We got a bit of a late start. Our goal today was to visit Gettysburg and stay the night in Harrisburg.

Gettysburg was about four hours away. Harrisburg added another hour. Five hours in the van makes this a driving day.

We entered the Pennsylvania Turnpike and grabbed a ticket. The fee for driving to the middle of the state would be $18.90. There are ways around the toll but they are narrow, bumpy, slow, and hilly. It’s not worth it. So we swallowed hard and took our medicine.

The drive was uneventful but beautiful. Western Pennsylvania is mountainous and covered with forests. The Turnpike has several long tunnels along the way.

Half way to Gettysburg, we pulled into a service plaza to get lunch and figure out our lodging options for the evening.

The service plaza had restaurants, restrooms, and Wi-Fi. It provided a way to take a rest stop without paying the toll.

After lunch, we got to work on where we were going to stay. We have been staying in hotels for a week straight and wished to get back to the tent.

The problem was that the few campgrounds in the area charge exorbitant rates just to pitch a tent. The best we could find near Harrisburg was $40.

Ashley observed that we were spending way too much time trying to find a place to stay. She was right. We got back in the van to continue our travels.

Thirty minutes outside Gettysburg, we got off the turnpike and started down the back country roads. Almost immediately, we were sharing the street with a horse and buggy. We were in Amish country. I was so intrigued by the sight, I missed my turn off.

We quickly got turned around and saw some Amish people enjoying a nice Sunday afternoon.

We pulled into Gettysburg around 3. When we visited in 2005, there was a modest visitor center and a museum. Everything was close to the soldiers cemetery.

My how things have changed. We found a beautiful new visitors center about a mile south of the cemetery. It is huge and houses a museum and a theater. Where everything used to be free with the National Park pass, that is no longer the case. Our time was limited, so we decided to pass.

There was a ranger talk about the Battle of Gettysburg at 3:30. It was terrific. The ranger laid out on the ground a map of Gettysburg and the surrounding areas. Then he used volunteers to represent certain generals and their troops.

As he discussed the three day battle, he positioned the volunteers around the map and explained the troop movements and the tactics employed by Robert E. Lee and George Meade.

After the talk, there was not enough time to do much else. We were disappointed that we had made it to Gettysburg but we were there for only an hour.

On our way out of town, we stopped for dinner at Wendy’s and shopping at Walmart.

Kathy suggested we take one final check on the hotel situation. I researched hotels in Gettysburg.

Immediately, I found a great hotel and it was only a few dollars more than the tent site that is an hour away. This hotel was less than a mile away. And, best of all, we will be able to explore Gettysburg tonight and tomorrow.

We quickly checked in and then it was back in the van.

I had downloaded a Gettysburg app that explained the various battle sites and where to visit them.

We drove to the site of the first day of battles. There we found many monuments – the entire city is full of monuments, signs, and statues – but we found it difficult to figure out what had happened and where it happened.

We needed a simpler challenge. We decided to find the exact location where Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.

The National Cemetery lies adjacent to a private grave yard called Evergreen Cemetery. The speakers’ platform where Lincoln delivered his speech was positioned entirely within Evergreen Cemetery.

With the sun setting, we ventured into Evergreen Cemetery. Google Maps provided us the general location. Then the hunt was on to locate three graves which would mark the exact location of the Gettysburg Address.

The first was Isreal Yount.

Next was John Koch.

And finally George Kitzmiller.

The rod iron fence separates the two grave yards.

We walked across the street to cemetery hill, an important location in the battle of Gettysburg.

As darkness descended on Gettysburg, we meandered into the national cemetery.

Ashley found the cemetery swarming with fireflies. She knelt next to a tree and emerged moments later with a handful of fireflies.

As darkness continued to fall, we retreated to the van. Minutes later we were back at the hotel.

Tomorrow we will get a complete tour of the battlefields and move on to the land of chocolate.

Happy 11th Birthday, Ashley!

This is a Big Trip first. One of the kids celebrating their birthday in the middle of our voyage. Ashley has expressed some sadness because we aren’t at home celebrating with family and friends.

She likes sleeping in and hanging out in the hotel. The pace of the trip does not allow for much relaxation. But for Ashley’s birthday we did just that.

After a morning of lounging around, we were off to the movies. But first we made a stop at the store to purchase a lot of candy.

The theater nearest our hotel featured huge leather seats that fully reclined and had a tray to place our mounds of candy.

The movie was Toy Story 4. We all enjoyed it. I have to admit, with such a comfortable seat and a tummy full of candy, I may have rested my eyes just a little.

After the movie, Ashley wanted to retreat to the hotel. She had a little headache from eating so much candy.

Back at the room, Ashley received some e-mails that made her day.

She received a birthday video from Kaelyn, Anthony, and Philip.

And a birthday card from Maximus.

These fond birthday wishes from her buddies brought a huge smile to the birthday girl’s face.

She also got a phone call from her favorite big sister, Cassandra.

We played some games on our Nintendo DSs until it was time for mass.

After mass, we found a nice pizza shop. We have talked about having pizza for weeks, but we never have. Now was the perfect time.

In the end, ate way too much pizza and salad. We didn’t save room for cake, but we ate it anyways.

After blowing out the candles, Ashley has this unusual tradition of placing the candles in her mouth. We have no idea where or why this started.

I just hope I’m around when she turns 100.

We waddled back to the hotel for a couple more hours of relaxing before going to sleep.

Ashley received one final gift, a stunning video created by Maximus using Minecraft. The scene showed “Happy Birthday”. He then panned to the sky where fireworks exploded like the Fourth or July. Then Max wished Ashley happy birthday. It was an awesome end to the day.

The days of laying around resting are now over. Starting tomorrow, we will be back to hitting it hard again.

Even though the motel we stayed at was in poor condition, it was in a nice part of town. And it was located next to a national park, Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Cuyahoga Valley was created to protect and preserve the once polluted Cuyahoga River south of Cleveland. The park’s main attractions are the river, hiking trails and a waterfall.

The waterfall sounded neat, so we checked it out.

We parked the car and were immediately immersed in a thick, beautiful forest. A boardwalk led us directly to the waterfall.

Ashley was more excited to meet a little puppy.

Cuyahoga Valley didn’t have a Jr. Ranger program. But it seems Ashley may be burning out on working so hard for these badges.

Our visit complete, we got back in the van and headed for our next destination, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It’s a short 2 hour drive.

We are now into toll road country. In Ohio, it’s annoying but not too expensive. They charge by the length of the trip. In Pennsylvania, however, they charge $7.90 just for crossing the border. No matter which direction we go, there are more toll roads. It doesn’t matter how far you drive, if you pass a toll booth, you pay the toll. It’s a rip off, but there is no way around it.

We promised Ashley we would get a hotel for two nights and just do nothing but relax.

That did not stop Kathy from frantically searching the Internet for things to do in Pittsburgh. As you may have guessed, there is not much to do in Pittsburgh.

There was a nice shopping mall near our hotel. With Ashley’s birthday coming up on Saturday, we told her to find something she likes and it will be a birthday present. But she’s not much of a shopper and it seems she has everything she needs.

She has made it clear that she wants some play time with Kaelyn, Maximus, and Anthony. But that play date will have to wait a few weeks. I tried to get them shipped to Pittsburgh for the day, but it just didn’t work out.

We checked into our hotel. Kathy immediately suggested a walk. Ashley glowered and reminded us that we promised lots of relaxation. She refused to budge.

We ended the day watching the movie Thor on the laptop.

We packed our belongings and checked out of our beautiful Cedar Point hotel room. I think this is the first place we have spent two nights since we started the trip.

Like the day before, we were at the front gate at 9 and we sped the 1.4 mile trek to Steel Vengeance. This time the line was only 20 minutes long. So we did what any coaster enthusiast would do, we rode that sucker twice.

We next rode Maverick and then had an early lunch at Chick-fil-A.

Much of the day was spent riding major coasters. Again, the crowds were small and the wait times were minimal.

Our favorite coaster, Millennium Force, was next. That was followed by Top Thrill Dragster.

We were working on quality rather than quantity, as our pace was slower than yesterday.

We ended up watching a 50s rock show. The lead singer came into the audience during the Twist looking for a dance partner. Kathy eagerly volunteered and showed everyone how it is done.

Ashley wanted a baseball cap. She had been stealing mine for some time and I wanted her to have her own cap too. Plus we need to get her birthday gifts.

We shopped up and down the peninsula looking for the perfect hat and she found it.

I like it so much, I might steal it.

We closed out our visit to Cedar Point with dinner and a shake at Johnny Rockets.

Before we left for good, I checked the wait time app one last time. Millennium Force was only 20 minutes. It would be the perfect ending. Except we then rode Cork Screw. And then Gate Keeper.

Now we had the perfect ending.

Cedar Point, America’s Roller Coast, will forever be the place where Ashley completely shed her fear of riding coasters.

An hour and a half away, we checked into a crummy motel south of Cleveland.

We will get a nice hotel for the next two days so that Ashley can properly enjoy her birthday. She wants to sleep in, go shopping for the perfect gift, and see Toy Story 4.

So that wonderfully restful night of blissful sleeping was cut short by a horribly wretched odor. I know what you are thinking. Kathy checked, it wasn’t me. It was coming from the air conditioning. Concerned that the fumes could be impairing our health, Kathy checked with the front desk.

They explained there is a quarry in Sandusky that operates overnight. Occasionally, the quarry folks hit a pocket of surfur gas that fills the city with a toxic smelling odor. The air conditioning pushes all that smelly air directly into every hotel room in Sandusky. Thankfully, the gas is not harmful to humans. But it did mess with our sleep. By the way, Ashley slept through all of it.

With that little bit of nastiness out of the way. It was time to have some fun.

Our wonderful hotel is a mere 5 minutes from Cedar Point. Our Knotts Berry Farm platinum passes get us access to the park one hour early. We were at the front gate right at 9 o’clock.

The park is situated on a long and narrow peninsula. It is surrounded by Lake Erie on three sides which is really lovely. However, because of the topography, it is 1.4 miles from the front gate to the back of the park. Want to guess where our first ride of the day was?

After a 17 minute, 1.4 mile walk-run we finally made it to our destination: Steel Vengeance.

Steel Vengeance is a world-record breaker with a resume unmatched by any other coaster in the world. Steel Vengeance is the tallest (205 feet), fastest (74 mph) and longest (5,740 feet) hybrid coaster that packs in almost 30 seconds of airtime – the most airtime on any roller coaster in the world.

Ashley stood and stared at it. The wait time was 30 minutes. Which was amazing, because this ride routinely has lines over 4 hours long.

Ashley joined Kathy and I in the queue. Her initial thought was to sit it out.

As the minutes passed, Ashley softly talked to herself. “Should I do it? No, I can’t. Or can I?” This mental tug of war continued until we were to be seated in the coaster.

“Oh, what the heck. I’m doing it!” Ashley announced.

As Ashley was firmly buckled in and our train left the station, doubt flooded her mind once more. Did she do the right thing? Could she handle it? Oh well, it was too late anyways.

As we reached the peak of 205 feet and the train soared straight down, Ashley let out a massive scream. I turned slightly to see a huge smile on her face. It was then I knew we had her hooked.

As we exited the ride, Ashley was euphoric and wondering why she was nervous.

Next, we rode a coaster called Maverick. It is another in Cedar Point’s collection of best in class coasters. This one accelerates up the lift hill and descends at a 95 degree angle. After numerous, high speed twists and turns, the train enters a 400 foot tunnel while of accelerating to 70 mph in 3 seconds.

Ashley again went through all of the mental gynamastics until she convinced her self to ride.

On exit, she proclaimed her love for the ride and questioned her anxiety.

We celebrated Ashley’s new passion for roller coasters with an elephant ear. It is a flat bread completely covered in cinnamon sugar. Delicious.

The pattern of anxiety, ride, question anxiety continued as she boarded bigger and faster coasters.

The final nail in the coffin was Top Thrill Dragster. This coaster accelerates from 0 to 120 mph in 3.8 seconds. It then shoots straight up 420 feet. After cresting at the top, it goes straight down as it spirals once and then returns to the station.

And with that, Ashley had conquered every type of coaster ever built. There is no coaster on this planet that she can’t ride.

After Ashley deftly handled Cedar Point’s impressive collection of roller coasters, she looked at Valravn with sad eyes. Valravn, the world’s greatest dive coaster, had been involved in an incident three weeks prior where two cars bumped. It had been closed ever since.

When we first entered the park, Ashley looked at Valravn and said she could never ride it. Now she was disappointed because she “really wanted to ride it.” Maybe next year.

At the end of the day, Ashley rode 11 different roller coasters. All world class. None for the faint of heart.

Ashley said she was excited because she had conquered her fears. But mostly she was happy because she no longer had to hold our stuff while she waited for us.

We ended our day by watching the show Beach Blanket Beagle. The same show is performed at the massive Charles Schultz Theater at Knott’s. Cedar Point hosts in the show in a tiny theater and yet there were maybe 30 people in the audience.

During the show, the performers came to the audience to get kids to do the twist with them. Ashley would not be pursuaded.

Kathy enjoyed the show but said she could do the twist better than the entertainers.

It was a great day at an epic park. The temperature was hot but manageable, the crowds were incredibly small, and Ashley was now a coaster freak. I can’t wait to ride Fury 325 at Carowinds with her.

We retreated to the hotel and quickly fell asleep. This time with the air conditioner off.

Our next stop is Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. It is possibly the finest roller coaster park in the world. Tent camping in Sandusky was looking iffy and expensive. And the forecast includes night time thunder storms.

We turned our attention to the hotel websites. After much searching, I found one of the official Cedar Point hotels listed on Hotwire. This hotel retails for $160 per night and we got it for 2 nights at $54 per night. We need it for one more night and we might end up paying big bucks for it. We will see.

We started the day in South Ohio and we needed to get to North Ohio. It’s a four hour drive. About an hour outside Cincinnati, we stopped at the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.

This park is mainly focused on the Wright Brothers and their life in Dayton. We got to visit the shop where the Wright Brothers manufactured bicycles. That business gave them the opportunity to invent and build the world’s first airplane.

Ashley pounded out another Jr. Ranger booklet and before long scored badge number 6.

So it looks like the luck is swinging our way and we are feeling pretty good. Which of course about the time that luck of the other variety reminds us that it’s still there.

We made a stop at Walmart and Kathy asked if I noticed one of the tires looked low. I hadn’t but I would check. Yep, it was definitely low. Upon further investigation I found a small nail in it.

Then good luck returned. A Discount Tire was just a mile away. They fixed us up for free within an hour and we were back on the road.

While we waited for the tire repair, we played a game of Mario Party. Ashley had a chance to win the game late but decided to play easy so that Kathy could score a star. Unfortunately for her, this opened the door for me to win for the first time ever. I was thrilled as a win is a win. Ashley, however, was not pleased and did not appreciate me taking a photo of my winning screen.

So Ashley defaced my photo with graffiti to make her point.

A few hours later, we arrived at Cedar Point and did our traditional evening pop in. We got our free meal – burritos – and hit a few rides. The weather was mild and the crowds were sparse. We want to get up early tomorrow to get a jump on the crowds, so I forced us to leave around 8. It was not easy to depart.

The Cedar Point Hotel is great. We got a nice room and we are just a few minutes from the park.

We should sleep well tonight.

We were staying in a campground about 30 minutes from King’s Island. Not wanting to have to drive back to the campground this night, we decided to get a motel just a couple minutes away. That way we could hit the park in the morning, check in around 4 and relax, and return to the park for the evening.

Of course, that didn’t happen. We stayed at the park all day and ran out of steam around 7. I was going to return to King’s Island by myself, but the air conditioning and the bed were far too comfortable.

It was a great day at King’s Island. The park’s entry features a one-third scale Eiffel Tower. The main street is a European village with a huge pool and fountains in front.

Little did we know it, but this was the day Ashley truly started enjoying roller coasters.

We started the day at a wooden coaster called Mystic Timbers.

It is a fun wooden roller coaster built in 2017. The gimmic here is the train enters a shed at the end of the ride. All around are signs asking, “what’s in the shed?” Thus the mystery.

Turns out it is an 80s boom box playing a song followed by a video showing either a bat attack or a snake attack. The shed was pretty fun but not worthy of the hype. But the coaster was great.

Kathy and I finally got to ride the Beast. It was awesome. Most of the ride winds quickly through the forest that surrounds the park. This coaster is epic because of its speed and length. Ashley sat this one out. But she almost did it.

At the end of the day, Ashley rode 9 different coasters (she did Mystic Timbers twice, so ten total coaster rides). Most were major coasters.

The most surprising was Flight of Fear. It is an indoor coaster like Space Mountain. It is themed around an alien invasion and the queue involves entering a flying saucer.

The coaster flys out of the station and goes into a series of loops and cork screws. But because it is mostly dark, it was hard to tell when we were upside down or right side up! I was shocked that Ashley loved this ride.

We watched an 80s music show. It was fun. The kids in the show worked really hard to make it entertaining.

We rode a wooden coaster called the Racers. It looked fun as there are two tracks with two trains that race and meet back at the station. While the concept was fun and beating Kathy’s train was fun, the ride was, to put it kindly, bumpy. So much so that Kathy decided she wanted to sit on the sideline for a while. That allowed Ashley and I the chance to ride Mystic Timbers again.

We ended the day with a gentle train ride and finally a trip to the top of the tower. The views were resplentent.

So many coasters so little time.

We checked in at the Super 8 which was 5 minutes from the park. I talked to my dad and got caught up on the doings back home. I’m sorry we are missing all the earthquakes. NOT!

One of the negative feedbacks on this hotel was the power goes out. I thought nothing of it until it happened. Three times no less. But the air conditioning never went off which was the important part.

The Econo Lodge offered free breakfast. We didn’t expect much, but it was actually quite good. Cereal, bagels, fruit, juice, toast, yogurt…and pancakes!

A lot of hotels make waffles available with a waffle iron, but never had we seen this. It was a pancake machine.

Press a button and in moments out slide two warm, fluffy, delicious pancakes. It will no doubt go down as the most impressive technology we will see during Big Trip 4. And to think that we saw it at the Decatur, Illinois Econo Lodge.

Unfortunately, this was to be the height of our excitement this day, as we designated this a driving day.

Within a few hours we made it into the Eastern Time Zone (which means we lost another hour) and then Indianapolis. We stretched our legs, did some shopping, had lunch and kept on driving.

We pulled into Cincinnati around 7:00 and snagged a campground. The tent went up quickly. Our neighbors commented that had never seen people from California set up a tent so fast. Then it was back in the van. Our next destination: King’s Island themepark.

This is a ritual for us. We like to pop into a themepark late in the day. That way we get to figure out where everything is. We usually end up hitting a couple rides and closing down the park.

We got to King’s Island around 8 and it closed at 10. How we would have liked that hour back. Stupid time zones.

Ashley rode a couple of roller coasters, one wooden and one steel. She loved them.

My focus was on riding an iconic coaster called the Beast. I had heard that riding it at night was the ultimate experience. This far north, dark doesn’t happen before 9:30.

We entered the queue right at 9:25. Then we heard the announcement that the coaster would suspend operations at 9:45 for the nightly fireworks display. We decided to hang in there because we thought we could make it. Sadly, we were one train short. We were confronted with a decision. Either wait for the fireworks to end or get out of line and get our free meals.

Kathy was hungry. We left in search of a place to eat.

With only a few minutes left before park closing, we were finding a lot of restaurants had already closed.

Dispirited but not giving up, Kathy found a place that was open. As the throngs of people were heading for the gates, Kathy raced through the masses and managed to make it through the doors moments before they were closed.

The place was Skyline Chili. They have a chain of restaurants in the Cincinnati area. We ordered two chili dogs and a plate of spaghetti with chili. Both were piled so high with cheese that it looked like we had two mounds of cheese for diner. It was okay, but we won’t be having it again when we visit for a full day tomorrow.

We got back to the campground, went straight to the tent, and we quickly fell asleep.

We start today in the land of Lincoln, Springfield, Illinois.

Not far from our campground, we found the final burial site for Abraham Lincoln at the Oak Ridge Cemetary. It was pretty early and there were not many visitors.

We entered the door at the base and made our way down several empty corridors. Finally, we reached the tomb of the Great Emancipator. We each had the opportunity to feel the spirit of President Lincoln with no one else around.

Also buried here are Mary Todd Lincoln and three of the Lincolns’ sons.

It is common knowledge in Illinois that it is good luck to rub Lincoln’s nose. So we all gave it a shot.

We moved on to the Lincoln House which is part of the National Park Service.

We enjoyed the free tour of the Lincoln family home. The entry is free because the last surviving Lincoln son, Robert, donated the home to Illinois in 1887 on the condition that no fee could ever be charged to access the home. Thanks Robert!

The Park Service has also obtained ownership of the blocks surrounding the home. It has a very old town feel to it.

If you’re keeping score, that would be badge number 5.

After lunch, we took a tour of the nearby State Capitol.

The Illinois Statehouse is nice, but we all appreciated Kansas more. Illinois had very little access outside of the tour, which was tightly regulated. Kansas was wide open to explore. And Kansas was grander and more beautiful. And Kansas had the super awesome dome tour. So, yeah, Kansas.

We ended up at the old state house where Lincoln served as a state representative before he was president. It is also where his casket was brought for public viewing before being buried at Oak Ridge.

We left Springfield in search of a church so that we could celebrate another Saturday vigil mass. We found what we were looking in Taylorville. It was a bit out of the way, but it was the only church around with a 6:00 pm mass.

We ended up in Decatur for the night. We couldn’t find a campground so we are living large in the Decatur Econo Lodge, which is much nicer than it sounds.

Leaving from a motel is so easy. We get cleaned up, grab everything, and go.

We pulled into Marceline, Missouri to be greeted by the water tower.

It seems every small town in the Midwest has its own water tower.

Another mile down the road we found the Walt Disney Hometown Museum.

We arrived a few minutes before 10:00. But the volunteers who operate the museum were happy to let their first visitors of the day in early.

The ladies who greeted us were delighted that we are from Southern California. They excitedly told us about their museum and their small town.

The museum building was the town’s train station from 1913 until the 1970s. It was scheduled for demolition by the Santa Fe railroad. But thankfully town preservationists were able to obtain the property and completely revitalize it.

The museum is mostly concerned about the years Walt Disney and his family lived in Marceline.

For Walt, that was between the ages of 4 and 9. That may not sound like a long time, but once the family moved to Kansas City, Walt’s dad put him to work and those joyful days of his youth were long gone.

We ended up spending two hours in the museum. It was really terrific. The experience was only enhanced by the excellent volunteers.

The ladies pointed out all the places to go to experience Walt’s Marceline.

We walked the downtown which is reminiscent of Main Street, USA. We also walked the tracks of the old Midget Autopia which was donated by Walt Disney to the people of Marceline back in the 1960s. Although the attraction closed in 1977, it holds the distinction of being the only Disneyland ride to be operated outside Disneyland.

We also visited Walt Disney Elementary and the house the Disney family lived in during their time in Marceline.

We left Marceline with big smiles. This was a totally unplanned side trip and we are so glad we did it.

A couple hours and a big rain storm down the road, we pulled into Springfield, Illinois. Kathy found a convenient campground for $15 a night. It was hot and humid but I think I promised not to talk about that anymore.

The place was swarming with fireflies and Ashley was in heaven. At one point, she caught seven fireflies and put them in a water bottle.

She noticed that one was lit constantly. Ashley called that one Defect. The other six were free to go, but she played with Defect a little longer. After proclaiming her love for Defect, Ashley set him free.