Road Trip to Random Places in the US

I want to take a road trip with my friends and go out and see the strangest and most unique things that the United States has to offer. I think it would be so much fun to plan an entire trip and start an album of photos next to all the strange things we find. It would not only be fun to do but it would be so much fun to plan. It would be best if it were kind of spur of the moment. I went to Florida with some friends after a memorial service.  We talked about going at like 3 pm and that night we left for Florida for ten days. The trip was just what I needed. I like the randomness of these things. It really doesn’t matter where you live or where you want to go, you can find many different things to see in any state. If you want to make it a themed trip across the US like in the movie Kalifornia you could definitely do that too.

I try to see strange things while traveling already. When we were visiting my cousin’s family in Chicago, several years ago, on the way home we saw signs for a candy factory. I love candy so much and we ended up stopping and buying some gummy bears. Noah doesn’t remember it and I don’t think I let him have any candy because he was only two but I would love to take him again so he can remember it. There have been many times I would coax my mom to stop so we could see some random oddity while traveling in the car. We never went too far off course but I really want to plan a road trip to visit some strange things in the Midwest. There are some pretty cool things, interesting things and just plain strange things.  Two of the things on my list I have heard them mentioned on different TV shows. It made me smile because they were both in the Midwest. 

Here is my list of unique places to visit in the Midwest

How to Make Homemade Butter

Almost everyone loves butter.  I know that I do! I didn’t realize how easy it is to make.  You don’t need to bust out your butter churn. You don’t need to spend hours for this delicious treasure.  It is easy peasy.  This would be great for those who are very picky about what is added to their food.  It is also extremely fresh, which really makes a huge difference in my opinion. If you are organic, you can use organic ingredients. You don’t have to buy butter anymore. Butter is expensive. It is actually more cost efficient to make it yourself.  You can make it with three ingredients.  It’s one of those things you are like why didn’t I think of that?  I know I do that all the time on Pinterest.  This is a great activity to do with your kids.

Homemade Butter:

Heavy Cream

Salt

Sugar

Pour some cream in a good seal-able container. Add a pinch of sugar and some salt. Cover it and shake shake shake your butter.

You will have to shake it for about five minutes roughly.  First it turns to whipped cream, and then you will hear the whey separate. My mom says the whey is good, but I didn’t try it.  Keep shaking and shaking.  Soon you will hear a really wet shaking noise.  The butter should be in a ball.  Drain off the whey and Voila! You just made butter!

It’s so delicious and fresh. I would recommend doing this before a meal, as the freshness is part of it.

Have you ever made butter? If you try this, let me know what you think.

Last Weekend was Amazingly Fun

Noah and I like to do fun things together on the weekends. We do fun things everyday but those are more around our home.  This past weekend we went to a Pioneer place. They were having a BBQ competition.  Now we weren’t really in to the whole food aspect of it. We did however have a lot of fun.  We went on a hayride. It was Noah’s first one. We always talked about going to the pumpkin patch but that never happened.  So, Noah was unsure about a hay ride. He told me he didn’t want to do it. He wouldn’t like it, but tough cookies kiddo. We were going. Well, the moment he saw the tractor pulling the wagon, he was so excited. He loved every moment, minus the screaming kids, without supervision.  We also fed some chickens. We grounded the corn ourselves, and I realized that I needed to work out. It was so tough trying to turn the wheel, but I figured it out.  No starving chickens on my watch.  After the hayride and feeding the chickens, who had laid an egg, we went to do other things. We made candles.  I used to love to make candles so it was extra exciting for me.  I admit I was nervous about Noah and hot wax.  He did a great job though.  His candle is awesome.  I had so much fun.  We also made homemade butter. It is so easy to do.  It was the best butter I had ever tried.  I had used a butter churn at Conner Prairie before but this was so much more fun.  I will be posting articles how to make both very soon. 

We also enjoyed hot dogs and sno-cones.  We came home and later went to the beach.  It was a beautiful day and the water was fun. There were some waves but not the wipe out variety.  I was so nervous because my boy had no fear. I was so worried that he would wipe out, like I used to do.  No one wiped out.  We also made a tidal pool. It started out as my foot spa, and then Noah took over.  I told him we should dig to China. He told me that is not possible. So I changed it to digging for buried treasure.  I didn’t find anything though. I also had a chance to be in the water all by myself. Sometimes you need that break in something absolutely beautiful to recharge. I spent a lot of time thinking about things and relaxing. We had a great day.  It was almost perfect.

What do you have planned for this weekend?