the long and winding road

One of my good friends from college, Krissy and I like to take roadtrips together. Now, this is not your typical Thelma and Louise roadtrip. We carefully plan out a route. We plan every stop along the way. This year was no different, except we had a long list of stops to try and make it to. What kind of stops you ask? Well...odd roadside attractions, of course! So here is the rundown with pictures. We made all 17 stops in about 24 hours. Pretty fun stuff.


The statue commerating Atchison. America's only one day President. He was President for one day until Taylor would take office. Taylor would not take office on a Sunday, so he delayed his oath until Monday. Well, Atchison took the office for one day. Plattsburg, MO

Woodhenge. It is suppose to be a monument like stonehenge, but it looked more like a run down fence. By far the most disappointing of the stops. Smithville, MO
The world's largest ball of string. Weston, MO

Krissy and I at the world's largest ball of string. Weston, MO

The proper roadtrip breakfast.

The tombstone of Prince Eric of Sunbeam. This angus cow sired thousands of calfs. He is an angus legend. St. Joseph, MO

The house where Jesse James was shot. You can actually see the bullet hole in the wall. Along with parts of his coffin and a cast of his skull. St. Joseph, MO

The Glore Psychiatric Museum. A history of psychiatric treatments over the years. This was a little freaky since it is in the old psychiatric ward of the hospital. St. Joseph, MO

An Indian monument by an artist named Toth. He is trying to make a sculputre in every state. This is 50 feet tall and was originally a tree. He carved it with only a chainsaw. Troy, Kansas

A statue of Liberty in Troy, Kansas.

I will do the part 2 soon. Come back to check it out.

it's monday finally!

My weekend was jam packed! I'm not sure I could have squeezed one more thing in and still been upright at the end. Friday, we went to see Dan Zanes in concert. Our friends asked us to go, and I said sure, not knowing anything about him. They said he was a kids singer on Disney. Well, we are cable-challenged, so I didn't know him. We went for a wonderful dinner before at their house, then on to the concert. Our seats were row BB Seats 1-7. We thought that would mean the back, or apparently the second row! It was awesome!! After the concert we went back to their house for a night cap. (we decided drinking before a kid's concert was maybe not appropriate.) So, that ended late night #1.
Saturday started early with a 2 year old session. She was not real happy about getting picture done. But after bringing the "baby whisperer" (Olympia) down, she did great. We then grabbed a quick bite for lunch. I have to pack up all the gear for a wedding. Most of you know that I don't really do weddings. You have to be someone I know for me to shoot your wedding. I was a wedding assistant for 6 years. I am tired of the wedding scene. So if I agree to do a wedding, they are someone special. And these people were. They are friends of ours from church. Rob went to Pearlington last year with us, where he announced he bought a ring for Sarah before he left. Rob is an amazing carpenter that I witnessed first hand on the trip. For payment of the wedding, we are actually trading pictures for a new dining room set he is building. Anyway, their wedding was a 9 hour job. We then tried to stay and dance, but Olympia was getting tired. I had to stay up and download all the images that night since I had a portrait party the next day, for which I needed all the cards. It was way late when I finally got to sleep. So that was the end of late night #2.
On Sunday, Jeremy let me sleep in until 9:30. (Awesome!!!) But, I had to get ready for the portrait party. Which was a fun easy one. Sure, there were some screamers, but by portrait party standards, it was a fun, easy-going one! I somehow forgot to eat lunch before going, so after, all I wanted was a big steak. So, I packed the family up and took them out to eat. The rest of the night, I sat on the couch and watched bad t.v. (I'm thinking of calling the cable company today, just so I could watch more baseball.) I think it was a well deserved break.
Wow, this was an epic post. Sorry about that. But that was really my weekend. This week is looking much better.

thumbs up!