Walker Wonders

Here we go!  Andrew & I left Idaho on May 19th at about 3:45PM.

Andrew picked me up from school, we said good-bye to all of my co-workers got in the car and drove off.  And that was it.  Just like that, my job as a teacher came to an end, and my job as a stay-at-home wife and mother were about to begin!  

Luckily, one of the teachers told us that the road we were going to take, was closed due to mudslides, so we had to go through Jackson, WY.

It wasn't too bad!  I decided to take pictures of our surroundings every hour. (Morgan told me to take pictures of farms and cool things that we passed, so she had a huge part in this idea of mine!) However, I didn't take any of Ashton, ooops....but I did take some an hour into our trip...the Jackson Pass.

So, here is our road trip in pictures. It is amazing all the different terrain we saw!

 May 19, 2011 @ 5:00 PM

The Jackson Pass

 May 19, 2011 @ 6:00 PM

Wyoming

 May 19, 2011 @ 7:30 PM

 May 19, 2011 @ 8:00 PM

We stopped about an hour later in Rawlins, WY at the ECONOLODGE.

Right about this time is when we were calling the EconoLodge to get the address. The people who work there did not speak English or Spanish.

It was quite a fiasco to get the address.

We ended up calling the EconoLodge in Rock Springs, WY

She was able to tell us the address to where we could understand.

 May 20, 2011 @ 8:00 AM

Right outside of Rawlins.

On the road again.

This is going to be a LONG day!

 May 20, 2011 @ 8:15 AM

Here we go...our first farm that we saw Morgan! 

A Wind Farm

 May 20, 2011 @ 9:00 AM

I was really starting to wonder if we were traveling in May or January.  

Look at all the snow there still is in Wyoming.

This is right outside of Laramie.

Look at the Lincoln Monument.

 May 20, 2011 @ 10:00 AM

The snow is gone and it is starting to look more like SPRING weather.

 May 20, 2011 @ 10:15 AM

We have entered into Nebraska!

Look, there is a farmer!

 May 20, 2011 @ 11:00 AM

 May 20, 2011 @ Noon

Here is some more of Nebraska!

A huge Cattle Farm

 May 20, 2011 @ 1:00 PM

 May 20, 2011 @ 2:00 PM

 May 20, 2011 @ 4:00 PM 

Looks like I skipped an hour...but I didn't!  

We just crossed over to Central Time Zone

 May 20, 2011 @ 5:00 PM

 May 20, 2011 @ 5:22 PM

We are in Lincoln, NE

We were going to stop here, but decided to go another 3 hours to Kansas City.

I was doing really well in the car and it would give us an opportunity to go Sightseeing the next day!

 May 20, 2011 @ 6:00 PM

 May 20, 2011 @ 6:20 PM

We have crossed the Missouri River and have entered into Iowa!

 May 20, 2011 @ 6:43 PM - 7:03 PM

We are now in Missouri.  We were not in Iowa for very long.

I found it very interesting that on the left side of the road there were hills and trees (pictured on left column) and then on the right side it was flat as can be.  Farm land for as far as the eyes could see.  (Pictured on the left side)

 May 20, 2011 @ 8:00 PM

We are so close to Kansas City.

We rolled into the Hotel at about 8:30ish.

WE stayed at Holiday Inn Express.

I have come to realize that I am ok to pay the extra money to stay at a nice hotel.

The EnonoLodge just didn't cut it for me.

We like Holiday Inn Express.

I really liked the breakfast in the morning.

We had a good night's rest and were ready for the next day!

 May 21, 2011 @ 9:00 AM

We kinda slept in this morning.  We first stopped by a car place to fix our windshield wiper.  Can you see in that middle picture how broken it was.  Yikes.  I also wanted to show off my beautiful finger splint that we made.  I think I jammed my finger at some point and we just made a splint out of Popsicle sticks and tape.  Beautiful!

 May 21, 2011 @ 9:33 AM

Our first stop on the Sightseeing tour was Liberty Jail. 

I have been here before with Kati, but I really wanted Andrew to experience it as well.

I just love feeling the spirit here. 

Independence, MO @11:00

We then headed over to Independence, MO.  We first stopped at the Visitor Center and learned all about the early saints that lived there.  We then stepped outside of the visitor center and took a pic of the Community of Christ Temple that is right across the street.  We then headed over to the museum that talks all about the Oregon Trail.  We didn't go inside of it, but I did get a really cool stamp for my travel book.

 We then took some pics outside and were then invited into the Train Station.  That was really fun to go into.  They have made it look like just what it looked like back in the day. 

Then off to Arkansas.

 May 21, 2011 @ 1:22 PM

We saw the very first ARKANSAS license plate!

 May 21, 2011 @ 2:00 PM

Somewhere in the middle of Missouri!

 May 21, 2011 @ 3:00 PM

This is pretty close to Joplin, MO where the tornado came through the very next day.

It is a bit surreal that we were so close to the place where so much devastation happened.  We are praying for all those in Joplin.

 May 21, 2011 @ 4:00 PM  

We are SOOOO close to the border of Arkansas!

 May 21, 2011 @ 4:14 PM

15 minutes after I had taken the pictures of all of the grass and trees and stuff the terrain changed rather quickly.  All of sudden there were all of these rocks surrounding us.  It was pretty neat to see.  So, I took pics of them!

 May 21, 2011 @ 4:29

We have made it to Arkansas!  Our trip is almost over!

May 21, 2011 @ 4:31 

These pics are taken in Bella Vista, AR.  Right across the border.  Absolutely beautiful.  Just look how green it is here.  I love it.  We got to our apartment a twenty minutes later.  We are pretty close to the border.  I will put pics of our apartment in the next post. We had a great trip and it went by very quickly.  We were very blessed that everything was fine with Baby Jackson and myself.  We are glad to be here in Arkansas, but miss all of our peeps back in Idaho very much!  Hope you have a great summer, wherever you are!