{"id":369,"date":"2015-05-08T04:23:14","date_gmt":"2015-05-08T04:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/?p=369"},"modified":"2015-05-08T04:23:14","modified_gmt":"2015-05-08T04:23:14","slug":"and-were-off-and-rolling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/?p=369","title":{"rendered":"….And We’re Off and Rolling"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was 3:00 am and we’re all set to go! The truck was packed and\u00a0we all had our electronic gadgets charged and ready to send and receive messages, photos, etc. Snacks and drinks were in their proper locations. We were off on our Big West Trip! Well, sort of. We traveled approximately 4.6 feet\u00a0when Darby quietly said, I can\u2019t find my seat belt clip. The Big West Trip paused for a minute while I got out, lifted the seat and found the seat belt clip. OK, no worries, minor delay, it was still only 3:03 am. Now, it was time to hit the long open highways west! But, just then, Darby tapped me on the shoulder and exclaimed, \u201cThis isn\u2019t the right clip.\u201d I threw Big Blue into Park, jumped out, lifted the seat again, and finally wrestled the correct (hidden) seat belt clip back to its original safety position. The time was 3:06 am and we had travelled a total distance of 10 feet on our trip so far and hadn’t made it out of the driveway-we still had about 850 miles to go today!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In the\u00a0darkness of early morning\u00a0we began our 16-day Big West trip. Our furthest goal would be California to visit Tyler and Amelia. But, we have many small oddities to check out along the way, as well as visiting some of our country\u2019s most famous National Parks.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

With the road construction season upon us, we slowly made our way out of Pennsylvania, through West Virginia and across Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, coming to rest on day one just outside St. Louis, MO-850 miles and 17 hours later! I decided I would drive this first leg, knowing it would be a long one. As I type this, I\u2019m having a hard time seeing the keys, and concentrating on the words. If you read anything that looks like thisssss,kskdk, it\u2019s probably because I fell asleep with my fingers stuck on the keyboard, as a little drool drips from my gaping mouth! Very tired indeed!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"darbhat\"<\/a>
This is what happens when stuck in a vehicle for 17 hours-you begin to make up your own fun!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n

Although today\u2019s destination might have been a bit far, we still managed to find some interesting sights. We took an hour side trip\u00a0and drove north to the Longaberger Basket headquarters. Our first stop was the Longaberger Homestead to check out the World\u2019s Largest Apple Basket, decorated nicely with a pile of polished apples. The Homestead was a bit weird. We weren\u2019t sure what was going on there, because there were many buildings and shops, but no people, except for a small tour group, of which we don\u2019t know where they were touring. It looked like the entire complex had simply been abandoned! In fact, if you remember the scene in the last Indiana Jones movie where they had set-up a complete fake town in the Nevada desert for nuclear testing, that\u2019s what the Longaberger Homestead looked like. We were hoping we wouldn\u2019t hear a loud siren, and start looking for a large fridge to hide in!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"longhqts\"<\/a>
The headquarters bldg. of Longaberger Basket<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"appbask\"<\/a>
World’s Largest Apple Basket-Longaberger Homestead<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After exiting \u201cLongaberger Land,\u201d we hit the road once again. After several hours of driving, a small sign along I-70 caught my eye. It said, \u201cWorld\u2019s Largest Wind Chime\u201d in Casey, IL. I recognized this familiar\u00a0sign, and this roadside attraction from two years ago, when Tyler and I spotted the same sign, and visited this same tourist spot on a very cold February afternoon, on his journey west. So, once again, I yanked on the steering wheel, left the highway, and Theresa, Darby and I were headed back into downtown Casey for another wind chime visit. When we arrived we had to park along a side street as one of the local\u2019s goats was \u201cparked\u201d in the only vacant parking spot. As I strolled up to introduce myself to the four-legged farm animal, I heard his owner call out to me from the deck of the wind chime visitor center, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t get much closer to him, he\u2019s not very friendly, even to me!\u201d I stubbornly took his advice, gave the goat my best stink eye, and walked away. The wind chime was still very impressive, and\u00a0 as an added bonus across the street, they\u2019re preparing to build the World\u2019s Largest Rocking Chair!\u00a0 Although, they haven\u2019t made much progress since Tyler and were there two years ago!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"megoat\"<\/a>
Trying to introduce myself to a very impolite goat-Casey, IL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"windchimes\"<\/a>
World’s Largest Wind Chime-Casey, IL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"needles\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Our last stop of the day was a quick visit to the \u201cCross at the Crossroads,\u201d in Effingham, IL. It\u2019s the World\u2019s Largest cross standing 198\u2019 tall and 113\u2019 wide. It\u2019s forged from over 180 tons of steel. It\u2019s huge, and I mean huge. It can be seen right from I-70, as it stands along the highway. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"bigcross\"<\/a>
Theresa and Darby are dwarfed (standing at base) by the World’s Largest Cross, in Effingham, IL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We ended our very long day just outside St. Louis, MO, exhausted, but very excited about the adventures that await us, and many more stories\/photos we can share.\u00a0We are currently watching the weather very carefully as we head into Oklahoma City tomorrow, and through tornado alley-especially with a few days of nasty weather forecasted. We will certainly proceed with caution, and adjust our trip as necessary. Thanks to everyone for their concerns-stay tuned!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was 3:00 am and we’re all set to go! The truck was packed and\u00a0we all had our electronic gadgets charged and ready to send and receive messages, photos, etc. Snacks and drinks were in their proper locations. We were off on our Big West Trip! Well, sort of. We traveled approximately 4.6 feet\u00a0when Darby … Continue reading ….And We’re Off and Rolling<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=369"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":378,"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions\/378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}