June Road Trip Videos

 

Pelican Bay

Elizabeth is back to swimming at Pelican Bay this summer! 

 

Day 12 Road Trip-Boise, ID to home

We drove from Boise home today! We were home by 10:30 AM. How? We left at 7:00 AM Boise time and then lost another hour as we headed west. We left early because we stayed on Central time sleep wise so we could get up very early knowing we wanted to get home. 

Leaving Boise at 7 AM on a Sunday. No traffic! 

Pretty Idaho scenery

Hi Oregon! 

Pretty Oregon scenery

We had all Sunday to relax and unpack. Later, I printed out the pictures and here is what our 50 states map looks like now! 

By some weird miracle, no one else in the family got covid even though we breathed the same air as Elizabeth for 24 hours a day the entire time she was contagious and sick. Very strange. My only guess is she somehow wasn't very contagious? After about 10 days, she felt pretty much normal. However, as I type this on August 3rd, her sense of taste is still really funky. Things STILL don't taste right. I've read this can happen and it's a sign of nerve damage. She even thought her taste was improving and in the last 2 days says it's gotten a lot worse again. 

 

Day 11 Road Trip-Laramie, WY to Boise, ID

Not a lot happened today. We had originally intended to drive from Laramie to Twin Falls and stop for the night. When we got to Twin Falls, it was only like 2:30 so we decided to push on to Boise for the night. The drive was around 10 hours total for the day. Jeremy and I just took turns but we were glad we made it to Boise. Elizabeth just slept and rested in the car. 

Wyoming was overcast and windy the whole way through.  Also, there was road construction on the highway almost the entire way through on I-80 from Laramie to Evanston. We would get a couple miles breaks here and there and back to road construction. 

When we got into Utah the clouds cleared out. Utah didn't have any road construction! Thanks Utah! 

We like to stop by this park in Idaho outside of Twin Falls. 

 

Day 10 Road Trip-Cheyenne, Wyoming

 After visiting Mt. Sunflower, we continued our drive. The destination that day was Laramie, Wyoming. We drove through Denver and then up to Cheyenne where we visited the capital building. There were thunderstorms rolling through the area. We got to the capital just as the rain was ending. It got cold out too! 

Wyoming Capital Building

On our drive through Kansas we had wheat on one side and corn on the other. It was a nice looking color contrast. 

Denver. We didn't stop at their capital building. It looked like kind of pain to get to and the traffic was quite bad. 

A huge dust devil! 

Thunderstorm scenery driving from Denver to Cheyenne

Under the dome of the capital in Cheyenne. 

The place was dead quiet. There was NO ONE there. This was a neat view from inside looking up to see the dome. 

Pretty old staircases. 

Hotel dinners in Laramie. Elizabeth still wasn't feeling great. She still had the stuffy nose and cough and a weird sensation in her throat. Her sore throat came back and she started having stomach aches. 

Day 10 Road Trip-Mt. Sunflower, Kansas

We made it to the highest point in Kansas! It was nearly on the Colorado line. Jeremy and the kids thought this would be a fun off the road place to find. We took some gravel roads off the main highway and found it. It was quite deserted but very pretty and silent. It was also very windy. It would have been super silent if the wind wasn't blowing. 

a cactus of some kind

Nathan looks like a giant in this picture! 

 

Day 9 Road Trip-Missouri to Arkansas to Oklahoma to Kansas

 We got our last 3 new states today! We had never been to Arkansas, Oklahoma or Kansas. Elizabeth's fever finally broke and went away. She now just had a stuffy, runny nose, a little cough and was still pretty tired. In the morning, we drove to the Tri-State marker at the corner of Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. We got to reach into 3 states at once! 

Here's the marker. Nathan is standing in Oklahoma and Elizabeth in Missouri and then I'm in Arkansas taking the picture. 

The Oklahoma sign was right near the marker. 

You can see the Missouri sign too. 

There was no Arkansas sign, but here are the kids in Arkansas! 

This was the cheapest gas we saw on the trip. It was on the Arkansas/Missouri/Oklahoma border. I think technically it was in Missouri. 

We drove an hour or so into Oklahoma before...

We got to Kansas! 

Eating lunch somewhere in Kansas. 

We stopped in Linsborg, Kansas. It must have been founded by a group of Swedish settlers. It was like Leavenworth except everything was Swedish. 

They had these cute little cared horses up and down the main streets. I'm guessing it is a Swedish heritage thing. 

After exploring Linsborg, we found a castle up in the hills near town. This was our second castle of the trip. The first was in Iowa. 

There were great views from the top of the castle. 

We continued to drive through Kansas. This is at a rest area somewhere. 

As we got near our stop in Hayes for the night, a humungous storm went kind of around us. It had dumped a ton of rain on the ground so we drove through some very wet highway. The radio kept breaking in and telling people in the county just northeast of where we were at to prepare for a tornado and seek shelter. A tornado did eventually touch down. I was  little nervous. That night, Elizabeth had a rough time sleeping with the covid. Her throat was very full of something and she couldn't swallow properly. 

Here are the family photos Jeremy took today. Oklahoma sign. 

No sign for Arkansas so here is a picture. 

Top of the castle in Kansas near Linsborg. 

Kansas!

Tri State marker for Missouri/Oklahoma/Arkansas.