Day 16 of 18 (Kansas to Oklahoma)

From: Dodge City, KS

To: Guymon, OK

Miles Driven: 123 Today / 4141 Total

Miles Hiked: 0 Today / 14.5 Total (20 for Taylor)

We're officially on our way back home. Since we went to Boot Hill yesterday (instead of today like planned) we hit this little rinky-dink "water park" near our hotel.

It had 2 tube slides, a kid area, lazy river, and an olympic size pool broken up with a few other things like a climbing wall and diving board.  For $4 a ticket it was a great way to kill a few hours before heading to our next hotel. Only 2 hours of driving today so we really had to kill time.

What started as "a couple hours to kill time" turned into like 4 hours. Even for a small little park it was still fun. I'm particularly proud of Eli trying the big slides. He has been adamantly opposed to "big" slides for a million years and he was eager to give it shot this time. He was super proud of himself too.

I may not blog over the next couple of days since the only "agenda" is DRIVE HOME. Like 9-11 hours of driving per day for the last 2 days. If something eventful happens, I'll jump on to share,

Thanks for joining Team Davis on our road trip journey. Feel free to join us for reals any year! I mean,  you'll have to follow in your own car, but I'll do all the planning so you just have to follow behind!

Day 15 of 18 (Kansas)

From: Lawrence, KS

To: Dodge City, KS

Miles Driven: 322 Today / 4018 Total

Miles Hiked: 2 Today / 16.5 Total (22 for Taylor)

Started the day in "Oz", well the Oz Museum.  If you really like The Wizard of Oz it is pretty cool. There were some interesting things we learned, but again,  museums just aren't my thing.  Since we spent much less time at the museum than I planned we decided to race over to Dodge City and to tomorrows events today.

We arrived at Boot Hill Museum in Dodge City in time to tour the museum, grab some ice cream, watch a gun fight, and enjoy some pretty good dinner & show. I feel bad. I don't have more to share. I wish I liked museums more and I could gush over all the cool stuff I read (I skimmed very little) and saw (I perused).  I should have let Justin write this blog apparently.

Let's stay friends.

Day 14 of 18 (Missouri to Kansas)

From: Springfield, MO

To: Lawrence, KS

Miles Driven: 279 Today / 3696 Total

Miles Hiked: 2 Today / 14.5 Total (20 for Taylor)

Because us Davis' must enjoy mass sweating, we did another hike today. Again in 85-95 degree weather pushing through the wall of moisture in air.

This hike was broken into 3 chunks though so it was more tolerable. It was also really shaded and "dripping" on us. I'm not sure what was dripping, but still drips.  

Where were we? Ha Ha Tanka State Park. We hiked the Springs where the water was this gorgeous blue/green. Then headed to some castle ruins - no idea who the castle belonged to, but it was one of the most well preserved "ruins" I've seen.  Then we ended with a hike to the colosseum. Well, "we" was Justin, Taylor, and Eli. I went part of the way and stopped in the beautiful natural bridge because it was easily 10 degrees cooler beneath it.

But the best part? All the awesome pictures.

Day 13 of 18 (Missouri)

From: St. Louis, MO

To: Springfield, MO

Miles Driven: 279 Today / 3417 Total

Miles Hiked: 2 Today / 12.5 Total (18 for Taylor)

No gooey butter cake this morning. I know, devastating news, but I had to share.

Let's start this off with honesty...

Ozark National Scenic Riverways: Big Spring, a must see. It was stunning. A beautiful blue/green and so cool to see floods of water coming up from the bottom of the spring.

NOT suggested: hiking the Ozarks in 95-105 degree weather with 110% humidity. It was awful. so, so, so awful.

BUT, super proud of all the kids who pushed through to finish the hike. It was one of the roughest we have done for sure. The hike itself was sort of "meh" as well. It would have been totally worth it to just hike along Big Spring and call it good.

We got back to the car, sweating through our clothes, even to the point our backpacks were soaked in sweat. Super cool.  OH, and despite being told like 5 times this morning, 3 out of 4 kids didn't fill their water bottles and the one that did left it sitting by the car (she set it down while we were slathering in bug spray and sun block). You know, just to add to our adventure.

Finally in the car, a few ticks to top it off.

No regrets, still a great day.  Enjoy so awesome pictures!

Day 12 of 18 (Illinois to Missouri)

From: Bourbonnais, IL

To: St. Louis, MO

Miles Driven: 275 Today / 3138 Total

Miles Hiked: 2 Today / 10.5 Total (16 for Taylor)

The plan today? Nothing, just have nice chill day and take our time heading to the hotel. Things did NOT go as planned.

After being told about the Lincoln Museum in Springfield we figured, why not? So all impromptu style we headed to the museum. I am NOT a museum person. I find them boring. This one however, wasn't too shabby. They had pretty cool shows and it was built out to allow you to walk through "scenes" from Lincolns life.

Then to the hotel? No, that would mean we sort of followed the plans for the day. We found that we had 2 hours until a certain place closed (that was a little over an hour away).

So, we headed to St Louis to visit the Gateway Arch. They were sold out of the tickets that take you to the top ::cry::, but we still walked around to explore the area. However, since we rushed to get there we "skipped" stopping for dinner. So several of us (me included) we getting quite hangry.

The interwebs told me that a Missouri "special" is fried ravioli so we found a place nearby. Once we got close we realized it was a neighborhood called "The Hill" full of Italian restaurants, red/white/green fire hydrants, and just overall an Italian feel. We went to Mama's At The Hill. The food was delicious. It was too late to hit a bakery for another Missouri "special" (gooey butter bread I think it is called) so we're hoping to have time tomorrow.

Day 7-11 of 18 (Wisconsin to Illinois)

From: Green Bay, WI

To: Bourbonnais, IL

Miles Driven: 414 Today / 2863 Total

Miles Hiked: 2 Today / 8.5 Total (14 for Taylor)

Buckle your boot straps, you are in for many much days of adventure. If you saw my Facebook post you know 2 things that others do not:

1. We met up with Justin's family and I purposely took a few days off blogging to hang with family. ALSO (unbeknownst to me at the time) the wifi there was awful and I wouldn't have been able to blog anyway.
2. Taylor sang to the waves and around the campfire and it was beautiful SO you should go check out those videos.

BUT now I'm back and have lots to fill you in on.

First we left Green Bay back like 5 years ago (aka 4 days) and headed to Cave Point County Park. We hiked a path right along Lake Michigan. Not the beachy area, but beach cliff/caves (straight down from the path) on one side, and a nice shaded hike through the trees surrounding you.  There were a few places you could get down closer to the water with minimal climbing.  It was a really nice hike and pretty beautiful all around.

Then we headed to Warrens, WI to meet up with 20 of Justin's family members. Yes folks, 26 of us in 1 big cabin for food, fun, and lots of desserts.  The girls had fun with all their older teen/early twenties cousins. Staying out until who knows when playing volleyball near the lake, jumping on this giant inflatable thing in the sand, or just cruising in the golf carts (it is a resort area).  Elijah was pretty much stuck at the hip with his little cousin Alex (a few years younger) playing games, hanging at the water park, or mini-golfing.  Us old folks had a great time just relaxing and talking with the other old folks.

One of the days Taylor went on her own adventure with Brian and Will. They were hiking to prepare for like a week long backpacking trip and let Tay tag along for 5.5 mile adventure. Taylor was in her happy place and loved it all. Minus discovering ticks for the first time.

Another one of the days we spent 5 hours floating on tubes down a river.  It was hot, but the water was super cold.  The water level was low in some places which made some of it a little difficult to get through, but overall it was a pretty beautiful trip.  We all burned through our sunscreen, so that was fun (thankful for my Norwex aloe I am pretty much burn free 48 yours later woooo!)

THEN there was today, We stopped to get some cheese (obviously a must in WI) then headed to Chicago,  We've been to IL a few times now and never spent any time in Chicago. We headed to Navy Pier and had some good grub then did some maze/light game stuff. Justin broke his sandal during one of the game so he got some new Chicago branded sandals.  Lessons learned? Pizza is good, Chicago with its "layers" of streets are dumb and should be banned.

After our pier adventures we ended the night at my Aunt Neen's house about an hour away. The kids ran around in the sprinklers and sat around playing/singing music together. Well most of the kids. Sally and Jordan disappeared to hang out with Lacey and I haven't seen them since. I'm pretty sure they have moved in.

And now, I sleep. Enjoy some (lots) of pictures of our travels.