Blue Team Faces The Great Plains While



Blue Team Faces The Great Plains While

Washington Faces 20,000 Visitors

Haskell Heads Into the Wild Blue Yonder

Today, we left Denver, Colorado, and decided to drive south on Interstate 25 to visit Colorado Springs. Matt wants to be a pilot and hopes to go to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs when he graduates high school. When we visited there we saw men and women cadets marching in straight lines. They were all wearing blue uniforms. One of the seniors asked Matt if he wanted to take a plane ride and watch the cadets who are part of the parachute team practice their jumps. The parachute team is called “Wings of Blue” . We all got to watch them practice. Their parachutes weren’t round like the one we have at school. The parachutes they used were rectangular. The captain of the team explained that the rectangular parachute is more accurate than the old parachutes. They were able to land on a small round circle marked out on the ground. Pretty accurate!

Colorado Springs is also famous as the home of the US Olympic Team. We saw some of the Olympic athletes running when we went to Pike’s Peak. We didn’t climb too high because Marilyn got altitude sickness and we had to go back down. She also fell and got a few minor scratches.

We left Colorado Springs and headed back north on Interstate 25, straight through Denver, again. When we passed through Denver we could see the state capital dome just off the Interstate.

We wanted to visit Cheyenne, Wyoming, another state capital, because Ms. Sweat’s father lives there. We had a wild time in Cheyenne! We all dressed in jeans and felt like we belonged because everyone was dressed like a cowboy. Cheyenne has a big rodeo every year. It’s called the “Grandaddy of them all”. They have held the rodeo for over 100 years. We were disappointed to find out that they don’t hold rodeos during the winter. Rhianna did try a mechanical bucking bronco in one of the western shops. She managed to stay on its back.

March is Women’s History Month and we were surprised to find out that Wyoming is called the Equality State. Wyoming was the first state to have a woman governor, first woman justice of the peace and the first to give women the right to vote.

When we left Cheyenne, we continued going north on Highway 25. Mrs. Wallander showed us Chugwater, Wyoming, where she often spends time in the summer on a dude ranch. It was a little bitty town, but it was shown on our big U.S. map. We found out that Wyoming has the lowest population of all 50 states. They have less than a half million people. Some of the license plates only had two or three numbers.

We finally got to Rapid City, South Dakota. That’s where we saw Mount Rushmore. Rhianna, Jenny, Kevin and Oscar had their picture taken in front of the four presidents. That is one big sculpture!

We ate dinner at 6:30 at the Flying T. We had a chuckwagon supper and saw a live country and western show. The Flying T is located right next to the Reptile Gardens in Rapid City. The Americinn Lodge and Suites was our choice for the night because they had an indoor pool and video games.

Haynes Parties in Denver

We slept in this morning…ok, so we over slept, and as a result we got off to a slightly late start. We had breakfast at the Best Western in Sheridan, Wyoming and then hit the road toward Denver.

We took Highway 25 south toward Denver, Colorado. There was tons of traffic and so our ride was kind of boring. Before long Mr. Lebovitz started to snore. Good thing he wasn’t driving. Ha! Before leaving Wyoming we stopped in Cheyenne which is the state capital. Nick is a big fan of anything western and talked us into visiting the Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum. It was great. The museum has a bronco riding saddle the lets young cowboys and cowgirls learn what it is like to be in a rodeo. We talked Katelyn into taking a bronco ride and she did great. She’s a little sore and hopefully will be better by tomorrow. We also visited the State Capital, which has a large golden dome on the top. We wanted to take a picture, but Shota had the camera and he decided to stay back at the museum and ride the bronco.

We arrived in Denver at 2:27 P.M. and Cian (the artist in our class) wanted to visit the Denver Art Museum. The museum has seven floors and contains art from around the world. The outside of the museum is awesome! It is made of large glass tiles and is a 28-sided building. You have to see it to appreciate it. We also visited The Ghost Town Museum that is a complete authentic old western town that was originally built near Pikes Peak after the gold mining era.

We drove by the Children’s Hospital and decided to stop to visit with some sick kids and maybe make them feel a little better. We bought an assortment of stuffed animals and heart shaped balloons in the gift shop to give to the kids. Not only did it make them feel better; it also made us feel pretty good.

That evening we went to Six Flags Elitch Gardens Amusement Park to celebrate Shota’s birthday. He is turning 11 today. Elitch Gardens is a 70-acre amusement park with more than 45 rides. The highlight was a ride called The Tower of Doom which has a free fall drop of 22 stories. SCARY! Good thing we ate dinner afterward.

We headed back to our motel around 10 P.M. and had a pool party for Shota. We ate pizza, cake, ice cream and had the best time. A nice end to a busy and fun day.

Moten Has Wichita Adventures

We were sad to leave the beautiful city of Denver but we got up early and headed for Wichita, Kansas. We learned that Wichita was named for the Wichita Indians who lived in the area. The Big and Little Arkansas River come together in the city. The only thing most of us knew about Kansas was that Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz” lived there. We hoped we wouldn’t run into a tornado while we were traveling. We learned, though, that Kansas does not have a lot of tornadoes and that most Kansans have never seen a tornado. We learned, too, that Kansas is one of the top 10 sunniest states with more days of sunshine than Florida!

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Our first stop was the Old Cowtown Museum. Over 40 old buildings were found and placed at the outdoor museum. The buildings were furnished just like in the 1870’s and people work and wear the same clothing styles as they did long ago. There’s a clothing store, a meat market, a drug store and a blacksmith shop. We had read about blacksmiths and we got a chance to see what they really do. They even had horse drawn wagons. We learned that a couple of movies had been made using the buildings at the museum.

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The Old Cowtown Museum was a fun place to visit. We got a good idea how people lived in the frontier days.

Our next stop was a very modern building called the Exploration Place. What a beautiful place!!

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We got to visit an exhibit called Kansas Explorer. We uncovered marine fossils in a pretend paleontological dig and we got to bring home what we uncovered. We found some shark teeth and some other things we couldn’t identify. . Mrs. O gave a prize to the person who could spell “ paleontology”. Eric won the prize. We also saw an exhibit of growing wheat.

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After dinner we had a special treat. We all got to play laser tag at the Laser Quest center in Wichita. It was a fun day in Wichita. We were all ready to sleep.

DeShay update: The taste of the Great Salt Lake has not made him sick. We’re still watching him though.

Balboa is on the Road in Nebraska!

Just now, at 6:30am, we started out on our fourth day of travel. We are leaving from Cheyenne, Wyoming and headed to Lincoln, Nebraska. Right now at 2:50 P.M. we entered Lincoln, Nebraska. Before leaving the city, we visited the state capitol building with it’s fifty foot in diameter golden dome.

Shortly after crossing the state line into Nebraska, we stopped briefly in the town of Sidney. We learned this town was created as part of the Union Pacific Railroad’s expansion. Nine years later, when gold was discovered in the Black Hills, Sidney became the chief shipping and outfitting center for thousands of miners in the area.

We just passed a field of cows looking much happier than the cows in California. Is the milk from these cows as good or better than in California?

Passing through Ogallala, we heard a funny story about a man who was killed around 1867, because he insulted two strangers eating baked beans!

Later in the day we decided to go fishing. Brendan caught the biggest fish we have ever seen

and then Conner added in, “We will have full stomachs tonight.”

Haylee, Marisa, Brendan, and Conner before fishing on Ogallala Lake

After we went fishing, we had a race around Lake Ogallala. Conner came in first, Brendan was second, Haylee, third, and Marisa came in last. At 6:00 we decided to make camp.

Reaching Lincoln, we immediately headed for the National Museum of Roller Skating. One of the best parts of the museum was learning how to build a roller skate. Before dinner (of the fish we caught earlier in the day), we walked to the State Capitol Building. There we read about the battle to determine the site of the Nebraska capital and how the conflict was ultimately resolved.

After we set up camp and preparing a wonderful dinner, we sang camp songs by the fire. All of a sudden Conner came out with marshmallows to celebrate our day of traveling. Stuffing ourselves, we finally went to sleep.

GOOD NIGHT!

Janney and Washington Anticipate 20,000 for Rally at the Washington Monument

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One of the advantages of living in Washington, D.C. is we experience so many events. This weekend there will be a peace rally on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Our city expects twenty thousand people to march in the downtown area of our city. These rallies have a great affect on our lives. It will be difficult to get around in the downtown area on Saturday. Our Federal and City governments will need to provide extra police to make sure everyone stays safe. Those of us who want to visit the Corcoran exhibit will find it difficult to park their cars. This will be a good weekend to visit the Zoo!!!!

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In D.C. we’ve been having some unusually warm weather. It is very strange because we had unseasonably cold weather just a few days ago. It looks like the next ten days are staying over fifty degrees. Since the new weather has come we think the enjoyable snow days are over. The glorious new weather lets us do many activities we couldn’t do before like baseball, and lacrosse.

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There are many wonderful museums in Washington, D.C. The Corcoran Museum has an exhibit called Black is a Color. The exhibit shows African American artwork from 1960 to present.

The museum is under renovation. The picture shows the front of the museum before the renovation. Go to to see what will be added!

Janney kids have been following the Iditarod, a dogsled race in Alaska. Each student has picked a racer to follow. Each morning we go on the Internet to see where our musher (racer) is. Already Robert Sole, Ramy Brooks, Jeff King, Martin Buser, Ken Anderson, Linwood Fielder, and Ramy Smyth and others have arrived safely in Nome, Alaska

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