jenn on a journey

Belated pics of our family's fun 4th celebration, complete with a trip to Six Flags over GA, The Dwarf House, Fireworks, a 5K, and a patriotic church service ! 'Merica!

Seeing such beautiful countryside as we drove made the photographer in me want to jump out and take pictures.  So I did the next best thing - I grabbed my camera and took drive-byes!


Field in Kansas.  Made me think about amber waves of grain.
One of the millions(?) of windmills in Kansas.

A neat A&W we stopped at for lunch in Russell, KS
We finished up our journey west today, stopping only for gas, lunch, and a quick picture at the state line.  Such a unique state line sign!
One special memory on this day was seeing the mountains slowly come into view on the horizon.  The kids were so excited to finally see them!  And their new home!  After receiving the keys and doing a walk-through of the home (picking out rooms, figuring out furniture), we went out for Chic-fil-a and grabbed some groceries. We'd anticipated staying one more night in the camper with it parked in the driveway, but the drive was juuuuust a little too steep to get the camper level.  So, we made pallets and slep…

Today we moseyed on through Kansas and made it nearly to its western border.  So often we've heard of the sheer boredom that ensues when one drives through Kansas - nothing to see and nothing to do. Nothing but prairie, and cattle, and oil wells.  We found the scenery to be peaceful and refreshing.  We marveled at the flat land and how fiercely the wind whipped through the prairie.  I think the thing that made it the most enjoyable was doing the long drive over the course of two days. 
We stopped for the night in a place called Goodland, Kansas at a KOA camping site called Goodland KOA.  It was a very clean, well-kept campground and offered many amenities.  We parked the camper, set 'er up, and went for a dip in the pool.  And our sweet li'l girl did her first underwater handstand at that very pool!  As for our nightlife that evening, our beagle ended up getting into some dog medication and ate not two or three but FIFTEEN pills!  So while the kids were sleeping, hubby an…

Day 5 We made our way into Kansas today. We counted RVs and campers as an in-car game to pass the time.  And we got over halfway to our goal of finding all 50 states' license plates. Our stopping place for the night was a campground in Paxico, KS -- Millcreek Campground.  The town of Paxico and this campground are a throwback to yesteryear, when the railroad was king.  We got to explore an old decommissioned train station with a telegraph and its poles still standing. We lingered over the nearby fencing to get an up close look as a train nearly a mile long powered down the track just a few feet away. The ground rumbled beneath our feet and the conductor honored our request to blow his whistle as he passed.  The kids delighted in all these things from long ago, reveling in them with the fascination that comes from novelty. The 6 of us, dogs and all, eased down an embankment to the creek, which lends its name to the campground, and stuck our toes and paws in the cool water flowing b…

We left Kentucky this morning and finally headed west (so far we’d only gone north and east!).  We crossed over through Indiana and into Illinois.  Shortly after crossing the river and seeing the great arch, we made it to our campsite in Missouri, just outside of St. Louis, in just enough time to kayak as the sun was setting.  370 Lakeside Park in St Peters, MO has a beautiful campground right on a lake - we highly recommend this site to anyone looking to camp in the St. Louis area.  In addition to a clean, nicely tailored campground (which is run by the city of St. Peters) there is also a very nice recreational area that is open to the public as well.  It is well within walking distance of the campground.  When we arrived they were having a “concert in the park” under a large, gorgeous, wooden pavilion.  We could hear the music drifting out onto the water as we put in. This time hubby and I each took a dog on board our kayaks with us.  The did pretty well and settled down after we go…

Day 3 The Ark Encounter was incredible - truly a sight to behold.  The sheer magnitude of its size is awe inspiring and thought provoking.  Great care was taken to maintain adherence to what Scripture clearly states regarding the ark and the global flood, while artistic license was taken to show what could have been possible considering the technology and inventions available to Noah during his time.  Because some translations don’t agree on the interpretation of Biblical units of measure, whenever there could have been a discrepancy in measurements regarding the ark the Ark Encounter went with what they termed “the worst case scenario” - clearly portraying, for example, the largest number of animals fitting in the smallest amount of space (along with several other scenarios).  I especially appreciated this approach as I feel it speaks directly to the skeptics who try to pick apart the ark and a global flood with cries of “It’s not possible!”  We also marveled at the number of years Go…