This summer, at the end of every story time, I asked kids to take their IPTV beach balls with them on vacation.

Of course, being the super heroes they are, kids took their beach balls EVERYWHERE!

Beach balls ended up visiting the St. Louis Arch…

The Grotto of the Redemption…

Uzbekistan…

Castle Rock, Colorado…

Playa Secreto at Isla Mujeres…

And even Old Faithful! Remember, it’s not too late to send me YOUR pictures.

Dan’s Wise Advice of the Day: Baking a cake can be just as dangerous as traveling through time and space. Make sure to follow all the basic safety precautions when doing either. And never do both at the same time!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the 2010 Reading Road Trip!

Dan’s Wise Advice of the Day: If your volcano detector starts beeping then I would throw on your lava pants as soon as possible!

Yesterday there were beavers, today we were on the lookout for otters!

The morning was a perfect ending to my trip with an outside story time at the Woden Public Library.

Beach balls were flying everywhere!

We even tried a few beach ball experiments.

And now, to kick back and enjoy some summer for myself.

Dan’s Wise Advice of the Day: If you ever decide to start a skunk collection, the first thing you should purchase is a case of air fresheners!

What a wonderful treasure I found today in the little town of Le Grand!

Their library is actually a giant log cabin! That’s why there are no beavers allowed.

In the event of a beaver attack, the town is called to defend the library by ringing the beaver bell.

Tomorrow is the last day of the Reading Road Trip! I haven’t had a chance to play any board games all summer. This weekend I will be sure to get caught up.

Dan’s Wise Advice of the Day: To host a successful garage sale it is usually best to price all of your items under a million dollars!

The Coralville Public Library set a record for themselves this morning! Their crowds were bigger than at any other time that I’ve visited.

There was even one cool momma frog in the audience who seemed to have fun.

She brought all her baby froglings!

With five froglings, a stroller with two seats isn’t nearly enough!

All it took was a quick pony ride to get to the Newton Public Library.

Luckily, I do love outside story time in the warm summer weather.

The sun’s awesome powers are no match for superheroes!

The heat didn’t even seem to be affecting the pirates! They were having too much fun!

Dan’s Wise Advice of the Day: If you wake up one morning and the squirrels are hiding balogna sandwiches instead of nuts, you should probably get a lock for your refrigerator!

This morning, as I was waiting for story time to start at the Marshalltown Public Library, I noticed an amazing wall of buttons.

One button released all of the spiders and hedgehogs.

Another button released a great white shark.

Had I done my homework using their homework machine I would have known better than to push any buttons.

My curiosity got the best of me. I decided to try pushing one final button and was tranported to the Urbandale Public Library. Any time I get blasted through time and space I try to observe one very important rule: Don’t scream!

The library was celebrating the 10th anniversary of their new building.

To celebrate, there were snacks and story times! What a great combination.

On the way out, an amazing haircut caught my eye. I’m wondering if I can make this work with my hair?

Dan’s Wise Advice of the Day: A pickle launcher should never be fired at an owl, an old granny, or someone with a bigger, more powerful, pickle launcher!

I thought I might take a walk around the pond this morning and say hello to all the creatures.

Luckily, I was there to save a diver and a surfer from a hungry pond-shark.

After my walk, it was off to the Johnston Public Library for adventure on the high seas!

Why is it everyone covers their eyes when I drive the pirate ship?

I navigated the pirate ship to my next destination: The Ericson Public Library in Boone! We made such a commotion people were looking in from the outside to make sure we were all safe.

Of course we were safe! Jabberwartz, the Great Green Frog, and her babies protected us!

My day ended with a submarine ride and some deep sea fishing!

We caught some whoppers! Even the dolphins were impressed.

Dan’s Wise Advice of the Day: If your favorite cereal’s mascot wears a hazmat suit, I would suggest looking into getting a new favorite cereal!

There was a large gathering of people at the Cedar Falls Public Library this morning, but I don’t think they were there to see me.

Rumor had it an alien craft was scheduled to be passing by the city.

Using some makeshift radars we tried to flag down the spaceship.

I think we made FIRST CONTACT with a new species of alien!

Two years ago when I first visited the Vinton Public Library the town was surrounded with water. It would have made a good place to go fishing.

There was so much water that it would have even made a good whale refuge.

Back then, the safest place from all the rain was on the top of a sturdy barn.

No water today thankfully. Just lots of story time fun!

Dan’s Wise Advice of the Day: If you still have Thanksgiving leftovers in the fridge and it’s July, throw them out right away.

I always try to do at least one good deed every single day. This morning at a packed Waterloo Public Library I had plenty of opportunities!

I saved some kids from the mighty kraken.

I saved some librarians from a giant hovering jellyfish.

I even helped a lost sea turtle make his way out to sea.

Later, because of all my good deeds, a camera crew from Wartburg College caught up with me at the Denver Public Library.

Denver had heard what I had done and made a colorful plaque in my honor.

All the kids wanted to get their picture taken with “Good Deed Danno.”

All my good deeds must have paid off! As I was helping read off names for the summer reading program I drew my own name!

My prize? An all expense paid trip to this wall that looks just like oceanfront property!

Dan’s Wise Advice of the Day: Don’t ever take a tuba into the shower unless it has a really high fever and you are trying to quickly cool it down.

Story time started today on the top floor of the Carnegie-Stout Public Library in Dubuque.

I thought there was going to be an argument between two of the kid pirates but they quickly settled their differences.

The city has been remodeling their library over the past few years and they have lots of cool new toys. I loved checking out one of my favorite books with their automatic checker-outer device.

Good thing I brought my library card!

This afternoon at the Dyersville Public Library I tried out a few science experiments.

Experiment #1: How many people can we fit into one room?

Experiment #2: How high up can we stack the kids?

Experiment #3: Do the three bears actually eat porridge?

Dan’s Wise Advice of the Day: If you enter into a cactus-eating contest please remember the threat of heartburn will be the least of your worries.