Top 10 Historical Sites

Sorry, but you'll have to purchase our book to read this post!

Alcatraz Island inmates

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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!

Get your kicks on Route 66

 

 

Sorry, this mpost has been taken down because it is in our book detailing our trip across America!

 

 

McDonalds Missouri

Our latest McDonald's stop was in the show-me state of Missouri. We hit one McCafe with a big RV/Truck parking lot in Mt Vernon, Missouri (between Springfield and Joplin on I44) for what they called "Happy Hour." This meant they had 99 cents speciality coffees. This stop was just for dad and mom since we needed a pick-me up on our way from Branson to wherever we were staying that night on our way to Texas (ended up in a Walmart in Oklahoma).

Patsy and I do love their speciality iced lattes and iced coffees, even more so during Happy Hour!

Silver Dollar City Light Show

Campground review - The Wilderness at Silver Dollar City

During our visit to Silver Dollar City near Branson, Missouri, we decided to stay at Silver Dollar City's campground - The Wilderness. The rates were reasonable and they have a free shuttle to SDC, so it seemed a good choice. We were not dissappointed, but I was not wowed like I thought I might be.

Nearby attractions - 8 - So close to Branson with a ton of things to do!

Staff - 7 - Staff was pretty friendly, although I must say I expected "Disney nice."

Natural surroundings - 9 - Besides all the trees, there are some nice mountain views in the campground.

Value - 6 - $32 for a night - full hook-up. No discounts that I no of unless you have a yearly pass to Silver Dollar City.

Bathrooms - 8 - Great, warm and roomy showers, clean bathrooms. Plenty of stalls and showers.

Roominess - 7 - Very nice for an RV park, almost State Park roominess.

Facility fun - 8 - Two playgrounds and a pool. Game room and walking path as well.

Cleanliness - 8 - Well kept up.

Facility usefulness - 8 - Laundry, full hook-ups, dumps, decent size store.

Overall - 8 - This park made me feel good. We did haircuts for the three little guys here. They had some cute cats around the park. Still it did not make me feel like we were staying near a "magical" theme park.

Christmas in Silver Dollar City

This post has been deleted because it is in our new book describing our adventures across America entitled Napkin Dreams!

Campground review - Sundermeier RV Park

As we were traveling from Kansas back to Illinois for some Thanksgiving revelry with our extended family, we crossed the great state of Missouri from Kansas City to Missouri and Interstate 70. While we had some warm weather, we also had some rainy weather. I had planned to stay in New Douglas, Illinois, but the heavy rain convinced us to pull over early at Sundermeier RV Park in Saint Charles, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. A nice but expensive park!

Cleanliness - 8 - Nicely kept up park!

Bathrooms -10 - Best we have seen so far. Lots of nice hot, roomy showers. Very clean and warm.

Facility fun - 5 - Not much in park, but a walking path and public park is right next door.

Facility usefulness - 4 - Hmm, new park so they have nothing but full-hook-ups and small laundry facility.

Nearby attractions - 7 - St. Louis not too far away, and according to their brochures some fun things to do in Saint Charles.

Staff - 8 - Super nice guy helped us get checked in.

Natural surroundings - 3 - No trees on sites, but trees surround the park.Next to Highway 370, train tracks and not far from an airport.

Value - 3 - $65 for a night - full hook-ups.

Roominess - 8 - Nice big sites, huge cement slabs on their pull through sites.

Overall - 6. Tough call on this one. I just thought it was too expensive!

Pony Express Museum

This post has been removed since it is in our book describing our adventures across America!

Campground review - AOK Campground

We wanted to hit St. Joseph, Missouri to see the Pony Express Museum and the home where Jesse James was killed in. Unfortunately the Jesse James home was closed for the season, though their website never stated this! So we pulled into the AOK Campground later at night and did school in the morning and left, so it was a quick stay. This was a new campground and they look like they are making improvements so check back with them.

Cleanliness - 7 - Newer park, pretty well kept up.

Bathrooms - NA - never saw them.

Facility fun - 6 - Brand new swimming pool which of course was closed and a small playground.

Facility usefulness - 4 - Since this a new RV park they do not have much. No propane.

Nearby attractions - 6 - St. Joseph close by, Kansas City is an hour away.

Staff - 8 - Only met the owner late at night. Nice guy, since they only take cash and we didn't have any, the guy said we could mail the fee to him!

Natural surroundings - 4 - Next to a pond with very few trees, close to Interstate 29. Most of the time this traffic noise puts me to sleep, but this time a couple of trucks woke me up.

Value - 6 - $20 for a night - off season rate..

Roominess - 5 - Another typical RV park.

Overall - 5

The Chocolate Factory in Joplin, MO

OK, today’s family free-bee was not only fun, it was delicious. Our family decided to stop today in Joplin, Missouri and take a free tour of The Chocolate Factory. I have to say that I was impressed with more than just the tour. It seems that the company usually only gives tours at 10:30 am and 1:30 pm, but we showed up about 2:40 pm, unknowing that we had missed the tours for the day. Not only did they go ahead and give us the candy tour, but we were shown around by none other than the owner of the store.Now, the tour was great. I never knew how much went into making chocolate candies. They had all the huge copper pots that I expected to see, and they even used the conveyor belt system that Lucy and Ethel made famous in the old I Love Lucy episode. (We were informed by one of the ladies that work there that they didn’t get the belt moving quite that fast.) They showed us the entire process.

We even learned that they have a metal detector that all the ingredients have to go through before they can be sold. Rest assured that no chocolate or candy from this store will contain even a trace of any metal.After seeing and smelling row upon row of fine candies, we came to the end of our tour.

My sons were pretty excited that they got to keep their little hair nets, but little did they know that the best was yet to come. It seems the tour ends with a special treat of chocolate dipped cookies for all. The boys gave the whole experience 5 yummy thumbs up. My husband and I purchased our own chocolate favorites. He devoured a bag of chocolate covered peanuts while I savored the most amazing turtles I have ever eaten. That part wasn’t free, but I think it was worth every penny.

Table Rock State Park

Sorry, this mpost has been taken down because it is in our book detailing our trip across America!

 

Campground review - Stagecoach RV Campground

We found a gem of a campground near Branson called the Stagecoach RV Campground. See the review below.

Cleanliness - 9

Bathrooms - 8 - they were very clean, and the showers were warm, but there were only two.

Facility fun - 6 - Miniscule playground. Nice pool, but it was closed for the season.

Facility usefulness - 9 - Dump station, very nice laundry facility, propane plus a restaurant on site.

Nearby attractions - 10 - Branson and Table Rock State Park.

Staff - 9 - Very friendly and doubly helpful.

Natural surroundings - 7 - Table Rock Lake and State Park across the street.

Roominess 7 - Average size sites on concrete slabs.

Value - 9 - we paid $23 a night for everything including cable with our Passport America card.

Overall - 9

Family Friendly Free-bees - Missouri

By PatsyI have decided to add a small

feature t

o this blog. As we travel through the US, I will be on a mission to find family friendly attractions that cost absolutely nothing. I’m fairly certain that I will miss most of these, since we will not be able to make it to every city in the US, but I thought I would still at least let you know about the ones that we do find.
Our first Family Friendly Free-bee is in the great state of Missouri. The Table Rock State Park near Branson has a cool fish hatchery. (Actually, the state park itself is free, but the fish hatchery is something a little more unique.) We took the boys to see the fish and before we even got outside to the hatching tanks, they were thrilled with the huge trout in the indoor aquariums.Outside, there are many large holding tanks for the trout to breed and grow. It seems they start out as tiny fish swimming all together, and then, as they grow, they are separated out to other tanks in order to give them more room to grow. We went from tank to tank trying to decide which tank had the biggest fish. The boys really enjoyed that.
But the most fun was when they realized that these fish were really, really hungry. And, joy of all joys, they got to feed them. OK, so this part isn’t exactly free. You do have to pay a quarter for a handful of fish food, but I am still counting it as a free-bee, because most of my boys scoured the ground along the edges of the tanks and collected more than enough dropped fish pellets to give those fish a good feeding. They would gather as much food as they could and then drop one pellet at a time in the tank watching those fish jump over each other trying to be the first to the food.
The 5 Martin boys have given this attraction 5 thumbs-up. It has also received the Mom and Dad seal of approval. However, be aware that the outdoor holding tanks are at ground level and though most of them are covered with nets to keep out the birds, you may want to hold hands of your more adventurous little explorers.

Noah - Site and Sounds Theater

Sorry, but this post has been deleted because it is a part of our new book called Napkin Dreams!

 

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Pin Oak Park Campground Review

We needed a an RV park close to St Louis so we picked Pin Oak RV Park. There were no Passport America parks close enough for us.

Cleanliness - 6

Bathrooms - 5 - they were clean but outdated, the showers were warm!

Facility fun - 6 - they have a pond for fishing, mini-putt and a pool (closed in late Sept).

Facility usefulness - 8 - Dump station, laundry facility, camp store, full-hook-ups, propane.

Nearby attractions - 9 - St. Louis is a half-hour away, six flags 15 minutes.

Staff - 8 - Camp hosts were great. Guy cleaning the bathroom was too.

Natural surroundings - 7 - Shaded with trees and a nice pond.

Roominess 6 - Normal size pull-through sites, not crowded during a September week day.

Value - 5 - we paid $37 a night for full hook-up.

Overall - 6

St Louis

Yesterday we visited St Louis and most precisely the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial - otherwise known as the The Arch. Everyone but Patsy rode up in the little space age pod to the top and we were treated with a nice view on a gorgeous fall afternoon. Then we went through the museum underneath the arch and the boys did their first junior ranger program. They do have programs for teens, but our teen has decided from now on he is going to help his brothers with their junior ranger programs at National Parks.

Enjoy the photos.

Campground review - Mark Twain State Park

We spent one night in Mark Twain State Park. Garmin sent us a bit off the trail - to the State Park office which was closed. Their maps to the campground were atrocious, but we found our way there using the iron in my nose!

Cleanliness - 9

Bathrooms - 5 - they were clean, but the showers were cold.

Facility fun - 6 - they have a nice lake and lots of trails.

Facility usefulness - 6 - Dump station, laundry facility, no full service-sites.

Nearby attractions - 5 - St. Louis is 2.5 hours away, Hannibal is 45 minutes away.

Staff - 8 - Camp hosts were great. Guy cleaning the bathroom was too.

Natural surroundings - 9 - State park with lots of trees and nature.

Roominess 9 - Big sites, this time of the year during the week it was almost abandoned.

Value - 7 - we paid $21 a night for just electric.

Overall - 8

Hannibal - home to Mark Twain

I love our country. Not necessarily what our country is becoming, or what it has always been, but the ideas and concepts our country was founded on. One of the cool things about our country is the many great Americans our country has produced. On this trek across the USA I hope to learn more about some of these amazing Americans of history and in the process teach my kids about them too.

This is why we stopped in Hannibal, Missouri to visit Mark Twain's Boyhood home and Museum and then later camp at Mark Twain State Park. Mark Twain was not just a great storyteller and philosopher, but he was a man acquainted with tragedy, including the death of his brother at age 10 and finding a murdered body. He once loaned matches to a vagrant who was later arrested. In prison the vagrant lit the match for a cigarette and caught his bed on fire. The jail keeper was gone and no one could let the poor man out of jail as it burned down so he died. Mark Twain (AKA Samuel Clemens) always remembered that the night. So many people in those days knew death and tragedy as an intimate friend.

We are called the nation of inventors. And we are. We could still claim that title and wear its loftiest honors if we had stopped with the first thing we ever invented, which was human liberty. - Mark Twain