Dana Daily

Resisting the idea of ending our vacation and driving straight home to Pittsburgh, I asked Sal, a native Ohioan, if there was anywhere we could stop on our way home. He suggested see a Columbus Clippers game, a minor league team. The kids and I had never been to a minor league ballpark, and all of us were into the idea. We arrived at the park, bought our seats, and grabbed pizza and nachos for lunch. The weather was great. The Clippers won, and finally, we had no choice but to call it a vacation, and truly end it. We stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner, and then made it home by 9pm.

This Best Western had the best hotel breakfast of our trip. The breakfast area is located inside the lobby, which is a separate building from the rest of the hotel, but it's 1950s themed and there's outdoor seating. Today was going to be a long day of driving, and the more we do today the less we have to do tomorrow. However, before we truly got back on the road for home, we had one more stop to make. The Laura Ingalls Wilder home and museum in Mansfield, Missouri. This is the home Laura was living in when she wrote the Little House  books. I have spent a lifetime dreaming of visiting this mecca. I had wanted to be at the house when it opened, but there was no getting the kids out of bed early. Early morning after early morning has worn on them, and today they were beat. We let them sleep in late, and didn't arrive until almost 11am. Our itinerary left an hour for the museum and home tour, but we ultimately ended up spending more than two. It was a gold mine and treas...

We woke up to the alarming news that Kansas City was under a severe weather watch, and upon looking outside it was dark as night. We ate a quick breakfast, and when we checked our phones, were relieved to see that we would eventually be driving out of this weather system. We loaded the van, and hightailed it south. My initial itinerary had us finding the swale (ruts) this morning prior to our drive to Oklahoma, and I was so glad we took the time to find them the day of our arrival. To get to Mickey Mantle's home in Commerce, OK, the GPS took us back into Kansas and it was a straight shot at that point. On the way we passed through Pittsburg (no "H"), Kansas, which we had heard about frequently on this trip. We'd tell people we were from Pittsburgh, and they'd want to know Pennsylvania or Kansas. This part of Oklahoma isn't the dust bowl that gave Oklahoma the stereotype. This area is as green as Kansas and Missouri. Mickey grew up in a poor neighborhoo...

The Negro Leagues Museum had been on our itinerary, but as I was browsing Pinterest for other things to do in Kansas City this morning, the Jazz Museum popped up. Since it's in the same building as the Negro Leagues Museum, I had no choice, but to mention it. I like different types of music, but not jazz. It just sounds like a hot mess to me. Being married to a music teacher though, I wasn't getting out of this. We bought passes for both, but started with the Negro Leagues. That was interesting. We watched a short film about the history of the league, and actually there were teams in Pittsburgh which were quite famous. There was a ball field set up inside with statues of famous players. A collection of baseballs signed by players and owned by Getty Lee (lead singer of Sal's favorite band, Rush) was on display. Lots of good exhibits and we spent quite a bit of time here. Then, it was time to move to the Jazz Museum, and I tried to get into it, but it wasn't re...

Independence was a highlight of the trip for me. Even as a teenager, I was super interested in Westward Expansion and the various trails (Oregon, Santa Fe, California), and Independence was the starting point. Independence was also the hometown of Harry and Bess Truman, and we stopped by the National Park Service office to watch a short film about them and schedule a tour of their home. Tours are free, but you do need a ticket. Emmy and Seth completed junior ranger badges as well. We signed up for the 3pm tour, which gave us a bit of time to explore Independence beforehand. The National Frontier Trails Museum was high on my list of things to do, and I was thrilled we were able to squeeze it in. After a short introductory film, we toured the museum. I just let my imagination go. What a fascinating place. Various items that had survived travel on the trails were displayed, and in some cases a family story accompanied them. I think I read every board and looked at every display. A d...

Using the one hour time difference to our advantage, we arrived at the arch early. Our tickets for the tram said 8:30 and by the time we walked there from our condo, went through security, and used the restroom, we were right on the money. We spent quite a bit of time actually in the arch itself, and when we did finally arrive back on the ground, Emmy worked on a junior ranger badge. We also took in many of the exhibits in the new (as of 2018) museum underneath. From the arch we walked across the street to the Old Courthouse, notable because that is where the Dred Scott decision was handed down by the Supreme Court in 1857. While the actual room they believe no longer exists, and is now a hall, one courtroom is set up as it would have looked in 1857. Emmy also earned a junior ranger badge here. We decided to walk to the National Blues Museum, which was only a few streets over, but we needed to eat first. We stopped at the first restaurant we came to, Caleco's , which was empt...

We left Pittsburgh at 9:00am on the dot. It's a 9.5 hour drive, but we planned on 12 for meals and potty breaks. We arrived in St. Louis around 7pm (8pm Central Time). The kids got their first views of the Gateway Arch as we drove into downtown to find our airbnb.

Today was Sarah and Emmy's last day. Sarah will officially be a middle schooler in the Fall, and in a different building so we'll be on different bus schedules again. Anyway, here are pictures from the first day (top) and last day (bottom). For some reason this seemed like a really long school year. So happy it's summer.

Later this month we're going to be road tripping across Missouri, into Kansas and Oklahoma, and then home. Sal and I are super excited to see to last the last remaining 9ft wide piece of the original Route 66 highway just outside Miami, Oklahoma. This section of highway is known as the "Ribbon Road" or "Sidewalk Road." There's more about it here . We drove parts of what had been Route 66 a couple years ago on our way from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon, but nothing like this.