Would you be able to do it?

If your husband came home tonight and said "Honey, we are going on a road trip".
If he brought home a wagon and and said, "This is what we are traveling in".
And you had to load up the kids and whatever you could fit in the wagon and still be able to all sleep there at night.
And he planned to travel to the edge of the Missouri River in winter and wait for spring to cross.
So off you go, in a wagon on rutted "roads" in a wagon with no springs or shock absorbers.
And you had to camp near the Missouri till a tiny cabin was built.
Your family lived in the cabin and had to wait your turn out of hundreds of other families and their wagons to be ferried across the river.
Then you had to take the scary ride across the river in the wagon on a raft.
And now your adventures begin!

"Hungarian Goulash" for the Dutch Oven

Hungarian Goulash

2 Tbs. olive oil
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 large green bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups frozen whole kernel corn
1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup olives, sliced
2 cans tomato soup
2 1/2 soup cans of water
2 1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 tsp. salt
12 oz. bag of pasta shells
3 cups grated cheddar cheese

Brown ground beef using 2 Tbs. olive oil in a 12" Dutch oven using 20-22 briquettes bottom heat. When beef has been browned add onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, and garlic. Saute until vegetables are tender. Add corn, olives, tomato soup, hot water, paprika, cayenne pepper and salt. Stir to mix well. Bring contents to a boil, then stir in pasta shells.

Place lid on Dutch oven and bake using 10-12 briquettes on the bottom and 14-16 briquettes on the lid for 30-40 minutes. Sprinkle cheese over the top and bake for an additional 10 minutes until cheese is melted.

Serves: 6-8

Yum Yum

40 Days and Counting!

Wow, only 40 days to go before lift-off!

I am reminded of all the road trips ending in the Plains states I have taken through the years. I really never counted all of them before and it comes up to 12 at least!!! And that is not counting the ones by train (3), not really a road trip but at least on the ground.

The trips were always a learning experience. How to do things a different way...cook on a camp stove, over a fire. When I was in the 6th grade we had my sister in diapers, and no pampers in those days! We had a Pontiac station wagon and that was quite a car! LOTS of room under the hood and my dad had places for the diaper pail for rinsed diapers stuck in a strategic place till we hit a laundromat. Sounds gross now, but it worked fine at the time. You did what you had to do. That was before seat-belts, too. We put the back seats down and my sisters each had their own little suitcases for their dolls and toys and they would sit back there and play. I was the oldest so I could put up the jumpseat in the middle and sit there, going over the maps and the miles - I was the navigator! Gas stations gave away free maps in those days and I would collect maps of each state as trophies!

My Dad loved to see new things and he made them so interesting. My mom mainly just wanted to get there....to see her family. So, there was a little push and pull with time. So I learned to be flexable when we went on our trips with our kids.

When my dad passed away I had to take a road trip (1978) as a rite of passage, I figured, no more parents so I just have to grow up. My 2nd son and both daughters joined me as we went by way of Yellowstone and Mt Rushmore to get to Sioux City, IA where my husband and oldest son joined us and we all came back together. We had lots of adventures and memories a long the way! Our oldest son and my husband flew in and joined us at the end of the line and we all came back together.

I have been on many other trips but those road trip were always outstanding and taught us many things about life and ourselves. And it was like walking in the shoes of those pioneers that crossed the country with their families! And they survived without the horsepower we have, without a store at every town, cell phones, AAA, etc.

The Dutch Oven and Weight Training

Why bother with those dumbells and pressing weights.....just get a dutch oven! You will have dual purpose, strength training and cooking utensil.

Our new dutch oven is a 10 qt and 14" in diameter. It weighs 27 lbs!

By the end of 31 days we are going to have muscles!

The Durango Drifters!

The Durango Drifters will be leaving on their trip 33 days from now from the far east coast to California coast and back.

Their web site is: http://thedurangodrifters.yolasite.com/

The Durango Drifters are college students just starting on the adventure of life! We will never meet while we are each on our trips but we will certainly be following their adventures on their web site!

CarArt Paint Information

The map (4'x6') we are going to paint on the side of the van will be painted with a temporary paint called "Car Art". This paint is made by a company called Duplicolor and sold by a variety of auto stores (although it may be difficult to actually find a store that has it in stock). This paint is sold as temporary paint, won't come off in the rain but will come off easily with soap and water and a sponge to wipe it. It is made to be used on car paint without harming it. It is shown for painting cars (actually on the paint) for "Big Game Day" type of events, or painting temporary "flames" on your car and things like that. It comes in about 6 colors and was $6.49 a can. The cans are small, about half the size of a regular spray paint can.

Duplicolor has a very informative video on their site and shows how to use it and remove it.

Because we could not find it in our area Duplicolor suggested we order it online from AutoBarn.com. AutoBarn was easy to order from, although it seemed to take a good deal of time till delivery, although we weren't in a hurry and didn't ask for a quicker delivery. We haven't actually tried it yet but are anxious to try it! We are worried that it will get rubbed off, but supposedly it has to be wet (and with soap?) and with sponge action to come off...We will see.

The map was downloaded from a home schooling site, transferred to freezer paper taped together. The state borders were then sliced out.

Alright! The Dutch Oven has been ordered!

We have to try some of those menus before we leave, don't we!

Our Car Ribbons

We always tie bright colored ribbons to the antennas when we caravan somewhere. Luke thought we needed something special for this trip.

Today is 60 days! Another milestone

I have been looking over our menus that our Chief Cook and Bottlewasher has made out. Very interesting sounding menus: things like "Mountain Man Breakfast", "Dump Cake", "Campfire Banana Splits" (no ice cream involved), "Quiche a la Canoe". All the really intriguing ones seem to revolve around deserts.

A lot of Dutch Oven recipes. Cathy, you better order that Dutch Oven or there will be a revolt!

I think I should throw in some elastic in the suitcase, maybe some of those inserts for making maternity pants......I may be "growing" on this trip.

Grasshopper Plague?

Read in the newspaper and heard on the radio they are predicting a grasshopper invasion in the plains states this year. Since we will be visiting the Grasshopper Cross in Jefferson, SD it may be like a reinactment. Unfortunately, the farmers may have a rough time.

No Pontoons Needed!

Looks like there will not be floods this spring in the Sioux City area despite the enormous snow drifts they had earlier this winter. The snow is gone and they actually had weather in the 80s for Easter. Guess this means we don't have to install pontoons on the vans!

The DVD Holder is Done!

Wow, times are different! When I was a kid traveling with my family from California to Iowa every other year, us children (total of 7 by the last trip I was on) found our own way to entertain ourselves. Usually there were color books and crayons, and dolls and doll clothes. We counted cars by color, wrote down license numbers, things like that. Being the oldest, I usually collected maps and was the navigator and counted miles to the next landmark or town.

When my husband and I would make our trips with our kids back to the Plains states, my husband would stop every couple of days in a larger town with a toy store and buy surprise toys to keep them occupied. The most popular were red and green farm toys, tractors, wagons, plows, etc.

Now as we get ready for the Slice of America Trip with several of my grandkids and their cousins I really notice things have changed. Although we have little trinkets for each on the way for almost every day,Luke and Amanda (and Grandma) will be bringing their computers. I think they all have DSI's (I'm not even sure what all those things do!) Adults will all have their phones. Of course the van has a built-in CD player and that will be kept busy. Cathy and I will have our IPODs and I will have my cute little Shuffle and head phone for when I am painting. And the kids will have the DVD player to keep them busy during the more boring riding parts.

The DVD player had come with a holder but through time and trials it would not hold the screen and base open correctly so the DVD kept stopping mid-movie (not good!). Also, that holder covered up the air vent to the DVD and it would over-heat and turn off. Not good! Well, I just had to take care of that! So, now we have a new DVD holder! And I even recycled Uncle Robert's suspenders for the project!

The top strap goes around the driver-side headrest. The DVD sits on the little shelf, the black straps on this shelf are velcro strips and the DVD has velcro on the bottom of it to stick to the shelf. An elastic band also helps hold the screen in an upright position. There is a pouch below the shelf for storage. The bottom strap goes around the bottom of the seat back to hold in to the seat (recognize the suspenders!, Thanks Robert!