Our Last Day (if all goes well)


Day 11

We leave Megan and Joe’s by 5:00 am. Thank you Megan and Tula for getting up to see us off. Pretty uneventful - just a whole lot of driving. The kids sleep until we cross over into Illinois. We stop at the Oasis and everyone grabs something to eat. Back in the car and hopefully to Spring Lake by 4:00pm. We will unload the PV and then BB will head to Traverse City. Even though the PV by now is completely disgusting and we cannot wait to get home, it is still sad to say goodbye to our Cruising America piece of tin but mostly sad to see our trip come to an end. We have watched our kids accept and appreciate their unique differences, work through disagreements, laugh, bandage wounds and just genuinely love each other. We hope that they will always be there for each other and life long friends.



We must say some thank yous to the people that made this trip all possible. First of all to our husbands. Thank you Terry and Mont for working so hard and making our travel habits possible with no limits. Thank you to our dog sitters: Nancy, Linda, Danny, Betsy, Tommy, and Brad. We originally were going to bring them and thank goodness we did not! Thank you to Aunt Carla for faithfully reading our blog everyday and keeping Grandpa Chuck in the loop. Thanks to everyone that read our blog and commented. They were great to read during the long stretches of highway when we could actually get reception. Thank you to Uncle Tim and Aunt Mariclare for encouraging us to go to The University of Montana. As you will see, the kids all loved it. This great memory is etched in their minds!



Favorite thing during the trip from all the chiefs:

Nora – Jumping into the rivers from the cliffs in Yellowstone at Firehole Canyon.

Bricker – Seeing the Black Bear. Seeing the equipment room at University of Montana came in a close second

Tim – Swimming at Firehole Canyon. The Bobcat Montana trophy came in pretty close too

Peter – Getting the new knife from the General Store in Yellowstone and seeing the Black Bear. Loved the University of Montana too!

Halee –Rainbow pots at Midway Geyser Basin in Yellowstone, Amusement Park at Mall of American





BB and Beki’s Top List

Realizing that you only need two pair of pants, three pair of underwear, one sports bra and one outfit for the rodeo for a ten day trip (which is now officially an eleven day trip)

Not running into anyone we know

Seeing a REAL black bear only feet away!

Looking for drop ins at Wal-Mart

Horse running down Hwy 12 in Cody

The kids making cowboy stew

The night we stayed up until 3:00 am just telling stories with the kids

Beki laughing uncontrollably in the chapel at Wall Drug We forgot this in the blog but we stopped to say a prayer for NaNa (she would have loved this trip). We all go into the chapel and Beki starts crying and then laughing at the fact that she is crying in the chapel at ‘Wall Drug’

Fashion savvy BB hiking in capris, white ankle socks, Nora’s flip flops and a pink fleece jacket.

Acting as if the AZ convicts were after US specifically in West Yellowstone

Recapping every night and blogging every day and thinking no one would ever believe this

Getting our core workout in everyday by laughing so much and so hard!!!