I had planned on finishing recapping the summer before we moved and then start a new chapter, but, as usual, all my good intentions went right out of the window.
So, we'll completely blow off the rest of the events of the summer. Fortunately, my sister covered most of those events pretty well, so I'll reference you to her blog
here. And
here. And
here. And to
this one I have to quickly add some pictures, then I'll get on to my real purpose.
This is Austin after he fell head first into the pond. He didn't cry and he didn't drown, he was just very stunned.
Travis' two brothers, Tim and Eric, valiantly leaped in after him. Eric grabbed the back of his shirt and hauled him back into my lap. Here you can see that they're a little wet, especially Tim. I got wet too because of Austin sitting on my lap.
The next two times we went swimming at Joyce's, Austin was having none of the pool. If you tried to take him in, he'd cling to Aunt Ruth's leg like it was his only salvation. It took just twice to get him re-accustomed to the water. No child of mine is going to be hydrophobic.
Oh, and here's Tim, picking leeches off his legs. Gross.
Now, on to the main event. Our trip out to Albany, New York. Point of interest. The city is pronounced All-bany as in 'ALL the king's horses' not Al-bany as in 'Albert' or 'Alfred'. Did any of you westerners know that? Neither did we. Weird. We found that out when a trucker in Indiana corrected us. And now that we're here, if we mispronounce it people give us a weird look. Old habits, but we'll get it.
On to our trip. I have pictures on my phone of the piano being moved out of our little apartment. (We sold it. No way was that monstrosity making it into our little trailer.) That was an interesting experience. We recruited several of our neighbors to help us. They were champs for doing it since that piano weighs at least a half ton. My brothers came over to help us pack up our trailer, but again, those pictures are on my phone. Or I deleted them accidentally. Oops. The last few days I was getting really worried that everything wasn't going to fit. But it did! We did end up sacrificing several things that I would really have rather held on to, but it was just one less thing to pack.
We went to church to say goodbye to our Sunday School class, then took off to stay with Joyce for the night up in Salt Lake. The next morning we started out. It was a much later start than we'd hoped for but miraculously the kids slept late. We had hoped to make it all the way to Ogalala, Nebraska, but a strong head wind all across Wyoming really hurt us. We spent the night in Kimball, Nebraska. It was one of those small towns where every one know everyone else. Lots of truckers. We loved it.
Sterling looking ecstatic to finally be on the road.
Rolling hills of Iowa. None of Nebraska. I forgot I had just gotten a new camera until after we were out of there.
The next day we pushed our way through Nebraska and half of Iowa and stayed the night in Newton, Iowa. Another small town, though not quite as small as Kimball. Apart from the Rockies, I think Iowa was my favorite. There were rolling hills all over and beautiful, picturesque farm houses dotting the land. Just gorgeous. Nebraska, Illinois, and Indiana were mostly flat farm land. I don't particularly care for flatness. Around Ohio is where we entered tree country which almost made up for the lack of real mountains. New York has 'mountains', but it's merely a consolation prize compared to the Rockies.
Farmhouse in Iowa.
The following day we sped through the rest of Iowa and a relatively short stretch of Illinois. We wanted to drive down to Nauvoo, but figured it was a little too far out of the way and by then we were getting tired. Next we hit Indiana and the beginning of the toll roads. Toll roads stink! We had contemplated taking Highway 20 the whole way through Indiana, but got mildly lost trying to find where it went, so we stayed on the Interstate. Ended up paying $19.00 in toll fees to get most of the way across the state. We stayed the night in Elkhart, where we met the trucker who corrected our pronunciation of Albany and then decided that across Ohio, we would find Highway 20 if it killed us. No more tolls. Thank you very much.
Flatness of Illinois.
Sunset in Indiana.
We had planned to stop early and stay on the west side of Cleveland and find a hotel with a pool and take the kids swimming, but alas, it was not to be. We didn't feel very safe in the town that we'd chosen and there was nothing else between us and the big city, where we did not want to stay. We locked up the trailer pretty well, but we had lots of stuff in the back of truck, sort of seen in this picture, that we didn't want stolen. Yes, those are our bikes tied down on top of the trailer. You do what you gotta do, right?
More flat farmland in Ohio.
So we pressed on and drove through Cleveland where we were able to get back on I-90 because it was no longer a toll road. We searched all over the Ohio map in our atlas trying to find Kirtland. Strange, but it's not on there. Then, as we're driving through the last stretch of Ohio, we saw a sign. 'Kirtland 1 mile'. Fantastic! We took the road and found ourselves immediately in a very, very small tourist town. The highlight of which is, of course, the Kirtland Temple. The Visitor's Center was closed (about ten minutes previously) but we did get to walk around the building. It was cool to know that it was in that very building where Jesus appeared, and Moses and Elijah and Elias and restored the keys for the gathering of Israel, among other things. All of it happened in that building. Wow.
We contemplated staying the night in Kirtland and going on the tour the next morning, but instead pressed on to Geneva where Sterling shamelessly flirted with the hotel clerk and got us a great deal on the room. Never underestimate the power of flirting to get what you want. We still arrived early enough to relax a little, but there was no pool. Shame. The kids seemed to have fun anyways.
The last day we pressed forward and arrived at about 6 pm in Summit, New York, which is roughly 56 miles away from Albany. We're staying with a couple that's a friend of a friend of a friend. Never met them before, only talked to them on the phone, but they're graciously letting us stay here for the next little while until our apartment is ready. The couple wasn't home at the time we arrived, but they live so far out in the sticks that they don't have to lock their doors. There's seriously NO ONE around for at least a half mile. It's wonderful. Always quiet, lots of privacy. It'll be a bit of a change when we finally move into the city.
Colorful New York.
As for our apartment. The internet out in the sticks is extremely slow, but I am grateful to have it, so I can't complain too much. However, it takes a very long time to upload pictures, so I'm going to stop here for now and I will share pictures of our tiny new apartment at some future date.
