Traveling west Day 16, aka “Smells like butter”

Day 16 (June 16th) – Boise, ID to Cheyenne, WY (736 Miles) – If I had to pick one day where we were all cranky, travel-weary, and frustrated, this (Day 16) would be the day I pick. IMG_1340

It was 98 degrees (F) for most of the drive. About every 20 minutes, we thought we smelled baby poop, and we kept pulling off the highway at rest areas and checking Amelia, and she was always clean. A couple of wet diapers, but no poop.  We’d get back in the car and be on our way, and we’d smell it again, strongly. We’d pull over, check her again, look through the car to see if we had left a dirty diaper in the car – all negative. We’d drive, we’d stop. It was a long process.

IMG_1324We stopped at a big rest area/motel “oasis” in Wyoming called Little America. This is where we found the source of the problem. But there are two things that you should know before I tell you what I’ve learned.

1. Our daughters poop smells like butter, or buttered popcorn, about half the time.

2. While we were in Victoria, we went grocery shopping for the week, and I bought butter. While packing up to continue our trip, I saw that we didn’t use all the butter so I put it in a Glad plastic container (poor man’s Tupperware?) and put it in a bag with the food.

You can probably guess that the butter melted and leaked out all over the food bag.


Don’t keep butter in the car on a very hot drive through Wyoming, especially if your baby’s poop smells like butter.


It’s pretty specific, but it’s good advice.

We booked the hotel in Cheyenne while we were a couple hours away. Our GPS told us to take the I25 exit to get to our hotel, and when we got to the exit Continue reading “Traveling west Day 16, aka “Smells like butter””

Like a wagon wheel – in Luckenback, TX

We had a pretty musical vacation this year. We started by following the course of the song Wagon Wheel (which is currently the only song in iTunes on my phone) – passing through Johnson City and Cumberland Gap. We stopped in Nashville, Memphis, and New Orleans before we landed on a beach in Corpus Christie, TX. On the way from the Gulf to Dallas, I specifically wanted to visit Luckenbach, mostly because of the song that I have known since childhood.

We had a drink at the bar, and heard some live music outside – which turned out to be a “guitar circle”, so anyone could play. Since nobody was playing except for the guys running it, we decided it would be really cool to play there. We stayed a couple hours and had a lot of fun, but I’m mostly excited about having that experience under my belt. I just wish they had a piano!

Travel Log: July 2012 Writing Trip to Millersburg, OH

Between Janelle’s summer classes in 2012, we took a writing trip so we could relax and get some work done. Country Dreams Bed & Breakfast was a really cool place to stay, and a great experience for my first bed and breakfast.

I did get some writing done.

This trip inspired the following essays:

The Amish Trip: Part 1 – Fireflies

In May 2012 while Janelle was planning her summer around a weekly commute to IUP to take classes for her doctorate, she asked me if I would like to go on a writing trip. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, … Continue reading →

The Amish Trip: Part 2 – Where we saw a ghost

After getting settled into the bed and breakfast, we drove into town to get some genuine Amish cooking. We both ended up getting veal Parmesan, which didn’t seem very Amish at all. My side dishes were applesauce and cottage cheese. …Continue reading →

The Amish Trip: Part 3 – The Amish Tea Party

I will begin this by saying that we were the only guests in a five-suite bed and breakfast, otherwise I don’t believe the incident would have gone down as it did. During the initial tour earlier that day, our hostess … Continue reading →

Travel Log: October 2012 Leesburg, VA

We headed out there to drop Aunt Marleen off at our cousins’ house. While we were there:

Visited Historic Leesburg and the Steven F Udvar-Hazy National Air and Space Museum.

We stopped at a second hand store and Janelle bought a pretty expensive dress suit at a great price, too.

King Street Coffee kinda rocked, too. We stayed a couple of hours drinking coffee and taking in the scenery.

Janelle was pretty sick the whole time, but she still kinda sucked it up and made herself enjoy!