Monday, April 28

We knew we needed to get moving this morning, although we did take the time for a big breakfast before we hit the road. This way we used up a bunch of things that we wouldn’t have to take in the house, and we didn’t have to stop for lunch later. We made a quick gas stop in Fargo, and a quick Creative Memories pick up in St. Cloud, but otherwise came straight home. We threw a movie in (Cars again) to keep Aidan (and the drivers) entertained. We could see evidence of recent snow in northern MN. I hear they had 15” the other day! Probably the same storm that hit us at Yellowstone. It was an uneventful trip home. Archie met us when we pulled in, we brought stuff in the house quickly and went out to Al Baker’s for dinner. There’s still a lot of unpacking to do, but we’re mostly settled back in. We’ll finish cleaning out the RV tomorrow, and will take it back to Can Am. For the rest of tonight we’ll catch up on some mail and just relax.

Sunday, April 27

Aidan fell out of bed for the second time this trip, at about 6 am. Naturally I’d stolen the pillow that was on the floor under him to block the cold air coming through the windows by our bed. He went back to bed pretty well, though. We then heard some knocking on the RV, and saw a woodpecker land right on the roof window above our bed and start pecking. That was pretty funny. We finally got up and on the road to Dave’s grandma’s house. We pulled in there a little after noon, and Dave went to pick up some KFC for lunch while Aidan explored Great-Grandma’s house. She was very excited to see him, and all of us. We haven’t been there in two years, so Aidan was just a few months old the last time. Agnes was looking good. She’s moving around just about as well as the last time we were there, and aside from not being able to hear without her hearing aid, seems pretty well overall. After visiting for a couple of hours we had to hit the road and make some progress toward home. We finally pulled in to the Wagon Wheel Inn and RV Park in Valley City, ND. It’s a nice little place, with access to an indoor pool. Too bad we’ve got to hit the road right away in the morning to make it home before rush hour. We’ll have to remember this place next time we go to Grandma’s.

Saturday, April 26

Today was mainly driving. We made a stop for gas and had lunch at a rest stop. The snow stopped, but we did drive through some rain. The scenery changed quite a bit as we left the mountains behind and went through some rocky plateaus. We followed the Yellowstone river almost the whole day. We pulled in to Glendive, MT. We checked out a state park, but there were no hook-ups so we searched for an RV park. The GPS led us to nothing on the first try, but the second was good. We’re at Glendive RV Park. Aidan and Dave went over to the playground for a bit, we had some dinner, and settled in to watch The Princess Bride.

Friday, April 25

We were happy to be in Mountain time again as Aidan woke us up at 8:00 instead of 7:00. We lounged a bit but knew we had to get on the road to Yellowstone. Once we were up, we realized that we’d never set our alarm clock with the time change, and it was in fact 9:00. So our day got off to a later start that we’d planned. We got to West Yellowstone with just enough time to have lunch before the first IMAX showing of Yellowstone. We were the only ones in the theater until the movie started, when one more couple joined us. Aidan liked it, although some parts were scary for him. He kept talking about the bear that broke a table afterward. We then headed in to the park itself. We basically just had time to drive through, but that was OK because we know we’ll come back sometime during the prime season. About half the roads were still closed, and a few that were open had been opened days before, including one we drove. As we entered the park, we could see evidence of the fire in 1988. There were big patches of just small trees, and a few burned remains of bigger ones. It did make it easy to spot wildlife. We saw buffalo and elk almost as soon as we entered the park. There was a crowd gathered at a pull off to watch a group of crows and a bald eagle scavenging off a dead buffalo. Aidan fell asleep almost as soon as we were in the park, so he missed a lot. We drove along some roads through the hills, and it started snowing fairly hard. We were amazed at how much snow was still on the ground there, too. They were expecting several inches by tomorrow morning. We stopped briefly at the visitor center at Mammoth Springs, at the north entrance. On the way in, we saw a buffalo and a few elk grazing in the yard, right in front of the buildings. Aidan enjoyed the animals on display, and the ranger there gave him a Junior Ranger button. We decided we’d better hit the road before the snow got any worse so we could find a place to stay for the night. We looked in the first main town, and didn’t have any luck, so we pushed on to Big Springs, where we knew there were a few parks. There weren’t any signs there, so we just took the 2nd exit, where we finally saw a little trailer sign. We followed the roads winding through the town, and nearly turned back a couple of times. We got a bit out of town, and there was a sign that just said “Camp 1 mile” so we decided to go a bit more before giving up. Eventually we came across Spring Creek park, which looks like the big draw is trout fishing. It was a great park, with campfire rings (though it was too cold to be outside) and plenty of space between spots. We settled in for the night,

Thursday, April 24

We got up and moving fairly quickly today, in order to get to our destination a little earlier than dinnertime for once. It had snowed overnight, and some actually was sticking to the ground. It started snowing on us as we headed out, and was hailing by the time we stopped for gas and propane. It let up for the drive, but we could see storms all around. We ate lunch at a truck stop, and let Aidan run around a bit, then were on our way again. Both boys slept almost all the way to Idaho Falls. It started snowing about 45 minutes before we got there. We found an RV park called Snake River (on the Snake River, oddly). It’s a nice place, with fire rings, a great pool and hot tub, and a playground…too bad it’s snowing! We went out for dinner at a pizza and sub place, and went to the local mall to get out of the RV for a bit. There was a little play area that Aidan spent about an hour in while Dave and I took turns walking the mall a bit. Then back home to wind down for bed, and do some research on what is actually open at Yellowstone for tomorrow!

Wednesday, April 23

Aidan came and woke us up with his usual greeting of “Mama, Dada, up! Pink Os!” (Strawberry Cheerios). We lounged for a few more minutes while he started getting the blankets off his bed and bringing them back to ours, and trying to turn his bed back into the table. He’s getting pretty good at his part of the routine, and seems to know he’ll get breakfast faster if he helps things along. We made a big breakfast, since we knew we had a pretty short driving day. We eventually got our oil changed and got on the road. It was a pretty uneventful day of driving. There were some pretty big dust storms along the route to watch, but that’s about it. We had a snacky lunch since we had eaten a big breakfast. We stopped in Elko to buy groceries, and ended up getting dinner from the deli there, which we ate in the parking lot. Then it was on to Wells, NV, and the Angel Lake RV Park. The owner here is great. He was waiting for us, even though we didn’t get here until after 7:00. He even came to see if we needed quarters for laundry before he took off for the night. The facilities are great, since the park is only a couple of years old. There’s not much in the way of amenities, but it’s a little too cool to use them anyway.

Tuesday, April 22

We took our time getting going this morning. We didn’t have to leave until noon, so we enjoyed a leisurely morning with our ocean views. When we finally did leave, we headed up to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge. Aidan was just starting to fall asleep as we got to the bridge, so we tried keeping him awake for the experience…not that he’d get much out of it, but we knew we were going to have lunch as soon as we got to the other side. We pulled off into the overlook area, checked out the views and statues, said good-bye to the ocean, and made some lunch. We had planned to head to the Oakland side of the bay for the rest of the day, and catch the Twins playing there tonight, but the weather changed our minds. The forecast was for 50s and a 70% chance of rain. We figured that either the game would be rained out, or we would be cold and miserable the whole time. It would have been fun to see the game, but our time was better spent getting on the road and trying to shorten some of the 6+ hour driving days we have coming up. Driving up around the north end of the bay reminded us a lot of the Great Salt Lake. There was water surrounding the road. The bay was really marshy in many spots, and didn’t even look like water. That area gave way to rolling hills and a lot of cities, then finally the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The mountain pass itself was much easier to navigate than the one leading south from Reno to Yosemite, but it was actually snowing at the top! It was fairly foggy as well, which made for some interesting driving. We eventually made it in to Reno, and are staying at the Rivers Edge RV Park again. That’s the one with the airport nearby. I did some laundry, we had some dinner, and it’s almost bed time. Oh, and it turned out the ball game did go on, and the Twins won 5-4. Looks like it was a pretty good game, but it was only 55 degrees and overcast, so I’m still OK with our decision to skip it. With an attendance of only 10,267 I guess most of Oakland decided to skip it, too.

Monday, April 21

Our day started with a quick breakfast in the RV, and then we went out to figure out the transit system. We took a bus from a stop near the RV park to the BART station. That system goes throughout the whole bay area, and took us into the heart of San Francisco. There we bought a pass that would give us day access to the MUNI system, which is within San Francisco itself, and includes the busses, cable cars, street cars, and everything else. We walked up to Chinatown, which wasn’t really what we expected at all. We had pictured streets packed with people, but they were not at all crowded. We went up the main “touristy” street of Chinatown, peeked in shops, and found a restaurant that was mentioned in our guide book. It was a good place. The lunch wasn’t as spicy as we would have liked, but still very good. Aidan even ate the pot stickers and some veggies pretty well.
From there we took a cable car. We had planned to stop at Lombard Street (the “crookedest” street), but decided to save that for the next trip, especially when we missed our cable car transfer. The car took us up into Fisherman’s Wharf, so we just rode it to the end. We went to the National Maritime area, which turned out to be a National Park, so we were able to use our annual pass to get in. Bonus! We looked through the visitor center, then went out on the dock to walk on one of the boats. Aidan had been asking for boats all day, and loved seeing them all and walking on one. One was enough when touring with a 2-year-old, though, and we headed toward Pier 39, the famous pier of Fisherman’s Wharf. We started at the Aquarium of the Bay, at which we discovered our MN Zoo membership allowed us half price entry. The Aquarium was great. It is full of animals found in the Bay itself, which I thought was pretty cool. Aidan spent about half an hour in the first room, which had just a few small fish tanks. We could barely get him to leave the moray eels and the lobster. The main part of the aquarium was a tunnel you walk through, similar to Underwater Adventures at MoA. There were fish and sharks swimming right overhead as we moved on a conveyor belt. Aidan had as much fun with the conveyor belt as he did with the fish. Finally, it ended with a touch pool. There was to be no touching of the sting rays, skates, or sharks, but Aidan finally got up the nerve to touch a few starfish. Naturally there was some time spent playing in the gift shop. We tried to get him to pick out something he wanted, but I don’t think he fully understood. He finally decided to bring a little stuffed sting ray home with him. We think the name “Waterfall” will stick, but he still occasionally tells us that is not his name. It is one that Aidan picked out himself, though. Other possibilities have been “Boy” and “Stingy”.
Next we walked along the pier hoping to catch a juggler act that was supposed to be starting. When we got to the stage, it looked like someone was packing up his stuff. It was very windy for juggling, anyway. I guess we missed whatever show had happened. Aidan was getting pretty cold by that point, anyway. We went out to see the sea lions in the harbor. There were so many! I guess they have built up the area and make it a place they want to come, as some stay year round now instead of migrating with the rest. Then we were off to find some dinner in a nice, warm, enclosed restaurant. This was more challenging than expected, because the first place we tried was very expensive, and the next two attempts were closed. We finally found one that worked, had our seafood and sourdough bread, and made our way home for the evening. We caught the street car, which took us all the way back to the BART station. We hopped on, and checked the timing on our local bus schedule, and realized we would probably miss the next bus. Sure enough, someone told me she saw our bus pull out just as we got there. Of course, the next one didn’t come for about 50 minutes. The station was sheltered, but there wasn’t really an indoor area. We huddled up on a bench and looked at the pictures we’d taken so far on the trip. That kept us busy for most of the wait. It was after 9:00 by the time we finally got back to our RV park. We’d done such a good job of planning all day, and meant to plan the return trip but never got to that part. Oh well, another lesson learned. Aidan had fallen asleep on the bus home, but we still had to get him in his PJs. He half slept through that and settled right in to sleep quickly. Overall, we had a great day in San Francisco.

Sunday, April 20

Aidan climbed in to bed with us just before 7 this time, not too bad. He seems to have picked up quite a cough overnight, though. I hope that doesn’t stick around. We had some breakfast and went down to feed the ducks one more time. Aidan kept talking about the little ducks and the big duck…we can’t get him to say “goose” for some reason. This morning we just had one duck and the goose. The goose is mean! It hisses if the ducks get too close, or we get too close, or we don’t feed fast enough. After that, we tried calling my great-uncle Will to see about stopping by, but got his answering system, so decided we’d just start heading there. We had lunch in the RV a little ways from his place, and called again. This time he answered and was ready for our visit. We had trouble reaching him once we got there, but the people in the office gave us a map to his apartment, so we finally made it. We had a great visit. Will told us all sorts of stories about his career and family life, which we videotaped. We also talked about how everyone else in the family is doing. Aidan had fun with the various stuffed animals and cars he found around the apartment. We visited a few hours, and then made our way up toward San Francisco. We’re staying at the San Francisco RV Resort, with a spot right on the ocean. Just feet from our RV there are signs warning not to pass the fence because of erosion danger! The cliff is very sandy. There is even a path down a bit that just ends at the cliff edge. The view is amazing, though. Aidan was very impressed with the ocean. We walked down close to the shore, but didn’t climb down the rocks to get all the way to the beach. Maybe we’ll do that another time if we’re feeling adventurous. It’s fairly cool today, so we headed back to the RV for dinner and stayed in for the night. Aidan watched a short video and was in bed early, since he’s still coughing. The poor guy can’t figure out why he can’t talk, and won’t cough it up when we tell him that will help. He’ll figure it out eventually. We’re just hoping he’s well enough to handle sightseeing in 60 degrees and wind all day tomorrow. It’s going to be a full day, the most packed and scheduled (and probably expensive!) of our vacation by far.

Saturday, April 19

Aidan woke us up at 6:30 this morning, so it looks like yesterday was just incredible luck. He climbed into bed with us and was relatively quiet until 7:30, though. We had some breakfast and went over to the playground for a bit. Aidan enjoyed putting bark chips at the bottom of the slide, and then sliding down into them. Then we headed back in to Yosemite National Park. We had planned to see the Wawona area of the park at the south end. When we got to the visitor area, we discovered the shuttle bus to the Giant Sequoias wasn’t running yet, so we’d have to take our chances in the small parking lot. When we got to the south entrance, we learned that the road to the Giant Sequoias was closed, and it was a 2 mile hike in. We debated for a while, but knew that the 2 miles was just to the beginning of the area we wanted to explore. It seemed a bit much with Aidan in tow. We decided to make ourselves feel better about missing out by heading south to a town called Fish Camp, which boasts a restaurant overlooking a great mountain view. When we got there, the place was closed and the sign out front just said “Opening in April”. So we ended up having sandwiches in the RV in their parking lot. We were a little frustrated with the day so far, and headed toward our park for the night. Since we had some time to kill, we hit the grocery store and a few other errands on the way. The park is actually a sister to the one we just stayed in, Yosemite Pines. It’s not quite as nice, although our spot is overlooking a river. The spaces are really cramped, and everything is pretty primitive. The people here are great though. We had very friendly service, including firewood delivered to our spot and a cup of bird seed so Aidan could go down to the river and feed the ducks! We relaxed outside for a while, because the day was beautiful. Aidan enjoyed playing in the dirt and watching some boys play soccer nearby. Later we headed down to feed the ducks. They like the seed, but were even more excited for the bread we brought down. That was also easier for Aidan to throw. We came back up and cooked hot dogs over the fire. Those didn’t go over as well as the plain old microwaved variety, for some reason. Aidan did enjoy some Fritos and veggies, though. After dinner, and some more dirt playing, it was time to try Aidan in the shower. Dave went in with him and really made him comfortable. Aidan was ok until it was time to get his hair wet, but overall it went well. After that trauma, we settled in to watch Cars (Aidan’s choice) and have a big cookie.

Friday, April 18, 2008

We got off to a good start as Aidan woke us up at 7:00 on the dot. It looks like he waited for his clock to say 7:00 before coming back to our bed! We had some breakfast, and planned to head to the showers by the playground so Aidan could play while we took turns showering, but those were under construction. We ended up in a different section of the campground, but Aidan managed to entertain himself with pine needles and gigantic pine cones. We had a minor mishap when the grey water backed up through the shower floor. Guess we need to pay the $5 to dump in this park after all! We stopped by the general store to register and buy firewood, and pay to dump. Finally we were on our way to Yosemite National Park. We quickly discovered that our 20 mile drive into the camp was going to take a lot longer than expected, since it was all mountain road. Also, we had to drive through quite a bit of the park itself to get to Yosemite Valley, where all the major points of interest were. We wanted to make sure to hit the busy spot today, rather than on a weekend. It took us about 2 hours total to get from our RV park to Yosemite Valley. Part of the road was under construction in the park, though, so we had to wait about 30 minutes as they let oncoming traffic through. Fortunatly we had a nice view of the river. We stopped at a roadside pulloff to have lunch then take a short hike to Bridalveil Fall. Aidan liked the fall, and wanted to go back so “Aidan and Daddy and Mommy more wet!” We drove on to the valley, where we visited the General Store, saw a short film about Yosemite, and took a shuttle bus to the Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls overlook. They were pretty amazing. By that time, we had to start heading back home if we wanted to build a campfire for dinner. We headed back to Yosemite Pines, where Dave built a fire while Becki got pizza sandwiches ready to build. Aidan helped make his sandwich, and actually ate almost half of it, too. He did really well around the fire. We sat out and enjoyed the fire, then headed in for a little computer time before bed.

Thurs, April 17

I could hear planes overnight, but they didn’t disturb my sleep at all. We spent a good portion of this morning looking for someone to fix the pilot light on our oven. We discovered it would take more time than we wanted to spend there eventually. We made a Target stop, too, then started the drive to the Yosemite area. It was a beautiful drive heading toward the mountains, then suddenly climbing mountains! It was only about 120 miles between the RV parks, yet took us at least 4 hours. We had hoped to build a fire for dinner, but when we reached Groveland, where our park was supposed to be, the GPS said we had another 20 miles to go. It was after 5:00 already, and we figured by the time we got in and settled, built a fire, and ate, it would be pretty late. So we stopped at the Iron Door Saloon, which was recommended by the guidebook. It’s the oldest operating saloon in the state. It had a great atmosphere. There were old photos, animal heads, and other decorations on the walls. There were dollar bills stuck to the ceiling, apparently part of a fund raiser they do for scholarships, and there were some fun locals playing dice at the bar. Aidan was entertaining the locals as much as they were entertaining him. We got back on the road, and fortunately saw a sign for our RV park, because it was very close. We don’t know where Ms Garmin was trying to take us. We arrived at Yosemite Pines RV Park and got settled in. By that time we just got Aidan ready for bed, and showed him the clock on the microwave. We told him that he had to wait until 7:00 before waking us up. We then converted the table to his bed where we watched a little Veggie Tales, and then all headed to bed.

Wednesday, April 16

This time the wake up was in the middle of the night when we found out the water wasn’t running. Our hose was completely frozen! It got down to at least 18 degrees out. We were very lucky to not have any damage to the RV itself, or even the hose. We managed to get back to bed, but Aidan woke up at 5:45 am, being new to Pacific time. We tried to get him to lie down in our bed, but finally let him play on his own until about 7, when we finally got up. We had planned on taking a relaxing morning, knowing we only had 4 hours of driving to do today. I guess relaxing didn’t include sleeping in. We made a big breakfast, and headed to the “yellow house” (office) to shower and do laundry. The building was very nice, as the RV park is fairly new. In addition to the laundry there were a couple of pool tables, a small store, a video game, and a big TV room with books and comfy chairs. Aidan enjoyed watching a few cartoons and doing puzzles while we took care of laundry. Dave even got a bit of computer time to get things done. On the way out of Elko we tried to get my phone fixed, and failed, and tried to get the pilot light on the oven fixed, and failed. The phone will have to wait until I get home, but hopefully we’ll be able to find someone in Reno to fix the oven. Aidan slept about half the way to Reno, making for an even better drive length. We checked in to the River’s Edge RV Park for the night. It is the most urban of the parks so far, and is pretty big. As the name implies, it is on the river, which we can see out the window. There’s a nice park area and walking/biking trail going by. We took a brief walk along the path, hoping for fire pits, but no luck. It’s finally warm enough for a fire. People were in T-shirts as we pulled in, but as the sun went down we quickly cooled off even in our sweatshirts. It was still a nice walk, and Aidan found a lot of good dirt to play in. We headed back to make dinner and relax for the evening. We’re also close to an airport, and seem to be directly under the landing approach, so there was a lot of plane watching this evening. Let’s hope we don’t hear them all night.

Tuesday, April 15

Our day started early with a 6am wake up call courtesy of the CO2 detector. Apparently it’s a bad idea to run the generator all night. We aired the place out and headed back to bed for a bit more relaxing. Aidan managed to sleep right through it. We ended up getting up around 7 anyway, getting some breakfast, and hitting the road. We drove through some mountainous passes, and saw many farms with cows and horses on the way to Salt Lake City. It was cool and windy, with threat of rain, but we took our chances at the Hogle Zoo. It was a great way to spend the morning. They have many animals that aren’t at the MN Zoo so that was pretty new for Aidan. The one we really wanted to see was the kangaroo, but he was blocked off by a construction site in the middle. We managed to sneak a peek through the windows of the reptile building, though. Aidan loved the big elephant statue that kept playing “Pop Goes the Weasel” and the penguins. After the zoo, Dave and I had lunch on the road as Aidan slept, and headed to Elko, NV. The drive out of the city took us past the Great Salt Lake, and even through it in spots. We thought there was going to be a bridge over part of the lake, but the road was just raised enough that the lake continued on the other side. After the lake came the desert, which is really a dried up lake bed as well. The sand was completely white, and was drifting across the road just like snow. With the mountains in the background it made for a pretty scenic drive. That ends at the border, where you are greeted to Nevada with a big resort/casino town. We stopped in Wells for gas and made a reservation for a park we’d like to stay at on the way back home. Then we moved on to Elko. The Iron Horse RV Resort is a brand new space, and is very nice. It partners with the Hilton, so we have access to the pool and workout room, but it’s a walk up the hill and it’s about 35 degrees, so we decided to pass on that. We’ll just take advantage of the wifi, and head to bed.

Monday, April 14

The night at Cabela’s was nice. There was a little noise, but nothing was a problem. We finally got our water tank problem fixed after talking to the Can Am mechanics. They had incorrectly set a couple of valve shut-offs. We headed out, stopping in Cheyenne for lunch and some shopping for thing we’ve discovered we could use. We did a lot of driving today. Aidan was a trooper through it all. We did throw a movie (Cars) in at the end of the day, and he loved that. I guess our gas routine is pretty well established, as Aidan announced, “Aidan and Daddy get gas, Mommy potty” today. It was a fairly uneventful day spent mainly driving. We tried to find an RV park in Fort Bridger, WY, but couldn’t see it anywhere, so we ended up staying in the TA truck stop parking lot.

Sun, April 13, 2008

It was really cold overnight! We’ll have to try cranking the furnace up a bit tonight, and will have to check temps before deciding to stay anywhere without electricity. We figured out that it would cost roughly the same to pay for an RV park as it would to run the generator 8 hours, making the “free” overnight parking not much of a deal. We got up just before 7, thanks to Aidan. He also got up once overnight and carried his pillow back to our bed. Dave gave in to the cuteness and let him in, but we soon put him back in his own spot so we could get back to sleep. In the morning, we had some breakfast and got some work and playing done in the RV. Aidan pointed to the TV and said “Harry Potter” for the first time. We had to explain that it was not on this morning. We finally made it on the road around 9:30. We stopped for lunch at a rest stop. It was slightly warmer, but we still weren’t leaving the RV for much more than to run in to the bathroom. We took a long gas stop in the afternoon to let Aidan run around a bit, and try to check out a few things online. Still no luck fixing the water. We figure there’s a valve somewhere that didn’t get opened again when the RV was de-winterized. The drive across Nebraska is very straight, flat, and boring. It was good for being able to use the cruise control, but not good for entertaining either driver or child. There were a lot of cute baby cows, though. We ended up at Cabela’s Campground in Sidney, NE for the night. It was finally warmer! We were out walking without jackets on. We stopped into Cabela’s to register and picked up an indoor/outdoor thermometer. We then tried to have dinner at a local restaurant, but it was closed on Sundays, so we ended up heading to Perkins. It was a nice walk to and from, past a pond where we saw many ducks and geese. Aidan loved all the birds. By the time we got back to the RV it was getting close to bedtime for Aidan. The campground is nice, but nothing too special. They have a good playground that we might have taken advantage of if we would have been in earlier. The water is not yet on for the season, so we had to make do with bottled water for the night, since our tanks are completely empty. We’re surrounded by restaurants and a Wal-Mart. There is some highway and train noise, but not bad. We’ll see what it’s like overnight.

Sat, April 12, 2008

We managed to get out of the house by 7:00 am, due to the fact that Dave got off work at 6am and we were mostly ready to go. The only thing we’ve discovered that we forgot is the fresh batch of juice sitting in the fridge. We had hoped to transfer a sleeping boy to the RV in order to get some driving in before he woke up, but Aidan was awake when we went in to his room. He was ready to ride in the big RV! He was very excited just to be riding for the first few hours. We took a brief break at a rest area, and then stopped for lunch at the Ankeny Diner. Aidan ate at least half of a pancake that was about 4” wide. The place was good, and it was fun to eat at a non-chain. Then one stop for gas before we rolled in to Eugene T. Mahoney State Park, near Ashland, NE. We arrived at about 3:30 pm, got checked in, and went to explore. It was too cold to do anything outside, in fact it was snowing before the end of the evening. We did stop to try filling our water tank, but the water keeps overflowing even through the tank is empty. We decided to check out the Activity Center. It was basically a big indoor playground, which was just what Aidan needed after riding all day. He played in the ball pits, and climbed up and down the various slides and things. We played for a couple of hours, and headed back to our campsite for dinner in the RV and Harry Potter 2 on TV. We put Aidan to bed in the back, but then converted the table to a bed and moved him there when we went to bed, so we won’t have to climb up top this trip.