Sara's Notes - July 3, 2008

I don't have much to do right now cause I read all of my books that I brought already. Approximately 25oo pages so far. Most of those books are Harry Potter books. I'm done with book 6. We don't have book 7 but my dad said that we could buy it if we ran out of reading materials. Talk to you later.
Sara

July 3rd - Corn Fields

We are now in the heartland. Yesterday we hit a couple of the 'I' states. Today we are in Iowa. Boy, do they grow some corn. Lots of signs indicating that the corn is being grown to ease our fuel prices. While diesel is cheaper here, by about 30 cents a gallon, we haven't seen but one bio-diesel establishment on the entire trip. Incredibly nice folk out here. The weather has been all but perfect with sunny, breezy days in the lower 80's and nights down into the lower 60's or even upper 50's for perfect sleeping. I write this entry while seated at an outdoor gazebo at a beautiful rest area outside of Des Moines. We hope to make it well into Nebraska tonight so that we can spend the night of the 4th in Colorado. Long driving day. Need some espresso, no?

June 30th HERSHEY PARK

In honor and celebration of Ali completing her first decade, we spent the day at HERSHEY Park. They let us camper-types in an hour early in return for spending so much money on the campground entrance fee. What they didn't tell us is that only a very few select rides but all of the pay-to-play stuff (face painting, whack-a-mole, food court, etc.) is actually open at that hour. Our first ride together as a family was on the Comet, a old-school wooden roller-coaster. On the first drop I turned to see how Sara was holding up (this was her first ride on a big kid coaster) and instinctively reached out for the stop-this-train chord. She looked like she might be in cardiac arrest or at the very least that her large intestine had come unglued and was slowly corkscrewing its way out her back side. Her cherubic little face was gripped with a look of sheer joy-terror-pain-wtf, I couldn't decide if I should laugh or try to console her. She soon loosened up and enjoyed the ride that she never wants to go on again.

Ali and I went on the Claw. Can't really describe this to you. Kinda like the pirate ship on mushrooms. You know you are in for a good time when the floor drops out from under you after everyone is safely chained in. It swings, wicked high, while spinning and teetering, and such. Ali and I had an absolute blast while Sara cried in Shannon's arms, worried that Ali and I were going to get hurt or worse.

We ended our park day by taking in a show. Imagine the greatness of Blue Man Group combined with really bad broadway shtick and pseudo broadway vocals. Add Velveeta. Stir to mix. Let ferment in the afternoon sun. Yields 1 big serving of poop.

We went back to the trailer park with all or our rowdy friends for a dinner of kettle corn and cider. We turned the fan on full blast to drown out the neighborly noises and turned in for the night.

June 29th – Hershey, PA

Today was our first day on the road. We made it about 550 miles to the Hershey Highmeadow Campground in anticipation of spending the day at Hershey Park tomorrow. We drove through five states today, which at least sounds cool! Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania.

The campground is quite interesting...not our usual stomping grounds. We tend to prefer primitive, serene settings where one might hear a loon, some birds, maybe a few campfires. As it turns out here, the sites are right next to each other and our camp neighbors love listening to the Jeff Foxworthy show, apparently loud enough for the neighboring county to hear.

But the sudden downpour...I mean monsoon...cleared out the noisy campers. Ahhh...karma.

and we're off!

Our much anticipated journey across the country is finally here! We are packed up and ready to pull out of town. The weather is chilly and rainy and the sun is peeking up. Stay tuned to hear more about our adventures! First stop...Hershey Park!

First Day of Summer?

The calendar clearly indicated that June 20th was the first day of summer. But a huge hail storm came through that afternoon pounding us with grape-sized hail! Our poor flowers took a beating--it stripped the leaves right off the climbing plants and shattered our hostas. Check out the photos! Norm had to shovel off the porch!

Birthday Party Float

Last year right after Memorial Day, Sara decided that it would be cool to have her party the next year on a float during the Memorial Day parade. I thought for sure that she would forget and want a regular party. I was wrong! She talked about it for a month before her birthday!

We borrowed a trailer and Norm and our friend Larry spent a weekend decorating the float. You have to imagine that Mt. Vernon (pop. 1800) has quite an interesting vibe and anything goes for the parade. Really. There's a guy with a motorized picnic table. I can't make this stuff up! So the guys went all out with the red, white, and blue, and Sara and her closest 9 friends embarked for the hour-long ride from the Vienna (pronounced Vy enna) Fire Station to the Mt. Vernon Fire Station.

During the parade, the kids blew bubbles, threw candy (ate candy), opened presents, sang "Happy Birthday," had cake and ice cream, and broke the pinata (whew!). It was a really cool idea and I think we were the hit of the parade! It's a pretty small parade. ;)

So check out the slideshow and post Sara a note!