The "Heavy-Duty-Industrial-Tote-Trip" to Shenandoah and New River Gorge

OK, so I first have to explain the name we gave to this trip.  And yes, it was *we*, not *me*, who named this trip thusly as the "heavy-duty-industrial-tote-trip."  We took a vote and everything!  So you see, we have two black plastic storage crates that we use when we go camping.  They fit perfectly in the back of the Sorento with some extra room to pack stuff, and they don't stick up so high in the back that they block my view out the rear window.  They're awesome!  Anyhow, one the first night while we were camping, I asked W to get something out of one of the crates.  And he replied, "You mean the heavy-duty industry tote?"  I laughed, and that was it.  For the rest of the trip, all three of us were actively finding ways to say "heavy-duty industrial tote" as many times as we could.  And as we were driving home, we all agreed that this trip would be properly named the "heavy-duty-industrial-tote-trip."

A "Heavy-Duty Industrial Tote"

For this trip I knew the first day would be our longest travel day, so we woke up early and were on the road before 7am.  Our first day of driving was relatively uneventful except that we drove through a LOT of heavy rain in Indiana and Ohio.  We drove all day, and I have to say––the Alleghenies in Pennsylvania reminded me very much of the Ozarks in Missouri and Arkansas…that is, sneaky beautiful landscape.  I was hoping to get to Shenandoah and to our campsite before dark so that we wouldn't have to set up our tent in the dark.  Well, it turned out that didn't happen.  We did, in fact, end up setting up our tent in the dark.  But it was worth it.  We ended up arriving in the park about an hour before sunset, and it was about 1.5 hour drive from the park entrance to our campground.  That means that we were driving along the famous Skyline Drive during the magic hour.  And it was breathtaking.  Not only because of the views, but also because the deer were out and about, playing and looking for food.  There was one particular moment that we couldn't photograph, but it was spectacular.  We were cresting a hill looking toward the setting sun, and right as we came up enough for the sun to be in our eyes, there was a deer standing in the middle of the road, perfectly silhouetted in jet black against the sun.  It was, literally, a picture-perfect Kodak moment––the kind that is captured on the film of your brain forever.

We had entered Shenandoah from the north entrance, and we knew we were going to exit south, so we camped at the Big Meadows Campground, which is in a very high meadow in nearly the exact center of the park.  We had an uneventful night and woke up on Thursday morning ready to explore.  We drove up Skyline Drive about five miles to Bearfence Mountain, where there is a short 1-mile hike over a rocky peak with a 360-degree view.  Now, climbing on rocks is one of my most favorite things ever, and it turns out that C has also caught that particular bug, too.  She later said that "rock scrambling" was her absolute most-favorite activity we have done at national parks thus far, and the entire rest of the trip she was always asking on any of our hikes, "Is there rock scrambling?"  Anyhow, we went over the top of Bearfence Mountain and then turned back to the parking lot via the Appalachian Trail (which parallels Skyline Drive through the entire length of the park).  We got back to the Sorento at about high noon.

Bouldering on Bearfence Mountain

We then drove back toward Big Meadows to do the hike down to Dark Hollow Falls, since that trail was mostly in the shade and it was getting hot.  Dark Hollows Falls is a cascading waterfall that's about 70 feet high.  It's not a spectacular waterfall by any means, but it was charmingly beautiful, almost "magical" quality but not quite.  There was just something about the way sun was shining through the green leaves and onto the rocks and the rushing water.  There were lots of people around the falls climbing on the rocks and playing in the water, so we didn't stay very long, but long enough C to do some bouldering around while I watched her and made sure she did not try to climb the rocks with moss on them!  The hike back to the parking lot was a steep 440+ foot ascent, and by this time we were all feeling a little tired.  We decided to go back to the campsite for a rest before we did our final planned hike for the day.

A sunny splash of Dark Hollow Falls

And then the clouds rolled in.  I say "rolled" in, but that makes it sound way too leisurely.  This happened *quickly*.  Literally, we were all sitting around the picnic table at our campsite deciding what to do when I looked up and said, "Hey guys, we might want to get in the car because I think it's going to rain."  And less than a minute later, it started raining.  And I mean, RAINING.  Raining so hard that I quickly took all of our bedding out of the tent and stuffed it in the back of the car, and in that time I was soaked.  Well, it's no fun just sitting in a car in the rain, so we decided to drive up and down Skyline Drive and just see what we could from the overlooks while we waited for the rain to stop.  And that was surprisingly beautiful, actually, because from the overlooks you could the cloudy mists rising from the valley and rolling over the mountain.  It was just extremely cool.  We drove around for a an hour or so, and it looked like the rain had stopped we drove back to the campsite.  We were there for about an hour and had started to make the fire to cook dinner when the rain started again, so we got back in the car again and drove the other direction on Skyline Drive to see what we could see.  By now it was dinner time, and we didn't know how long the rain would last, so we ate some of our canned food in the car while we were driving around.  And since we didn't know if we'd be able to make s'mores properly later, we ate graham crackers and chocolate and marshmallows in the car, too.  

Sunset over the Shenandoah Valley

I think it was about 7pm by the time the rain stopped for good and the sun came out again for a while.  But by this time there was not really any hope of making a good fire, even our wood was dry because I had also put it in the car.  We did manage to get a fire going enough to heat water to make hot cocoa, so that's what we did until it was time for bed.  We were all kinda tired anyway, so we went to sleep pretty early.

The next day, Friday, was a relatively short driving day going from Shenandoah to New River Gorge in West Virginia.  I let W &C sleep in while I cooked breakfast and broke camp.  I think it was about 10:30 by the time hit the road again, and we had a good 1.5 hours to drive just to get out of the park.  On the way south we stopped to hike the Blackrock Summit trail, which also follows the Appalachian Trail and skirts the peak.  The top of Blackrock Summit is all large, loose scree..so, of course, we scrambled up to the top!  The highest point on the summit is a jagged rock, and we all took turns balancing on one foot at the very highest point so that we could say we stood on top of Blackrock Summit!  We exited through the south entrance of Shenandoah at about 1:30pm or so, and started the 2.5 hour drive to New River Gorge.

We got to the Sandstone Visitor Center at New River Gorge just before it closed at 5pm, and it was a good thing, too!  New River Gorge National Park is not very developed, and we might have had a really hard time finding our campground if we hadn't talked to the ranger at the visitor center.  There are no camping reservations at New River Gorge.  All the campgrounds are free, but they are all first-come, first-served.  And the ranger figured that all the campsites in the middle of the park would be taken already, so he pointed us toward the closest campground to the southern end.  That turned out to be perfect for us, because it was in a big grassy meadows right along the banks of the New River.  I bet our tent was less than 50 feet away from the river.  I myself wasn't a big fan of the campground, because it was, quite literally, just a big piece of wide open grass with 17 drive-in tent campsites and 1 outhouse-style bathroom.  But W & C absolutely LOVED that campground, because there was lots of room to run around and throw the frisbee around without bothering (or even getting anywhere near) any of the other campsites.  However, we discovered that there was any running water at that campground, so we piled in the car and drove to the closest town to get a big 4-gallon bottle of water at the supermarket.  We had a leisurely evening around the fire and went to bed.

The next morning, Saturday, was the highlight of the trip: the Bridge Walk.  The centerpiece of New River Gorge National Park is the New River Gorge bridge, which is the third highest bridge in the United States with the road deck a full 876 feet above the New River.  Now, the Bridge Walk is a walking tour the full length of that bridge, but not along the road deck.  Oh, no, the Bridge Walk is a walking tour on the *maintenance catwalk* for the New River Gorge bridge, which means that you're walking below the road deck, at the bottom of the truss on which the road deck is built.  And for a good portion of that 3000 foot long bridge, the steel catwalk is the only thing between your feet and the river 851 feet below.  All of us on the tour were strapped in with a safety harness and everything, so I never felt in any actual danger.  But I was surprised at how unnerved I because once we were well out on the bridge and hundreds of feet above the gorge.  At one point near the middle of the bridge the tour guide allowed us to sit down and dangle our feet out over the side, and that also was surprisingly nerve-wracking.  I mean, the whole thing was was just incredibly intense.  But it was AMAZING experience, definitely in the category of a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  W&C and I all put the Bridge Walk in the top three experiences that we've had in national parks thus far.  That bridge is just so incredibly huge, and it's just awesome and amazing to see it up close, both on the outside AND on the inside!

Our tour ended at about 1pm and it was very hot, so we decided to drive the old road down the gorge that the big bridge replaced.  That road––running down the gorge, across the old steel truss bridge close over the river, and then up the other side––is only about 8 miles long, but it took us a good 25 minutes to drive that distance.  It was very winding and surprisingly steep.  And it was really cool to be on the old steel truss bridge about 20 feet above the river and then look up at that really big bridge almost 1000 feet above, especially when just an hour before we had been way up there!  I have to say, the entire New River Gorge Bridge experience was just incredible.

After that we drove to the Grandview overlook, which was also very cool but not as majestic as the big bridge.  We hiked a short trail and climbed on some more rocks.  After that we drove to the Sandstone Falls, which is only about 20 feet tall but is about 1500 feet wide.  And kinda like Dark Hollow Falls at Shenandoah, I was surprised just at how beautiful it was, in its own way.  It certainly majestic, not at all.  But it was really beautiful in a way that I can't describe to do it justice.  I think it was something about the combination of everything together––the sound of water rushing over the rocks, the sight of sunlight shining through the falling water (even if only a few feet), the growth of green plants and reeds among the random pools of water made by the water––I don't know, but it was also really very cool to see.  We didn't stay very long there, because it was late in the day by that point.  But I was so very glad that we spent the extra time to go see it.

Sandstone Falls, on the New River

Coming back to the campground from Sandstone Falls took us through town, so we stopped at the supermarket again.  [This is now the 2nd year in a row that we have planned to cook hot dogs while camping and then totally forgotten all the condiments at home!]  Again we had a leisurely evening around the fire cooking hot dogs and s'mores and then went to bed.  For our final morning we made our traditional final breakfast of SPAM and honey on flour tortillas, then broke camp and left for home.  Along the way we passed through Charleston, West Virginia, and I was sad that we didn't have time to stop and explore the city at all.  It really is a beautiful city, nestled as it is in the Blue Ridge mountains.  Oh well, next time.

We stopped for dinner at a Cracker Barrel outside Indianapolis, and I think it might become a new tradition for us!  As always, we counted US state license plates, and we got all 51 (including DC) except New Mexico, Nevada, Wyoming, and Hawaii.  I do believe this makes two summers in a row that we have seen an Alaska license plate, which was really cool!  The current plan is to hit Great Smoky Mountains and Congaree next summer.  Can't wait!

The "Tornado-Trip" to Cuyahoga Valley

A flooded and roiling Cuyahoga River

Wow, this trip has quite a story.  We were hoping to go to Cuyahoga Valley National Park during fall break 2024 instead of spring break 2025, but we just weren't able to make it happen.  And in some ways, it would have been better if we had, because I'm sure the valley is just so much more beautiful in the fall when the leaves are changing colors rather than in the spring when the trees are still mostly bare of leaves.  But Cuyahoga in the spring had its own charm, mostly due to the fact that major storm system (including an EF-1 tornado, more on that later) ripped through the lower Great Lakes region immediately prior to our departure from Chicago, dumping massive amounts of rain throughout central Indiana and northern Ohio (more on that later, too).  And during the trip we talked to a park photographer who insisted that Cuyahoga Valley is a place that has unique beauty during all four seasons.  And now, after having been there, I can see why.

We departed on Wednesday afternoon after I got off work, planning to drive about 4 hours to visit my parents in western Ohio.  I had checked the weather a couple days previous and knew that a major storm system was going to come through, but that the worst of it would pass on Tuesday instead of Wednesday.  The forecast was predicting rain and cold over the weekend, which wasn't ideal, but the weather certainly seemed nowhere near severe enough to warrant canceling the trip.  We would just have to deal with some rain.  And so we went!

It was almost dark by the time we were out of the Chicago metro area, and we could see lightning in front of us for much of the evening.  We drove through rain of various amounts, but again, nothing worrisome.  In fact, I really didn't think anything about the weather until we were on US Hwy 30 just outside Bourbon, IN.  It was completely dark by this point, and I could see a couple police cars up ahead with their lights flashing.  Traffic was slowing but hadn't stopped, so I figured the police were cleaning up an accident.  Cars in front of me were going around the cop cars and continuing on.  By the time I got up there a policeman was outside motioning with his flashlight for cars to exit the highway, so I did.  As I was exiting I would see the taillights of a long string of cars stopped on the highway for some reason that I couldn't see from my vantage point.  I got off the highway and turned south to take a detour through the town of Bourbon and eventually work my way back to the highway ahead of the traffic jam, whatever it was.

As we drove through downtown Bourbon, I could see the power was off to the town because all the street lights were out.  My GPS directed me to take the main east-west street out of town.  But once I made that turn, I could see that there were more police cars and fire trucks all over the place.  So I turned off and started threading my way through the maze of side streets until I could get back to the main drag out of town heading east.  And that was when I started to see what had happened.  My headlights caught major trees uprooted and toppled, huge multi-pronged branches fallen down across streets and vehicles and rooftops, portions of buildings missing and debris all over, and people with flashlights scrambling like mad with tarps and tools in the pouring rain trying to cover damaged roofs.  Multiple power lines were down, which is why traffic wasn't getting through town.  [I didn't find out until the next day that a tornado had hit the town of Bourbon about an hour before we drove through there.]. For a while there I wasn't sure that we would be able to get out of town!  Eventually I made my back to the center of town, and by that point the convoy of traffic coming from the highway had found the best detour route by going south of town about 5 miles and then cutting east.  I pulled in the line and eventually got back to the highway just fine, but getting around the tiny town of Bourbon took about an hour!  We made it to our B&B quite late (past midnight) but none the worse for wear, and we all collapsed in sleep.

The next day and a half was spent at out B&B in Willshire, OH visiting with my parents and some of my siblings with their families, and we had a great time catching up with all of them!  We ate a late lunch on Friday then piled in the car to continue the 3-hour drive to Cleveland.  I had wanted to camp this trip, but it was too early in the season so I rented a cheap Vrbo in the city.  In fact, it almost felt like camping because the place was a cozy studio apartment in the attic of an old house.  The whole place had short, sloped ceilings with a tiny fridge, tiny electric stove, tiny bathroom, tiny table, etc.  And it worked out for the best, because after so much rain camping would have been pretty miserable.  So at least we were always warm and dry, even though the entire trip we took turns sleeping on beds and sofas.

One of the main attractions of the national park is the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, which we learned is the only railroad that operates inside any of the national parks.  I had tickets for us to take the National Park rail tour, and I had even paid a little extra so that we could sit in the glass-ceiling "dome car."  Well, we slept in on Saturday and then made our way to the train station to catch the 11:15 train.  The train itself was old but fascinating, and the views from the dome car were pretty spectacular.  However, there wasn't very much ventilation up there, so it was pretty hot and stuffy.  Nevertheless, we were enjoying the first 45 minutes of our train ride when we reached the northern terminus of the rail line and were waiting for the train to turn around and head the other direction.  Suddenly, a conductor came up and told us that the rails were flooded at the south end of the park, so the train was going to be parked immediately until further notice.  So we all had to get off the train and wait for a charter bus to come take us back to wherever our cars were parked, which was going to be about an hour!  Also, there wasn't a proper rail station, only benches under a canopy.  So we could have found a dry spot to sit down, but we decided to walk around and explore a bit while we waited.  And we found a really cool chocolate shop where we bought some exquisite chocolate, so that was an unexpected perk!

My phone camera was still wet! (obvs)

The buses came and took us back to our car which was at the train depot in the middle of the park.  Before driving off, we went in the big gift shop that was next to the train depot and bought all our souvenirs.  Then we made a plan for the rest of the day.  It was still raining off and on, so we decided to drive to as many places as we could and save the hiking for Sunday morning.  Our first stop was Brandywine Falls, which is more-or-less the centerpiece of the park.  It's a 60-foot water fall on one of the major tributaries to the Cuyahoga River, and this was the primary benefit of going to the park immediately after such a major storm.  I talked to a park photographer there at the falls who said that the river was as high as it had been in probably 10 years.  And you could tell it, from comparison with most photos of the falls.  It was absolutely thundering!  So much so that mist was billowing from the base of the falls and condensing on the rocks above then dripping down and soaking the boardwalk.  We explored around the falls for a long while, including an old stone foundation from a grist mill that at one time had been built at the top of the falls.  

Brandywine Falls

Then we drove to the south of the park and explored a really large beaver marsh and an old covered bridge that had been rebuilt in the 1980's. By this time it was about 4:30 in the afternoon.  We were considering going to investigate a couple other waterfalls before going back to our Vrbo place, but it started to rain with no sign of letting up.  So we packed back in the car, went to the grocery store to pick up some food to eat, and then went back to our cozy abode for the night.  We planned to wake up at 8am to go back to the park and hike the "Ledges" trail before heading home.

Well, the temperature dropped during the night to near freezing, and at 8am it was drizzling with more rain to come off and on throughout the morning.  So we slept in again and had a leisurely morning packing the car and getting out of town.  We stopped at Costco outside Toledo to fill up with fuel and eat lunch––and, I have to say, the Costco turkey-and-provolone sandwich is mighty tasty (even if it is a whole $7!!!).  We all thought we definitely need to go back sometime during the autumn season and finish the hikes that we missed.  It would be a perfect trip to fill the Wheaton Public School four-day weekend "fall break."  So I'm sure we'll probably make that happen at some point!  

Finally, we were all amazed at our license plate count this trip.  We didn't start counting until the 6-hour drive back home.  In that time, we counted 33 different US states!  We all under guessed (18, 21, and 25 were our guesses).  

Weakness

I like words, in all their simplicity and intricacy and ambiguity. Here is my 2024 in words, all of which carry significant meaning for this latest period of my life:

Weakness.
Recovery.
Hobble.
Turn.
Rest.
Repair.

I'm a doer, but this year has not been a year for "doing." This year has felt more like limping, dragging along a crippled foot. "Weakness" was the first word that came to mind to describe the year, and it very much fits. We are programmed by the world around us to think of weakness as bad. This year, a dear friend had to remind me that, in actuality, weakness is a good thing. A professor of mine once pointed out how St Paul wrote that, for the sake of the Gospel, he "became to the Jews, as a Jew; to those under the law, as under the law; to those without law, as one without law." But when writing about the weak, he says something different... 

"To the weak I became weak" (1 Cor 9:19-23). 

He didn't become "as" one who is weak. He "became weak." Be weak. It's OK. In fact, it's better than OK. It's good.

Sadness

Sadness is a primary human emotion.

God created us to feel sad sometimes.

God feels sadness.

There is nothing wrong with feeling sad.

Sadness is good.

Sadness is human.

Sadness is vital.

Sadness indicates life.

Only dead people feel no sadness.

Sadness is safe.

Sadness is not to be feared.

Sadness is not to be fought.

Sadness is not to be avoided.

Sadness is to be welcomed and embraced.

Sadness is to be shared.

Sadness is difficult.

Sadness can overwhelm.

A little sadness at a time is normal and good.

A lot of sadness at a time is normal and good.

Your body knows how much sadness you can handle.

Sometimes anger is not really anger, but actually sadness.

You cannot think your way out of sadness.

You cannot think your way around sadness.

You cannot think your way through sadness.

Sadness is a matter of the heart, not the head.

Sadness must be felt.

Sadness is physically exhausting; it's OK to sleep.

Sadness is mentally fatiguing; it's OK to relax.

Sadness is emotionally draining; it's OK to pause.

Sadness is not poison.

Sadness is not a crime.

Sadness is not a disease.

Sadness is not a sin.

When you feel sad, be sad.

When you feel sad, it's OK to cry.

When you feel sad, it's OK to not cry.

Some days, sadness is explicably severe.

Some days, sadness is inexplicably severe.

Trying to escape sadness doesn't work.

Sadness has no substitute.

Sadness is not a good reason to stop living or loving.

Sadness does not last forever.

The Bible calls Jesus a "man of sorrows."

Jesus felt sad, and cried about it.

God is with us in our sadness.

How we get through sadness is...with God.

Prayer for Unbelief

Quiet myself.

This feels Nice.  Good.

Cease striving.  Just be.

This is the place of balance and rest.

    The moment I know 

        that You love me.

        that You sovereignly reign over all things.

            Over all persons.  Including me.

        that nothing can separate You from me.

            Because You created me, exactly as You wanted me to be.

            Because You know me, even better than I know myself.

            Because the child I am, even residing in a man's body, needs You.

                needs Your love.

                needs Your grace and Your favor.

                needs Your validation and affirmation.

                And You always give it.

                    You never withhold it.

Please help me.

    In this place.  At this time.  With my spirit.

    No matter what happens…

        I am perfectly loved.

        I am completely accepted.

        I am, at this moment, right now, enough.

            Because You are here.

                You are now.

                You live, inside my body, forever.

You are All.  All that I have, and All that I need.

Amen.

The "Taco-Bell-Trip" to Hot Springs

The Taco Bell "Party Pack" was the star of the trip!

It turned out that this trip was about as perfectly planned as I could have hoped for.  Well, except for one thing.  For some reason I had it in my head while planning that it was an 8-hour drive to Hot Springs from Wheaton.  But alas!  It is a 10-hour drive from Wheaton to Hot Springs, and I discovered this to my chagrin when I entered "Hot Springs" into my GPS and found that we would be arriving at least two hours later than I hoped!  That stress was short-lived, because we had to be in the car all day anyway, and there's not really too much difference between arriving at 8pm versus 10pm.  

However, because of that time difference, it was evident that we would not be able to cook dinner at the campsite our first night.  So on the way we stopped at the extremely slow drive-thru at Taco Bell in Pocahontas, Missouri and got the "Party-Pack" of soft-shell supreme tacos.  That's 12 tacos.  It was perfect.  At first Cassia didn't want any, so William and I were eating hers.  As we were approaching Hot Springs, she decided that she did want a taco, but there was only 1 left.  And when she ate it, she thought it was amazing and insisted that we get Taco Bell again on the way back so that she could eat her share of supreme soft-shell tacos!  So that's we did, except on the way back we stopped at the extremely slow drive-thru at Taco Bell in Blytheville, Arkansas.  [What is with the extremely slow drive-thru at Taco Bell?!?!?  No idea.]

So we arrived at Hot Springs after dark and hastily set up our tent and went promptly to bed.  We slept in and cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast.  We spent the first day strolling around town to see what was there, and then in the afternoon we drove around the park to scope out the places to which we wanted to hike the next day.  There is a whole row of bath-houses in Hot Springs, which are amazing relics of the past.  However, it is insanely expensive to actually bathe in any of them, and there is a minimum age requirement of 14.  So neither William nor Cassia could have gone in, anyway.  So that was a little bit disappointing!

The major observation of our first day at Hot Springs was how much the town gave all of us distinctly "South Africa" vibes.  The central part of town is pretty chic, where all the tourism is.  But quite literally, a block away from the tourist area the town looks pretty rundown, almost decrepit.  It felt very sad.  It's clear that the wealth of the town is concentrated around the tourism of the national park and very little else.  It felt very much like towns in South Africa. 

 

Once-glorious buildings now empty and dilapidated

The weather was hot, so once we got back to the campsite we took a dip in the creek at the campground.  And the creek was awesome!  It was crystal clear water running down light rapids along the length of the campground.  This particular campground did not have any showers, but the creek more than made up for that.  We swam in the creek and saw all the usual things: crawfish, bluegill, minnows, snails, etc.  And truthfully, the creek totally made the campground!  The campground itself was mediocre at best.  The campground was not large.  The campsites were really close together.  It's separated from the center of the park so you have to either hike a mile or drive through town to get anywhere interesting.  But it was so much fun camping at this campground, because of the ability to cool off in the creek during the hot afternoon!  We made cheesy stroganoff for dinner, planned our hiking route for the following day, and then capped off the evening with a round of Dominion, which is our new "go-to" family game.  William won!

Our second morning we ate Pop-Tarts paired with fried apples-and-onions for breakfast.  Our only planned activity for the day was hiking, and we picked out the spots we wanted to go without worrying too much about distances, because none of the trails are very long at Hot Springs.  We first hiked up North Mountain to a spot called Goat Rock, then traversed over to Hot Springs Mountain and ate our lunch by the mountain tower on the summit.  After lunch we went down into town, crossed the road, and then climbed up West Mountain to the trail shelter and overlook that is on the crown of the mountain but short of the actual summit.  After that, we hiked straight back to the campsite.  All told, we hiked about 5 miles.  William and Cassia thought it was a little long, but it seemed perfect to me.  This was the first time that they had really done proper "hiking"––where they had to carry food and water, and the only way back was by walking back the way we came.  I was satisfied to watch both William and Cassia be pushed out of their comfort zone a bit physically and then rise to the challenge!  Later, at dinner, I asked them both if they felt like they had accomplished something that day, and they both answered enthusiastically, "YES!"

After returning to the campsite mid-afternoon, we again swam in the creek and then took a short jaunt into town for Mamoo's Homemade Ice Cream, which was pricey but DELICIOUS.  We then went back to the campsite and ate hot dogs for dinner.  I had bought a couple games at the dollar store called "Escape from the Museum" and "Murder at the Manor," which both looked like cheap party games.  Anyway, on Friday night we played "Escape from the Museum," which involved solving 12 different kinds of puzzles in order to decode a cipher that allowed you as a group to "escape."  And I have to say, this was surprisingly super-fun!  And actually, we weren't able to finish because it started to get dark and we couldn't read the final puzzle.  We had to stop and then finish in the morning after the sun came up!  "Escape from the Museum" was a big hit, with all of us!

Mamoo's Homemade Ice Cream  (the photo-bomb was planned!)

We hadn't made any specific plans for Saturday, which was a good thing because I had a terrible night of sleep on Friday night.  That's highly unusual for me while camping.  I often get my best sleep in a tent.  The three of us had some deep and pretty meaningful conversations while hiking, and I think my brain was just processing all of that.  From what I remember watching the moon go across the sky, I'm pretty sure I dozed off for a while a couple different times during the night.  But I didn't get much sleep at all.  Also, our campsite was invaded by a raccoon looking for food.  We hadn't been very careful cleaning up.  I think he was after our graham crackers.  Anyhow, that was an interesting night!

We woke up on Saturday morning and had pancakes and eggs for breakfast.  William and Cassia wanted to go back and explore the town a bit more, so we did that.  We stopped in the shops to get some mementos, and then made our way back to the campsite once again.  And we just hung out at the campsite for all of Saturday afternoon, which felt absolutely perfect.  If we had made our trip one day shorter and left on Saturday morning, it would have felt rushed and tired.  If we had stayed one extra day and left on Monday instead of Sunday, I think we would have been terribly bored.  But having one day of unplanned activity to just relax felt just right.  We read books, played games, and ate quesadillas for dinner.  We tried to play "Murder at the Manor" because quickly discovered that it was basically a cheap knock-off of Clue and NOT conducive at all to playing outdoors.  So we skipped it.  I packed up everything in the car except the tent and what we needed for Sunday breakfast, and then we all went to bed kinda early.

At this point, I need to relate some of my random-but-interesting observations from the trip:

• Illinois has a lot of state troopers.  Missouri has a lot of cars with no license plates.  I estimate that the number of cops I saw in Illinois is roughly equal to the number of cars I saw in Missouri that had no license plate whatsoever!  Weird.

• US Highway 67 that goes through the Ozarks in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas is an American treasure.  If you get a chance to drive it, do it.  It's wholly unremarkable as a road, but it's beautiful, and almost completely deserted of traffic.

• We camped across the path from "that guy" at the campground--you know, the retired guy who comes and talks to you uninvited and offers you all kinds of things that you don't want?  He was a lovely man, but it was too much.  I will say that he came over to the campsite and just dumped two massive logs on our campfire, which was nice.  And we used them!  When we departed, I surreptitiously left him a couple RV levelers that our other neighbors had inadvertently left behind.

• One of the most interesting things I saw was a guy traveling alone with a small puppy who stopped at the campsite simply to charge his Tesla.  He stayed for about 2 hours, and I thought he was going to camp.  But alas, no!  He plugged in, unplugged, and left.

• To amuse ourselves during the long drive, we counted license plates.  Our final count was 42 different US license plates (all except Hawaii, Alaska, Nevada, Wyoming, Delaware, Connecticut, Massachusetts, West Virginia, and Washington DC).  I had the closest guess with 40!

We woke up early on Sunday morning for the long drive ahead.  I have a customary breakfast that I eat on the final morning of camping: fried SPAM with honey on flour tortillas.  I love it!  And now William and Cassia do, too!  We ate our breakfast and packed up the campsite, getting in the car exactly at our target time of 9am.  [William laments that that NEVER happens!] We were all set to go when I realized that I didn't know where my wallet was.  So it took me another 30 minutes to rummage through the entire car to find my wallet, which I did eventually.  Then we were on our way.  We again stopped at Taco Bell on the way back, arriving back home in Wheaton just after 9pm.  It was an amazing trip!

The "Day-Trip" to Indiana Dunes

Twizzlers FTW!!!

So our plan was to hit two national parks this summer.  But after coming back from Mammoth Cave we realized that it would be super-easy to do a weekend day-trip to Indiana Dunes during the month of June before W&C go to their mom's for the last half of the summer.  So we did that today!  We debated between going Saturday (yesterday) or Sunday (today), but it was cloudy and somewhat dreary yesterday, so we went today instead.  We packed up the car before church then hit the road directly afterward.

We needed to get cheese for our picnic sandwiches.  I stopped at CVS because I have a monthly discount there.  And wouldn't you know?  They had picnic blankets on sale, and I bought a couple packs of rainbow Twizzlers that I had never even seen before.  Alas, they had no sliced cheese.  But time was wasting, so we got on the highway and I thought we'd stop whenever we went by a supermarket. 

Well, we drove to Indiana Dunes and never saw a supermarket, so we had to eat our ham sandwiches without cheese.  The primary topic of conversation in the car was how we each ranked from best to least our favorite flavors of the Rainbow Twizzlers.  In alphabetical order, they were: Blue Raspberry, Grape, Lemonade, Orange, Strawberry, Watermelon.  There was much taste-testing (and much debate), but here are the final rankings:

ME -- 1) strawberry; 2) orange; 3) lemonade; 4) watermelon; 5) blue raspberry; 6) grape.

W -- 1) blue raspberry 2) lemonade; 3) strawberry; 4) orange; 5) watermelon; 6) grape.

C -- 1) blue raspberry; 2) grape; 3) watermelon; 4) orange; 5) strawberry; 6) lemonade.

We arrived at Indiana Dunes at about 2pm.  We planned to stay about four hours, which is what we did.  Nothing fancy, just relaxing on the beach.  We did a little bit of a lot of different things: throwing the aerobie, flying a kite, playing in the sand, looking for interesting rocks, reading a book, swimming and wading in the water, etc.  Typical "beach stuff."

Anyone who knows me well understands that the beach is NOT my happy place.  There's pretty much nothing about the beach that I find particularly enjoyable.  I don't like swimming.  I don't like the hot sun.  I don't like crowds.  I don't like the sand.  I was thankful that we made it a "beach afternoon" and not a full "beach day."  But it was a wonderful time.  A memorable highlights of the day for me was being able to see the Chicago skyline from across the water.  Also, there were a couple times where the beach was in the shadow of a cloud but the sun was sparkling on the water out on the lake.  It was magnificantly beautiful, and it looked much different than if the sun was shining directly on the shore.  As you looked out on the lake, it was like the top of the water was tinged with yellow-golden light.  Dazzling.  

I was struck by the symmetry of the green and blue triangles

"I thought I would dig the Pit of Tartarus" (cf. Percy Jackson) 

 

"Put your glasses on me, that will be funny!"

There is an elegance to the dune grass