Abe Lincoln's Boyhood Home

We went to Lincoln's boyhood home here in Indiana. He was there in the early-1800's. There is a memorial, a small farm reconstructed, a beautiful path that we explored with a bit of thunder, and an outline of Lincoln's cabin.

The kids each got a pioneer bonnet.

While living there, Abe's mother died of milk sickness and was buried "upon a grassy knoll".

While we explored, Emily remarked that the Baur's have similar belly shapes so we took that on as a photo opportunity.

Finally we made it to Tell City!

We saw the sunrise on Tuesday morning and got 6 kids and 4 adults on the road by 7 am. Nothing short of a miracle, really. We picked up Emily in St. Louis and made it to Tell City by Chicken and Dumplings o'clock.

The kids shot each other with water guns while the adults played cornhole.

Geoff and I toured Tell City the next day and took some photos of the beautiful area.

Nebrasks, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois

From Nebraska, through Iowa, to Missouri, to Kansas we saw soybeans, cows, and corn. After about a hundred times of me saying, "Look kids, corn!", Adeline says very dryly, "Amaizeing." She won the best pun of the day award.

Sophie ate this for breakfast in Iowa, she won the trucker's award for that one.

We had a short driving day and finally made it to Olathe Monday evening. We had a fantastic dinner (thanks Greg and Vicki), caught fireflies, and the Baur cousins got reacquainted.

We had some beer.

And found out that Amelia likes beer too.

Cows and Cornfields

As you can see, we blew into Nebraska at about 80 mph. Some of the highlights for the day include a buffalo (it was all alone in a fence, not quite like how it used to be a couple of hundreds ago), a huge smelly cow farm that almost made us gag, lots of wind ...

And this little guy that was at a stretch stop in Nebraska.

At each stop, we look at our license plate and see if we can identify anything cool. See how many bugs you can find!

Adeline was briefly downgraded from an excellent traveler to one that we briefly considered leaving at a gas station somewhere in Nebraska but her little nap revived her and made her all sweet again. 

Nebraska is very pretty with lots more trees than Wyoming and lots of winding rivers. We will be at the Baur's tonight in Olathe and finally get to see our nieces and nephews and Greg and Vicki! Yippeee!

Butte, Bozeman, Billings

Day two of our trip started early with a swim and then we were on the road. We stopped in Butte for lunch and just in time for a motorcycle rally and farmer's market. We had lunch at this place where all the locals hung out, it was excellent people watching! 

The town looks like it was at its high point during the gold rush but unfortunately has gone downhill from there. Literally in some places! 

Next, we drove through the rest of Montana. It was so much more dynamic in my head but the people are incredibly nice. We had a delicious Italian dinner (thanks to Allison and Gregg for navigating from Portland) for Sophie's birthday dinner in downtown Billings. 

We tried to get directions from a young girl at Taco John's but she had to keep looking at her hands to tell the difference between left and right and I had to keep help her finding where we were on the map we were looking at! She was a sweetie but a bit directionally impaired!

Adeline thought Montana was titillating.

Wyoming is a bit greener but the population matches what we have in Portland! But, we saw deer, prairie dogs, foxes, coyotes, and some other interesting things - both dead and alive.

Today, we drive to Lincoln and the lady at our hotel said, "I did that drive once. Have fun." It was quite dry the way she said it. Here is the moon in Wyoming, it was absolutely beautiful!

First Leg with a Broken Arm

 
After a rough start with Adeline breaking two bones in her arm the day we were supposed to leave, we are finally on our way to Indiana. Above, is Addie accessorizing and workin her broken arm.

We barely remembered to close our cargo box on our way out of the driveway, but after a fantastic doctor's appointment for Adeline's arm we were heading through the gorge.

The kids blew through most of their on-the-road road activities - coloring, games, snacks and books on CD before we were at Hood River (luckily we have some other tricks up our sleeves for later in the trip) and then oohed and ahhed at the Gorge and the falls though we've seen them all dozens of times!

We had an unremarkable lunch in Boardman. Dear lord, no wonder everyone lives in Western Oregon. We were amazed how truly ugly Western Oregon and Washington were. Even roadkill doesn't die in those areas. We saw nothing.

FINALLY, we saw a tree. We were in Spokane (which looks a bit like Flagstaff actually). We had a memorably strange but mediocre BBQ dinner.

 

Next, was Idaho. Cour d' Alene is beautiful. We will get back there someday and explore some more. The scenery from here to Missoula is filled with dense forest and meandering rivers.

This morning, we were up at 4am Portland time and wished Sophie a happy birthday. Down to the pool to we go for a swim and then off to Casper, Wyoming!

Linchpin or Barrel Nut?

Gorging Dogs, Dust, and Uncooperative Wildlife

Our Big Baur Road Trip adventure starts with a missing barrel nut, otherwise known as the linchpin. As Geoff removed the cargo box from the top of the car to fix it, the nut dropped off the box and bounced off his shoe. That was the last we saw of it.

To all of you who know Geoff, you know traveling with him is eventful. Not because of him or anything he does, it is simply what happens to him or to those involved with the adventure.

To give you an idea, here is a recap of some of our past trips:

1. Gorging Dogs - Roadtrip to California in late 1990's was made interesting by the fact that our dogsitter was thrown in jail the day we left and our FOUR dogs were left unattended with a fridge full of Thanksgiving leftovers. The dogs adeptly learned how to open the fridge, eat til they puked, and pooped until there were no available spots on the carpet.

2. Dust - Same roadtrip to California was made challenging due to an unexpected highway closure for 5-6 hours because of....... dust. We were between exits and we and hundreds of others simply sat roadside until said dust cleared.

3. Elk and Sheet Metal Hazards -  A trip to San Francisco almost ended on the way to the airport as I say, "How can one hit an elk, they are so freakin huge. How can you not see something so big?" And then, stopped in the middle of the highway was a huge elk. We just barely missed hitting it head on, going 70 mph. Then on the way to Colorado on another trip, a piece of sheet metal almost decapitates us as it flew off the back of the truck in front of us.

4. Wildlife - Let's just say, who has had a squirrel ricochet of their head? Or who has gone on a whale watching trip and looked the opposite way of each and every breeching whale? Uh, Geoff has.

SO, as we embark on a trip across and through 13 states for three weeks, I felt the need to document it. Especially since unpredictable and unexplainable things happen when Geoff travels.

Imagine what our neighbors were thinking yesterday when the four of us are on our hands and knees combing our tiny frontyard for an HOUR looking for this thing. Without it, we have no roadtrip. And as of yet, we have no barrel nut.