Road Rally Times

Road Rally Times

www.lausd.k12.ca.us/district_a/resources/st_louis Thursday, May 23, 2002 Gateway Elementary School

Day Three of the Meet Me in St. Louis Road Rally

Dearborn Discovers Dinosaurs and Dudes!

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Gateway Elementary School Thursday, May 23, 2002 www.lausd.k12.ca.us/district_a/resources/st_louis

Day three of our journey was quite eventful. Dragging ourselves out of bed early in the morning, we left Twin Falls, Idaho, toward the great state of Utah. We began by celebrating Steven’s 9th birthday at Dino Park in Ogden. He had a chocolate dinosaur cake with chocolate ice cream. We toured the park where we saw several life-sized models of North American dinosaurs from the early Cretaceous period. The fossils at Dino Park were found at nearby Moab, Utah. We had to leave quickly because Cary tried to see what it was like to ride a dinosaur.

Trucking our way down the highway, we arrived at the state capital, Salt Lake City. What a magnificent place to visit! Although it was cold, we decided to act like polar bears and try our hand at floating in the Great Salt Lake. Since the water in the lake is saturated with salt, hence giving it its name, we floated, not swam, in the lake. After rinsing off, we were inspired by the world famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir at the acoustically unique Mormon Tabernacle in Temple Square.

Humming inspirational music and feeling refreshed we headed down I-15 towards Provo, Utah. Here we visited Brigham Young University, one of the largest church-related private universities in the nation.

From Provo, we traveled on to the Timpanogos Cave National Monument. We hiked up 1,065 feet to get to the entrance of the caverns. Hiking through the three large limestone caverns, we were able to see stalagmites and stalactites. Which is which? We learned about spelunking in the Junior Ranger Program.

Waving goodbye to the bats in the caves, we headed northeast to Heber City. We bought a picnic lunch and ate while we road a steam-powered train through the beautiful rural mountains of Provo Canyon.

Afterwards, we got back on the road toward the Park City area to the town of Kamas. This is where we stayed for the night at Diamond J Dude ranch. Wearing the cowboy hats that we got at the rodeo, we went for an evening horseback ride before having an authentic chuck wagon BBQ for dinner with live entertainment. Pulling out our bedrolls, we hit the hay for the night awaiting our next adventure.

Superior meets the president of the United States!

Greetings from the nation’s capital. After a great night sleep and a quick breakfast at McDonalds, we got in the Hummer Limosouine and headed towards D.C. We got the capital around 1:00 and started our tour of this remarkable area. Our first stop was at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Our teacher, Mr. Nairin, arranged for our class to meet with President Bush and Vice President Cheney. We showed them a video of our school play “Miracle in Philadelphia”, and discussed politics and children’s rights in school and society. This was a great experience. President Bush told Daniel, Heather, Brian, and Sean that he would e-mail a picture of them with the president. Upon leaving the White House, we went across the street and visited the Court House. We met a judge and were witnesses to a live trial. We then went to John Hancock’s house, John Hancock was the original signer of the Declaration of Independence. After that we got a little hungry so we stopped for Thai food at Thai town Restaurant.

When we were done with a delicious plate of food we decided to go to Six Flags America to have fun. We got a little tired so we decided to go somewhere else. So we went to the Pentagon. After a little time of silence we decided to go to the Lincoln, Washington, and Vietnam war Memorials. This was very exciting. It was now dinner time, we went to eat at the state capitol with Bush and ate Mexican food to give him a taste of are LA food vice pres Chaney stayed at the white house Then we decided to call it a night and went to a very nice hotel called the Omni to stay the night. Can’t wait til tomorrow when we hit historical city of Philadelphia.

Beckford Feels The Heat

We started the day in Springville, California. We are taking Hwy.190 east to the Sequoia National Forest to hike and watch the beautiful view. We were really hungry so we decided to eat breakfast at Joe’s Diner. Joe’s Diner is famous for its pie so we bought a cherry pie for our picnic lunch. We ate eggs, pancakes, orange juice, and steak.

Then, we went on Hwy.178 east to China Lake to get gas. We also went to Ridgecrest to eat ice cream and buy food for a picnic lunch. We went north on Hwy.190 and stopped at Death Valley National Park.

In Death Valley National Park we hiked along the sand dunes for about 1 hour then we took a bathroom break. We are so hot because it is 90° F. and we are sweating to death. After the bathroom break, we rented motorcycles. Sharon had trouble starting her motorcycle. We followed Hwy.190 then switched to Hwy.160 heading south. On the 160, we passed through Humboldt Toiyabe National Forest. We stopped at Red Rock National Park and we hiked for about an hour. We continued on Hwy.160, then we went north on Hwy.159 to Las Vegas.

When we reached Vegas we went to Circus Circus to have dinner at the buffet. We went to the Mirage to see the Zigfried and Roy Magic Show. As we were watching the magic show, the snow leopard appears in a cage. Two stage hands put a giant blanket over the cage. Zigfried and Roy take their magic wands and tap the cage twice. Then they pull the giant blanket off the cage and the snow leopards were gone!

We decided to go back to Circus Circus to go on the Canyon Blaster Rollercoaster. We decided to play the arcade games. Daniel won a free game and Penelope won a giant teddy bear. It’s 1 A. M. and we’re very tired! We headed on the 515 freeway for Henderson.

GLEDHILL FOLLOWS THE TURQUOISE TRAIL

Before we started out from Gallup, we decided to book lodging in Bard. Off we went to the "Turquoise Trail". A great deal of our journey, today was on the old Route 66, now know as Interstate 40.

While visiting Gallup, we discovered that Coronado first arrived in the region in 1540. They found a thriving and highly civilized Native American culture already in place. The city is the tour hub for the popular Four Corners Region, and it is the mercantile, transportation and banking center for the entire area.

After Gallup, we went to Albuquerque. Then we decided to take a side trip to the Petroglyph National Monument and Coronado State Park. There, we also saw ruins of a pueblo and reconstructed kivas.

After Albuquerque, we went to Santa Fe and visited the Museum of History of Indian Arts and Crafts with special exhibits of Turquoise and the handy crafts of the local Indian population. The city of Santa Fe is the state capital of New Mexico. The town is well known now as an artist’s colony.

We learned the city was founded in 1610 by Gov. Don Pedro de Peralta. We went to Palace of the Governors (oldest capitol building in the U.S.). We also went to San Miguel Mission, the continent’s oldest church. On our way to Tucumcari we stopped by the Pecos National Historical Park, a cultural crossroads where Plains Indians traded with the Pueblo Indians. While at Tucumcari we watched Indians make Turquoise jewelry. Then we left for Bard to spend the night.

Noble Goes Across Nevada

This is the third day of our trip. First we ate at a very beautiful restaurant in Reno. We finished in 25 minutes because we were planning where we would go next. We decided to go to Fleischman planetarium where we saw realistic images of space from the planetarium's screen. We continued our journey towards the capital Carson City but we stopped at Genoa so that we could visit Mormon Station State Historic Park. Mrs. McGee and her class enjoyed seeing how this log stockade and trading post that was built in 1851 has been rebuilt to portray its place in history. Louise, Chris, Miguel, and Cindy told us that it was a way station where pioneers often rested before continuing on their grueling overland trek over the Sierra Nevada to California. Martin and Victor got lost so we had to look for them but LaTeisha found them. We stayed at Genoa for an hour and then we went to Carson City.

At Carson City we went to a museum where we learned about this city’s history. At the museum they were talking about Carson City's name and why it was chosen to be the state capitol. We learned that it was founded in 1858 and it was designated as a state capital in 1864 and named after Kit Carson. This city is called, "The loneliest road in America," as it was once part of the Pony Express trail across central Nevada.

We decided to change directions and started heading north to Pyramid Lake. At Pyramid Lake we had a picnic even though it was cold. Some people in the group decided to go fishing. Armando and Adriana caught some fish and they were very excited. We proceeded to Walker Lake. At Walker Lake half of the group went water skiing or at least gave it a try. We didn’t go swimming because we were cold and it was kind of chilly.

Our next stop was Battle Mountain, which was named after a nearby mountain range that commemorates an American-Indian raid against pioneers in 1857. We decided to stop at the Battle Mountain Chamber of Commerce were they gave us a warm welcome. Both classes decided to run up the mountain while we were there. We got tired after a while but everybody made it to the top. to the Black Hills

Balboa Bids Adieu

Leaving Rapid City was difficult. We had seen so much and wanted to stay longer. We didn’t have an opportunity to visit the Chief Crazy Horse Monument currently under construction.

We are disappointed with the number of billboards we see along the highways. One peculiar sign we saw was one about “Where is Wall Drug?” It made us curious enough to stop in Wall, South Dakota, and see this site. Well, what a disappointment that was! Once we got to Wall Drug Store we found out it is just a normal, boring “touristy” drug store.

The original owners, Ted and Dorothy Husted, made their drugstore a cool place by offering free ice water to tourists. This was especially welcomed after travelers had driven through the hot, dusty prairie. We drank some water and decided the souvenirs were overpriced. It was time to hit the road again.

Next we went to the state capital of South Dakota which is Pierre. While we were there, we learned our pronunciation of the capital has been wrong all this time. South Dakotans call it “Peer”. Pierre has 12,900 people and the elevation is 1,484 feet. While in Pierre our main event was meeting the governor, William Janklow, and having lunch with him.

The drive to Mitchell was peaceful. We drove through Chamberlain, South Dakota, and saw several Indian reservations. We crossed the Missouri River. We saw some people walking along the river bank as if they were looking for something they had lost. We needed a break, so we stopped and asked what was going on. We joined them and found a few prehistoric fossils dating back about 78 million years.

We finally arrived at Mitchell, South Dakota, to see the famous Corn Palace. The Corn Palace might sound a little goofy, but listen to this. They decorate the entire outside of the building with dried corn. It takes between two and three thousand bushels of corn to complete the decorating. It is really awesome!

Above the Corn Palace we saw the weirdest clouds. It is a good thing we took a picture as nobody would ever believe what we saw. Go ahead and take a look.

We also visited the Enchanted World Doll Museum where there are more than 4,800 antique and modern dolls on display.

We also visited The Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village Museum and Archedome research Center. Here there is an 11th century fortified pre-Mandan Indian village. We walked through a full-scale reproduction of an earthen lodge. That was difficult living – no TV, no telephones, no CD players, no video games, nothing but work!

As we settled in for the night, the temperature is sixty four degrees. The population of Mitchell, SD, is 13,800 and the elevation is 1,310 above sea level.

Balboa Travelers

Germain’s Heading to Harrisburg

Today we drove through Scranton and chose not to stop anywhere! We continued on to Millersburg to eat. We ate at Pizza Hut. We had a Hawaiian pizza with Coke. Then we went to the Restrooms to wash up. After that, we went back on the road to St. Louis.

In Hershey, we went to the Bear’s hockey Game and watch their team play against the other team. Then we went to a

Museum, where we looked at famous pieces

Of Art. Then we went to the Hershey’s

Chocolate World Visitor Center. There we

saw the making of the famous Hershey Chocolate Bars.

In Harrisburg, we went to many places such

as the Historic Harrisburg Resource Center.

There we saw many informational books and other things. Then we went to the National Civil War Museum. There we saw many Civil War artifacts and the equipment of the soldiers that fought in the war. It was a very exciting place to visit. We chose this route because we wanted to go to more state capitals. There were more Historical landmarks too. We also wanted to go this way because this way would take eight days to go to St. Louis. We went this route because we thought it was going to have a lot of sights to see and it does. It’s going to be long trip.