Event Coverage UPDATED WITH PHOTOS! Going For Broke...50 day Cross-Country Road Trip Family Style

Days 40 and 41
I'll spare you the family pictures from Branson. The last 2 days have been a wonderful break for all of us. A friend told us that there is a difference between a trip and a vacation, and the last 2 days have been our second vacation of the trip (Disney was first). Thanks to my mom, we have been eating buffet, racing go karts, attending cheesy gospel patriotic shows that are blowing my mind with their Americaness, and we even went to Silver Dollar City for a day. It's like Las Vegas without alcohol.

Tomorrow we are hitting the road for Salina to attend the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular. We will probably only make it half was there tomorrow, and get to Salina on Friday afternoon. If you are going to be at the show we would love it if you stopped by and said hi.

Since I am not giving you any photos from days 40 and 41, take a chance and read Kenna's recent blog about our adventure in Florida. Here is the link to her blog: http://misspartymom.blogspot.com/

Thanks for following along with us...

 

Great story! This is a memory your family will have forever. Some people live a whole life without doing something cool like this.

 

Look at you and Kenna and your kids and your wagon gittin' all sorts of attention and newspaper articles and such. Lovin' it, man ... way to represent!

 

I don't know of 2 hours could do this trip justice, but I would love to see such a special.

Whenever I see new posts of the your progress I become more and more envious.

 

Absolutely awesome!!!!! Thanks for taking us along on your epic road trip, the photos and stories are fantastic.
Your kids will remember this for the rest of their lives. Great job mom and dad!!!

I'll officially nominate you to join the Road Trip Hall of Fame.....along with 40StudeDude, and Bob K.

 

Went to Silver Dollar City this year...man they have the best roller coasters! Fast and smooth. Branson is the most patriotic city in America, went there last year for a Navy reunion. All their shows are very patriotic. The Branson Belle is pretty neat too paddle boat dinner theater.

 

PB&J's @ kkoa Salina, KS. Cool meeting you guys as you cruised thru.
Safe travels & find a 'cool' way home!

 

You're children are going to turn out fine.

 

... And very tolerant !

 

Great family! Everyone was enjoying the 95 degree day and having watermelon! Middle of the day KKOA Salina today.
I was expecting maybe a little weariness from the heat , but there seemed to be none.
The nicest people and the kids are just great. You guys stay Kool and I will post a couple of pics when I get home.

 

Yeah,they'll just be let down by most other peoples kids.That's the loneliness of being exceptional

 

I'm glad to see you made it to ArkanSAW, In Hot Springs you were 50 miles from Little Rock and a FREE place to stay. Thanks for acknowledging our Great state.

 

It was Hot!

 

Day 42 Branson Missouri to El Dorado State Park, KS

After eating our final Buffet at the Grand Country Hotel in Branson, and getting a pizza for the road, it was time to hit the road towards Salina, and the KKOA Lead Sled Spectacular. As I was packing up @bchrismer stopped by to wish us well on the rest of the trip! He even snuck out of a meeting to come say farewell!

We had to stop and see Mater and Lightning on our way out of Branson!

And...

MAP and Pizza box rather than GPS.

Two Lane Roads into Kansas. Only bummer is there was no "Welcome to Kansas" Sign.

We got a beautiful campsite on the lake at El Dorado State Park for only $11. After chili burritos we caught some catfish. I stayed up a couple hours reading before heading to bed around 11pm. You have to read day 43 for how this story ends...

 

Day 43 El Dorado State Park to Salina, KS

The first major bummer of our trip. I woke up around 7:45 to start making breakfast burritos for the family before they woke up. As I walked to the stove I realized our pan and spatula were missing. Then I looked and realized one of our chairs was missing too. I asked our neighbor if they had anything missing and they went and looked and realized their lantern was stolen. I decided to call the Ranger to see if they might have caught anyone the night before and our stuff was looking to be returned. When I called the ranger said, "Wow, usually they only steal beer out of the coolers." That is when I looked under the table and realized our cooler was gone to! And our fishing poles, including Birdie's that I got her for her birthday 3 weeks ago! I asked our neighbors if their cooler was their, and they said yes, but all their beer and gatorade was gone! This was a major bummer! But before we could get to down, our camp neighbor walked over and gave us a chair, pan, and spatula. They said they had just got married and had received so many pots and pans that they wanted us to have them. It was such a nice gesture, especially since they were living at the camp all summer trying to save some money. After filing a police report with the Ranger, we hit the road to have lunch with a friend's family in Newton, KS. After some delicious meatball sandwiches and a quick dip in their pool, we were headed north for the final hour to Salina. THAT WAS THE HOTTEST HOUR OF THE TRIP!!! It was 106 out with a "heat index" (what the heck is a heat index we don;t have that in California) of 110. We registered at the host hotel, then headed over to the KOA Campground to set up camp. After a soak in the pool and some Camp Pasta, we went over and checked out the Drag Racing! It was crazy how little rules their were. There were slingshot dragsters, gassers, late models, and everything in between. No helmets, one cement barrier, and a whole lot of good old drag racing fun. After the races we stopped for some local ice cream at Braum's and on our way back to camp we stumbled upon a car show on Santa Fe.

The first Kustom we saw in the Walmart Parking Lot while we were buying new fishing poles since the KOA had a bass fishing lake!













@travisfromkansas

 

Bummer about those thieves! I feel ya, I got my truck stolen right out of my driveway 2 weeks ago. But I know it didn't get you down. How could it? Your treasures are kept elsewhere.

 

Day 44 KKOA Lead Sled Spectacular

We headed over to the show around 10am. We lasted until about 1 and then we had to go hit the water park across the street and cool down! I have a feeling that Saturday was a good example of what the surface of the sun feels like! After the water park we headed back to the show for a bit, before heading over to the Paramount Bar on Santa Fe for the New Blood Awards Party hosted by @travisfromkansas (http://royboyproductions.com/) . We were super stoked to win the $500 cash People's Choice Award! Thanks for putting on this great get together and giveaway Travis! It was fun to meet a bunch of hambers too!



Here are some of my favorite cars from the show on Saturday.







Gus and his wagon were also part of the New Blood Award. Great guy and a great club out of Colorado.

It was perfect we set up camp right by the playground! Thanks to all of you who stopped by and talked story with us!




This wagon on a Jeep Wagoneer chassic just had Baja Surf Trip written all over it!!



This was insane!!!

 

Day 45 Salina Kansas to Greenburg, Kansas
We slept in and let the kids play with their new friends in the camp next door. We headed over to Oakdale park around 10am. I was going to walk the kids over to the water park again and Kenna was going to come swap with me so I could go check out the awards ceremony. But unfortunately the water park didn't open until 1pm. On our walk back to the park we saw the most beautiful 50 Mercury hiding out in the shade. This Merc reminded me of the Sam Barris Merc. I spent a good amount of time talking with Dave the owner and his wife. They were great folks with an insane Mercury and absolutely no ego or attitude. They were willing to talk for close to an hour with a California hippie with a stock wagon with a grille swap! Great folks and I saw they won a couple awards, but I had to leave the awards early because I began to melt and needed to get into the Lazy River at the water park.

I will include some more photos of cars I liked before showing a bunch of photos of Dave's 1950 Mercury Kustom!
"It's too hot!!!"

Play ground and stage and shade! Bingo!

Photo by Cormac

Photo by Cormac, He loved that this said Los Angeles!!! Made him feel closer to home I guess.

This chopped 60 was insane!!!

Photo by Cormac

Photo by Cormac

Great music station in the park to occupy the kids so Kenna and I could go check out some cars!



The Miss Party Mom Pick at KKOA 2015! The interior sold her!


The Surfcaliforniasurf Pick! I think they may bring it to California in 2016!









After the show and 3 hours at the Water park, we ate some dinner at Martinelli's on Santa Fe before heading west into the sunset.

While the kids slept, Kenna and I started a competition to see who could get the most trains to blow their horns for us!!! So far we are both 1 for 2!


The radar became a big red blob so we decided to hunker down for the night...

 

Looks like you are having a great time. We make the steel parts for the outdoor instruments. The company that makes them is right here in Durango and they sell them worldwide. That is the first time I have actually seen them installed.
If you hit southern Colorado look me up. Safe travels.

 

awesome trip

 

Great post, be safe.

 

Man I hope you are writing a book on your trip. If nothing else you kids will love it 30 years from now.

Prayers for a safe rest of your trip.

 

You and your family are great. Out on the road living the dream. This is an awesome story. Great memories.

 

Eureka Springs was one of our favourite places when we did a trip in 1995. That was in May and then we went back in 2010 in winter and the place is cold and deserted!! Had to go to the bar and do tequila shots to warm up.

 

Saw your car at the show in Salina and took some pics. It would have been great to meet you guys. We just got back from a 3,770+ mile trip in our '63 Falcon, would have loved sharing stories. Be safe and Godspeed.

 

This thread is full of awesomeness...!

 

Sounds like the trip of a life time and something many of us would also love to do.
Enjoy your freedom and have a safe trip.
Jimbo

 

I too had a bunch of stuff stolen when we were asleep at a camp ground,ice chest,cook stove,all our pans & utensils,they even took our cloths on the line.

I'm glad you were helped out by fellow campers,we were too. HRP

 

So cool that you stopped and ate at Sidestreet Pizza in Tryon, Nc! You were only a couple of miles from my house

 

You missed the great Cozy Inn hamburger joint in Salina......You would have loved it! Nothing like it any where in the world. Seen your wagon at the show but never seen you around it. Wish I would have had a chance to meet up with you.