Another year, another big trip back up to the Midwest! Sometimes we travel by plane, others by car. Last summer we did two separate trips to MN and SD, each by plane. This year, we figured it was time to hit the open roads again and see if the old Chrysler was up to the task. The basis of the trip was for Steve’s memorial service/celebration of life, but in all likelihood we’d have visited regardless to try to beat the Texas heat (though I heard it was mostly very mild and rainy during our absence, so joke’s on us)!

July 3: Austin to… wherever we happened to pull over for rest

It was a normal work day for me and Lauren, while Edie went to gymnastics camp as usual. John was given three days off of camps to see if he could entertain himself. At 5:00, we quit work for the day and started loading up the van, and an hour later we were on the road as far north as we could dare go in one night. We stopped for dinner in Waco, otherwise it was mostly pedal to the metal through Fort Worth and into Oklahoma. At 12:30am, we stopped at the next city of any significance, which happened to be Paul’s Valley, OK. After a night of solid sack time, it was right back on the road.

The van was all loaded up and ready to go, though we quickly realized what a horrible setup this was with suitcases sliding everywhere. This photo is also deceiving, as Edie was at the same level as John, not staggered stadium seating as it appears!

July 4: KC 4 the 4th

Our adventures took us northeast through Tulsa, where John chose MegaStuff Oreos at a gas station for a snack. Very shortly thereafter I had to pull over for him to puke on the side of the road. Not long after that, we pulled over again in Miami, OK for Edie to change her pee-pee pants. Less than a mile off the interstate was a tri-state marker for OK-KS-MO. It was a no-brainer to pull over and check it out! Much like an annoyed John at the FL-AL border in 2021, Edie stayed in the car while the rest of us stood in three different states at once.

A rare photo showing three Glanzer family members in three different states at once. This dot on the map is the precise point where Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma converge!

By mid-afternoon we arrived to Kansas City, where we checked into a hotel across from Kaufman Stadium for that night’s Royals-Rays game. Our seats weren’t great for baseball, but they were for the big 4th of July fireworks show after the game! I had been to Kaufman quite a few times before, and Lauren had been once, but for the kids it was a new stadium to check off the list.

In one of the slower baseball games of the year, the Rays beat the Royals 10-8. We stuck it out for the big 4th of July firework show after!

July 5: Completing the Trek to MN

With the commotion of the 4th of July out of the way, we took our time on Friday, inching our way closer to Granny Anne’s house in the Twin Cities. There weren’t many interesting opportunities to stop anywhere. Edie was crabby after a West Des Moines gas station meltdown but thankfully fell asleep for the remainder of the journey. After stopping at a Lakeville, MN taphouse for dinner, we had arrived!

I guess John’s face sums it up—it was a very uneventful drive from KC to Minneapolis up I-35!

July 6: Take ‘er Easy

Other than a rigorous 4-mile walk around the local lake, we mostly laid low on Saturday. Lauren did some shopping for the trip, Edie and Granny visited cousins in the park, and I took John with me to the local tavern to watch a Twins game and play some arcade games. I even won $200 on pulltabs, which I promptly handed over to different babysitters throughout the week.

Four times in our nine days staying with Anne, I walked a 4-mile loop over to Mt. Normandale Lake and back.

July 7: The Christian Vazquez Game

The day centered around a visit to Target Field to see the Twins play the Astros on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Our whole family plus 4/5 of the Rosoks went together and caught a whale of a game. Twins light-hitting backup catcher Christian Vazquez drove in all 3 Twins runs from the 9-spot in the order, including a walk-off home run vs Josh Hader in a 3-2 victory. After the game, the kids and I went down on the field and ran the bases—probably more of a thrill for me than them!

July 8-11: Working Even More Remotely Than Usual

Monday morning, it was just like any other Monday. Lauren and I each went to work! For the first four days of the week, it was a parade of various babysitters for the kids, including Owen, Abby, Annika, Alice, Kate and others. One day I visited my old colleagues in Chanhassen at Microboards. One night we got together with old pals Patrick and Charlie for a beverage. One night all the cousins babysat themselves while Lauren and I got a night out with Tim and Kate. We mostly ate in with Anne and kept things low-key during the week.

Grabbing a drink with Charlie and Patrick, fellow Valleyfair alums from Summer 2002!

July 12: Me and a Bunch of Kids

I took Friday off work to relieve all the babysitters and take on the kids myself. John, Edie, Teddy and Julia piled in the van for a day of Twin Cities fun with Uncle Ryan. We got donuts, went to a sculpture park/playground, toured the Minnesota state capitol, paddle-boated on Lake Como, had lunch at St. Paul Brewery, and finished the day with a trip to the Vikings Museum at their training facility in Eagan. What a day! That night the entire extended Poulter family gathered at Anne’s for dinner.

At first we were just going to stop at the capitol and say we were there… but it turned into us joining a fully guided tour!

July 13

A rainy Saturday was the day of Steve’s memorial service at the golf course. I was one of nine or ten to get up and say a few words. I had spent the whole week working from Steve’s old workshop in the basement, so I had lots of inspiration to put something together.

All of the cousins on the Poulter/Rosok/Anderson side of the family.

July 14: A very out-of-the-way drive to SD

After breakfast and swimming with Matt, Calla and family in the morning, we departed for the Glanzer farm. Normally we’d just take a direct route on 212, but we decided to take a scenic route northwest to avoid some road closures and let the kids say they had been to North Dakota. Unlike the first tri-state border experience, this one was NOT on the beaten path. I drove the van down a grass road with tire ruts to find the obelisk representing the SD/ND/MN tri-point. It was kinda fun hunting for something off the map. While the kids got no more than 2 or 3 feet into the absolute southeastern corner of ND, they can still claim it! We eventually arrived on the farm and settled in for the week.

Quite the adventure searching for these off-the-road geographical oddities!

July 15-18: Conducting Business Even More Remotely

Again, Lauren and I powered through and kept working from Carpenter, leaving the kids to roam the farm and play with cousins Hadley, Adrienne and Auden, or latch onto Grandpa or Grandma while they went about their business. The week was highlighted by kids sleeping in the camper, a Can-Am trip to Carpenter, a visit to Willow Lake, dinner in Huron, and lots of time with all the cousins, including the twins Jack and Betty Lou who we have so rarely seen!

It was all fun and games until I dared John to slide on his feet…
A collection of cousins waits for dinner in Huron. How fancy!
The men attempt to figure out a meat thermometer app while enjoying some cool refreshments.

July 19: Gone Fishin’

For the second straight week, I took Friday off to spend some actual uninterrupted time with the family. It was a 6am wakeup call to go fishing on Dry Lake in Alex’s boat. I caught one fine walleye before the rains hit and we were forced off the lake. In the afternoon, I took the kids out to try fishing in a creek near the house. Though we could see dozens of bullheads swimming around, none wanted anything to do with our worms. At night, it was the annual trip into Huron to The Sportsmen’s, one of the seediest dive bars in the region, for karaoke with Alex and Ann. I got a dozen or so songs in, rousing the crowd.

Roadside fishing was a scenic photo op, if nothing else!

July 20: Sold!

Saturday was a day of lounging around and enjoying one last day of farm life… for three of us. We ventured into Carpenter to watch an auction. John really wanted to bid on things for the fun of it. Other than that the day was rather unmemorable. At night Alex and Ann hosted a roaring bon fire.

We had to vacate the cafe as the deep fryer smells were making Lauren nauseous.

July 21: Half Return Home

We said our goodbyes to Grandma, Grandpa, and John, who would be staying behind to enjoy some solo time on the farm with the grandparents. In retrospect, it probably would have been more sensible to do that on the front end of the trip, as we’d already been gone for 18 days and John sorta just wanted to come home. But we left him anyway! I dropped Lauren and Edie at the airport in Sioux Falls, and was all on my own.

I’d come this far, so I made one more slightly out-of-the-way venture over to the SD/MN/IA tri-state point, right along a fairly major county road. Most believe the point to be a big roadside monument, but I knew from research the point was actually right in the middle of the road, marked by a dime-sized token. From there I drove down to Omaha to spend the afternoon catching up with Liz Burke, another friend of now 22 years! I pulled over for the night in Topeka to get some much-needed rest.

You guys won’t believe it, but here I am standing in THREE STATES AT ONCE!

July 22-23: Topeka to Tulsa

No trip between Carpenter and Austin would be complete without a visit to my company’s HQ in Tulsa. I had a nice drive down in the morning. Hwy 75 is the easiest stretch of road in the country—nice divided highway for miles and miles with very light traffic. I had dinner and drinks with the CEO that night in downtown Tulsa. On Tuesday, I spent the bulk of the day in the office. Post-pandemic, not all that many employees are based in Tulsa, and not that many seem to go to the office. I have an intern for the summer who I was able to meet, and had lunch with a couple other long-timers. After work, I drove four hours straight down to Dallas.

Got to spend a day with the lifecycle interns in Tulsa. Such a nice office, it’s a shame it’s not more utilized.

July 24: The Big D

The last full day of the trip was more work stuff. The lifecycle team is largely based in the Dallas metro, and since I was passing through, we were just one team member short of the full group together. So, we flew in our last remaining team member from San Diego and had a very productive all-day on-site meeting! Their office is located in a modern, high-end shopping and entertainment area in The Colony which I think would be a fun place for a weekend getaway.

The lifecycle marketing team + a couple other Dallas employees enjoying some BBQ.

July 25: Home

I finished off the trip by leaving my Dallas hotel at 6am and driving straight through down I-35, beating the worst of the morning rush hour traffic and getting home by 9:20. Lauren was gone to work, Edie was at gymnastics camp, and John was of course still in SD, so I settled in for a few minutes and then went to work like any other day.

July 26-Beyond: John’s trip continues on…

All reports from the Glanzer farm indicate John has had a fine time with the grandparents, even with the cousins gone on a vacation. John got to go to a movie in a traditional theater and one at a drive-in theater, go to the Missouri River for a fishing trip, and do all sorts of fun farm things. He should return on Thursday when Grandma flies him down to Austin. Then, and only then, will the trip fully be complete!

Other Trip Notes

  • I believe this is the second-longest such trip of my life, second only to 2022 when I was gone for 28 days. By the time John gets back Thursday, he’ll have been gone for 29 days, setting the family record! I can’t imagine we’d ever do a trip this long if we still lived in the Midwest, but it makes some sense living in Texas.
  • The idea of leaving John on the farm for a couple weeks has been discussed for a couple years. The major benefit being that it would be a great way to kill a couple weeks of summer vacation where he’d otherwise be in an expensive camp. Hopefully the experience is a memorable one for him, too. I never did anything quite like that, but would spend a couple nights in Doland with the Bells each summer and that sure was fun! Next time, we should send John (or Edie) to the farm in advance of a trip, rather than making it the end of a trip when he’s already been on the road for so long. I think mentally that would be more exciting.
  • I can’t believe the minivan worked so well. Leading up to the trip it was rife with problems! I did a lot of self-repairs, including things like switching out the thermostat and coolant and cleaning the mass airflow sensor, things I normally would leave to the pros. The check engine light came on just outside of Dallas on the drive up, so I was very concerned we’d never make it. But lo and behold, it ran pretty much flawlessly the entire time, and got some extra attention once it made it to Dick’s Garage.