For several years our family has taken this approach to everything from trips to Cottonwood to multi-day, multi-family and friend visiting tours to family vacations. Always, upon leaving the driveway, the car horn is honked three times as a prelude to the robust cheer, “ADVENTURE!” elicited by all in the vehicle. Our most recent adventure resulted in the wake of several benefits received from a variety of sources.
First, and perhaps the impetus for this adventure was the AmericInn gift certificate an Family Fun package give to us last Christmas by Deborah’s brother and sister-in-law; Tom and Marie LaForce. Included with the certificate was a booklet of AmericInn locations, and a list of suggestions to make the trip more interesting. Topping the list of utilized suggestions was swimming, eating all we could at breakfast, watching TV, and singing songs in the car along the way.
Supplying destination points for this trip were our memberships to affiliated zoos and science museums. As members of both the Kirby Science Center of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and the Minnesota Zoological Gardens we receive free membership to other locations such as the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska, and the Omaha Science Center. Guess where we went?
Yup… we traveled to Omaha, Nebraska… via Faribault, Minnesota.
Consulting your atlas at this point would enlighten you to the fact that the shortest distance from Marshall to Omaha is NOT through Faribault. However, there was a 1/2 marathon in Faribault that I wanted to run, and the weekend we had open for this Omaha adventure happened to fall on the same weekend as the race. So we went to Faribault, found a cheap motel, and I woke the next morning ready to go.
We arrived at the starting location exactly 32 minutes 17 seconds after the start of the race. SOMEHOW, I had misread the race information start time.
After a brief moment of frustration, we chalked it up to a blessing that I didn’t have to run on my not-fully-recovered illio-tibial-band, were thankful for the opportunity to cheer fellow Marshallite long distance runner Wanda Synstelien, and were only mildly miffed for a brief moment that we drove 5 hours extra thanks to my careless reading of direction. (You’d think I’d learn!) The race organizers were so kind to my situation that they allowed us to join in the post-race meal, gave me a free race t-shirt even though I didn’t run, and invited me back next year. However they told me that next year I have to run.
With that experience behind us we were ready to face the open road on the way to Omaha. Our next destination was unknown to us, and depended primarily on the behavior of the kids and the sleep choices of Isaiah.
By the time we were all ready to get out of the car we found ourselves in Stuart, Iowa; “Home of 1,600 Good Eggs, and a Few Stinkers.” NOTE: The photo does not indicate the identity of the sinkers.
After choosing to utilize our Christmas gift at the AmericInn in Stuart, IA, we went in search of a good meal, which was difficult to find since so many of the local establishments were not willing to take a check from us. Fortunately, Subway accepted out plastic, and we got a good fill in preparation for our typical evening family motel event – swimming!
Again, I displayed my reading and attention to written detail prowess by jumping cannonball-style into a pool with the maximum depth of 5 feet. It does not take an hydrological physicist to realize that the velocity associated with a 204 pound solid object accelerating at 9.8 meters/second2 will not be displaced rapidly enough in less than 2.5 meters of water.
My body hit the bottom hard with my feet tucked underneath my butt. My right foot seemed to have taken 99% of the impact; hurting like a bugger. At the very least I knew there were bruised bones. After a few days it was clear that broken bones were not likely, but two months later there’s still problems – most likely tendons and ligaments. (You’d think I’d learn)
The rest of our time in Stuart was enjoyable. We spent an hour at the local park with 1,673,926,447 lady bugs that were also taking advantage of the nice October weather, and went to a beautiful church – the right combination of simplistic style.
The next morning – after an all you can eat waffle feast – it was off to Omaha – destination the Zoo – with two hopes: 1) that our car ride there did not resemble a zoo, and 2) that the zoo staff would allow us to leave.
There was a lot of excitement in the air, and we arrived at the zoo safely with more energy than you could shake a stick at, and plenty enough to kill a horse. for the next 6 hours and 17 minutes we expended that energy seeing the new exhibits [new since the last time we ha been there] pretending to be animals ourselves, changing diapers, meeting needs, an wading through several tons of people and lady bugs who were also enjoying the weather.
At the end of the day we were all spent, and were all longing for home. So a quick 4 hour drive brought us through Taco Bell drive through, then weaving our way through Iowa and South Dakota we finally arrived safe and sound to 215 Rainbow Drive.
Adventure is a wonderful thing!