Sunday, August 1st, 2004: My kids are going camping for a few days. Cal and Anita are visiting me so we found a theater playing Napolean Dynamite and went to see it. We all agreed that it ruled. After that we went to downtown Saint Louis to take Anita to the Arch. We didn’t end up going into the Arch since the wait was too long, but we did a lot of nothing instead. That was fun. Then we went to the Alton Belle Casino for supper and gambling.
Monday, August 2nd, 2004: Me, Cal and Anita drove to Fairview Heights to attempt some more Dash For Cash fun. It was a lot of fun but we didn’t get any really great footage. Instead of making people run, we tried to get them to dig through a trashcan to look for a secret code on a soda can. We also had some lunch, looked around Slackers for awhile and drove around town for awhile. Later that night, we finally got around to putting the new
McDonald’s prank sign up. My neighbor drove us there and I installed the sign. Then we drove around the building and took a picture of it on our way out.
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2004: I woke up at 6:30, quickly got dressed and ran downstairs so I could go to McDonald’s and check on the sign’s status. Anita was downstairs and told me that she just got back from there and it’s still up. We drove there again so I could snap a picture of it. An hour later my neighbor calls me and tells me that it’s still there. Another hour later, Cal and Anita go there for breakfast and give me a call to let me know that it’s still up. I think it’s 9:00am by this point. Then at 11:00 we stop by there on my way to the post office and it’s gone! At least it lasted longer than I expected. Both the posterboard and the wooden sign are gone, leaving the original sign showing again. But the really weird part was around 6pm, my neighbor calls me and tells me that the entire sign is gone! It’s just 2 posts sticking out of the ground now. Either they’re sick of the fake signs being put up so they’re just going to take it down forever or they’re putting a new sign up.
We went to Applebees for lunch today and then to Jamestown Mall. Fun fun.
Sunday, August 8th, 2004: Today I was gonna take the kids to the zoo but they outvoted me and we ended up going to the
Magic House instead. We took Braden with us and stayed there until about 5 or 6pm.
Monday, August 9th, 2004: Finished up work by noon and took the kids to the swimming pool for the day. Stayed there until almost closing. Then stopped by Blockbuster for some movies. Mowed most of the yard this evening while they watched movies.
Saturday, August 14th, 2004: Ryan and Allison were over all day and then they ended up spending the night. Ryan and Payton were quiet when I put them to bed but Emily and Allison kept me up until 1:30am with their giggling and talking. They claim they stayed up until 4am but I doubt that. Around 5pm, I left them all at Ryan’s house and drove to Hamel to pick up some bed matresses for the guest room. We’ve got company coming this week and I thought it’d be nice for them to have something other than a futon to sleep on.
Sunday, August 15th, 2004: Today I was tired all day. Besides staying up until about 2am, I woke up a lot during the night. Then my brother called me at 8:30am with a pointless phone call. I put the kids to bed early tonight. I used the excuse that they were fighting too much so they needed to get some sleep. I’ve been letting them stay up until 11:30 just about every night this summer to watch Family Guy, Futurama and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Those are some great shows. Overall I really hate TV, but cartoons just get better and better every year. I can’t believe I didn’t watch Futurama when it used to be on Fox. And I never saw an episode of Family Guy in my life until just 2 months ago.
Friday, 8-20-2004: Took all the kids to the city museum today. We stayed there from about noon until 5 or 6.
Saturday, 8-21-2004: We went to see the Robert Wadlow statue and chair today. Then to the cemetary to look for a Geocache. Then to the smallpox memorial.
Sunday, August 22nd, 2004: Me, the kids and the Spessas drove to Evansville, Indiana for the day. We visited some science & art museum, then went to Kentucky for supper. It’s been a busy week and I haven’t had much time to write about anything we’ve done. Probably on Wednesday I’m taking the kids back to Oregon.
Wednesday, August 25th, 2004: Got up early, got everything ready to leave and was on the road by 10am. Drove all day, stopped for awhile to eat at Taco Bell, drove some more and then stopped in a South Dakota Motel 6. I forget which town, but it was a few hours before Wall, SD. We had planned to make it all the way to Wall, but wimped out around 9:30pm because of the heavy rain.
Thursday, August 26th, 2004: Got up at 6am and managed to get back on the road by 7:30am. Drove a few hours to Wall Drug and had breakfast there. We stayed there for another 2 hours, just looking at all their shops and kids stuff. Drove the rest of the day, stopping only for gas. I’ve got the TV and Xbox hooked up in the car again so that’s helping keep the kids entertained. Drove until 11:30pm and stopped in a motel in Butte, SD. I got separated from the Spessas a few hours ago so I assume they’re still driving. I should get there before noon tomorrow if we don’t sleep in too late.
Sunday, 8-29-2004: Got up early, packed the car, got the kids up and headed for Oregon. We started driving at 9am and got to Colleen’s house at 5pm. Me Colleen and the kids went out to eat at Red Robins, then I started driving to Portland. I went to Dignity Village to visit Jack but he wasn’t there. So now I’m in a Econo Lodge, watching 16 Candles and writing this.
On Saturday we ended up going on a hike a mile into some woods to retry on that geocache that me and the kids failed on the previous weekend. And we succeed! It wasn’t my fault that last weekend was a failure – the coordinates were a little backwards. Hiked even further into the woods after that, until the trail ended. I think we went to Abby’s pizza on Saturday too. Or maybe that was Sunday.
