Tag: 48 State Road Trip

A word from the Birthday girl!

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November 2, 2015

We woke up I was super happy because it was my birthday! We headed to St Louis to go to the St Louis Arch. We went to the campground first then we drove to into St Louis. When we got to the arch we went in little elevator thing with seats in them. On the way up it took four minutes and on the way down it took 3 minutes. Dad is so scared of heights so it was really funny watching his reaction at the top.

Everyone thinks that it’s the scariest thing on the roadtrip but I think that The Willis Tower in the blocks were scarier. It was a super cool view at the top! Then we had to go back down. After the super cool arch we drove over to the Golden Corral.

We ate as much as we could then drove back to the RV then went to bed. I had a really fun birthday going to the top of the arch!

-Greta

Diamond Hunting and a Birthday in the RV

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November 1 2015

Today we spent our time at Crater of Diamonds National Park in Arkansas.  It is the worlds only public diamond mine and was created from volcanic activity.   It was really muddy because it had just rained the day before but they told us that means that nature did the work of uncovering the diamonds for us. We didn’t find any diamonds but we did find pretty rocks. My mom even found a purple gem called an “amethyst”. We  are starting to work out way back home and everyone is ready to sleep in there own beds. We drove another 5ish hours until we got to Memphis. So close but still far away. Here’s a video I made of the day(:

-grace

AND it is a very, very special day here in our RV today!  We are celebrating another teenager in the McCleary Family!  Greta is 13 today!  Greta is a joy and her smile can light up any room.   She is a gem far more valuable than any we could have found in the diamond mine yesterday!   I’m so very thankful God gave her to me!  Happy Birthday, Greta!  Love you forever and always.  – mom

Halloween 2015

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October 31, 2015

We started out October 31st, 2015 by hanging out for a bit in the French Quarter.   After that we did a little E fit and watched a row team practicing in the canal by our camp site in New Orleans.

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Then started the drive.  A storm was rolling in, so we hooked up and took off toward The Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas.  We’ll tell you all about our mining experience tomorrow.

We crossed the mighty Mississippi yesterday in the rain in the Baton Rouge Port.

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One of the most exciting things for the day was captured in the picture below.  We were in what seemed to be not such a nice area of a small town in Arkansas.  We took and alley (which might have been our first mistake) to which we ended up stuck.  We were stuck because of a low laying electrical wire.  But, being married to such a smart guy, we figured it out and did surely the smart thing!  We held the wire up with a stick and drove under it!

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New Orleans

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October 30, 2015

Today we spent our day in New Orleans. We experienced some live street bands. One spot we went to had a super good violin player. She was playing with a girl who was playing the guitar.

We saw magician on the street doing some really cool magic tricks too. We stopped at a few shop to get key chains. We also got some masks. There are a lot of homeless people in New Orleans. And quite a lot of crazies too.  

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We saw the statue of Andrew Jackson and his horse, Sam Patch. It was kind of cool seeing it because we learned quite a bit about Andrew Jackson on this trip. We went to a graveyard that had the tombs above ground. Even though it was closed, we still looked through the gate.

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My dad helped a man push his “hot dog” cart down the road because it was really heavy and he was doing it alone.

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Next we went out to eat at a restaurant and we had “poor boys” it was a lot better than it sounded. They are just a sandwich/sub. Apparently that’s what your supposed get when you go to New Orleans. On our way out we got to people watch from the car. There are some strange people in this town so the boys had a lot of questions. Glad that we are only spending one day here.

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– grace

The Alabama – Florida boarder

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October 29, 2015

We started the day by swimming in the pool at the RV park. The pool wasn’t heated so it was really cold. After swimming at the pool we took the van to get some state pictures. After pictures we went on a ferry at Mobile Bay with our car over to Dauphin Island, Alabama.

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After the ferry ride we went to Fort Gaines. We just walked around for a little bit then moved on to the next thing.  It has been neat to see history of the wars right before our eyes.

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On the Island we were on they were moving sand from the hurricane weather they had like we move snow after a snowstorm in MN!  We went  to the beach next. When we got there I took about ten steps before realizing I was going to need a bag because there were so many shells! We walked for a little while before grace yelled out, ”I found a jellyfish!” so everyone rushed over to see it.  Even though it was dead it was super cool to see. We walked for a while and got lots and lots of shells! When everyone was ready to go we walked back to the car.

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We took the ferry back over to the other side and drove back to our RV park.

-Greta

Grace put together a video for us to remember our day.

Boots for all

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October 27, 2015

Today we drove to the Andrew Jackson plantation. There we saw the house him and his family lived in. We saw his slaves houses, the kitchen, the cotton field, and the museum. This museum was much smaller than the others and that wasn’t a bad thing. It was very interesting to hear and read about.

After that we went to Nashville, Tennessee. We went out to eat and stopped at a few boot stores when we came across a store that was buy one get two free. A few hours passed and we found ourselves still there. Everybody was fine but my dad. He was ready to leave but my mom was determined to find a pair of boots for him. He was tired of looking and wanted to leave but he finally found some. So we walked out of the store with a total of nine pairs of boots. (My mom and I both got two pair) we then took a picture by the boot and drove home. That’s what we have started calling our RV – “home” but it’s not going to be for much longer and I think everybody is homesick.

All in all it was a super fun day and I even got a lot of time to catch up on my school work. Here is a video I put together of the day, enjoy!

-grace

A change of plans…

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October 26, 2015

It’s mom’s turn to write.  So, here is goes.

We left Talladega this morning with intentions of heading to Florida.  Those intentions changed when we realized that the weather was still not pretty that direction due to the hurricane in the Gulf.  Since I’ve lived in MN all my life I can honestly say I’ve never watched the weather for hurricane warnings, but since being on the east coast we’ve done plenty of that.

My mom called as we were headed down the road for the day.  In conversation she told us about a movie that she had just gone to yesterday with a friend.  The movie: Woodlawn  The location of the true story: Birmingham, AL  At that time, we were 29 miles from Birmingham and it was raining out.  We decided that it would be a good day to head to a movie theatre and why not see Woodlawn right in a Birmingham theatre and then drive to Legion Field where the big game in the movie took place.

We’ve watched our kids walk hand in hand through the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in DC.  We’ve learned a lot about the Civil War and have seen battle sites such as Gettysburg.  We’ve listened to President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.  We’ve sat in the bus that Rosa Parks made her stand in.  And today we went to the movie Woodlawn that again talked about civil rights – in the 70’s.  It’s sad, it’s liberating, its painful, it’s freeing and it’s crazy for my mind to think about the changes that have happened in this country in my life time alone.  The first winning game shown in the movie Woodland was on my exact birthdate!  This storyline happened while I’ve been alive.

Here is the thing that crosses my mind as I think about all these different things we’ve seen.  This world is full of adversity but it is amazing to see how when one person makes a stand to do the right thing and has a team that comes along side them change is made.  Even when things seem so bleak and unfair, miracle happen and miracles are seen!

In the movie Woodlawn before one of the games is started one of the main characters, Hank is asked to pray.    When asked what he is doing, he said he is giving “credit where credit was due” and continued to pray The Lords Prayer.  I can’t tell any more because it will give away that part of this storyline, but it was a really neat.  I pray that we all realize our significance in life and stand up to do the right thing.  To me, that often seems like it involves being a voice for those who do not seem to have a voice.  And then, give credit where credit is due.

“When you play for yourself, you can be great. When you play for something higher than yourself, that’s when something extraordinary can happen. God has a purpose for all of us and it is not insignificant…God wants you to be a superstar.” – Hank

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There you have it.  A movie review and my scattered thoughts after walking through this side of the country for the last few weeks.  Go see the movie!

After the movie we drove to see some friends that live in TN.  We gave them a couple hour notice we were heading that direction and they made time for us to come and see their beautiful home and enjoy an evening of catching up.  Thanks, Kenyons!  It was awesome to see you!  I Wish I would have taken a picture, but I forgot to pull out my phone and snap a few pictures.

 

 

Race weekend at Talladega Super Speedway

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We had had little to no internet for the weekend, so here is the update for the McCleary Tribe since Friday.

October 23, 2015

We started the day near Atlanta, Georgia. On our list for things to do on the trip we had the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Alabama.  So, we headed that direction. The Unclaimed Baggage Center is a place that purchases stuff that isn’t claimed from the airport baggage area.

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When we got there we all split up and looked around. There were mainly clothes, but there was other stuff too –  like cameras, IPads, IPhone cases, shoes, etc.. There were two buildings with different things.   We went to both then Dad, Hannah, Burka, Buche and I decided we wanted to go back to the RV. A little bit later Grace and Mom came to the RV.  We found a few treasures.

After the Unclaimed Baggage Center we drove to Talladega, Alabama and slept there for the weekend

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-Greta

October 25, 2015

We went to the Camping World Truck Race at the Talladega Super Speedway.  It was a 250 mile race to get us warmed up for Sunday’s race.  In the evening we took in an infield concert featuring Easton Corbin.

October 26, 2015

We woke up and went to the Talladega Super Speedway church service.  It was put on by a Baptist Church from Alexandria, Alabama.  We almost felt like we were at home in Alexandria, Minnesota.  It was neat to worship at the base of the race track.

Rachael and I were able to get some pit paces, so we walked around the pits before the race.  It was pretty neat to get up to the cars in pit row before the race started.  Then the race started!  It was fun to see all the lead changes and shuffling for position.  It was interesting to listen to the headsets and how much work the spotters do as they are constantly instructing the drivers as to what is happening on the track and where their best lane may be.  The end of the race had a couple of crashes and unfortunately they were out of the view of our seats so we watched it on the TV that is across the track, just like everybody at home.  It was a great experience and we all had fun.

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Ryan

 

Atlanta, Georgia

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October 22, 2015

Yesterday we went to Martin Luther King Jr.’s home town. We saw his childhood home and his tomb. We also saw the church that was in his neighborhood. His internal flame was pretty cool too.

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Martin Luther King Jrs Home in Atlanta, Georgia

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These pictures are from Ebanezer Baptist Church.  This is the church that Martin Luther King Jr was a pastor at.  As we walked through these buildings you can only image what went on between their walls.

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There pictures are of Martin Luther King Jrs tomb and an eternal flame in his honor.

We also went to the doctor yesterday to get an x-Ray of my foot. The x-rays confirmed that I have a small fracture. It’s getting better though. In the waiting room my mom and I where accompanied by a man with an unknown rash, a couple who had bee stings, and a lady who had the stomach flu.

We then went to the Coke factory. We were able to watch a 4-d movie. The boys thought that was super cool. They also had a bunch of history about Coke. They also had a super cool area on the top floor. It was a bunch of pop machines labeled with a different country. They had a bunch of options. It was super cool to try all of them. We did this thing where we took a tiny bit of 3 different kinds of pop from each country. Then we all tried it. Greats was definitely the grossest.

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Overall it was a super fun day. My favorite was trying pop from all the other countries.

-grace

Race City USA

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We woke up north of Mooresville, North Carolina.  Mooresville is known as “Race City USA” as over 30 race teams call this area home.  The girls needed a day to catch up with school work and Grace needed a day for her foot to be elevated so this day became all about me as Rachael and the boys and I toured several race shops. (Grace is doing much better by the way… thanks for your concern with her foot)

We decided to start our day with the race shop furthest away from our campground which was the Hendrick Facility.  The Hendrick campus was quite overwhelming and we clearly discovered that this is a VERY big business.  We were told that each team has 72 cars for the season so that is 288 cars for Hendrick and they build over 700 motors a year!  The cost of a NASCAR engine was approximately $120,000 each and when a hauler is loaded up and ready to go to the track with the cars, engine, spare engine and parts is is approximately 2 million dollars rolling down the road to the track!  To run a competitive team it costs between $35 and $40 million a year.  That averages out to be about $1 million dollars per race weekend.   One of the guys who works at the Hendricks shop on Kasey Kahne’s team is from Willmar, MN.  I actually knew him when we were in college.  Unfortunately he was not at the shop yesterday.  After seeing the Race Shop we went the the gift shop and museum.  It was fun to look at many of their past cars and buy and few souvenirs.

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After leaving Hendrick Motor Sports we went to Joe Gibbs Racing.    This was another very impressive facility and another 4 team operation.  It was cool to see Joe Gibb’s football trophy case which included his SuperBowl Rings  After viewing the Race Shop we went to the gift store and the boys found their favorite part of the day – an arcade racing game that was free and they could play as long as they wanted!

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Our last stop for the day was Michael Waltrip Racing which we had heard gave the best tours, however we were unsure what we would find as we heard they were laying off over 200 employees at the end of the season.  This was a great facility that had a catwalk that went out over the Race Shop and out of the gift store their were different areas that you could view their shock and suspension room, their rear-end and gear room and their water jet fabrication room.  We then went on our tour of the grounds.  We looked inside the chassis fabrication facility and their hauler bay.  We were told that everything that we saw was “for sale” because at the end of the season this racing operation will be shutting down.  I am very thankful we were able to see this facility prior to that happening.  An interesting fact that we learned at Waltrip Racing was that their tire bill alone for the season is $1.5 million.

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I have to say, touring these facilities was one of my funnest things on this roadtrip!  The people at each facility were very nice and if you are in any way a race fan I would recommend you add this to your “to do” list.

Below is a great video that Grace put together for me of the day.