Northern States Road Trip (Day 11 - Hey butterfingers, can't you catch?!)

This morning I changed a diaper and dressed Douglas on the couch in our hotel room.  He stood up and leaned against the back of the couch.  When I said, "Hey Doogles, let's get your socks and shoes on so we can go outside," he launched himself toward me.  However, as I reached for him he slipped through my hands and went down, face first, into the corner of the coffee table.  Wow, I felt bad.  Normally when Douglas trips and falls, or when he runs into things on his own, I don't give him a bit of sympathy.  I simply tell him to get up.  Not this time.  I hugged him and told him I was sorry and that it was my fault.  This trip has been rough on the little man.  Lots of bumps and bruises.  Despite the incident this morning, Douglas was a good sport throughout the rest of the day.

 We drove three hours from Springfield, Illinois, to West Branch, Iowa, to visit the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.  Along the way we stopped at the world's largest truck stop.  They even have a trucking museum there.  No, we did not go inside. :)

 Douglas found the pillows while we wandered about the Hoover Presidential Museum.

 Hoover provided large quantities of food to the Belgians after WWI.  We received a sampling of what one of their meals would have been (small bowl of bland, watery soup and a piece of bread).  They add an apple to the meal here in order to make it a bit tastier, but the Belgians didn't get fruit.

 Because of Hoover's kindness to the Belgians they gave him a statue of Isis, the Egyptian goddess of life.  Think about that.  Isis used to be a symbol of life.  ISIS is now a symbol of death and destruction.

Hoover burial site

 Then we drove another four hours to Winter Quarters so that Sam could visit the Mormon Trail center.  I took a few more photos of the beautiful temple.

We ate Thai food tonight.  Thai food in Omaha, Nebraska.  Funny.  Now I can't sleep (as usual), which is why this post is coming tonight instead of tomorrow night.

Did I mention that having a minivan has been wonderful on this trip?  Did I also mention that Hertz gave us a very dirty (on the inside) minivan that was 1000 miles overdue for an oil change?  After this trip it will be more than 5000 miles overdue.......if it doesn't blow up before we get home.  The van began telling us it needed an oil change three days into our trip.  Lovely.

Oh, I forgot to mention that today was another beautiful day.  We have been SO blessed with good weather our entire trip.  We haven't had a day over 83 degrees.  And it's August!