Monday April 26, Day 47

Today was one of our longer days on the road (about 320 miles/6 to 7 hours on non interstate). Mostly just travel as we made our way up to the Outer Banks area of North Carolina. I think we are averaging about 1000 miles a week, as we are in the middle of week 7. The pictures are from the RV park at Roanoke Island. It was a nice spot right on a small lake.



The drawing is Hope's. At one of the parks we visited, as part of the Jr. Ranger program, she was asked to draw a picture of her village and tribe. What else would it be but the family in a RV?! We have brought along some old TV shows on DVD to watch (although we rarely have time!), such as Leave it to Beaver, Little House on the Parrie, Little Rascals.... So we have jokingly referred to our trip as "Little House on the Highway".


In the Map pictures you can see our highlighted route(you may want to double click on them to make it bigger and then you can hit the back button on your browser to return to the blog).





Our post for Tuesday and the rest of the week probably won't make it up until Monday night or later due to travel and Internet coverage.

Sunday 25 April, Day 46

Unfortunately this morning we did not have connections to find a good local church to worship at, but we enjoyed a time of singing, praying and reading God's word together as a family in the RV.

We also enjoyed a visit to Middleton Place, a plantation outside Charleston. The gardens were AMAZING, with ponds, pools, statues, rivers (complete with alligators), and blooming azaleas spread out over a large area. The house tour was also interesting, with civil war history, and some of the owners going back to signers of the declaration of independence.

It was rainy today, but they had the working area of the plantation in operation, (there was even a sheepdog demonstration). So the kids got an opportunity to try their hand at weaving, and see some wood working going on.

We then headed back into Charleston area intending to go out to Fort Sumter, but the wind was too high and they shut down the boat service out to the fort. This also impacted our tour of the aircraft carrier, USS Yorktown, since they shut down the flight deck. However, we still had a great time exploring the bowls of the ship. We had a good laugh at the size of the recipe for cookies, which I included a picture of.

On the carrier the kids also got to climb in and out of airplanes, and we visited a Medal of Honor presentation. On the way out we also visited a replica of a Vietnam base.

We continued our journey up the coast to Myrtle Beach, where we had a nice dinner overlooking the water. We stayed at the state beach campground, in this top tourist destination of the east coast (something like 13 Million visitors each year!).

All in all, it was just another routine day in the RV worshiping God, and discussing slavery, history, communism, freedom, service to country, and nature with the kids!

Saturday April 24, Day 45

Visited Charleston today. We enjoyed the old colonial city, with it's cobblestones, gas lamps, horse drawn carriages (tours), oak trees and grand old houses.
Outside the Museum, they had an early confederate submarine. Fort Sumter is in the harbor, and was the official start of the Civil War in April 1861 when the confederates shelled the Union Fort.

We had lunch at Hymans, and sat at the same table as Olympian Dan Jansen, and Judge Wapner (not the same day of course!).

We enjoyed walking the streets and taking tours of some of the houses, including one that George Washington stayed at for a week (Luke is standing in the back yard garden). Many of the houses were built in the 1700's.

After a full day it was off to the KOA for the night.

April 23, Friday, Day 44 Savannah Georgia

After doing a little birding with the boys at Crooked Creek State Park Campground, we headed out for Savannah, an hour or two drive away.

The city squares of Savannah are beautiful (Forest Gump sat on a park bench in one waiting for the bus as he told his story). For those history buffs and home schoolers out there, when the colony was established, the idea was that each ward would have a central park, surrounded by a mix of commercial, residential and governmental properties. The pattern was then repeated. When the colony started there were no lawyers, no alcohol, no slaves and no catholics allowed. We enjoyed a house tour, where the revolutionary hero Marquis de Lafayette stayed.

We also walked down along the water front (minding our footing on the cobblestones- we have heard stories of people falling and getting hurt!).

Since we are trying to cover some ground on this trip, we headed off to Charleston South Carolina for the night. There we hit another regional cultural experience, Waffle House!

21/22 April, Wednesday/Thursday, Day 42/43- START OF WEEK 7!

Wednesday, April 21 - Walt Disney World

We left the RV at Fort Wilderness RV/Campground at Disney World and went to Disney Animal Kingdom. For our African Relatives, the Africa section did bring back a lot of memories and we enjoyed seeing some reminders of Africa. The kids enjoyed the safari ride through the animal park, and it made me (Greg) want to go camping in Africa! I could not help telling the kids a few Africa camping stories while waiting for the safari. Our Animal Kingdom experience went down hill from there as the park was LOADED with people, and we could not find anywhere to sit when eating, the lines were at least 1 plus hours long, and the fast passes were either sold out or out up to 4 hours. Not what we expected mid week the end of April. After doing a few more things we decided to head back to the campground and take advantage of some of the things offered there.

We rode our bikes to the pool and water slide. After dinner the kids had fun roasting marshmallows over the campfire - (As I write this, Grant says "And you too dad!" and that would be true!). We also had fun singing camp songs with Chip and Dale. Then we settled in to watch some of the movie under the stars (Chip and Dale and then Snow White). We had to leave early to catch the firework show from the beach looking toward Magic Kingdom. Really cool because the beach was only about 3 minutes from the RV. We returned a little later to watch the barge light show before calling it a long day!

We are still being caught off guard occasionally by the RV world that we did not know about. The Disney campground is something like 700 acres! We talked to some people who actually stay there for several months.

Thursday 22 April.

TODAY WE START OUR 7th WEEK. I sometimes wonder if we are insane and just don't know it! Today was also very cool as we visited Wycliffe Bible Translators visitor center, and Campus Crusade's Jesus Film Project. We learned about the challenges of Bible translation, the blessings of the Word, and the many people still in need of the Bible in their own language. At the Jesus film, we learned about the massive impact that the movie has had. Grant even got to take a try at syncing his voice to Peter in the movie. We really enjoyed the stop (they are right next to each other), and then we headed toward Savannah for the night (Reaching Savannah the next day).

April 19-20, Monday/Tuesday, Day 40-41

Monday - Kennedy Space Center

Due to weather, the space shuttle scheduled to land this morning, waved off for a day. We were able to listen to radio calls between mission control and the shuttle as we bought tickets. We really had no idea that a shuttle was even up or coming back, but happened to hit it. Fortunately we missed Obamas visit by a day or two (which would have been a logistics nightmare I'm sure!).

We took the bus tour and saw the launch sites for Apollo missions and the shuttle sites, as well as the tracks for the huge crawler that puts the shuttle on the pad, and the runway that the shuttle lands on. The building in the picture behind us is 52 stories tall, and the blue area on the flag is the size of a basketball court. Hard to capture the size and magnitude by camera. It is where they prepare the shuttle and rockets before sending it to the launch pad. There are only 3 more shuttle missions scheduled, and Obama recently announced changes to the plans for NASA, which they are trying to sort out! I have also included a picture of a cool sand sculpture.

Tuesday, EPCOT (Every Person Comes Out Tired!)
Epcot was fun, with a mixture of rides and country emphasis. We ate in England, Morocco and Japan in the same day! They kids really enjoyed the ride in the dome where you could "create the future" and it made a movie using a picture of you taken while on the ride. Pretty humorous because when it said to smile we made crazy faces!

Disney world is staggering is size! Tomorrow Animal Kingdom!

Friday-Sunday, April 16-18, Day 37-39

Weekend At the Beach

Friday and Saturday, we enjoyed our time at the beach near St. Augustine Florida, boarding, playing and digging. We also spent some time in the pool. As you can see from the sand in the air high above Luke's head, a good time was had by all.

Saturday night, Amanda and I enjoyed an evening out, as we left the kids in the RV watching Little House on the Prairie, Leave it to Beaver, and Little Rascals (they all got a pick!), and we went out to dinner at a very nearby restaurant. It was beautiful as the sunset, we had a great fresh crab cake, and the porpoise went by in the water. Sunday morning we headed into St. Augustine for church and a look around. We worshiped at a very old Presbyterian church with a pipe organ, and lots of liturgy. It gave us the opportunity to talk with the kids about the numerous differences between that the church we visited in Amarillo where several thousand of us sat around a circular stage, as well as some of the differences between what we believe on certain issues and the current mainline Presbyterian church. St. Augustine is reckoned to be the oldest settlement in the USA. We saw the cannons being fired at the old fort. We ended the day by heading down toward Orlando/Cape Canaveral where we would be visiting the Kennedy Space center the next day.

Monday- Thursday, April 12-15 Day 33-36

Monday was Cave Day! We visited Mammoth Cave National Park and took the "New Entrance Tour". We had a great guide for the 2+ hour tour. Mammoth Cave is the worlds longest known cave system, with several hundred miles mapped. Carbonic acid and water (yes the same stuff in soda pop!), is said to have carved the cave out of the limestone rock. We saw bats, crickets, but not the other eyeless creatures that also inhabit the cave.



Then we headed to Bowling Green area and the "River Cave", where we took a boat in an underground river, as the guide described the connections to the Civil War, Jesse James, and even a nightclub!

The pace of the days sometimes takes a toll, as can be seen as Hope and Luke take a snooze as we go down the road.





After the cave boat ride, we took a country road as we headed outside of Nashville for the night, at Bledsoe Creek State Park. Had a nice site near the playground, which is always a plus with the kids!



TUESDAY
Tuesday we started by trying to figure out where we were going to go next! It was too big of a trip to firmly schedule out, but it takes time to plan on the fly. We decided to head south to Florida and hit a few Civil War sites along the way. Our first stop near Murfreesboro Tenn was Stone River National Battlefield. With nearly 23000 casualties (dead or wounded), nearly 1/4 of all troops in the battle, it was one of the bloodiest of the western part of the war. The kids had their own private Cannon training with one of the Rangers. Off season travel has some benefits!



We drove on to Chattanooga area, stayed in an RV park. Our closest RV moment yet when dumping the sewer tanks! Thankfully no pictures of that!



WEDNESDAY

Visited Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, which was the site of a large and important battle in the Civil War. Realized that on this day in 1861 the Civil War had begun at Fort Sumter, and that Abe Lincoln was assassinated and the Civil War was over in 1865. Quite a day to visit a Civil War Memorial.

THURSDAY

Left High Falls State Park, South of Atlanta Georgia, where we stayed the night, and headed to Florida, and an RV park on the beach near St. Augustine. It was our longest day on the road, (just barely), at 346 miles. We are now starting our 6th week (are we insane?), and have covered 5564 miles. We decided we needed a vacation from our trip! So we are going to sit here for 2 days, then visit Kennedy space center, a few days at Epcot and maybe another Disney park, then Wycliffe and Jesus Film before resuming our trip north along the coast.

Sunday again (11 April)

I posted Sunday's before we had really left, so I thought I would add a few more pictures. The first is of our campsite at Nelsin Lake State Park. Back in the hills of Kentucky, and a little hard to find, but a nice spot. Quiet, especially after the weekend visitors left Sunday morning.

Luke and I went out for some fishing Sunday evening on the lake, and although small, we did make a catch! Luke loved it! It was beautiful with red bud blooming, Canadian Geese on the lake.

I also wanted to post another picture I found of Luke making dumplings with some new Chinese friends, while we were in Wichita visiting friends. It is a little hard to keep track of pictures on 3 cameras! So far I think we are up to 1100 pictures that we have kept (after deleting the duds and many duplicates).

Thursday-Sunday 8-10 April, Day 29-32

We left the RV park on foot and walked over the Mississippi to head up to the top of the Arch. Cool. The kids learned about the many people who left for the west from St. Louis, including Louis and Clark. Took the train back across the river to the RV park, and headed for Louisville KY. Another multi state day, with Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky today. We finally broke our string of fantastic RV meals, because the kids have been begging us for KFC (rare, but a favorite), so we had told them that when we were in Kentucky we would have Kentucky Fried Chicken, and they got it!

Friday had some chores, and then to an apartment that Thomas Edison had rented in Louisville. Followed by the Louisville Slugger Museum/Factory tour, and a visit to the Farmington House which Abraham Lincoln has visited.

Saturday, as we prepared to head out of Louisville, we made a stop to Locust Grove, a house belonging to the sister of William Clark (of Louis and Clark), which was rich in history. Before stopping for the night, we visited the birthplace of Lincoln. Amanda was happy as wandered towards our selected campground for the night to run through a small Amish community, complete with horses and buggies.

This capped off a long and hard week. We have now covered more than 4500 miles, with the average road day this been being about 250 plus miles, plus 2 stops. We found a state park near a lake south of Louisville and set up for 2 nights, with a rest day on Sunday. Church in the RV, enjoying the spring time weather.

We are trying to decide where to head next. Will it be back towards the Mississippi and Arkansas, or Georgia, or up to the east? Stay tuned. We will let you know when we do!

Tuesday/Wednesday April 6/7, DAY 27/28

Tuesday we headed out with Wan to visit the Comosphere. An interesting space site, kind of out in the middle of no where, but they had an impressive array of exhibits including the Apollo 13 space capsule, an SR 71, and quite a presentation of German WWII rocket technology and its impact on the space race and cold war. After saying goodbye to our hosts (Thanks Wan and Mi Ying!), we headed up to Abeline KS to visit the Eisenhower Presidential Museum and boyhood home. It had a lot of WWII items, including the pen that the US and Germany used to end the war.

Then it was off to Topeka area for the night. We stayed at the Shawnee Lake Park, and hoped the Thunderstorm warnings would go way without tornados or golf ball size hail materializing! Amanda made a great chicken pot pie as we continued our string of a week or so without eating at a restaurant.

Wednesday morning we stopped in Independence Missouri to visit the Harry Truman Museum. Another very interesting presentation of history and significant events in our countries history. The kids are pictured in a replica of the Oval Office during the Truman administration. We pushed on to Saint Louis, and made a quick end of day visit to the Arch. The trip to the top of the arch was sold out, but we found an RV park just across the Mississippi river in walking distance from the arch! More for tomorrow.

Monday 5 April, Day 26

First stop this morning was the Dalton Gang Hideout. In the museum, we realized this late western gang had actually robbed a train in Tulare CA as well as being active in this area. They had a tunnel between the house and the barn, which the kids enjoyed going through.

Next up was Dodge City, and Boot Hill Museum. More interesting history of the period and the impact of buffalo hunting on the Indians. The kids ended up in Jail! They got released for good behavior, and even were allowed a "Sarsaparilla" in one of the "Saloons".

We also stopped along the road, where you could see the impact of wagons in the 1800's on the Santa Fe trail.

Kansas was windy and the RV has some striking similarities with a kite, making driving in high wind a challenge!

We ended the day with dinner with some old friends in Wichita. Wan and Mi Ying say hello to the rest of the Smith Family. They were hosting some visiting scholars from China, and we had a great dumpling/Chinese dinner with them.

Sunday 4 April, Day 25

Cadillac Ranch - I missed this picture in previous posts!. On our way to Amarillo, we stopped out in the field on "Cadillac Ranch", which is some cadillacs buried in the ground of a field as some kind of art. People bring their spray paint and "add" to it. Different!

Sunday - We visited Trinity Fellowship in Amarillo for Easter, then Cracker Barrel for our Easter Lunch. We ate family style and everyone enjoyed it! After resting in Amarillo, we headed towards Wichita, where Greg has a long time friend. We stopped for the night in Meade Kansas, after crossing the Oklahoma panhandle. Amanda had purchased some eggs and we had an egg hunt in the RV!

It was a nice spot right next to the Lake in the RV. We are starting to figure out that the State Parks are a good deal with hook ups for a low cost (usually $15 or $20 a night), and in a better environment than a RV park.

I took a long exposure star picture of the Kansas night sky. The North Star is the only one not "moving"/blurred, because the earth is rotating during the long exposure.