Our evening headline: "I breathe heavy when these things happen" (Annie Trapp).

Today might be the day that lives in infamy on this trip (or the first of many). This morning, our septic pump broke and I dumped our tank on the ground before fumbling to re-engage the stopper. Of course this was after "the moment" that every RVer dreads, and let's just say it does involve poop on your shoe. The culprit of this vile offense was an unidentifiable piece of green plastic stuck in the rotors from being flushed (mysteriously by no one). This afternoon, while we were enjoying the trek from the Riverfront up to the courthouse to buy tickets for the Arch our RV was robbed and most of our electronics were taken courtesy of some East St. Louis thugs. We were in the city for a grand total of 2 hours to conquer the Arch and deal with some claustrophobia (way to go Deuce). And to top it off, this evening, we were kicked out of a taxi because of a lawsuit between competing cab companies and photographed for the deposition (apparently 6 travelers is too many). I could really write pages about each of these (embarrassingly) but am now resigned to just record some moments of these memories that we made today.

After the police report that Officer Simpson completed, it was on to I-70 West for about 200 miles into Kansas City. The real bright spot of the day has been the resiliency of the kids and the conversations we've had about where we store up our treasures, why we don't change our attitudes in the midst of a setback, and why Dad needs an extra cold beer at the baseball game. The crew was a little ragged after today, but as you can see, still in good spirits and enjoying this time together

As a point of clarification, in case you are reading our blog, it would help settle a minor family argument about the color of Julie's rain jacket. This consumed a lot of brain power and discussion of the color spectrum enroute to the Arch. I will not tell you the score of our evaluation, but it's close. Your choice is "green" or "blue". Please let us know in the comment section what you think. :)