Smokies Day 4

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It was still raining when we woke up with occasional bursts of pouring. The kids slept great and Heath and I rolled over and went back to sleep a few times before she had to use the bathroom and I just could not sleep anymore. My cell battery had died so I could not read so I wrote some blog posts and edited some pictures while waiting for the rain to stop or kids to wake. Heath had zipped from the tent to the van and then drove right next to the bathroom and decided to organize the van instead of come back to the tent.

Eventually Heath decided it was not going to stop raining and she was probably not going to stay dry so got out and started packing up our stuff. The girls woke up and I got them dressed and packed up the stuff in the tent. Then we got Peanut up and made him change. We kept all our clothes and sleeping bags dry but the tent and everything on the clothes line was soaked.

We stuck the kids in the car w/ pop tarts and Heath and I packed up the wet gear then we went to the bathroom to change clothes and dry off. It was not worth trying to hike but there were lots more cave tours so we went to the visitor center and signed up for a 2 hour, 2 mile tour.

This tour was great, it was geared toward the history of the cave and we got 1.75 miles farther into the cave then the day before. Pumpkin did great and really liked going for a hike inside the cave. We actually got to some of the area with water and some really unique areas of the cave. Bean wanted to get down and run and yell and play but Heath held onto her all 2 miles and people told us they were impressed with how well behaved the girls were.

We got out of the cave at noon and the rain had slowed or nearly stopped. Everything was still soaked and we were a long way from home so started driving. We were hungry and wanted something good to eat. We decided on BBQ and drove to Owensboro KY.

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It was fairly different from Kansas City style, Peanuts pulled pork had more the consistency of sloppy joe and I had mutton for the first time. It’s old sheep meat, I had to look it up. The sauce was real thin, the beans were a bit spicy. It was different but we liked everything and ate everything we got.

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The kids were real talkative with the waitress and together they talked us into going to a playground after lunch. The waitress new the best spot a few blocks away.

Smothers park is like 3 blocks long and right along the Ohio river. It was the coolest park I have ever been to. All 3 kids went nuts.

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Besides all the playground equipment and castles as Pumpkin called them.

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there were giant, turtles, frogs and fish on the ground.

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It also had a spraypark built into it, an outdoor performance area and giant adult swings right along the river.

We played for nearly an hour but got really hot and sweaty and decided to get driving. Once back on the road the girls did not last long.

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So the park was well worth the stop. The next stop was St. Louis and we were kind of ready for a late dinner. We stopped at a place called pi like the math symbol. We decided to sit at an outside table and were well shaded from the downtown buildings.

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We quickly ordered all the kids some milk and a thin pizza and got ourselves some nice beers. Everyone was happy.

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Heath and I ordered a nice deep dish pizza, we got different kinds on each half and they were both excellent.

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It was starting to get dark but we were not ready to get back in the car so we went for a walk. It was pretty easy to decide where to go.

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We were only a few blocks from the arch.

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We looked at the arch a bit and had the kids run races around the bushes.

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Then we took 1 last picture and left.

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We drove the rest of the way home pulling in at 12:40am Tuesday morning. The kids were all asleep and we just scooped them up and put them in bed. Heath and I were tired but had not had a shower in like 5 days and could not help washing before going to sleep.

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