Morgan, Ryann and Jaxon

Through everything, they stick together!  They are best friends, playmates, classmates and siblings.  

Friends and Thank You's

We are so fortunate to have such supportive family and friends through all of our travels.  We've been amazed by all of the wonderful people we've met on this trip.


Scott and Patricia Hunt (CEO of Hunts Brothers Pizza with over 6,500 stores) gave the children Elliot Sadler t-shirts and cards as they are the sponsors of the Richard Petty Motorsports Team.  The kids were so excited they wore the shirts to bed!  

Karen from "Duet" thought of the kids and picked up coloring books, crayons, frisbees, etc. for a fun gift in the middle of the day. 

Judy, from Charleston, WV on board Hullabaloo was so sweet to the children. She brought Lifesavers one evening and was so nice to talk to. We'll miss traveling with her. 

 Hal and Cheryl gave us a big beautiful Michigan flag to hang off our boat. Craig had it up minutes after receiving it, we love it! They collected flags from every state on the trip.  They are getting ready to 'cross their wake' soon....congratulations on completing the loop!!   

Allan and Cheryl from "The Goode Life" for being such good friends and sharing their experiences with us down river (right before we get there)!

Huge thank you to Dave, master fabricator, for mending our windlass for free!  With only a days notice, he made us a priority and delivered to our boat (an hour away).  He has worked for several large companies in the world building custom motor cycles from ground up, etc.  People like him should be role models...pay it forward!

Jim and Gloria Crawford from "Crawdad" for continually letting my children play with their dogs, their kind friendship and support and changing my laundry in Grafton. 

Gloria, Buddy and BooBoo

Leslie from Amalia let the kids borrow some family movies for awhile...so nice of her to think of us!

Al Benton, my penpal for a the past year for your continued support with our adventures, advice about St. Louis and coming to see us in Grafton.

Art and Yvonne, my parents, for the support, coming to see us in Benton Harbor and St. Louis, the CB Radios we use everyday, the fun telescope, car seat for the bike that Jaxon loves, the portable DVD player that saved the day on our long voyage across Lake Michigan is 6 foot waves, the "Crew" hats the kids love, many photo albums, selling our cars and quad, getting all of our mail and list goes on and on.

Kelli Blouin for making Jaxons schooling year so enjoyable! He looks forward to opening his bin full of FUN STUFF every day!

Carrie Jermstad for your friendship, love, continued support, coming to see us this Xmas (YEAH), the fun Bon Voyage party, the awesome photo album I'll treasure forever, the relaxing pedicure before we left and for just being YOU!

Rich and Deb Rogers, Craigs parents, for the binoculars we use EVERYDAY, the fun fun BonVoyage party before we left, the constant support and love, coming to see us this New Years (YEAH), the GPS that has made life easier and on and on!!

To my two great sisters for their support with our adventures, even though they don't want us to leave.  You two mean the world to me! This picture makes me laugh and cry at the same time. It was taken with my camera at one of the partys and I found it once I downloaded my photos.  I miss them dearly....

Cousins, friends and family for life...Angie, Kelli and Michelle!

To our sweet kids that have made life what it is today!  You are our constant entertainment and joy and this trip would not be what it is today without all of you!  You wake up with smiles and make the most out of everyday. We love watching you play together, but look forward to our family bike rides, trip to the stores, walks, family game and drawing nights, help with chores and cruising and our family dynamic has never been stronger.  You are the BEST kids we could have ever imagined you'd be! 

St. Louis

We stayed for seven days at Grafton Harbor Marina.  Beautiful facility, met another 12+ Loopers during our stay and had a fantastic time.  The weather has been great, including the "light show" on Saturday night that started with fireworks from the local festivities (a POW/MIA event) to a thunderstorm that went through the night.

Art and Yvonne Lewis, my parents, surprised the kids and joined us on Thurs. evening.  They were troopers with my mom sleeping on the couch and dad on an air mattress.  They wanted to be with their grandkids as much as possible!

We went into St. Louis for two days.  Our first stop was to the Gateway Arch.  Pictured here are the "tram cars" that felt like a tight small cage to transport us to the top.  It took 4 minutes to go up and 3 to head back down. 

There were tiny little windows to look out and view the greater St. Louis area.  There was so much to see!

Very impressive as it stood 630 feet which is the highest monument in the U.S.

We had the rare opportunity to see a fountain go off in the distance from the top of the Arch.  It reached 650 feet tall.

We attended the Budweiser Anheiser Busch Brewery Tour.  The dalmatian dogs King and Buddy were trained very well. We weren't able to pet them, but kids loved seeing them and the Clydesdales.

 

We toured for an hour and drank beer at the end. Kids loved the pop and pretzels and we were able to try many different varieties!

Union Station was nice, but the kids loved feeding the fish outside the most! Went to The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner - fun and delicious!

We were so impressed by the St. Louis Zoo! We've attended over 40 zoos as this was by far a favorite!

We met an eight day old giraffe named Desi.  There was a lion in a tree and the sea lion show was very impressive.  We were there for over 6 hours and felt like we still missed a lot. 

We were fortunate to see a hot air balloon show in Forest Park.  Due to the hot weather and no wind, the 25 balloons we saw weren't traveling very fast.

There was an Energizer Bunny that the rest of the balloons were to follow...it didn't go far without any wind!

A hot air balloon for Bud Select 55 (your favorite Carrie)!!

 

Ryann loved her red slushy!

Just before we went to Grafton Harbor, we anchored in Havana and pulled up a "Gator"...one without four legs...a big LOG!  

Craig still thinks he's alllllllll that!!! 

The kids helped Craig change the oil in the dinghy....always a learning opportunity on this boat! haha!

 

Peoria

Downtown Peoria has a nice dock with power and fun riverfront things to do.  Tried some local pizza place, drinks on the back deck with some dear looper friends, went to a few shops, water fountains, parks, etc...it's been a nice stop along the way.

We biked 3 miles to the zoo (uphill), but kids loved it and we made a day of playing at the parks, exploring downtown and ended up taking the dinghy to Walmart across the river for some provisioning. 

What a huge propeller!

The Asian Carp are EVERYWHERE!!  They are very big and they jump really high!  Any engine going by really stirs them up and look out....in this picture we were just walking down the dock and one jumped in front of us.  The kids go crazy and Morgan kicked this one back into the water.

I'm pretty sure Jaxon hasn't made it through one bike ride without falling asleep.  So relaxing in that chair.

We went to a car show on the riverfront and this was one of our favorites.

Ottawa

Found a free city dock to tie up to for a few nights with power.

The weather has been great.

Went to the library for awhile, through the park, got groceries, lunch, etc.

The wind was crazy that day and a reported 3-4 foot waves on the river...unheard of for this area.