Vacation with the kids

We’ve had a whirlwind few weeks and now it’s time to take Hannah and Noah on vacation this year. 
This is the fourth year we have taken the kids on a vacation with us.  The first two years we took them one at a time and visited Colorado.  Then last year we took both of them to South Dakota and Colorado.  We had a great time.
This year we are taking them to Wisconsin to visit my sister and her family with a few extra stops here and there.
We left Monday around 10:00 am.  We drove to Rockford, IL.  It is about 2 1/2 hours away. We found beautiful Rock Cut State Park.
The park has five loops.  We stayed in the Prairie View loop, space 507.  Here is the space with Hannah and Noah in front of the truck and grandpa getting ready to set up.
Each space is separated by trees, bushes or plants.  The sites in this loop are electric only.  There are two dump sites near the Plum Grove loop.  A fellow camper and full timer came to us and recommended that we use the second dump station located on the left side of the road.  He is from the area and uses the park when visiting family.  He did warn us of low overhanging branches at the exit of the dump area and suggested that we back out after dumping.  Denny did do this.
Our first night at the park was used to find information about the area and determine what day would be best to go to the Milwaukee Zoo.  We also wanted to visit the Railroad Museum at Union, IL.  The weather man made our choice for us.  It was expected to rain the next day and most of the railroad museum is under roofs so we chose to do that.
Hannah is on crutches after a fall causing a hairline break in the growth plate of her ankle from falling off the porch at her mother’s.  She has a cast up to her knee and we had to make sure it stayed dry so we put a grocery and garbage bag over her leg.  Duck tape is a wonderful thing.  Here is Hannah and Noah in the train station at the museum.

We went into the station to see what was on display and found an electric trolley sitting outside waiting for us to board.  The park is run by volunteers every visitor has the opportunity to ride the train or trolley that is running on the day of your visit.  Today the electric trolleys were running. 
We boarded the trolley and there was only one other couple on board.
The docents were wonderful.  They gave us a history of the museum as well as the trolley we were riding.  Trolley’s were the only transportation many people had.  They ran seven days a week.  One of the docents had actually used a similar trolley daily when he first started school.  He rode with his father to a stop then walked two blocks to school while his father continued on to work.  He rode a trolley until he was a junior in high school when the trolleys were taken out of service.
We were given a ride through the museum and then on a private track to the river.  There is enough track on this part of the ride to allow the trolley to get to maximum speed of 44 mph.  What a wonderful time. 
At one point the track needed to be switched and the docent took Noah out of the car and allowed him to move the lever to switch the track.
When we reached the end of the track and in order to reverse the direction the car travels the electric poles that connect the car to electric wires had to be switched too.
The motorman and conductor have lean out the front and back window and grab a rope that is attached to the pole and move it to the other wire at each end of the car.  It was really interesting and a lot of fun.
There are several stops the trolley makes and you can get off and on again if you like to visit each of the barns that contain different train cars.
We rode the trolley back to the station and began to explore the nine barns full of old train cars and engines.
Noah loved the steam engine barn.  He was fascinated by the size of the wheels on the engines.
 
Poor Hannah was bored and the rain didn’t help any.  She couldn’t just run around and get some of her energy used up.  We hoped to eat at the cafe located on the grounds but it wasn’t open during the week yet.  Even though she is only nine, texting her half-sister seemed to help a bit.
We left the museum and went to find someplace for lunch.  We love small town restaurants and cafes.  We found a nice cafe and stopped for lunch.
It was very good and another photo op for the grandkids.
We got back to the rig and just chilled for the night.  I called my cousin and made arrangements to have lunch with them on Thursday.  It will be nice to see them.
Well, the weather is supposed to be sunny tomorrow so we’ll find our new adventures at the zoo.