Background Information: Since the last time the blog was updated (Costa Rica –
Oops!) There has been an addition to the Avenger 6. Now known as the Avenger 7.
Only Avenger names are used throughout the blog. However, the newest addition
has not yet claimed his Avenger name. He will be referred to as A7 throughout
the duration of this trip. Possible suggested names include: Quicksilver, Ant
Man, Falcon, and Bucky. Only time will
tell.
Like all good plans, something often goes a stray. We had
intentions of leaving at 9:00. You see, a few days prior to leaving we are
sitting on the back patio eating dinner and Thor announces, “A mouse, or maybe
a rat or something, just jumped off the grill. There is a mouse over
there.” After a look of “what, is this
for real” between Hawkeye and Black Widow, Hawkeye got some tool and began
shifting around a pile of children’s toys shoved in the corner. Sure enough,
there was a giant puff of a mouse. Hawkeye scared it away.
Well, the morning we were to leave, Hawkeye suspected the
mouse was back as most of the watermelon plant was chewed up. It had created a
giant nest INSIDE the grill. Had pulled in hair rubber bands (much to Iron
Man’s desire to get them back) and other odds and ends to create a little home.
Well – we couldn’t leave it alone. There would be no garden to return home to.
Plus, we didn’t need a family of mice to move in (or be born). Hawkeye attempted to scurry the mouse along,
humanly. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t leave the nest. Despite having the nest pulled apart and being
smothered in water – it wouldn’t leave. Finally after deciding it was drowning,
Hawkeye smacked it with a shovel. Dead.
The mouse was named Sgt Floyd, who was the only man to die on the Lewis &
Clark expedition. We have a habit of naming all animals caught in the backyard
(mostly rabbits and mice – which we often release in a large wilderness area in
town). Needless to say, we were now behind schedule. We hitched up the Corp of
Discovery and set out shortly after 10:30.
The drive was nice and enjoyable. We visited the library prior
to the trip and stocked up on book and audio books. The younger Avengers read
books, worked on some reading workbooks while the older Avengers took turns
driving and chatted. We also listened to Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory. We will
probably finish this over the next couple of days.
Friday night while packing, Hawkeye’s beloved rice cooker
turn a turn for the worse. Hulk was a little angry and upset the rice cooker
was in a tub and not in its regular location. He picked up the lid, to put it
“up”, dropped it, and the lid smashed into hundreds of pieces. Poor rice
cooker. We stopped at a Wal-Mart in some small Kansas town and bought a new
one. Thor was adamant he needed some dinosaur bicycle and cried upon leaving
the store.
At roughly 7:00, we arrived at the Grand Island, Nebraska
KOA. It was a typical KOA, but nestled in the cornfields. Hawkeye took the older 4 to the playground
while Black Widow and A7 prepped dinner. We dined in tortilla soup, rice,
collard greens, and grapes. It was tasty!
Our site was the last one on the row and right next to the
cornfields. Hawkeye talked about what makes a good cornstalk versus a bad
cornstalk. We talked about how the corn grows tall, what makes good corn, and
other aspects of farming.
There was a family next to us who also have five children –
all boys. They were from Utah and on their way to the upstate New York area
with a planned stop at Niagara Falls.
We sat outside watching fireflies light up the sky and all
over the corn field. The boys from Utah were mesmerized with the fireflies,
having never seen them before. They attempted to take pictures of them lit up.
We settled inside the Corp of Discovery and got some sleep. We
slept with the windows zipped down and almost no light pollution in the sky.
There was a peaceful breeze flowing through the tent, and it got a little chilly
in the middle of the night. We were surrounded by a crisp, big sky full of
stars and hundred of fireflies in the cornfields.
Tomorrow – South Dakota and the Badlands!
