Road Trip Day 1

So, we left on Tuesday, July 20 at 8:00 am to go pick up MG and then got on the road! We got to meet MG and Grandaddy's new kittens (Ben and Jerry), switched cars, and got on the road! I had packed a bag full of different things for the kids to do, plus a cooler with juice and water, and the infamous bag o' snacks (grapes, cherry tomatoes, goldfish, Kix, pretzels, and graham crackers) so we were entertained. Bebe also brought along her "Hear Us Sing God" CDs - there are 2 CDs with 50 songs each on them sung by small children. I was able to listen to the high pitch for a while and then we switched over to XM radio Margaritaville for our dose of Jimmy Buffet and friends. We stopped for lunch at a McDonald's (not a fabulous choice, but when you're driving through East Texas - there's not a lot to choose from) and let the kids run around a bit under their shade tarp; the playground was too hot.

Me with our GPS friend - Quigley

Bebe playing.

Then we hit the road again and got to Kilgore, TX. We went to the #1 tourist destination in East Texas (that's what it said) - The East Texas Oil Museum! The last time we had gone, I was about 5. That's been over 25 years ago (26 to be exact). It was a pretty cool museum. Very interactive for the kids and Mamu kept saying "Men get Oil out of the ground". We went on a journey to the center of the Earth. You ride on an elevator down to the center of the Earth! Our trip was narrated by Professor Rockbottom and his pal (forgot his name). It was both educational and interesting at the same time! We got to look at all the great exhibits and watch a film on the Oil Boom. We spent a good hour to hour and a half there learning about "Men get oil out of the ground" and both kids were sad when we had to leave. Believe it or not, I remembered parts of it!

Bebe, Mamu, and Me at the East Texas Oil Museum. That's carpet on the wall - it was pretty cool.

Mamu, Me, and MG waiting for the 8 minute informational video on the creation of the museum.

Bebe and Mamu listening to information about the Oil Boom.
MG learning too!

Mamu drilling for oil!


The Elevator to the Center of the Earth!

We then drove, and drove, and drove, and drove, and drove. And drove some more. Luckily, Mamu fell asleep for parts of it (it was quite past his nap time) and Bebe enjoyed her CD #2 of Hear Us Sing God.

Well, I don't know about you, but no road trip for us is complete without a stop at Dairy Queen! Thus began the hunt for the Dairy Queen. Let me tell you, for being in the backroads of Texas, passing through towns with as little as 300 people (last census count) there weren't a lot of choices! We finally saw one, I did a U-turn, and drove quite quickly (ok - I sped) to the Dairy Queen drive-thru. We got our ice cream (which did take quite awhile, but we were willing to wait) and got on the road again. The kids got a cup of ice cream to share and it was bigger than mine! Sadly, a lot of it went to waste because both kids ate what they wanted and it looked like they hadn't made a dent in it! Oh well.

Mamu enjoying his ice cream!

We finally made it to Louisiana -and discovered the speed limit was 15 miles slower there on the road - that's right folks - 55 mph on the highway. It felt like snails were passing us after doing 70 in Texas. We then discovered that we were heading for the wrong gate, so Didi had to direct us via iphone. We finally made it to the main gate and got our day pass. Then we drove to the other side of the post to get to Didi's house. We made it! Uncle Mark, Aunt Didi, and KK were so sweet and made dinner for us. Then we got the kids into bed (it was past their bedtimes).

Then I got talked into playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band. It helped that Didi has the Aerosmith Guitar Hero. Needless to say, we formed our own band - the Banski's.

The first performance of the Banski's!

Where did that name come from you ask? Well, on our day pass to get on post, the guard has to write down who you are visiting. He totally butchered Uncle Mark's name (turned Uncle Mark into Uncle Marco) and put the name as Banski. We found that quite humorous (probably because we were a little bit silly after being on the road for almost 8 hours) and thus it became our band's name. We stayed up way too late, but we were having a lot of fun! Then we hit the hay because the kids would still get up (in our opinion) way too early in the morning.