We Be Trippin’

My father-in-law recently retired after 30 years as a pastor. He and my mother-in-law have been traveling. And now, they are thinking of getting an RV. 

My sister-in-law is a former missionary, now church planter with an traveling-world-evangelist for a husband. They are thinking about taking their fam on the road for a few months in an RV.

And suddenly, I’m itching to get back inside an RV. But more than that? I’m slapping my forehead because DOH! It’s been a YEAR since I got back from our #ohRV trip and I only updated two days. TWO DAYS of our 9 day extravaganza!

I’m seriously sad because there are some AMAZING pictures and adventures we had that you need to know about. So. I’m going to do that now. Maybe not all 9 days in this lil’ ol’ post. But I am going to give you some highlights. I have to. You can pretend we just went on this trip. Or you can just scroll through this and pretend to be mildly interested the way you would if you were looking through my scrapbook. But I’m telling you—this trip was magical. I think everyone should travel in an RV at some point in their lives.

(Also? The RV bug has hit my husband. Not so much to travel the country but so we can go to Disney and stay at Fort Wilderness. I married a keeper, y’all.)

Now. Before we begin, you’ll have to catch up on Day 1 of our adventure where we eat brains and find some long-lost cousins. Then, day 2 where we visit Abraham Lincoln. See? Already you’re loving this, aren’t you?

Our second night, we spent the night in Iowa. I woke up to a pretty little campsite, did my own CrossFit workout (I ran around the lake. Choke.) and the kids had Morning Watch. It was lovely.

Then, the kids and I went on a walk around the campsite. I had seen some corn fields close by and knew we had to get pictures in front of that famous Iowa corn. (Remember this for later.)

Once we were all ready to go and the RV was un-hooked-up (?), we hit the road for Amish country. Only, we discovered there was no Amish country around there. Instead, the Amana Colonies were close by. Do you know about the Amana colonies? Ever heard of Amana appliances? That’s them!

They were a similar group of people to the Amish with their own laws, beliefs but the community fizzled out sometimes in the 30’s. (I think? I can’t remember!) Today, the city is restored and filled with cute shops and restaurants.

We went to one of my favorite antique stores ever, looked at quilts and then ate a traditional German meal. Well, Lydia is the only one that ended up with a really good Amana-style meal.

I asked for corn as a side item. You know, Iowa. Corn. The waitress (with her 3 teeth) said, “Well, it’s frozen corn.” OK. Frozen corn. In Iowa. With cornfields in your backyard. Whatever.

After Amana, we finally made it to Minnesota!

Our first stop in the Land of 10,000 Lakes was Mankato!

What? You don’t know this town?

Mankato is the hometown of author Maud Hart Lovelace. She wrote the Betsy-Tacy books which are, really, my most favorite books in the whole world.

Once we got there, the actual buildings were closed but we did get to walk around what would have been Hill Street and Betsy and Tacy’s homes.

And their bench. Happy sigh.

We also saw a monk. That was kind of weird.

It was a short stop but I totally loved it. 

After that we were off to Walnut Grove, Minnesota!

This was the part of the trip where Daddy almost drove us into a lake, we almost got shot at, we were almost accosted by some hometown fireworks watching folks and were almost lost and swallowed up amongst the prairie all thanks to our low-down-no-good-dirty-good-for-nothing GPS. Sigh. I could go on and on, but it was a year ago and I can’t remember every detail (but clearly, I can exaggerate!)              .

All I know is that I almost chucked that GPS out the window and I may have cursed Minnesota Department of Transportation for making the most asinine street signs in the world.

How much do you love the ohRV?!!