May 17, 2025 - June 6, 2025 -- TT Diamond Caverns, KY to Indian Lakes, IN to Leisure Lake, IL to HH Living History Farms, IA to Eugene T. Mahoney State Park, NE to HH Our Lavender Co. Farm, NE
Pies 922-1007!!
Written By: Wendy
Last summer we did a whirlwind tour of the midwest seeing back to back to back to back to back friends and family throughout the midwest, moving way too quickly and doing what everyone else wanted. We burnt ourselves out. Last summer we said, "Never again!" and "Let's learn from our mistakes and not do that again." But here we are mid-May, and as I went over our travel calendar with Scott, I could see his eyes grow wide and his blood pressure rise as I ticked off the number of people we had scheduled to see in a short amount of time. It's hard, though, because we know so many people in the midwest and we can't just avoid them as we move through that part of the country, so as we left the serenity of our event, we mentally geared ourselves up for the next few weeks of whirlwind travel.
Our first stop was Mammoth Caves National Park, and Scott's brother and his family would be joining us for the weekend. We hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving, so we were excited to catch up, and Parker and Caroline were happy to have their next cast members in their never ending rotating rolls of playmates. We spent the weekend exploring the caves and catching up on life. Unfortunately our time was cut short with them due to major storms and tornados on either side of the trip, but we made the most of the time together. After they left, we still had another several days in the campground, and took advantage of the time to do the historic guided tour that took us deep into the cave and gave us a thorough understanding of all the history of the cave from ancient civilizations to saltpeter mines to tours lead by enslaved individuals to present day. While we were in the area, we also had the luxury of spending one night in a hotel due to tornado threats. Our kids were thrilled at the novel hotel night stay, while Scott and I anxiously watched the radar and hoped that our trailer wouldn't be destroyed. The storm ended up being not as bad as predicated, but it still gave us an uneasy feeling of just how vulnerable we were.
After we left Kentucky, our next stop was Indiana. Part of midwest whirlwind tour was also to finish off our 50 pies in as many states as we could before we sprinted west. And we did just that! In Indiana, we had a 50 Pies party over Memorial Day weekend to finish off Indiana. The campground was packed with weekend warriors. This particular Thousand Trails campground has a distinctly different feel than many of the other ones in that it is huge and the majority of campers are locals and weekend warriors instead of usually being occupied by full time travelers. This campground has an energy that many Thousand Trails campgrounds are void of. There was not a single campsite left open on this holiday weekend to start the camping season. That created an atmosphere that made our 50 pies party a smashing success with plenty of random strangers eager to grab a free slice of pizza to soothe their alcohol filled bellies.
Our campground was right on the Ohio border, so we spent two days going into nearby Ohio. One day we headed into Cleveland to explore a new city. We went to a children's science museum that we had reciprocity with and then went to a Reds vs. Cubs game. Growing up in Chicago, I spent many long summer afternoons in Wrigley Field cheering on the Cubbies, so I was excited to go to another Cubs game and introduce our children to the world of baseball and American Major League sports. They were mildly interested in the game, but they loved the unlimited popcorn, hot dogs, and ice cream that we supplied to keep the experience a positive one. Our other Ohio day was spent in Dayton with our friends that we had met up with West Virginia. We spent a relaxing and rainy day playing at their house and then hosted a pizza party that evening for a large group of their friends. We set up at a nearby park and none of the kids cared that it was raining or that large puddles were forming in the grass. They all played happily for hours while the adults chatted over pizza and chess pie (a traditional Southern pie that is creamy and quite delicious). It was fun to meet my old friend's friends and share with them our family mission and values. Ohio and Indiana, check done in the same week!
After Indiana, we headed to Illinois, my home state. I don't have many relatives left in Illinois, but I still have several good high school friends and my 94 year old grandma there. On the first night in Illinois, Scott was able to go see his cousin star in The Da Vinci Code play. He hadn't seen his cousin in years and delighted in being able to get drinks with him afterwards and swap and reminisce over old family stories. That weekend I then went on a girls trip with 3 other friends from high school at Starved Rock State Park. It was a weekend we all desperately needed for different reasons. It was an incredibly rejuvenating kid free weekend spent venting about our husband's, swapping child rearing tips, laughing hysterically about our ridiculous younger years, and planning our one friend's upcoming wedding. We hiked, drank lots of wine, played games, had our tarot cards read, and just enjoyed each other's company and long and deep friendships.
We spent the rest of our week in Illinois visiting my grandma in her assisted living home. She lit up whenever we entered with our two bundles of energy, and we enjoyed taking her out for walks around the property to give her some fresh air. One afternoon after having lunch with my grandma, we headed to another friends house for, yep, you guessed it, another pizza party! We had to finish up Illinois, so we made pizza and apple pie for my high school friends and their families. It was a fun evening letting all our kids play together while we chatted and caught up.
Our last hurrah in Illinois was a day spent in downtown Chicago. Scott and I really vacillated on if it would be too much, but when we found out that there was a Metra train stop just 10 minutes from our campground, we decided to do it. We started off the day with a gastronomical food tour. Scott chose to go to La Intelligensia for coffee. Caroline picked popcorn at Garrett's popcorn (with some hinting from her dad), and we surprised Parker with a stop at the Nutella Cafe as Nutella has recently become a major food group for him. With full bellies, we wandered around Millennium Park and checked off all the iconic stops at the spitting fountains and The Bean before heading to Maggie Daley playground to let the kids run around for a while. I hadn't been to Maggie Daley playground before, and I was thoroughly impressed at the size and layout of the park with little play areas tucked in the trees to capitalize on the natural shade and make it feel not quite so big and daunting to little humans. When our bellies starting rumbling again, we leisurely walked along Lake Michigan to lead us to my food stop of classic Chicago Italian beef sandwiches for lunch before heading into the Field Museum (also on our reciprocal list!). We spent way too long in the museum, staring closely at all the stuffed animals and learning about the history of the earth so that we could see Sue and ended up having to speed walk and rush through the downtown streets to make our train before bedtime. We were exhausted on the train ride back but very happy that we made the magical Chicago day happen. I hadn't been in the city in years, and it felt good to be back and show it to my children.
As our time in Illinois came to a close, it came with a bit of relief. We had finished all our major planned pizza parties with great success and seen all the people we had wanted to see. It has been incredibly fun, but we needed just a bit of down time. We now planned to sprint across the rest of the midwest with a bit of down time before actually slowing down in Colorado for the summer.