Scared Straight

Where do you take wild, unruly, out of control kids? On a prison tour, of course. Too bad ours aren’t any of those things but we took them anyway. Let’s pretend they’ve been bad…very bad.

Enter the doors of the old Wyoming Prison in Rawlins, WY……..The Frontier Prison.

Upon entering we were greeted by nice young women selling us tickets to take a tour, but as soon as the tour started and we were shut behind the large metal door that slammed so loud we almost jumped out of our skin, we knew there wouldn’t be anything else nice about this place. We started off with the check-in process, then led thru the full body cavity strip search area which included a “punishment pole” where prisoners were handcuffed to it and then whipped with rubber hoses. Oh yes, this was a prison of horrors.

Our guide wasted no time getting us into Cell Block A where the kids got their first feel of what it’d be like behind bars.

 

This cell block was so cold in the winters that men actually froze to death. It also had no electricity or running water.

This prison even housed some women for a while, eleven to be exact. But not this little woman. She does wear stripes well, though.

They didn’t take us into the dungeon, but showed us the door that led to some very bad things.

Then there was “The Gallows” that was used to hang the prisoners.

The prisoners would stand with a noose around their neck on a drop floor above this contraption and would be able to hear the water slowly trickle into the bucket, which when it got heavy enough, would pull the wood, causing the door to open and the men to fall to the ground. The worst part about this hanging was the men wouldn’t die from a quick snap of the neck, but they would die a slow strangulation instead. Nine men were executed this way.

The prison was so popular that to relieve overcrowding they were continually expanding. Hello Cell Block B. We were told even Billy the Kid visited here for a bit.

Cell Block B included solitary confinement, where the tour guide shoved us in and slammed the door on us. Okay she didn’t shove us in, but she did shut us inside so we could feel what it was like to be locked up in there. It was pitch black and eerily quiet.

Some B blockers were lucky enough to get a cell with a view. Woo hoo.

My family on the stairs to death row. Death.Row. Don’t do it!

There were six cells behind bars, behind more bars. And for some reason I was fascinated with them.

I’m sure this guy wasn’t though. Even the shower looked like a bad scene.

Speaking of scene, they filmed a movie here in 1987 titled “The Prison”, and the production crew painted the outside of this cell block pink so it would show up on film better. Nothing like a pretty pink death house.

Just ten feet from these death row bars are the two death rooms. The first one is the hanging room.

The wooden drop floor was concreted over once they stopped hanging prisoners, in favor of the gas chamber, which was within sight of death row.

Five prisoners were executed here, which took about five minutes for them to die, and before each killing they had to replace all the seals to make sure there wouldn’t be any gas leaks. But to insure there weren’t any gas leaks they had to test it out on pigs first. So for every man that was killed there was also a pig killed, which was actually crueler according to the kids. Everybody but myself sat in that gas chamber.

Everybody but myself was also a very attentive student. I wanted to listen to everything that the guide was telling us but then I wouldn’t have had a chance to take photos. She spoke very fast, and I was always the last one out the door when they moved on to the next area. I missed a lot of facts but I believe this was Cell Block C, the last block built and the most modern.

Oh, here’s a fun one. The Hole. Men actually went crazy in here.

No wonder when this was as big as it was, added to the fact that they’d be in there for weeks, sometimes months, at a time……and sometimes go days without water or food.

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Of the 142 pictures I took this day, for some reason this is my favorite. I have no idea why. It’s surely not cause she’s my little mini me or anything.

Hope you enjoyed my tour of our tour and remember:

Hobo Pool for Hobos Like Us

Since the power inverter worked so well for the XBOX Joey decided to use it to brew him some coffee the next morning. Do.Not.Recommend.That. It blew the inverter. We planned on boondocking the rest of the week but Joey didn’t feel that was fair to the kids so we ended up getting an RV spot in Rawlins. Since we were going to be parked for a week I looked online to see what day trips we could do by car, and yet again I was impressed with Wyoming! Now, our travels have taken us by many many hot springs, all over the country, but we had NEVER stopped at one. (Mostly because they just looked like giant swimming pools with tons of tourists). So when I came upon these free Hot Springs, called the Hobo Pool, no less, we just had to check them out.

We had the pleasure of meeting a local resident that claims to have come to the Hobo Pool almost every single day for the last thirty years, so we got the full dish on the springs…..including the actual temperature……which was, according to Jonas “Volcano Hot!” The big pool was about 109 degrees!

It was almost too hot to even stick your big toe in! If it weren’t for him we would have never known about the hot springs in the North Platte River which was right behind the pool.

He said the way to do it is to go in the rocked off area in the river which was about 89 degrees, then jump in the cold river, then get in the Hobo Pool. We’re game for anything…..well, except for the cold river part.

Joey, Jonas and I were eventually able to get fully in the Hobo Pool, and when we got out we looked like we had gotten sunburns. Strangely though, afterwards it felt like we had gotten a massage. It was just soo relaxing, and the effects of it lasted all day.

The kids climbed around the rocks, soaked their feet, played in the river, but not once did anyone attempt the 122 DEGREE area. I couldn’t imagine anyone doing it either. I liken it to being boiled alive. No thanks.

Afterwards we went for lunch at Stumpy’s Eatery, which we all agree had the best pizza we’ve ever eaten.

A good day was had by all!

Rest Stops and Postponements

We had to get to Colorado for an appointment after leaving Nebraska so we allowed ourselves just enough time to visit one of Joey’s work buddies in Cheyenne. When we walk into his mobile home Jacob was a little bewildered. He said it looked like a tiny box from the outside and was shocked how big it was on the inside. I was shocked after all this time of going from place to place, visiting homes after homes, mixed with the wide diversity of friends we have, that the kids have never been in a mobile home! I spent quite a few years living in a double wide as a kid so I never thought much about them. Apparently to Jake (as he likes to be called now, opposed to Jacob), it was pretty darn fascinating. We’re here to show you the World, Kid.

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The thought of driving through Wyoming was not very thrilling, but  I’m here to say that Wyoming is one gorgeous, highly underrated, overlooked state. Almost as soon as we crossed the border, I was scrambling for  photos.  

Eventually we pulled into a rest stop where we learned our appointment had been canceled and postponed until the next week. Now what are we going to do?

I make lunch while we try to figure out where to spend the next week, and then I step outside to catch a shot of the storm rolling in. Then a little while later and we’re still just hanging in the rest stop, absolutely loving the views we decide to stay longer and watch the storm build some more.

Right around this time Jake is saying, “Okay, I’m cool with getting an RV spot now”. Only, we weren’t.

What Jake really wanted was to play on the XBOX so Joey set it all up for them in his truck with a power inverter, since we have no generator and without XBOX and Wii, have no need for one, and let the kids play for a few hours. And we got to enjoy this big, peaceful, wide open country, with it’s view of Elk Mountain……..all from the comfort of our home.

The Lake House

After we came up from the beach this is where we called home for over a month.

We had one of the best lake view spots in the park, of all the campgrounds, and it was just a short hike down to the beach, which we’d do when we didn’t have to have the boogie boards or the inflatable boat or a cooler. We had camp fires quite a bit, and Jewel became a pro at roasting marshmallows a perfect ooey gooey crispy tan color.

This is Lone Eagle Campground where we stay every time. A couple of the weekends we were here it filled up with campers but ninety percent of the time it looked just like this….including the occasional storm in the horizon.

The State Park has a 14 day camp limit, but we stayed here and the spot right to the left of it, the entire month.  They have the limit to keep out squatters, and said we’d be fine……. but it was nice to get past the first 14 days without being asked to move. I wasn’t so sure they didn’t think we started squatting!

Joey’s been playing the backpackers guitar more and more since he’s had all this downtime from the accident and with the help of You Tube instructional videos he’s been able to learn some new songs plus put together the music he’s heard in his head over the last decade. I enjoy just hanging out with him, listening to him play, and Jonas and Jewel have started clapping after every performance. They do it thinking they’re sucking up to him, and has become quite the joke. Now he waits for his applause……and, you know, secretly hopes it never stops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A highlight of our month was a visit from Grampa Ed! When he said he wanted to come out he asked us to find a hotel for him, but we couldn’t let him do that. He had to stay with us…so we broke out the formal guest suite. Our guests stay in style. Included is a double decker air mattress, screened porch, and flannel sheets. We loved having Joey’s dad with us, and for the first time in our sixteen years together spent some real good quality time together. Even some of Joey’s work buddies came out a couple times to hang with us, and brought home grown midwest sweet corn, squash, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes with them! They’re invited back. They brought their dog too which the kids always love.

Thanks to our friends, family and even the campground hosts, we’re coming away with some great memories! Also, because of the time we’ve been able to spend here, we’re coming away with a new drive to do what we’ve got to do to live like this forever.

Lake McConaughy – We L.o.v.e. You

When deciding to leave Texas the only place we really wanted to go was the beach. We couldn’t really get to a coast so when we remembered about Lake McCanaughy up in Nebraska, we couldn’t escape the heat fast enough! We’d been to Lake McCanaughy in July of 2007 and loved it so much we went again in June of 2008. We took a two lane highway almost the entire route and until I recognized a spot that I had once gotten pulled over for speeding, I thought we had found a new road for us. Then I had another déjà vu when we were playing in a park in Scott City, KS……It took me a while, but I recognized it as a park we had played in before! There are pictures from this park in a video I made years ago after the Unschooling Conference in New Mexico. There’s a picture of Jewel in the video hanging upside down right at a part where the singer says “You’re still free”. This picture of Jake also reminds me that they’re still free.

We ate at the Pizza Hut across the street, which is no easy task for vegetarian Jonas who doesn’t even want to step foot in a restaurant anymore, and doesn’t like Pizza. He gave in, had cheesy breadsticks and we all enjoyed the break from almost non stop driving. By the next morning we were terrorizing the beach!

Jewel wore her wetsuit so she would be warm in the water and Jonas wore his so he wouldn’t get a tan.

On windy days they’d try out boogie boarding, again Jonas is covered so he does.not.get.a.tan.

Other days they’d try their sand surfing skillz.

Then back to boogie boarding, mixed in with some sand castle building.

And no matter where we are, there’s always toad catching.

One day we went to the Kingsley Dam Hydro Plant, where we learned more about the history of the lake………

And what a big mouth Jacob has!

This first week here at the lake was like paradise. We were completely alone, and reconnecting as a family again. No outside interferences, be them good or bad, just back to us. No cares in the world for the time being. We did a lot of relaxing, both in and out of the water.

Some of it included cocktails.

Then that kid and their freedom thing pops up again………..

Texas Wrap-Up

So….we left Texas about a month ago, and we’re getting ready to leave our next location so I figure I better get  crackin’ on this blog here. Being away form the blog for so long has made it that much more difficult to get back into the groove, but after reading an old journal from twelve years ago and re reading this blog from the last three years it’s made me realize how important it is to record some memories and preserve our story. In my old journal I wrote directly to Jake (who was eighteen months at the time) and when I read it to the kids the other day they were entranced….they LOVED hearing it and because of them, I vow to keep this this thing going. I also plan to write our story all the way from the beginning, but that’s going to require me to get rid of the TV’s first. And maybe get a cook and a dishwasher.

So where do I start? Let’s see….we did finally make it to The Stockyards. Woop-dee-doo. We were at The Watergardens before that and that was much more my style.

It’s a park in the middle of downtown Fort Worth and it has this Big Pool as shown here, along with a Quiet Serenity Pool and another one full of sprinklers. I went with another unschooling mama, Missi, that we met on park day and naturally we had to break the rules and let the kids play in the water, but only until we were told to get out. We’re law abiding like that.

I dreaded another one of the unschooling moms hair, Angela, and then because she looked so awesome in her dreads it gave me the courage to get my own. Needless to say the dreads did not make me five foot seven and stick skinny, so they only lasted a couple weeks.  Angela and Missi threw me a birthday party and I had one of the best birthday’s ever! Usually we’re on the road en-route to somewhere or Joey is on a job so I rarely even get a cake let alone a party. I’ll never forget what they did, and how much it meant to me.

Aside form the very few encounters with the outside world, we spent ninety nine percent of the time on the Acres. One of my hobbies was googling myself and damn! was I surprised to find my pictures being used all over the web! For articles on catching an alligator at summer camp, to hitchhiking, to national parks, to how to build a chicken coop, to how to take pictures, to how to weld and even for an article on out houses. I’ve since put a copyright dealy-majig on my photos so they can’t be used anymore without my permission, but now googling myself just isn’t the same.

There was a lot of kite flying on Windy Green Acres and Joey schooled us on how to fly a kite with a broken leg.

There was also a lot of Bocci Ball going on. That was definitely one of our favorite games we played together, and as much as my brother tried..he just couldn’t beat me. Oh yeah, I said it.

Of course our favorite thing was playing with the chickens. WHO KNEW chickens would be so much fun?

Jonas decided as long as there was an animal in the picture with him, he would let me take his picture. I’ve decided I’m going to keep a frog in my pocket . Just in case.

The summer was beyond HOT. I never went to another unschooling park day, and the kids did spend most of the day inside. I know my parents probably thought our kids did nothing but play video games but that’s just because they were in bed at 1am when the kids were riding their rip stick and roller blades, or catching toads and feeding them june bugs, or jumping on the trampoline with a sprinkler. They were just smart enough to stay out of the heat.

 

We ended up spending TEN months in Texas! Ten MONTHS! In the last twelve years we’ve never spent that much time in one place. It reassured me that I don’t need a stick house, but it’s made the rest of the family want some land of our own again. Jonas even asked for a house for his birthday. Jewel still wants a big bathtub and a trampoline, and Jake just wants to live in Hawaii, as does Joey. It looks like I’m out voted but at least for now we’re still in the bus and hitting the road. If we do end up getting a house again, it’ll be just like when we had a house in Iowa: We spent the summers at the house and the winters traveling and working. So the way I see it, if they want a house in Hawaii ,it’s kinda like the best of both world’s and I can deal with that.

Rock On!

Photo Bus Tour

We’re still parked on my parent’s property here outside Fort Worth. Joey is still on total temporary disability. Kids are still avid gamers.

Not much has changed. Except a few organizational things inside the bus.

Meet the Computer Room. Joey built a shelf for the printer last year, and last week we converted the dresser that came with the bus into a computer desk. We took out the drawers, added a shelf to set the CPU on and then cut out a hole for the face of it to stick out for easy access.

It’ll be complete once I replace the old RV chair for a computer chair.

What bus doesn’t have a Video Game Lounge?

This is the wheel well directly behind the driver’s seat. When we got it there was a cupboard built on top of it, then about a year later we cut it out and added another RV couch. The two couches just took up too much room so we got rid of it, and then realized how nice it was to have all this extra space. Then one day at Target I found these gaudy college dorm room cushions on clearance and I knew I just had to have them! They work out great either to sit on as is, or for the kids to throw on the floor to sit on while playing video games on the TV. The shelf cubby my Dad built for me while we were staying in their house to clear off the clutter on our dresser, and I wanted to use it in the bus but couldn’t find a place for it. When Joey suggested hanging it on the wall I thought he’d lost it, but it’s actually perfectly practical. It holds my mini laptop, all of Jewel’s papers to draw on, their strategy guides for video games, and magazines. I also turned one shelf into their DS, Gameboy and MP3 players charging station. It has helped to contain all these things that were usually everywhere but someplace neat. Directly across form here is the couch.

The Dining Room:

We removed the standard RV table skinny leg that was always getting kicked under and sideways, with this shelf unit that we bought to sit on the “dog house” (engine cover on bus pullers) to hold the kids’ video game equipment. Here I flipped it over, painted it black and it still houses all the controllers and accessories for the Wii, PS2 and Xbox consoles. The top shelf holds more strategy guides. On the left there is a chalkboard hanging on the wall which is the start of the kitchen cabinets, and these little chairs are a perfect fit for the small space. They even fold up easily if need be. Directly across from the table is the Computer Room.

Next room as you walk to the back of the bus is The Kitchen.

As far as RV’s go, this is a large kitchen..and I LURVE it! I have my talking microwave. We  know the second we’ve plugged into electricity because she says “Hi! I’m Temo, and I’m ready to cook.” Below that is my convection/toaster oven, and below that is the standard RV oven/stove combo. Directly across is the refrigerator and large pantry slide out drawers.

Keep going back and it’s the former closet, turned bunk beds.

That’s the shiny new black fridge directly on the left. When our RV fridge died last year we didn’t want to spend $1500 to replace it so we went to Lowe’s and got a normal 10 cu. ft. fridge. It’s not great for boondocking, but we’re looking into getting solar just for it. This door slides closed and is the only door that separates the back of the bus from the front. To the left are the bunks, and the right is the bathroom. These curtains were previously my Mom’s guest bath shower curtains, which rarely got used before she replaced them with a glass wall. They are complete with a travel theme! I found old rebar in the scrap pile, sprayed it silver and they became the curtain rods. The mirror was also recycled, from my parent’s old 1980’s waterbed headboard.

Jake moved his bed to the pullout couch and we gave Jewel the top bunk.

I first painted it with FIVE layers of magnetic paint to ensure a good coating, then in order to cover up all that blackness I had to do FIVE coats of red paint. She absolutely loves her new space, being she’s waited three years for it, but we’re not too sure if it might be a little dangerous. Her second night sleeping in it she woke up sick and throwing up, and then moved back in bed with us. She has slept in it a few more times with no problems, so we’re just kinda testing it out and seeing what happens.

Directly across from the bunks is The Bathroom.

Vanity is far right with huge mirrored medicine cabinet and underneath storage. Then there’s the tiny tub/shower with new rod we installed. We also installed the towel shelf unit.  And that’s our bedroom nook behind that entryway. Behind the bunks and before climbing into our bed is where the previous owners had the small dresser we converted into the desk, and now we have wall to wall shelves for our clothes.

This is our Love Den, with our own escape hatch. Which we installed mosquito netting around so we can leave the door open and listen to the river gurgling behind us. (when we had that river gurgling behind us)

So there it is, Home Sweet Bus.