Cahokia Indian mound yesterday

Here are some photos from yesterday. This is the largest pre-Colombian Indian site north of Mexico and the largest earthen Indian mounds in the Americas. Monks Mound contains 22 million cubic feet of earth with a base covering sixteen acres. The dirt was excavated and carried on the backs of workers over a period of 150-200 years. It is 110' high at top -third largest pyramid in North America. Cahokia was a real urban city of its day and covered 4000 acres with over 120 mounds.






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Location:Collinsville IL near St. Louis

Damp and Dreary

Got to Arrowrock State Park last night just at dark. For the first time putting up tents, in the dark to boot, the kids did a pretty good job. Rain started a little after midnight and thunder and lightning sent us to the vans around 1:30 am where we stayed for a couple of hours. Luckily the temperatures are not high, so while humid, it could be worse! A little damp this morning but not too bad. We're having lunch at a park in St. Joseph, MO right now after a slowish, but scenic, drive through Northwest MO countryside. Wow, have they had some rain up here - everything is lush and green.








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Location:Night no. 1 and day no. 2

Lunchtime!

Just finished our first lunch stop off I 57 near Marion, IL. Ms. Littlejohn


gave the "rules of the road" for the trip.


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Location:Benton,United States

Here We Go

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On the road again!

We are on the road, in Bellevue filling up the gas tanks. Ms. Little john had to go wake up one student and we hit the road after the final load up a little before 8:00. The boys are all in one van and the girls in another. I'm in the third van with six adults, a seven year old and a five year old. Cool!

2 days to go...

In 48 hours we'll be driving through Kentucky on our way to Missouri for our first night. We're getting excited and preparing as fast as we can. Don't forget some warm clothes, flip flops for the shower, and extra bugspray. Make sure we know about any medicine that needs to be taken on the trip. We are checking with the state transportation sites to make sure we can avoid any long detours caused by the recent storms.

I found this site that explains how geysers work. It's one of the best explinations I've seen of why they don't errupt all the time--what makes the water flow sometimes but not constantly. http://mms.nps.gov/yell/ofvec/exhibits/index.htm

Getting ready...

We met with the parents and students who are going on this year's trip last night. We passed out the packing list and went over the expectations. If you want to see some of what you can expect from this trip, you can look at posts from 2009.

I can't wait!