Family Ramblings: Day 2 Bruce - A Flashback of My Childhood!

Day 2 Kid Pic - At the Park in Sioux City, Iowa Blowing of Energy

Day 2 started off awesome! I woke up to get a shower 6:50 and had to finally threaten Jessica to get up around 7:15 because we still had to drive 10 mins to get the other half of the crew at their lovely Super 8 Motel! So rushed Jessica to no avail and had to sweetly wake up Kati and Eli as they were still sprawled out on separate couches. Jessica was not really sure why we had to get up so early since it was vacation and all, but honestly she would sleep to the last minute even if we left at noon. However, we got a breakfast of champions at Chick Fil A. The only problem was that Hunter wanted pancakes and I told him that he was out of luck because Chick Fil, but thanks to Alli's "why did the chicken cross the road story," he made it through his chicken mini's. Well, we tell Jonathan goodbye only to be greeted by Mrs. Teresa and her brand spanking new step ladder that she needs to climb into our chariot, so we load up and we were off to a LONG day of driving! By LONG I mean LOOOONNNNGGGG day of driving.

Well, the first few hours of the morning went by relatively smooth, I drove a few hours and then passed off to Justin. The kids were definitely getting more restless in the van at this point, so I decided the best way to deal with them is for me to take a nap! Jessica and I snuggle up and then quickly pass out (as we were still exhausted from the long hot drive back from out mission trip to Indianapolis and drive in the wee hours of the morning to MS to actually start the vacation. The next few hours were a snooze to me, literally, but I do remember waking up to some screams of the kids as we finally go through their first major city Kansas City, Missouri. Not sure which kid it was, but he/she screamed out "It looks like New York City." I would love to see his/her reaction to really seeing NYC!!! I am sure the skyscrapers of Kansas City have got nothing on NYC, but I wouldn't know cause I was asleep.

It's lunchtime now and my nightmares from my childhood begin! Justin proceeds to inform us that he's not hungry so we all shouldn't stop til he's hungry I guess. So after a few minutes of back and forth of where to eat I blurt out, "Anywhere just as long as you don't get out of the van and start walking down the road!" (This is an inside story from Justin and I's childhood) Somehow, McDonald's won the bet for lunch. And all I am gonna say about McDonald's is that we got some Redbox movies, food, and some Drama of our own.

After McDonald's Justin and I decide to let Jessica drive (in hindsight, not really sure why we decided that). My only advice to Jessica was to keep it under 80, because she doesn't need any more speeding tickets. Well, about 4-7 mins down the road, Jessica has her earphones in jamming out to Pandora and paying no attention to the speed limit or her husband yelling in the background, "Jessica, KEEP IT UNDER 80, not over 80." She does like any good wife and pretends to not hear me until I lovingly yell again for her to slow down and finally she realizes she was going about 87 or 88 who knows and slows down and sets the cruise.

The kids are at this point entertaining themselves. I put on the "cow movie" that Eli picked out because that is what he wanted to watch. Alli & Kati are in the back playing on iPad's and Nintendo DS. Justin and I decide to watch our Redbox movie - A Good Day to Die Hard. I mean who doesn't like to watch Bruce Willis? But we didn't get watch all of it as we had to take a potty break and Justin went back to driving.

The rest of the day was getting long and crazy, but dinner time I took the luxury to google man vs. food for Sioux City, Iowa. I found this place called The House of Q, so I began to say we should all eat there for dinner, it would be good to try out some place different (I am just for anything but McDonald's- not sure who else out there hates this place, but it's terrible!) Well, the Prime Rib Brisket sandwich was probably the best sandwich I ever had tasted.

Not much else to say here, but while at The House of Q, I google "Inn" around Murdo, SD. This would put us around 1hr from the Badlands and 2 hrs from Mt. Rushmore which was our places of interest for stopping on the way up to Wyoming. Well, a placed popped up called Iverson Inn. It only had two reviews thanks to Yelp, but both peeps gave it a 5 star rating. I called the Inn and they had 3 rooms available at an AMAZING price, so I booked them and told him we would try to make it around 11-11:30 as he closed at midnight. Four hours later, we have finally made it to South Dakota where the speed limit is 75mph which is awesome. I think it should be that way in every state! It's now about 11:10 or so and the kids are restless and getting really sleepy. I mean we have all been in the van now for about 13 hours today. So to help entertain them, I decide we should sing some songs. Thanks to my good friend and intern for the summer at Agape, Chip, my boys have become Taylor Swift fans, so we sing a few of her songs such as Trouble and 22. Isaac and Eli are loving it and of course everyone is singing along. Then we put on chew tobacco, chew tobacco spit for Hunter and Alli to sing along too. I had to kinda shout at the line where Blake Shelton sings "drinking that ice cold beer" and I sung "drinking that ice cold mtn. dew." I told Hunter we shouldn't drink beer, and he tells me, "yes we should I do, I drink root beer all the time." I laughed on the inside and had to agree with him that root beer is pretty good! We finished out Karaoke night to Matt Redman's - Bless the Lord. I admit it was a good ending to a long day's journey just praising the one who allowed us to enjoy and endure all the beauty we had seen up to this point. But my precious baby boy, Eli, was so sleepy he was singing with his eyes closed - bless his heart he was so exhausted.

But now its around 11:40ish and we pull into Iverson Inn only for Melissa, Justin and Momma to make fun of me about the hot pink lights of our hotel. Melissa says, "Bruce this one is all on you!" I do have to admit it did look a little sketchy, but I only had to pay $60 for a 3 queen room and Justin and Melissa and Mom and Dad only had to pay $50ish for their rooms. Now it was an old Inn, but really clean and smelt like heaven compared to the Super 8 from the night before. Places like this is what makes the vacation!