And we're off like a herd of turtles!

So, that little adventure that we went on, to Ohio. What an interesting trip it was. So to tell a story we have to start at the beginning. We got up late (that is how every good trip starts you know) and then had to stop by Jess and Ty's to get stuff that we were too exhausted to get the night before. But, eventually, we began the first lag. It was mostly uneventful. We quickly discovered that the trip was going to take a lot longer based on the fact that a majority of our party have extraordinarily small bladders, so we have to stop every 2 hours for potty breaks and the kids then want out to walk around. So, ever so slowly we made our way down to billings. This where my Grandpa Joe Peaslee was raised until he left home at 14, there are many Peaslee's still living in the area. It is beautiful country around there. My Mom mentioned 50 or more times how she could totally live there.

The next day we went to Parshall, North Dakota where we stayed at the most wonderful little bed and breakfast called Deep Water Bay, "Where they butter their bread right to the edges". The nicest folks you'll ever meet, we just loved staying with them, good cooks too! We stayed there for two days because we have a family connections just north of there in Plaza. My Great Great Grandmother and Grandfather Arthur and Hattie Edwards built a homestead just outside of Plaza in North Dakota. The home place is off in the distance.Our cousins live there now, they call it the home-place. They were a ton of fun and very hospitable. Our cousins Olaf and Penny Edwards hosted lovely impromptu get together for us and we ate slush boogers (sloppy joes). Their accents were really fun to hear, as well. The scenery was amazing! Gently rolling hills, blue sky uninterrupted from horizon to horizon. We even saw some oil fields, beans, barley, peas, and even sun flowers are just some of the crops that people farm. Of course, there was also a lot of wheat, and when the wind blows it rolls just like waves on the ocean. We did Get to see the home that hattie and Arthur built. It was really big and much more modern in layout and design than I would have thought. It was neat to hear that some of the family had lived in this house that was about a hundred years old up until last year. Before, my great cousin Auntie Jo had passed away (she was the baby of Hattie and Arthur) she told my Mom that Hattie's trunk that held her wedding dress was in the attic. So with the help of our two little cousins, Jacob and Perry. I was able to get into the attic and was able to recover a few items that had been lost ages ago. However, the trunk (the kids all called it the treasure trunk) was not up there. Later, while at the grave yard, I was reading one of the books I found in the attic and, in the notebook there was a lot of sketches of plants that she was studying at the time. A years worth of journal entries, and the most priceless of all the finds was family tree of her family as far back as she could remember. This discovering was so exciting because my Mother had hit a road block in her family history and could go no further. We really felt like she had led us there, personally. It was a very awesome and spiritual experience! Later, we went to dinner with all of our cousins and shared this exciting new find, and I think that they were very happy!

The next day we were off on our exodus and it went without a hitch, it was very uneventful. We stopped in St. Paul, Minnesota. The next day we realized quickly that this was the death march portion of the trip. We were very tired and decided go straight for Columbus. We started early and drove straight to Chicago, Illinios. We were convinced that we were better off to go around Chicago and avoid the traffic and all of those pesky toll booths. Boy! Were we smart! We saw right away that there is no such thing as going "around" toll booths. So this is all we saw of Chicago, toll booths and traffic! Three hours and $20.00 later we were well on our way to Columbus. But we did cross the Mississippi!Lesson learned: pay the tolls, and enjoy the West's FREEways. We saw Indiana from the window of the moving van. But just from the window you could tell we had entered into entirely new territory. There were no more pine trees, lots and lots of fields, and everything was very green and lush. I felt like I had stepped into Huckleberry Finns world. About halfway through Indiana it occurred to me that we were just passing the town of Argos, that the Gilpatricks, one of Kyle's ancestors had founded. So I called Papa to tell him all about it. Then just as soon as it began we drove into the state of Ohio, the end. It was all so surreal to be in the car for five days, it went by so fast and yet seemed take eternity. It was night time when we drove into the state. When your tired and you've been driving for days things start to take on a new shape. We got into our hotel at about 9pm. The kids and I went right to sleep. Mom stayed up till Kyle and Sherri drove into town and when they called she went to get them and have them follow her to the hotel room. That sounds easy enough right? Well, it wasn't. They called and Mom went to get them and they just kept missing each other. I woke up just after 3 am when Kyle came in. It took my mom and Kyle 3 hours to find each other and make it back to the hotel! It was very sad. The day after Mom and Sherri left we found our new home!

*All of the pictures are not my own.