Top 10 Great Americans

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Statue of Dwight Eisenhower
in Denison, Texas

Time of Debriefing

Whenever someone makes a monumental change in one's life, it is always good to have some time of debriefing to reflect, adjust and prepare. Leaving a life of full-time traveling and moving back into a stick and brick house with a "regular job" is going to be a big transition in our life.

We have spent the past three weeks we have spent living in our temporary home, a house that belongs to Matt and Rachel Cassady, some of our family. We have stored all our furniture in this house in the heartland of America and stopped in a time or two to see how our "things" are doing. This little stay has been a good time to sort through all the mixed emotions of coming off the road.

During this time we have visited with lots of family in the area, starting with Patsy's brother Steve and his wife Jeanne. They bequeathed us with a house warming gift, a life sized cardboard cutout of Han Solo. We do have a strange family.

My entire family got together for some fun but also for a big roofing and painting project on my sister Rachel and her husband Matt's home. The house we have been staying in was in definite need of these repairs, so my dad and stepmom, both my sisters and their families and my own clan got together to help out the Cassadys who have been serving God the past nine years as Matt is a chaplain in the Army. We were so proud at how much we all got done over a weekend, even the kids worked hard at painting and clean-up! To celebrate we spent the afternoon at America's Incredible Pizza Company eating, playing laser tag and riding bumper cars.

Later we took a quick trip to Rockford to visit more family, to do a final interview with Paul Youngblood on WNTA about our big adventure to speak to a group from my mother and father-in-law's church about the things God taught us while traveling across the country. Add in some packing and taking care of normal household duties and we have had a pretty busy time of debriefing.

Top 10 Unique Eateries

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Chase turns six!

We were blessed to celebrate Chase's sixth birthday with some family when we stopped by my sister Becky's house in aurora. Chase was super excited to spend the day with his cousins and Aunt Becky and Uncle Joe!

We had a cool Avengers cake (he has seen the cartoon, but not the movie). Chase opened presents and we ordered some Chicago style pizza! He said it was all awesome and we had a great time with some of our family. This was our first time seeing our newest family member as well - little Lily who was born just over a month ago!

Baby Lily

Flying High in the Sky

This post can now be found as part of our new book Napkin Dreams, which can be purchased on Amazon.com

Home for the Holidays

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Superman, Popeye and the Western Liberty Bell

We are sorry, but we have removed this post becuase it is a part of our new book entitled Napkin Dreams.

Land of the Hawks

While making a rather long drive from Memphis, Tennessee to Rockford, Illinois, we attempted to count motorhomes, an old game of ours to help pass the time. We were not finding too many this time of the year or on the roads were driving. We have counted other interesting things before like pronghorns in Wyoming and pick-up trucks in central Illinois.

This time however we soon began to notice all the hawks that were everywhere along the side of the road. They were perched on barren trees, fence posts, telephone wires and even on the ground. We saw them flying several times and we spotted them on lonely two-lane county roads and big, busy Interstate 55.

We spied the hawks in Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois. Most of them were red-tailed hawks, but we know we saw some sparrow hawks as well as Cooper hawks, red-shouldered hawks and Swainsons hawks. Patsy tried to catch a few with the camera, but this is not an easy feet while driving down the road! Overall we saw well over a 100 hawks on our northward trek. Fall is a great time to spot them, as they are searching the plowed under fields for mice and moles and the leafless trees do not hide their presence as well.

First year in review

It has been awhile since I, Sunset the Snake gave one of my reports from the road. So since I do not have as much to do I thought I could report on the first year the Martin family has spent on the road. Yes a snake has put together a video, made the map and compiled the stats! If you do not believe this then you're imagination is seriously lacking and I am afraid you may suffer from serpent prejudice! Sorry about the lack of sound on the video, youtube has been having fits accepting the music, but we are trying to replace the sound with an audio swap but youtube is also having fits with that!

So here is the adventure by the numbers:

• We started in Cambridge, IL and ended the year in Pittsburgh, PA.
• We traveled over 35,000 miles between the RV and the vans.
• We visited 22 states
• Over 100 Walmarts and 1 Target
• We replaced eight tires.
• We visited 17 Zoos/Aquariums.
• We lost a total of 7 teeth.
• We explored 49 National Parks.
• We soaked up the sun on 10 different beaches.
• We ate at over 70 unique eateries and 25 different McDonalds and 95 other national or regional restaurant chains! 
• We saw at least 277 different species of animals.
• We toured 27 workplaces.
• We went to 6 different amusement parks.
• We spent time in two different countries.
• We traversed through 42 state parks.
• We stayed at over 120 campgrounds!
• Celebrated 7 birthdays.
• Expanded our horizons in over 40 museums.
• All in 372 days (this is from 9/23/10 - 10/1/11)

more...

Check out the basic path we took on our trip in the first year!

Kevin Shutterbug and the Interview

Kevin shares a little of his frustration at being ignored during our recent television interview on WIFR in Rockford, Illinois. We thought he was going to talk about this great campground we were at in Indiana, but he could not get over himself!

Wild and crazy times in Rockford

Our time in Rockford was a great stay, made greater by our "campground"-  the backyard of our friends Rick and Anita Fritz. While it is not really a campground, they have full-hookups, a playground, picnic tables and a pond with fish and frogs for the boys to catch and feed!

We saw both of grandmas, who are doing pretty well. I was actually surprised by how well my Grandma Martin was doing, after her recent health battles and hospital stays. We also spent time with Patsy's family, her parents and her sister Chris. It was so nice to spend time with them after such a long time in between visits.

Rockford - home of the sock monkey!

Of course we had some of our favorite local food samplings like Old Salty and Mrs. Fisher Potato Chips, a couple of gyros from Uncle Nicks and a lunch at the Illinois Machine Shed. We topped all this fun and frolic off with a pasta dinner with the Taddeuci family and an interview with the local CBS affiliate, WIFR!

Campground Review - LaSalle/Peru KOA

The LaSalle/Peru KOA is a very nice and quiet little campground.

Nearby attractions - 8 - Starved Rock State Park is very close. Greater Chicagoland is not far away.

Staff - 8 - Everyone we talked to was pleasant and helpful.

Natural surroundings - 8 - In the country setting, with trees and a stream running through the campground.

Value - 7 - We paid $34 a night for a back-in grass site with full hook-ups using our KOA card.

Bathrooms - 7 - Average bathrooms, clean, slightly older, but nice.

Roominess - 7 - Normal sized lots.

Facility fun - 8 - Swimming pool (closed after Labor Day), BB court, playground, picnic pavilion,  porch swings.

Cleanliness - 8 - Very clean and tidy.

Facility usefulness - 8 - Dump station, fire rings, small exchange library, laundry, camp store.

Overall - 8 - Very nice little park, and much friendlier and more honest than the campground a few blocks away!

Starved Rock State Park

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Chicagoland

This post has been removved because it is now part of our book on amazon! you can purchase it at this link -
http://www.amazon.com/Napkin-Dreams-ebook/dp/B00AZR24LG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358190007&sr=8-1&keywords=napkin+dreams