The Little Blue Explorer that Could

Our V6 Explorer survived the 28 hour round trip pulling our camper to and from Minnesota. We were actually a little surprised at how well the Explorer did on some of the hills especially near the Mississsippi River. Erik drove 24 hours and I drove 4 hours. Seems about right.

Day 1: Got up at 5am and drove to Wisconsin camping at the Madison KOA. This was about 9-10 hours of driving and the kids did great in the car. Jenna read, Sarah played on the Kindle, and Matthew pointed at things out the window. We stopped at a rest area to eat along the way and had dinner once we got there. Then we went to Culvers for Ice cream. Yum Culvers! They are everywhere in WI!

Swinging in Wisconsin

Day 2: We arrived in Minnesota! We camped at St. Paul East RV Park and loved it.  Our spot was shady and secluded. We went swimming every day and had ice cream every day. Obviously that worked out well. Joel, Megan, and Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us at the campsite Sunday where we ate hot dogs and corn on the cob and played the bean game. They surprised me with a birthday cake!

Hanging out at the campsite in 100 degree weather

Joel's upside down smile (I guess it could be a frown)

Day 3: After a sleepless night since Matthew could climb out of the crib, Erik found Home Depot and fashioned a little extra height on the crib. He had to buy a drill, wood, screws, etc. But this solution worked fabulously and Matthew couldn't climb out. Next we met everyone at the Mall of America. We went to Legoland and bought girl themed Legos. Sarah went crazy since she loves legos and is currently (as I type this) playing with the girl legos. Jenna is currently reading Charlotte's Web in honor of her new cousin! The mall has an underwater sea exhibit with jellyfish and other sea creatures. We toured this exhibit which was a lot of fun. Then we all went to dinner at the Rainforest Cafe!

Matthew in the camper crib

Day 4: We felt great Tuesday morning so both Erik and I got up and went running. We didn't know where we were going :) but just took off in a neighborhood around the campground. I ran 3.7 miles and Erik ran 3 miles. I couldn't believe he ran 3 miles. He hates running! I also couldn't believe he ran about as far as me since I've been running my whole life and he's been running 2 weeks! Then we went to Tom and Katie's house for a cookout. Tom and Katie have 2 girls: Kira and Julia. We also got to see our Thursday night teamspeak buddy Dan and his wife Regina and their son Isaac. It was so much fun! Excluding the short jokes from Erik, Joel AND Dan!

They had a slip and slide which the kids enjoyed and Tom even went down the slip and slide fully clothed. Good times.  After the cookout I took the kids home and Erik stayed to play games. Joel's friends Tim, Tom, Troy, and Dan all played games until 4am. Erik had SO much fun.  I might have to fly him up there sometime just to play games with them. That's how much fun he had.

Thursday night teamspeak buddies! Erik, Me, Joel, and Dan

Kira, Julia, Sarah and Tom. All went in the slip and slide



Katie - our host for the cookout

Megan and some chips :)

Day 5: Independence Day! I took the kids and met the parents, Joel, Megan, and Erik at IHOP on July 4th and ate lots of carby pancakey goodness. Then we went back to the campground in the sweltering 100 degree heat so Matthew could take a nap. After the nap we went to the Legendary Nelson's Ice Cream. The servings there were

Huge

Let me make this clear. They were

HUGE

I took a picture of a child size cone just so you could understand. Did you see it? They give you a lot of ice cream. However this was not good since it was so hot. The ice cream melted immediately and just made a sticky yucky mess.


The Legendary Nelson's ice cream. You can see the cone in the picture

After eating ice cream we went to the goodwill store and Gander Mountain. We just needed to go somewhere with air conditioning. Then we ate pizza pies and smores cooked on the fire (yes we still made a fire even though it was so hot).

While we were eating we had news that Charlotte was born! She is a firecracker baby :). David emailed us that she weighed 7 lbs 14 oz, 20 inches long. Unfortunately Becca was in labor all day and the baby was caught on her tailbone. So ultimately Becca had to have a c-section. The baby and Becca are doing well now. Yipee! This was exciting news.

After the good news, we went to see fireworks. Matthew had never stayed up so late but he did fine and the girls had an incredible time.

Day 5&6: We left Minnesota with a teary good bye. We split up the 14 hour drive over 2 days and stayed at the LaSalle-Peru KOA in Illinois. The drive home went smoothly and we ate at Culvers for lunch one day (on my birthday!).

This was our first long road trip with the camper and it was fantastic! We grossly underestimated the mileage we would get pulling the camper. We only got about 10 miles per gallon and ended up spending almost $500 on gas. Yikes! However this was a really fun trip and I'm so glad we were able to go.