What do they do all day?

Once again I did not think to check the forecast and I woke up to rain on the window and quickly ran outside to check on the bike. My seat and the kids seat pad were wet, so I went about fixing the situation. It was also very windy. Not a good thing if I want to ever get good gas mileage. The morning was cool, so that was a nice relief from the oven blast feeling from yesterday. So today is the day that I completely break off from the group to go visit family in Nebraska. I will catch up with them Wednesday night.

It took all day to go through Iowa. It is much bigger than it looks.  Gone are the dense trees of the east. We are now in the plains states. Did I mention we grow a lot of corn in this country?

We made the Amana Colonies our first stop this morning. We went to the visitors center, and the museum to watch a short film about the 7 colonies. This place is better suited to adults who want to look at arts and crafts and shopping. The kids weren’t really feeling it today, so we didn’t stay too long. My next mission was to find a historic bridge on the Lincoln Highway, but that turned into a wild goose chase courtesy of my GPS. I never did find the bridge.

Many people have asked me “What do your kids do all day in the sidecar?” They have a variety of things they rotate through.  We have an iPad and a Sony tablet (that I won on the Queen Latifa show! Ask me the story next time you see me!). They can play games, watch movies, read comic books, books, and magazines. Then we also brought some real books, including the summer reading they are required to do for school.  We all have SENA helmet communicators so we can talk to each other, listen to music, or listen to the movie playing on the device. Each kid has a “Snackeez” cup and snack container, so they can drink and snack when they want to.  We try to take many stretch breaks. So far they are doing pretty good. They are definitely in tight quarters, so they have their moments of bugging each other.

My kids also wear helmets. I am not sure about the helmet laws inside a sidecar for each state…but for us it is helmets all the time.  I also have my kids wear earplugs to cut down on the wind noise and hearing damage.  (It’s bad enough they can’t “hear” me when I call them at home, I don’t want to damage their ears more.)  Today was a test for all of us, as we went about 380 miles.