After over 5 weeks on the road heading in directions away from home, we finally have made the major turn East! After leaving Glacier we drove to Great Falls, Montana. This town is right on the Missouri River. The boys needed to get energy out, so we took them to the hotel pool. It was small and cool and loud, so it was short-lived. But in our wet suits, we walked behind the hotel, over the train tracks and into a park. My curiosity was rising on the significance of the place, so we looked it up. Lewis and Clark crossed the Falls! It took them a month to portage all their supplies across them! (This has me wondering why they didn’t just cross the river at a calmer spot, but I guess I’ll never know the answer to that.). Also, this was where Lewis was chased by a grizzly into the river! I spouted all this info to the boys as they took in the surroundings. Bless them for letting me learn and attempt to teach everywhere we go!
The next day we we had a long drive to Gillette, WY. It went pretty smoothly and included a new-found favorite lunch stop…a local grocery store with a good prepared foods section. It’s tough to really fill up a family of six that includes four growing boys without breaking the bank. But the deli counter might be the closest thing there is. We can get fresh, relatively healthy food and all be satisfied for about $40. Penn and Jansen usually get Mac and cheese and a chicken drumstick and I cut up some veggies for them. Penn discovered his drumstick later while watching a video and I totally caught him gobbling it down in the backseat. So cute.
We arrived in Gillette and noticed huge tubes sticking out the side of the hotel and the boys started getting so excited and Doug said, “oh yeah, I have a faint recollection this place has a water park.” Oh goodness! Well, the boys were thrilled. We got the car unpacked, the swim trunks on and took them over (it came free with our hotel stay). Oh my goodness, it was the biggest lawsuit waiting to happen I have ever seen!!! So nerve racking. Not only was the place falling apart, no lifeguards or attendants on duty to keep things running smoothly, but there were at least 150 kids in there…turns out the little league championships for the state were in town and it appears at least half the teams were staying at our hotel and were also enjoying the rickety, death trap of a water park. What a mess! Here’s a couple pictures. Not pictured is the madness of the water slides, although I did get one video. Thankfully we didn’t last long there, I was having heart palpitations.
Today we left Gillette and moved on…again! But first, here’s a glimpse of the all-family on-deck pack up process…Jansen’s job…
No comments:
Post a Comment