First day at GMS for Devan & Renae
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Back to School
It has been 13 yrs since we started homeschooling Darryn. This is the first year that they will all be going to school. Darryn is attending Del Tech Community College taking Business classes.
Tubing
We finally were able to take the kids tubing. It was such a busy summer that it was the first and only time that we took the boat out. The motor didn't work right and we ended up anchoring our boat and just going tubing behind Brent Schrock's boat. Thankfully we were with someone and were able to get towed back to the docks.
Graduation 2013
This was a big year for us....our first graduate from high school. Darryn graduated at the top of his class of 13 grads and was the valedictorian. Way to go, Darryn!
GMS class of 2013
Grandma Helmuth
Grandpa & Grandma Byler
Keeping the blog going......
Since we have the blog started now, maybe we should keep it going. We need to decide on a new name, but for now I will post some other things that took place this summer
Wild Flowers
There were so many different wild flowers blooming along the roadways. Here are a few that we got pictures of when we stopped or when we were hiking.
Friday, July 12, 2013
The Road Home...
We left Iowa Thursday morning anticipating many hours on the road, hoping to make it to Lyn's sister Esther's house in time to enjoy July 4th with their family.
We traveled all the way through Iowa.... yup, there's still corn and beans there.
We crossed the Mississippi River.... yup, it still had water in it.
We traveled through Illinois.... yup, there's still corn and beans there too.
What a delight to arrive at Esther's just in time for supper, a good one at that. To the rest of the family, it was not for you that they pulled out the pork ribs and perfectly prepared them as a feast! And to top it off, homemade "frosty" - coffee flavored at that. It's no wonder that our kids wanted to eat lunch early that day so they would be hungry for Esther's meal, past experience has taught them well. We greatly enjoyed the evening with their family, traveling to see the fireworks in the back of a pick up (as we used to be able to do in Delaware), parking along the roads to enjoy the show, as small town quality as it was, it was the presence of family that made the night... One thing that puzzles me.... was that smell really something dead in the cornfield? How well do I really know my family?
Friday morning we enjoyed a "farmers brunch" at Matt and Lacry's house before heading east toward Ohio.
We traveled the rest of the way through Illinios.... yup, there's still corn and beans.
We traveled through Indiana... yup, there's still corn and beans.
We traveled through Ohio... yup, there's still corn and beans with the added attraction of traffic and construction.
Arriving at Jolene's sister Joy's house, we enjoyed a relaxing evening with their family, sitting outside, tossing the ball toward a hoop, watching the kids enjoy goofing around... Darryn using a hoola hoop is quite entertaining.
We slept fast, woke up Saturday morning ready to conquer our last phase of the journey. With smooth travels to Delaware, despite a jam up at the Bay bridge, we pulled into Bushy Tail Lane at 6:05 PM. The Trip Odometer said 7300 miles had been traveled since we pulled out of this lane.
The trip, 3 weeks and a day, many states, many sites, much enjoyment, very little relaxation, was over. Only time will tell the memories it made, but one thing is for sure, it's over....
We traveled all the way through Iowa.... yup, there's still corn and beans there.
We crossed the Mississippi River.... yup, it still had water in it.
We traveled through Illinois.... yup, there's still corn and beans there too.
What a delight to arrive at Esther's just in time for supper, a good one at that. To the rest of the family, it was not for you that they pulled out the pork ribs and perfectly prepared them as a feast! And to top it off, homemade "frosty" - coffee flavored at that. It's no wonder that our kids wanted to eat lunch early that day so they would be hungry for Esther's meal, past experience has taught them well. We greatly enjoyed the evening with their family, traveling to see the fireworks in the back of a pick up (as we used to be able to do in Delaware), parking along the roads to enjoy the show, as small town quality as it was, it was the presence of family that made the night... One thing that puzzles me.... was that smell really something dead in the cornfield? How well do I really know my family?
Friday morning we enjoyed a "farmers brunch" at Matt and Lacry's house before heading east toward Ohio.
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| Thanks Lacry and family for a great brunch!!! |
We traveled the rest of the way through Illinios.... yup, there's still corn and beans.
We traveled through Indiana... yup, there's still corn and beans.
We traveled through Ohio... yup, there's still corn and beans with the added attraction of traffic and construction.
Arriving at Jolene's sister Joy's house, we enjoyed a relaxing evening with their family, sitting outside, tossing the ball toward a hoop, watching the kids enjoy goofing around... Darryn using a hoola hoop is quite entertaining.
We slept fast, woke up Saturday morning ready to conquer our last phase of the journey. With smooth travels to Delaware, despite a jam up at the Bay bridge, we pulled into Bushy Tail Lane at 6:05 PM. The Trip Odometer said 7300 miles had been traveled since we pulled out of this lane.
The trip, 3 weeks and a day, many states, many sites, much enjoyment, very little relaxation, was over. Only time will tell the memories it made, but one thing is for sure, it's over....
South Dakota fools the GPS
We packed up camp for the last time on Wednesday morning, anticipating the many hours of travel as we head east. Our first detour was to travel the southern "wildlife loop" of Custer State park. Deer, buffalo, and an antelope were all we saw, the infamous "wild donkeys' alluded us. After stopping to ask for guidance we backtracked and were delighted to see an herd of donkeys headed down the hill toward the numerous vehicles waiting for them. "Wild" is a slight exaggeration, these donkeys knew exactly what tourists meant, carrots and lots of attention, both of which they loved. The kids enjoyed feeding and petting these bold fellows, it was rather cool...
And we turned our attention to getting to the Badlands, as all good navigators do, we plugged in the name of our destination in the GPS, evaluated the suggested path, and took of with innocent trust of technology. Some questions were raised that it was taking us to the south side of the badlands, but we thought it would be cool to travel through them from south to north. And then there was a dirt road, but this is South Dakota..... And then there was an Indian Reservation with a worse dirt road, but this is South Dakota.... And then there was miles and miles of dusty, dirty, bumpy dirt road, is this still South Dakota?, we wouldn't have known since there was nothing anywhere. With trusting loyalty we followed the GPS, our road north was just ahead, no, but wait, we passed the road, what road, was there a road? We turned around to be sure, we were sure, there was no road...... Thankfully there was farmer mowing hay along the ditch banks. He feebly attempted to guide us, the best I could understand was "go to the end of the road, there's a visitors center". Of we went for another 20 miles of dusty dirt road..... To conclude the story, there is no road that runs south to north through the badlands, no matter how convinced our GPS was. After reaching the visitors center, we realized we had another 30 miles north to the real badlands loop, we were in the south section owned by the Indian Reservation.... at least the road was now paved.
After all that, the Badlands lived up to their name in our opinion, a land that gave us bad memories. As much as Jolene tried to get us excited about the unique landscape of nothing, it took more than that to impress this bunch of weary travelers.
We hit the road east traveling the farm lands of South Dakota. Our GPS adventure costing us time in an area with no food and with our kids expressing starving symptoms as if they had trekked the area on foot, we gleefully pulled off to a Subway, only to discover it was "opening soon". We settled for convenience store food... there was literally nothing else for miles and miles....
Our day ended as we made it to Souix Falls, Ia just in time to see a close up of the local ballparks fireworks. A Comfort Inn Motel, a midnight dip in the pool, and all was well....
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| They're headed our way..... |
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| Two or three donkeys... hard to tell. |
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| Darryn finally found a girl who would kiss his hand.... |
And we turned our attention to getting to the Badlands, as all good navigators do, we plugged in the name of our destination in the GPS, evaluated the suggested path, and took of with innocent trust of technology. Some questions were raised that it was taking us to the south side of the badlands, but we thought it would be cool to travel through them from south to north. And then there was a dirt road, but this is South Dakota..... And then there was an Indian Reservation with a worse dirt road, but this is South Dakota.... And then there was miles and miles of dusty, dirty, bumpy dirt road, is this still South Dakota?, we wouldn't have known since there was nothing anywhere. With trusting loyalty we followed the GPS, our road north was just ahead, no, but wait, we passed the road, what road, was there a road? We turned around to be sure, we were sure, there was no road...... Thankfully there was farmer mowing hay along the ditch banks. He feebly attempted to guide us, the best I could understand was "go to the end of the road, there's a visitors center". Of we went for another 20 miles of dusty dirt road..... To conclude the story, there is no road that runs south to north through the badlands, no matter how convinced our GPS was. After reaching the visitors center, we realized we had another 30 miles north to the real badlands loop, we were in the south section owned by the Indian Reservation.... at least the road was now paved.
After all that, the Badlands lived up to their name in our opinion, a land that gave us bad memories. As much as Jolene tried to get us excited about the unique landscape of nothing, it took more than that to impress this bunch of weary travelers.
Leaving the Badlands we came across a tourist trap taking advantage of the many prairie dogs in their yard. we stopped for a close up connection to the interesting little critters as they took food from our hands.
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| Devan's "Freddie and Evangeline"... |
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| Every Prairie Dog was named George according to Renae... |
We hit the road east traveling the farm lands of South Dakota. Our GPS adventure costing us time in an area with no food and with our kids expressing starving symptoms as if they had trekked the area on foot, we gleefully pulled off to a Subway, only to discover it was "opening soon". We settled for convenience store food... there was literally nothing else for miles and miles....
Our day ended as we made it to Souix Falls, Ia just in time to see a close up of the local ballparks fireworks. A Comfort Inn Motel, a midnight dip in the pool, and all was well....
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