4 Wheels 4 Girls

You’re probably thinking, What the heck does that mean? Well, can you guess? I couldn’t.
Asah Gweh Oou-o is the Native American name for Eagle View, which was the awesome campground we stayed at for two days and two nights with only Dad. You might be thinking I had a terrible time, but it was actually great with only Dad. He was so fun- he hauled himself over to the pool, because we weren’t allowed in there without someone over the age of 16. I felt really bad dragging him to the pool, both days, when we were supposed to be spending time with him. He brought his computer and worked in the shade under a gazebo-like-thing in a chair with rubber straps where you sit and stretch your legs out. He looked pretty comfortable to me, so I started to felt less guilty.

I had so much fun in the nice, heated pool, where I could do front and backflips, where I could be free and have fun, even if I looked dumb sometimes. But what really made me feel good was making new friends and having fun with them. My sisters and I did relay races with our new friend, Sarah, and taught each other different strokes in swimming. We all had a lot of great laughs at the attempts, and wore ourselves out.

Dad was great with us. Even as we were leaving, and trying to pack up the bikes, he let us ride them around the campground with our friend. As we were biking, Dad took our picture next to a big Saguaro cactus. When you look at this, you can see how big they really are.

You can get a feel for how big the saquaro are

Our time at Eagle View passed too quickly for me. I just had so much fun, it was hard to leave.

Thursday, March 24, we drove to White Sands National Monument in New Mexico, prepared for a day of fun.

Well, at least Dad was; I really wasn’t too excited about it. But that all changed when Jean and Dad returned from the visitor center with sleds. And guess what they said? They said we were going sledding on the sand dunes. I brightened up a bit after that.

We all went into the visitor center to get our junior ranger packets. We worked on those and then drove about eight miles into the dunes. We found a place to park where dunes surrounded us, and spotted a tall, steep dune that looked perfect for sledding. We hauled our sleds up the dune, and I realized how hard it is to walk up the sand. If I stepped up two feet, my foot would slide down one. We finally made it to the top.

Greta was the first to sled, so she would make a good path for the rest of us. Sledding was really fun for me, and I went pretty fast, but Ellie, on her first try, spun around backwards and flipped over in the sand. I thought she would chicken out and stop sledding, but surprisingly she kept sledding.

We got tons of sand in our shoes and it was really uncomfortable. We only went on our sleds a couple more times before we abandoned them and went on a long hike, barefoot. We took the compass that one of Dad’s friends gave us for our trip. I spotted a huge dune, and I was sure it was the biggest, but when I made it up to the top, I looked around and discovered I was very wrong. From the top of this one, it looked like all the others were bigger, but I also felt amazing. I spread my arms as the wind whipped my hair back. I was having an awesome time until sand got in my eyes and it stung REAL BAD. It was still fun, though.

Greta and Ana catching up to Me and Ellie on top of a huge dune

When we decided our hike was over, we tried to follow our compass back to the RV. But, we got way off. We made it back to the road we had driven in on, but the RV wasn’t there. Dad asked Ellie and Ana to be scouts, to climb the dune to our left, and see if the RV was on the other side. If the RV wasn’t there, they would come back; if it was, they were supposed to jump up and wave their arms in the air. They came back. And, I started to worry. We all walked over the dune to our right. It wasn’t there, either. So, we continued down the other side, and Ellie and Ana climbed the next dune. No RV in sight. So, we went down to the winding road and followed it back the other way. Four dunes later, Ellie climbed to the top of the next. I waited for her to come back again, but also, I somehow knew this would be when she spotted it. I stared up at her in anticipation as she peaked over the top of the dune and, suddenly, she jumped up and down and swung her arms over her head! I was so excited that I ran up the dune myself, and sprinted down the other side.

We made it back to the visitor center. We finished up our junior ranger packets and turned them in. We had a great time at White Sands National Monument. 🙂

Family, dunes, and the surrounding mountains.

Here is a picture of Ellie and me imitating the cardboard people while waiting in line to go up in the Gateway Arch

Me and Ellie imitating the cardboard people while waiting in line

March 17 was St. Patricks Day and our first full day in St. Louis. We went to the coolest place I have ever been, which was the City Museum.

Outside, in front of the museum, was a huge maze of tunnels and walkways. They were made of wires, airplanes, metal plates, trees, firetrucks, cranes, even a castle building. There was one walkway really high up in the air made from the arm of a construction crane, and attached below it was a really small, tight tunnel-ish thing. It was long and seemed like it was meant for only kids and I was sure I would never go in it because it looked really scary, but I saw a grown woman squeeze through it and I decided I had to go. So Ellie and I decided we would go through it together. Here is a picture of me looking very horrified and Ellie looking thrilled:

Me and Ellie under the crane walkway

I climbed through it as best I could, but when people walked above me, the whole walkway shook. I tried to look below me, but the tunnel was so small that my body covered up the whole bottom and I couldn’t see. I was kind of glad, though, because if I had looked down, I would want to get out and I would be trapped. I was happy I went in it. It was really fun even though it was terrifying.

The inside of the museum was just as cool, if not cooler. There was a whole cave which you had to navigate through to get to a slide ten stories tall. In the cave there were so many nooks and crannies that it was impossible to go through all of them. Near the beginning of the cave, there was a big path to the outside. Along that were two animal mouths and above that was a passageway enclosed by teeth. Ellie, Ana, and I crammed inside the animal mouth and Dad took our picture:

Me, Ellie, and Ana in a mouth in The Cave

I was surprised the picture would turn out so well since it was very dark. But it turned out great. Being in the animal mouth wasn’t so great, though. The ceiling was very low and rough. I scraped my back and head on it plenty of times, just as I did in all the tunnels throughout the rest of the cave.

There was a main room in the cave. There was a pretty rock with colored lights shining on it. Water dripped from above and the ceiling was open so you could see way up. A floor above that was a railing so you could look down into the main room, but when you looked up, you could see ten stories above to the top of the slide. To me, it didn’t look like a slide–it looked more like a bunch of winding stairs. I wasn’t very eager to climb up to the top. Once I did though, I was glad. The slide went round and around and around, all the way down. It was kind of rough and made me dizzy the first time. Later, though, Ellie, Dad, and I climbed up the stair workout again. When we were almost up, right before the top, some mean boys kicked dried paint onto Ellie and my heads. It made me really mad at them because it was stuck in my hair. But as I spiraled down the slide I forgot all about it. It was much better than the first time because I didn’t go as fast or get as dizzy.

We had so much fun at the museum. At least I did–read on to find out how my sisters felt about it.

On Wednesday, March 16, we left Louisville. Me and my sisters were sitting at the table in the RV on our way into St. Louis. We were playing a game of Tripoly when Dad said, “Girls, in about 15 minutes, I am going to say, ‘Come up here,’ and I want you to come sit on the couch and buckle up.” About 15 minutes later, Dad said, “Okay, come up here now!” I rushed up and grabbed the front seat on the couch because I guessed it was a very important thing. Then Dad pointed out the window and said, “Do you notice anything different about this city?” I looked out the front window and said, “Well, there is a big curvy thing over that building!” I was joking around because I didn’t actually think that was what he was talking about.

Looking across the Mississippi River at the Arch

Then Dad said, “Remember in The Lightning Thief when Percy was up in the Arch in St. Louis with the thingamagig monster and there was a big hole blown in it and Percy jumped out into the water and met the water-angel-thingies for the first time?” I raised my eyebrow and looked at him weirdly. But I said, “Yes, I remember. That’s so cool!” I thought it was really fascinating and a couple days later I felt like Percy when I went in it! But that is another story…

We left Lansing on Monday morning, March 7. We went to visit our friends–Emma, Noah, and their parents, Scott and Beth–in Indianapolis on the way to Louisville, KY. We ate dinner downstairs in their basement, and when we finished, we hung out with them. Before we left, Beth gave me a water-color pencil set and an artist’s bag (thank you so much, Beth!). I use the pencils all the time, and I’ve already drawn and painted lots of pictures. It was really nice to see Emma and Noah.

Hello Indiana!

Then we drove down to Louisville, and me and my sisters fell asleep. When we got there, everybody was asleep except me. I was only half asleep. I heard Daddy say, “If anyone has to go to the bathroom, come now.” I pretended like I was asleep so I wouldn’t have to get up out of my bed. I didn’t know exactly where we were, but in the morning we were at my grandparents’ house!

Last summer (2010) we went out to our Uncle Gary and Aunt Kim’s farm. There was a photographer on the farm for Organic Valley, so we went out there with Grandma and Grandpa. The photographer was really nice. He took lots of pictures of the piggies and the cowies. We didn’t get a picture of the cows, but here is one he took of the pigs.

Piggies on the Farm

While the photographer was busy taking pictures of the pigs, Ellie, Greta, Ana and I got our picture taken on the fence in front of the manure pile. It smelled really bad but the picture turned out good.

Hanging Out by the Manure Pile

Dad says they use the manure to fertilize the crops. It’s gross! I didn’t know that all the carrots I’ve been eating are planted in stinky poop! But Dad says all the best vegetables are planted in poop.

Thursday was first day of school in Lansing, IA. There were some girls in my class I already knew from our summers here and from the swim team. But I met lots of new friends, too. Since my teacher (my Aunt Lisa!) wasn’t there on Thursday, we had two substitutes and I didn’t know their names.

My friends had to help me through the day. They helped me open my locker. I’ve never had a locker before. And they helped me with my lunch tray at lunch. I had never bought a school lunch before. It was kind of scary. They went really fast through the lunch line and I didn’t know my lunch number so Ms. Mary told me that she would give it to me later.

We played a division game and my table won.

At recess, my old friends and new friends invited me to play jumprope, four square, and volleyball. I had fun. Jumprope was my favorite. After recess, we went back to the classroom and got to read a book.

Then we went to the gym to watch a movie called Secretariat. I was excited because my grandad had a small part in the movie. I pointed out to my friends where my grandad was in the movie. They thought it was so cool. But other people in my class told me the movie was just a dumb horse movie and it kind of hurt my feelings. There were a few boys that were picking on me.

When I went into the school, I saw a drawing by another student of Taylor Swift. It was posted in the hallway. I thought I could draw one, too. So, yesterday Greta and I went to the library and got a magazine with a picture of her on the front. I want you to know I did not trace it. I drew it. This is my drawing…

My Drawing of Taylor Swift

I had fun at my first day of school.

On the Family Farm

Every summer we go visit Uncle Gary and Aunt Kim’s family farm. Last summer we went to help them in the garden. We helped dig up radishes. I like to help them; it makes me feel like a farmgirl.

Tuesday night we arrived at a campground in Destin, Florida. We stayed for two nights. The campground was really nice: the bathrooms were nice and clean and the water was heated.

We played freeze tag with lots of different rules. Like, blind (with our eyes closed), and “cake” which was only on the concrete, and “ice cream” which was only on the grass, and “puppet” which was when we pretended we were wooden and our limbs couldn’t move. There was also one where we could only run in one circle. We could change directions but couldn’t go out of the circle.

It was scary one time when we were playing freeze tag peacefully and suddenly there was the sound of a cat being tortured. It was a really loud meow that was a cat either scared horribly or it was chasing a mouse or someone shot it. But we saw it run off and go off under the porch of a house, so it was okay.

The bathroom light had a timer. After an hour it would shut off. When it shut off, you could turn it back on but it would shut off after an hour again. So one time I went in to take a shower and the light was on. I didn’t think about it shutting off. In the middle of my shower it flicked off and it was really, really dark for the rest of my shower.

I slept really well both nights at the campground.

Biking along the Gulf of Mexico

I outgrew my old bike, so, before we left Atlanta, I got a bigger bike. It has gears. This is my first bike with gears.

On Wednesday, we went on a ten mile bike ride along the Gulf of Mexico. It was on a very flat bike trail, which was nice because I got to test out my gears. We went five miles one way to run some errands, and on the way back we ate dinner at a restaurant. The first five miles were easy because the wind was blowing us forward. The way back was harder though. The wind was blowing us backward. It was not very hard for me though because I used my gears. It would have been way harder on my old bike and I felt really bad for Ellie because she was riding my old bike.

We ate dinner at a restaurant called Pompano Joe’s. I had fried shrimp with french fries, and it was delicious. Except for the back vein wasn’t taken out of the shrimp and it kind of grossed me out but it tasted great anyway.

We ate dinner here

After dinner it was really dark and raining a little and we had to ride two miles or so back to the campground. On the way we passed by palm trees lining the road. They had lights twisted up to the leaves, so they looked like pretty glowing candy canes.

We passed by about six sprinklers rotating in a yard. Me, Ellie, Ana, Greta, and Jean got lucky. Every single sprinkler was pointed away from us when we rode through. But my Dad was trailing behind at the wrong time. The sprinklers got him good.

Thursday morning, we left the campground to go to our next stop: the bayou.