We had, and I quote, "the Great All American Breakfast" . It reminded me of Chuck West's great skillet breakfast he used to make for us. We met the wife of the owner and she and her husband live within a couple of blocks of Jimmy's office in Punta Gorda. What a small world! We then played a WILD game of ping pong. The ball was everywhere. One time the ball even hit the air conditioning vent in the 15 foot high ceiling. We had quite a few laughs over our...

We woke up, packed up and parked the trailer for the kids to go and enjoy the multitude of activities they offered. This park had an inflexible schedule for everything: our kids wouldn't be able to go on the pillow for another hour, the petting zoo would be open late in the afternoon, the pool was jam-packed and jelly tight. We left disgruntled but rested. We decided to leave Interstate 90 and take some back roads down into Iowa.We can't go as fast as the spee...

The next morning, we liked this park so much that we didn't start out right away.The kids worked off a lot of energy on the jumping pillow again and then went for a cooling swim in the pool.We did another load of towels afterwards and headed for LaCrosse, Wisconsin.It was a late start, but no problem, we were not going as far today as we had previously been grinding out. But the best laid plans don't always work out.Less than 100 miles into our trip across Minne...

We arose very early this morning in order to beat the rush to Mt. Rushmore.The sight was really worth the sacrifice!It was a very inspiring sight in the early morning light of a beautiful day.It took 14 years to complete the sculpture.It is the tallest peak between the Rockies and the Alps.Ninety percent of the sculpturing was done with dynamite.Yet, their faces are very detailed and well defined.We ate breakfast on an outdoor terrace right under the noses of tho...

We had originally planned to go to Red Lodge, Montana last night and spend the night at the summer home of Rachel and Roger Bowman, swimming friends of Paige's from Sarasota. However, as we had started back east a day late already, we decided to stay on the main trail. Rachel and her son Graham were coming to pick her mother up at the Billings airport later in the day, they were kind enough to meet us for breakfast and bring us some important mail that had been s...