Scott and the kids slept well last night. I had the opportunity to listen to the rain for a few hours while I tried to get to sleep. It was good to see the light return to Scott’s eyes.
The rain created a misty fjords feel this morning, so we headed to a pavilion to cook up some porridge with a twist. Scott added in some banana that had become neglected on the dash. I had made several loaves of banana bread before we left and we have been enjoying it at lunch. The kids brushed their teeth after breakfast. Scott’s chuck box has a nice storage area for the toothbrushes. I was admiring the prairie plants when Cody helped point out some more beautiful white flowers. I love that he still brings me flowers he finds. Just not when they come from other people’s yards, which thankfully isn’t too often anymore.
Brooke rediscovered the walkie-talkies in the van. The kids had fun sneaking away from each other on the walkie-talkies while Scott and I cleaned up breakfast. I decided to let Cody have fun and clean up his Legos for him. One creation went splat in the parking lot. Thankfully Cody is learning to appreciate the process of building and he carried on playing.The kids have asked more than once where they can store their creations. Unfortunately with the van as packed as it is there is no room to store creations permanently.
As we headed down the road the song lines, “I got everything I need and nothing that I don’t,” from the Zak Brown Band came on.
Scott found the Kalamazoo Valley Museum in the Roadtripper’s Magazine. The Museum was free. I asked about its funding. The taxpayers fund the museum just like they fund the library. It was a fantastic way to chase away the rainy day camping blues.
The Tinkertoys were entertaining for not only the kids, but Scott and I thoroughly enjoyed building as well. We both agreed that we missed the wood Tinkertoys versus the new plastic pieces. There was a room that had a giant map on the floor and pictures and descriptions of locations around the city of Kalamazoo. We stayed in here locating places on the map and out the windows for at least fifteen minutes.
Brooke took the job of videotaping the news very seriously. Cody didn’t want to run the camera or really be on it, but he changed the weather and it appeared as though there was going to be a tornado in the upper peninsula of Michigan along with snow in Kalamazoo. With the weather we have had this summer, it is all entirely feasible.
Brooke really got into playing at the store. The best part is I would tell her what I wanted to order and she would tell me what I really wanted to order. If I didn’t agree with her she would give me what she wanted to give me anyway. Determined much? The picture above and to the right is Brooke with the new “tablet” Scott wanted her to have. Somehow the chalkboard tablet didn’t do it for her, but she smiled for the picture anyway.
The blue display next to Cody was quite interesting. It had a straight track and a wavy track for two disks to race down. You had to guess which track would be faster. The wavy track was six inches longer. However, due to potential and kinetic energy, the wavy track was faster. This led to the discussion that roller coasters do not need chains or additional force to move the coaster along after the first hill, but many use them to enhance the ride. In the middle picture is what Scott worked on while the kids and I wondered around. The idea was for the kids to help Scott, but the attention span maximum time limit of five minutes left Scott alone, but successful in his attempt to build a structure out of paper clips and straws to support the dump truck across the one foot span for thirty seconds or longer. The kids did at least come back to see if Scott was successful. We headed to a park right below the museum for lunch. They were setting up for a Blues Festival.
We had a lunch of watermelon, yogurt, banana bread, carrots, popcorn, and salsa and chips. The lunch was perfect for our kids since they could wander and eat simultaneously.
We ventured back to the car and discovered the wet tent was leaking onto our shower bags with our clean towels. Reshuffle!
We drove four and a half hours to Clifty Falls, IN. We stopped at Wal-Mart to shop and at Little Cesear’s for a five dollar pizza. We were going to head to Brown County, but I asked Scott why we weren’t trying someplace new as we have previously enjoyed Brown County in the fall with the changing of the leaves. He accepted the challenge and redirected us to Clifty Falls.
Arrival time: 9:15pm.
We had just enough light to set up the tent. We sent the kids to the playground to play for a few minutes while we set up. Brooke and Cody came back less then five minutes later. Brooke was crying and Cody was talking nonstop. Brooke had gone down the fireman’s pole right into a giant puddle and then hit her head hard. She was coated in mud from head to tail, or sandals anyway. Thankfully this campground had nice warm showers not too far away. On the way to the showers stumbling through the dark Brooke and I found another swamp. Headlamps might have been a good idea.
Everyone fell asleep quickly. However, some rustling in the woods next to us woke me and I was up for at least four hours. I was able to hear an owl sing, “Who Cooks for You?” I tried to remember back to the fourth grade McHenry County Conservation District presentations on Birds of Prey. It was either the Barred or the Barn Owl. For me part of the enjoyment of camping comes from hearing the birds early in the morning, watching the stars dance across the night sky, watching the morning dew disappear with the first rays of sunshine, and the rare glimpses at animals in nature.
