Days 31 & 32: 7/30 & 7/31/12 Grand Teton NP

7/30/12 Lizard Creek Campground, Grand Teton National Park

We had a nicely busy day today. Lynn served Therese a breakfast of scrambled eggs and potatoes in the tent trailer and then we took a drive down to the bike path where rode our bikes 16 miles on the Teton Park bike path to Jenny Lake. After our ride, we went to the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center and took a hike on the Murie Ranch Trail.

7/31/12 Lizard Creek Campground, Grand Teton National Park

Today we drove over to Coulter Bay and hiked around on the Lakeshore Trail.

Day 30: 7/29/12 Laramie, WY to Grand Teton, NP

9:30am - 4:15pm / Distance 368 mi

Lizard Creek Campground, Grand Teton National Park

Had another easy morning and then off to our favorite little campground in Grand Teton. Arrived just in the later afternoon and took advantage of a ranger talk about moose at the campground and Therese enjoyed reading her book in bed.

Running, biking and hiking for the next couple days! This may be Therese’s new fave National Park!

Day 29: 7/28/12 Wellfleet, NE to Laramie, WY

Wyoming

10:45am - 5:55pm / Distance 297 mi

Days Inn, Laramie

It's always a long drive across Wyoming. This time, we decided to take our time in the morning and enjoy our earthen lodge. We made our way to a hotel in Laramie for the night.

Day 28: 07/27/12 New Franklin, MO to Wellfleet, NE

Kansas & Nebraska

9:23am - 6:58pm / Distance 563.1 mi
Min Alt 577 ft / Max 2972 ft

Dancing Leaf Earthen Lodge, Wellfleet, NE

Our big stop of the day was the Rans Bicycle Factory Tour in Hays, KS! We got there just in time for Therese to run in and get a tour. Then it was off to our lodging for the night, the Dancing Leaf Earthen Lodge complete with a buffalo dinner and evening tour (payable by cash or personal check $60/night +10/person for dinner = $80 + tax).

It was a really interesting place to stay, but it was hot inside of the earthen lodge and we slept on deer hides. Our host gave us an excellent talk about the medicine wheel that he had created on his site and we enjoyed a very tasty dinner.

 

Day 27: 07/26/12 Fort Marion, IL to New Franklin, MO

Missouri

9:33am - 6:17pm / Distance 331 mi

Min Alt 406 ft / Max Alt 912 ft

Katy Roundhouse Campground

Sometimes it feels weird to stay in a hotel, but when you have a long day ahead, it is nice to wake up knowing that you don’t have to break camp.

Pancakes made on demand by a fancy machine at the hotel before 8 and we arrived at our first stop of the day: Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site —it is also a world heritage site(!). My archaeology teacher at LCC did a lot of work at this site and she would go on and on about it. So I figured that I had better get there someday and today was the day! Fortunately for us, there was an archaeological project going on when we were there, so we ended up getting a little talk about it.

Therese has dreams of riding the Katy Trail one day, so when she saw that we would be driving near it, she suggested that we camp at one of the bicycle campgrounds. So we camped at the Katy Roundhouse campground, which is right on the Katy Trail. There wasn’t anyone else camping there, but we had a good time and even took our bikes for a ride around 8:15pm or so.

Day 26: 07/25/12 Mammoth Cave NP to Marion, IL

Illinois

8am - 5pm / 246 mi

Best Western, IL

All packed up and ready to roll by 8am. Stopped at the Jefferson Davis State Historic Site around noon where we found a cache, toured and Therese found a friendly dog. She got her dog fix for sure!

Continued our drive through the Land Between the Lakes NRA. Stopped by Fort Massac State Park and then went to our main attraction of the day — the Superman Museum in Metropolis, IL! Love the Man of Steel!

Day 25: 07/24/12 Mammoth Cave NP

Mammoth Cave Campground

It’s hot and humid, so we got up early for a hike on the Mammoth Cave Railroad Bike & Hike Trail.

We met up with the fam and John at 9am at the zip lines. We had so much fun: 10 year old daredevil niece, 18 yr old nephew, Mark and 72 year old Dad joined Therese and Lynn for the adventure!

The two of us did the Introduction to Caving trip at the national park. It was fun, but I don’t think that either of us need to do that again...as the description had stated, we would be doing some tricky things and have to fit into small spaces...

Offering an off-trail experience, this tour crawls and climbs through hard-to-reach areas for 3.5 hours. Focusing on learning safe caving techniques, this tour explores parts of the cave difficult to access. Please note that due to the tight nature of some of the areas visited, chest and hip measurements must not exceed 42 inches in circumference. Lengthy amounts of time will be spent in tight crawl spaces and difficult climbs, with no alternative routes available. Please note, at 3.5 hours there are no restroom facilities available on this tour. This tour is ideal for people who wish to perform a wide variety of challenging physical obstacles in a unique environment.