to the house.  I think her dad distracted her when he let her feed the dogs. It looks like there was quite a bit that was spilled this time :) 


It is so fun to watch Addison try new things every day. Sometimes she's successful...sometimes not. But, she ALWAYS wants to try and really wants to help mom & dad!

The Pumpkin Patch

In between rain showers Sunday, we went pumpkin hunting. About a mile from our house is a great farm that gets all decked out for fall. There are hay rides, kids play area, petting zoo and of course, a pumpkin patch. We did take Addison last year when we went to get pumpkins, but she didn't get out of the stroller. I don't think that she was even crawling then. So, this was really her first pumpkin patch experience. The first thing she notices was the red wagon parking lot. She LOVES to ride in the wagon and she didn't waste any time climbing in. We pulled her out to the pumpkin field and she was very apprehensive about getting out of the wagon. Once Joe and I started filling the wagon with pumpkins she was forced to get out.

h. 

She finally got into the spirit and started looking for pumpkins. Once the wagon was loaded, she unloaded it - several times. After the pumpkin patch Addison wandered into the kids play area and really liked the tire swing. Of course she liked the swing, it resembled a horse!

 

We had a great time despite the dreary weather!