• July 15th, Thursday: The Richter family departs Kenmore, WA around 9:00am. Arrive at Silverwood in Northern Idaho around 3:30pm. Play at amusement park and depart around 7:30pm. Arrive in Missoula around midnight. Stay at Wingate Hotel. Sign out front says it has a "Waterpark".

• July 16th, Friday: After breakfast, we swim at the hotel pool--it has a total of 2 water slides. There is a red-light/green-light system telling people when to proceed on the waterslide. Chuck's new swimsuit is apparently not very slippery. A woman with a kid on her lap slams into Chuck with Cooper on his lap from behind. The red-light/green-light system is based on a timer, and has not accounted for Chuck's new swimsuit. Chuck scoots forward as best as he can with a kid on his lap and a woman's feet at his back. Her feet pull his swimming trunks halfway down as he is finally dumped into the pool at the bottom of the slide. (Chris will laugh many times as this story is told over the next two weeks.) Depart hotel around 11:00am... Though half of the cargo space is filled with camping gear, there will be no camping in South Dakota tonight because we are off to such a late start. We arrive in Rapid City late where the Hills Are Alive music festival has attracted visitors, but finally find the last hotel room in the city at the Rhodeway Inn.

• July 17th, Saturday: Through the thin walls of the hotel, other guests are treated to Caitlyn screaming "Bad daddy! Bad daddy!" Yes, it is time to shampoo her hair and brush the snarls out. "BAD DADDY!" At 10:00am the local Jeep dealer has a mechanic that will investigate the clunking sound that we have been hearing as we go over the mountain passes. The sound seems to have been getting worse. Chris and the kids check out some of the vehicles in the lot while the friendly mechanic comes to a $2000 conclusion. Part 1, replace the transfer case, which has been out of oil for some time. Part 2, replace or repair the rear differential bearings. Not wanting to hang out in Rapid City until it gets repaired, the family braves the 106 degree Fahrenheit temperatures of South Dakota to drive east to Iowa. Arrive at Ginger and Chad's place in Rock Rapids in the late evening. Nice to see the Rasmussen family and Megan and Jake who are visiting during the month of July from West Virginia.

• July 18th, Sunday: Go to church in the morning. Play baseball and tennis at the park. As a handicap, Chris gets to use Chad's old tennis racket with a tiny head, dating to the 50s. Not sure if it is 1850 or 1950.

• July 19th, Monday: Hang out at the Rasmussen house where the cousins play, make and watch home movies, and open up shops called "Get your weapon" and "Glamor Galore". Back massages are only $0.75.

• July 20th, Tuesday: Charlie, Caitlyn, Luke, Gabby and Cooper take turns riding a camel at the Sioux Falls Zoo. Lunch at Qdoba Mexican Grill. Some of us watch the movie "Prince of Persia." Later, Chuck, Sr. and Jackie come to the Rasmussen house for dinner.

• July 21st, Wednesday: The kids enjoy Wild Water West water park. They also get to experience the go-karts, miniature golf, small boats and batting cages. Sertoma Park in Souix Falls was the setting for a quick pizza picnic before the clouds unleashed their payload. We drove through a downpour that resulted in some Rock Rapids residents getting seven inches of rain.

• July 22nd, Thursday: Visited the Luze Grandparents where 160 cattle were being loaded onto trucks destined for an Omaha packing plant and later a hamburger bun. Picked up Billy and drove to "Charles Richter Farms" for dinner and a pool party. The old farmstead only has one bathroom, so sometimes the boys need to relieve themselves al fresco. Cooper didn't realize that is strictly a number one option. Headed back to Rasmandia in the evening.

• July 23rd, Friday: After Zeke and Billy head, the crew spends the afternoon at the Island Park Pool in Rock Rapids. In the evening we attended the Farewell to the Joe Ratzloff Family Picnic.

• July 24th, Saturday: The Richters drove to the Twin Cities where we would be staying with Julie and Derek Ganz. Met up with Betsy Richter in Albert Lea, who also came up to The Cities bring the Guetzloff children in her car.

• July 25th, Sunday: Church in the morning. In the afternoon held a birthday party for our little princess at Julie and Derek's house. Later, Laura hosted a swimming pool party at her apartment.

• July 26th, Monday: We started the morning at Julie and Derek's and hit the St. Paul Science Museum (watched an Imax movie called 'Arabia') before heading down to Cresco, IA to meet up with Chris' sister Nancy and her husband Mike.

• July 27th, Tuesday: Nancy and Mike let us help feed the cows, camp in their camper, use their kayaks in the lake, and treated us to birthday cake, egg bake, smoked pork chops and ribs. The kids dumped out the Su-M-T-W-Th-F-Sat pill box, tipped over the coffee table, knocked their phone and charger behind the couch. Cooper was stung by a wasp. It was time to head back to The Twin Cities. Julie (and Nancy in absentia) treated the kids to an evening of fun at Dave and Busters. Everyone went home with at least one toy.

• July 28th, Wednesday: In the morning, Megan, Julie and Chuck went for a run. Just before lunch, Chuck, Charlie and Chris played tennis at a nearby park. Julie served up a large picnic lunch. In the afternoon, many of us swam in Laura's pool again. In the evening, joined by Rita, we ate dinner and watched the play Footloose at the Chanhassen Theaters.

• July 29th, Thursday: In the morning, Alex, Julie and Chuck went for a run. Met up with Kath, Roman and Mason at the Valleyfair amusement park, where we spent the day. We ate a big picnic lunch. Spent time in the water park and had pizza at Julie and Derek's house afterward. Brother Alex enjoyed escorting Jake (with his back stage pass) and the other kids onto many rides.

• July 30th, Friday: Chris was anxious to be back in Seattle for work on Monday, so we started packing. Kathy and Roman stopped by Julie's house to see us off and play with the kids. Cooper exercised his number two al fresco option again. It wasn't until after lunch before we said our goodbyes and got on the road. Somewhere along the way, we decided that we would drive straight through to Seattle. The trip went mostly good. The kids didn't do any permanent damage to each other. We hit the Redbox at the Rainbow grocery store before leaving town. Those four movies kept the restless natives in the back seat busy until Dickinson, ND where we found another Redbox. In Montana, during a gas station/bathroom break in the waning hours of Friday, Cooper was cranky and had to be held by daddy while Chuck got coffee with 3 shots of expresso. The tired duo made an impression on the clerk accidently knocking over 25 or 30 coffee lids. After picking them and exiting, Chris asked Chuck to go back inside and fill her large aluminum water bottles, which of course wouldn't fit under the bathroom sink faucet. With no other sinks, carbonated water from the soda fountain was the way to go. While using a free finger to pull the little lever for water beside the lemonade, a full water bottle slipped out of Chuck's hand, spilling water all over the floor--making another impression on the clerk. Of course everyone turned up their nose at the carbonated water so Chris dumped it out on the pavement, and asked Chuck to buy bottled water. Chuck handed her a $5 bill and told her she better get it herself.

• July 31st, Saturday: Chuck had been fueled for hours on coffee and had just come from Starbucks, when in the Missoula McDonald's, duty called for a bathroom break. A preflush was in order. The cup runneth up to the brim and didn't receed. Remembering an open janitor's closet, Chuck fetched a plunger and started plunging. Immediately the cup runnethed all the way over and onto the floor. It was time to finish up and get out. Five miles down the road we smelled an unpleasant odor in the jeep; Chuck was wondering about the status of his shoes. He asked whether someone had passed some gas. Caitlyn replied "yes, we passed some gas by the McDonald's." She meant the gas station. The smell was soon gone and my shoes turned out to be clean enough, so I guess it was probably just coming from Mud Lake 1100 miles to the east.

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