Jeff's Journeys: June - July, 2001
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ JUNE
6/1 San Antonio, TX
In the afternoon, we went to Megan’s People to People (PTP) Student Ambassador party, and there, Megan got her shirts and other things. After that we went to the Teters’ house, and they took us out to Mr. Gatti’s. They also gave me a box of Legos and a key-started car.
6/2 San Antonio, TX
Mama and Megan went to shop for PTP things. When they got back, Mama took us swimming for a quick dip. We later went to a very quaint church called Prince of Pace Church. That was one of my favorite churches ever!
6/4 San Antonio, TX
. . . we all filed into the car and went to the dentist’s office. Mama and Emily got their teeth cleaned while Megan, Amanda and I got our journals done. We ate lunch at good ole Taco Cabana! We then went to the library and got our backpacks, patches, and reading certificates for the Summer Reading Program.
6/5 San Antonio, TX
We went to the airport and Megan left for Aussieland! I can’t believe how quickly the years have passed! Later, Daddy imitated the Crocodile Hunter, and finally pulled my Chinese Tang tooth out!
6/6 San Antonio, TX
I woke up feeling something was wrong, because Megan didn’t come down for brekkie! I also can’t believe that she is on the other side of the world! We cleaned out the car, and later Mama and I started working on my neat, personal Web page.
6/7 San Antonio, TX
Really hot day! Today, after lessons, we started working on our personal Web pages. On mine, I upt up things on our trip including museums, Shedd Aquarium, Chicago skyscrapers, among many other things. I’m still not yet done. It’s really neat!
6/8 San Antonio, TX
Saturday and Sunday we worked on our Web pages, and on Saturday night, the Khattars returned home. On Sunday, we went to the pool with them. We played basketball, and we also played tag. We had hot dogs, chicken, and ribs for dinner. At church, it was in Latin. We received the host the way Mama did when she was little, by mouth. After Mass, we played in a castle.
6/16 - 6-17 San Antonio, TX
I’ve been playing Monopoly, miniature golf, frisbee, catching frogs, and about 1 billion other things! This weekend at Alex’s party, we had cake and I beat everybody in mini golf! Saturday night we got to decorate the Father’s Day cake, with skittles and M & Ms.
6/18 San Antonio, TX
We went to the library to finish up our work, and get some more books. After that, we decided to go to the pool with Alex, Monic, and Marcus. . . on the way out, Christopher tripped running down the ramp, and he got scratches on his knees, elbows, forehead, chest, and his nose was bleeding.
6/19 San Antonio, TX
. . . we got “Welcome Home” presents for Megan, and we all got swimming goggles. We went to the Villarreal’s house, and played cowboys with Alex and Monica.
6/20 San Antonio, TX
We went over to the park with Alex and Monica, beat Mrs. Khattar, Christopher and Alex in basketball singlehandedly! We also shot rockets. I shot mine 40 ft.! Mrs. Khattar shot hers 75 ft.! We stayed up until 11:45 waiting for Megan’s return, but finally fell asleep.
6/22 - 6/24 San Antonio, TX
Megan’s back! On Friday, we went to Sea World, but I wasn’t feeling well. That meant that I was really sick (which I rarely am!), but I felt well enough to go on the Steel Eel about halfway through the park. On the Steel Eel, you had to be buckled in behind the bar that you pulled back. I went on it twice! We ate dinner, and all had ice cream sundaes for dessert. At the hotel, they even had two putting greens! On Saturday, we went to the pool, and swam for an hour. After Sunday Mass, we went to the Khattars. We ate a goodbye barbeque, and it was deee-lish!
6/26 San Antonio - Amarillo, TX
We got out of the hotel at about 12:45, and started for Amarillo. How I forgot how long road days were! It felt like we were on the road for all day! We stopped at a great hotel!
6/27 NM - Colorado Springs, CO
As we traveled, we began to see small hills (at least compared to the Rockies). They were the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. As we progressed, the mountains got bigger and bigger until we reached Mt. Capulin, a volcano topped at more than 8,000 ft.! We walked around the crater, and down into it (on trails, of course), and took a few snapshots and films.
We had trillions of tons of fun, with the main activity – going up Pikes Peak! When we got above the treeline, the drop off the side turned to sheer vertical! At the top, we got out, and it was snowing, but not enough to sled on. The view from the mountain was breathtaking.
6/28 Colorado Springs, CO
We went to the Garden of the Gods, giant sandstone rocks, older than the dinosaurs! Also, ther were people climbing them (rock climbers)! We also went to the Air Force Academy, where Mr. Wolthoff’s son, Matt went! The church was also strikingly beautiful!
6/29 CO
We drove through a really neat canyon, and right in the middle of nowhere, we went around a curve, and there stood a giant casino ten stories tall! Most likely a getaway from Denver for residents! And just as suddenly as it was there, it disappeared into the curving canyon walls; not to mention the several tunnels we passe through! This was one of the neatest roads I’ve been on in my life! We camped in Arapaho State Park..
6/29 - 7/1 CO
We climbed up a trail to a scenic lookout, went to church, and changed to a new campsite within the same camp. I also moved to Emily and Mama’s tent.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ JULY
7/2 Nederland, CO
We went into town, and we all got corn on the cob at a food stand, and we chowed down. Then we went to the community center, and Daddy and I played 21, football, and a little soccer in the the gym. We then retired to the library, and I read several books. Back at the campsite, we had dinner composed of black-eyed peas, apples, and rice.
7/3 - 7/7 Nederland, CO
One of the most exciting things was watching a fireworks show, and they even had smiley-face fireworks, but they didn’t work out well because they were usually upside-down! There were also ones that made it look like it was raining!
We went to the library, again, and then into town, searching for Emily’s lost windbreaker, but it was nowhere to be found. We had delicious beef stew for dinner. At the campsite, I witnessed Amanda putting dirt into the pencil sharpener to make a habitat for her “tame, pet ladybug!” Good for Amanda and the ladybug, but bad for our pencils!
After clearing camp our final day, we went horseback riding, and my horse’s name was Silver! He strayed off the path twice! . . . The hide made me hot and sweaty, and I wanted to jump off my horse and take a nap in the shade! Life in the saddle is definitely not for me, but I really enjoyed the hour and a half of riding!
7/8 - 7/9 Cheyenne - Douglas - Casper, WY
We traveled to Cheyenne, and stopped at the Hitching Post Inn, with two pools, and a playground. I did a backflip when we went swimming.
We left the hotel, and about 15 miles out of Douglas, we suddenly had a breakdown. We waited about 2 hours until the AAA tow truck came. We were loaned an old Crown Victoria, but it was anything but fit for a queeen! We found a hotel in Casper, and then ate at a good Mexican place.
7/10 - 7/11 Casper, WY
We did a lot of museums and a few sideshows. At the Tate museum, we looked at a rib of Jimbo, the largest Supersaurus ever found! It was twice as tall as Mama! Another museum was the wildlife museum, and there was a 10-ft. tall grizzly bear, and when you turned around there was another! They had a moose, elk, and buffalo, among many others.
My favorite museum was the Nicolayan Art and Science Museum, and I made a robot and a space shuttle oout of recycled scraps. I also painted a neat picture.
In the planetarium, we played around with afew toys before we watched a long presentation on the Milky Way, and other galaxies. There was a big, sudden bang representing the real Big Bang! I also learned that the Hubble Space Telescope could see over 10 billion light years away.
We also liked going to Fort Caspar, and we learned it witnessed the Battle of Platte Bridge. On the gift shop map, I put a pin showing that we were from San Antonio.
7/11 Casper, WY
We had breakfast at the Parkway Café, and read to each other about the area. After we did our lessons, Daddy dropped us off at the library, and we all got our prizes for the summer reading program, which included a water bottle, frisbee, free pizza, and McDonald fries. Back at the hotel, we watched Animal Planet, swam with our new frisbees and had pizza.
7/12 Casper - Douglas, WY
We went to Ayers Natural Bridge, and I played on a playground nearby. . . continued on to Douglas to pick up our car. When we got there, I was overjoyed to be back in an air-conditioned car again. We then traveled to Hot Springs, SD, and got our own little cabin. We dashed over the their petting zoo, rode bikes for a while, and I played basketball. Later, I beat two other kids 2 on 1 and 3 on 1, with scores 37 - 50 and 30 - 50!
7/13 WY - Hot Springs, SD
We traveled for what seemed like a year, but was only two hours! We saw cute little prairie dogs - hundreds of them - running around in a hilly field. Their “bark” sounded more like a chirp! We saw two herds of buffalo, one herd sitting practically on the fence! We went through three narrow tunnels, each only about, maybe 12x9 feet at the biggest! We peered out of one of the tunnels at Mount Rushmore! It was a grand memorial, and I wanted to get out of my seat, and go run to it! But something really didn’t want us togo there, because our car broke down again! We spent around seven hours to get out of the Ford shop.
7/14 - 7/16 SD - ND
These three days all have an adventure inside them. We all went to the Mammoth Dig Site, and in the entrance parking lot, Mama stopped the car for a picture, and a car fuse blew. We replaced it with a fuse that the dealership had given us. We hopped into the building ad took the tour. I made a mammoth rubbing.
On the way out, we broke down again. This time Daddy fixed the fuse again. We drove up to Mt. Rushmore, and I was surprised to find so many people there! When we left the gift shop, I couldn’t find Mama or Daddy anywhere. A guard and I searched and found Daddy waiting in the gift shop. Then we didn’t get far, when we broke down in Keystone, and stayed in a hotel there.
The next day we walked through the town, and did all the bric-a-brac shops. We all got a t-shirt, and walked around town some more.
The next day, we woke early and walked a long way to a lodge only to find the Mass we were looking for was held yesterday on the opposite side of town! We walked back to a gold mine, and a double-decker bus picked us up. We went to a helicopter ride place, and Emily and Amanda got a ride! After we went back to the hotel room to get the camera, then it was Megan and my turn! We took a video of it, and we got ice cream afterwards.
7/17 MT
We visited Custer National Memorial. The Army’s charge against the Lakota and Cheyenne called for three expeditions - one under Gen. George Crook from Fort Fetterman in Wyoming Territory and another from Col. John Gibbon from Fort Lincoln in Montana Territory, and the third from Gen. Alfred Terry from Fort Ellis in the Dakota Territory. They were all to atttack the Indians concentrated in southeaster Montana under the command of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and other war chiefs.
7/18 MT - WY
The past day was really nice. We started to climb out of the prairie, and into the mountains. At a scenic lookout, we all got out of the car at 8,000 ft. to walk along a path. At the end, we saw a mother and baby chipmunk! When we got back to the car, Amanda turned around, and there was a chipmunk staring right back! We crossed the border into Wyoming and camped in Shoshone National Park.
7/22 MT
We traveled to Bozeman, MT, and stopped to do some shopping. Daddy and I looked through some binoculars, while the others shopped for shoes. We at dinner at a place called Frontier Pies. Later, while the others shopped, Daddy and I got into the spa and hot tub area.
7/23 MT - WY
We stopped in Cooke City for lunch and a few miles away we reached Yellowstone National Park. We got a year-round pass to any National Parks, and the lady gave us each an animal sightseeing report card! On our way into the park, we saw well over 50 buffalo! We got a campsite in Bridge Bay Campground, set up our tents, cooked dinner, and went to the washateria. While Megan and I were playing football, a big, fat porcupine waddled up, then waddled away! We went back to the campsite in the rain.
7-24 ID - WA
Today was my birthday! We drove from Couer d’Alene, and headed towards Spokane, Washington. In the morning, I opened all of my presents, and I got two pairs of clothes, binoculars, a camera, a mini scooter, a mini card set, a board game, a pencil cae, beef jerky, and a giant bag of Starbursts, and birthday cards. We went to an amusement park, played in bumper boats, racing cars, zipped across a zipline, and got sick. In Spokane, we went to Doubletree Hotel, and to Tony Roma’s for dinner. Then we went back to the hotel and swam.
7/25 Spokane, WA - OR
We went to the Riverfront Park, and to a giant wagon playground, and the handle was the slide! We rented a family cycle, and we pedaled around for an hour, over a ton of bridges, and overall it was fun, but it sure was exercise! We went to Perrygin State Park, and Daddy, Emily, and I slept out under the stars in just our sleeping bags!
7/28 - 7/29 Bellingham, WA - Vancouver, Canada
Today and yesterday wer awesome! We crossed the border into Canada! The flowers were spectacular, and they had a Canadian flag in red and white flowers! We drove for about an hour before we saw Vancouver, and another half hour before we reached our hotel in Burnaby. Our Radisson Hotel room was on the fourteenth floor! The next day, we went to a botanical garden, and through a children’s garden, and we saw a bee, worm and sanil made out of bushes and flowers! Daddy ate an apple from an apple tree! We threw the frisbee, too, and ran through a hedge maze. I know my way around it by heart! We also went to a mall and Toys-R-Us.
7/30 British Columbia, Canada
We rode on three trains, went to the mall, and I ate pizza and fries at the food court. The change from the meal included a ten dollar bill, and I was surprised to see how different it was from the American dollar bill. I like the Canadian bills much better because they are so much more colorful. We walked to Metrotown Station, and a train picked us up. Emily and Amanda got in the front, and I sat in back. We switched to another train, and this one
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