Going to Sheboygan...Part 1

For some reason, or because Sara Z. made me think it would be a good idea last October, we decided it would be a great idea to do a 17 day driving trip around the United States....with the children. So we told our friends in Chicago, Sara and Kalman, that we wanted to come up for a visit. They told us to come on and even said we could bring little tornado #1 and little tornado #2! AND, in an attempt to be the coolest friends ever, they offered to take us up to their lake house in Sheboygan, Wisconsin on Michigan Lake. Then we asked my mother in law in Nashville if she would mind a visit from us and the grandbabies and she said "I would love to have the kids come visit...wait, where are you guys going?"..."We're going to stay with you too Pam"...and she said "Oh, yeah, that would be great, I will need someone to change Avery's diapers."

So a trip started to take shape and here is how it got planned out:

Night 1: Texarkana, TX
Night 2: Queen Wilhelmena State Park Lodge in Arkansas
Night 3: Memphis, TN
Night 4&5: Nashville, TN
Night 6: Lexington, Kentucky
Night 7: Indianapolis, Illinois
Night 8-12: Chicago/Sheboygan
Night 13: St. Louis, Missouri
Night 14 & 15: Arltington, TX


A trip like this takes lots of planning, for anyone that ever dares to be so bold. We decided early on that we couldn't afford to eat out every mean so we packed an ice chest and vowed to eat out of it for lunch every day that we possibly could and to do breakfast out of it too if the hotel didn't offer a free breakfast. So we packed our bags, packed our truck and hit the road. I'm going to try and break up this post into several parts because there is so much to tell and so much we want to remember. I'll post a link to the pics at the right though.

We drove to Texarkana stayed the first night night. On the way we swung through Lufkin where I got to see a parking terminal that was a project of mine back when we lived in Bryan. I left the job a few months before it was complete so it was really cool to see the final version. Our first visit to Texarkana was pretty much what expected. We stayed in a nice, new Hampton and enjoyed dinner at Olive Garden. Not much to do or see in Texarkana so we were up and away on day two.

On day two we drove from Texarkana to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas and searched for diamonds. When we arrived the weather was nice with a remnants of a recent rain. This is supposed to be prime diamond hunting condidtions as the diamonds are burried in a thick mud and you have to sift through the mud to find the diamonds. When it rains, it washes away the top layer of mud and is supposed to reveal new diamonds. The park tills the soil every now and then to aid in the process. There is nothing clean about searching for diamonds here, but it is the only place in the world where you can search for diamonds and keep what you find for the bargain price of the $8 admission fee. At first we attempted to walk across the field in our shoes. This didn't work so well because the mud just accumulates on your shoes until each foot weighs 20 lbs. This was especially hard on the girls. At this point we decided to go hard or go on down the road. We took the girls' shoes off and told them to just have fun in the mud. Then Jeramy and I filled a 5 gallon bucket with mud and headed to the water station to sift through our bounty. The pictures really say it all, the girls had a blast getting all muddy and dirty and Jeramy and I got to look at rocks and minerals. A magical day for everyone indeed. We didn't find any diamonds, only some quartz and mica. So after we decided it wasn't our lucky day we all got washed up at the water power blasting station and then went for a swim in a nice little water park that was in the State Park. After changing clothes we were off to our final destinatin for the day, Queen Wilhelmena State Park in Arkansas.

The lodge we stayed in was originally built in 1897 and was situated on top of a mountain. The girls got to do a little train ride around the top of the mountain. We had expected to be able to do some hiking at this park, but there had been some bears sighted close by so all trails were closed. We had a pretty decent southern style dinner which included a dessert buffet that would have put the ol' church potluck to shame. Amazing bunch of homemade, old fashioned desserts. The kids didn't even like any of it...but bring on the chess and buttermilk pie baby! The lodge was old, but very clean and we got a good night's sleep before setting out the next day towards Hot Springs, Arkansas.