If there is one thing our kids miss about living in Ventura, it would be friends.

Spending ten days in Orlando with other fulltime RVing families gave my kids the opportunity to hang out with new friends.  Since Valentine’s Day fell in the middle of our stay, I thought why not have a little party and some sugar with our new friends. We made Valentine’s Day cards and ice cream sundaes. However, Margie Lundy had the best idea of the party. When we were done with the cards, we passed them out around our the “neighborhood”. I think it made everyone smile.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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Except I miss you.

I miss sharing our adventures with our little circle of friends.

So here we go. Catch up time. This week. For sure.

After we left Tennessee, we headed to Alabama but not without a stop at Chickamauga National Military Park. We are in hot pursuit of the special Junior Civil War Historian Badges which requires completing 3 Jr. Ranger programs at participating parks or 2 Jr. Ranger programs plus an online activity. Chickamauga is a participating park and we were ready.

Except we weren’t.

The time change. We drove as fast as we safely could to the park thinking we had an hour to browse the visitor center. As it turned out we had about 2.5 minutes before it closed.

Awesome.

Still we drove around and read the brochures I begged the ranger to give us before he locked the door to the visitor center.

The next day was better despite waking up in a Walmart parking lot.

We rolled out of Wally World and 20 minutes later arrived Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park. It was early, leaving us with a whole day for school and exploration. Tennehill Ironworks Historical State Park is a home roadschoolers dream. It’s hands on history complete with a museum and numerous old buildings in a beautiful setting. We took off on our bikes for the Iron and Steel museum of Alabama. Afterwards we checked out the cotton gin and made our way to the old furnace. I watched as the boys explored with excitement.

Yes, these are the days I dream of.

Almost.

Feeling overly ambitious, I suggested we take another route back to our trailer.

We headed over the bridge to what looked, on the map, like a short trail back to our campsite.

All was well and lovely until I looked back and saw this…

Somehow Thing 1′s back wheel had gotten out of alignment and it was sticking on the break making it extremely difficult to peddle.

And extremely difficult to stay calm. Notice the distance between Thing 1 (in the top right corner) and his bike? I’ll let you guess how it got there.

We carried on because “according to the map” the campground must be right around the corner. Wrong.

We rode and rode.

And I had some very unhappy, hungry, thirsty, tired, little boys.

What felt like miles later, we came to the end of the trail except there was no campground in sight. Uh-oh. Thankfully, there was a maintenance man and he explained to us that we had missed the short loop and had ended up on a different trail. He also offered to take us back to our campsite.

What started off like this.

Ended up like this. Thing 2 won’t even look at me.

Sigh.

At least there were deer right out our window. That always makes for smiles.

I think Meow Cow agrees.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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The post Chickmauga and Trouble in Tannehill appeared first on Newschool Nomads.

My dreams didn’t include family photos in front of Mt. Rushmore or touring the Smithsonian. Although we plan to go to both places.

My dreams were made up of far more simpler things. Things that have filled the last three long rainy days here at Lake Texoma.

I imagined…

…cozy days in the car

…school days on the couch

…that turned to naps

…I guess “working with sentences” isn’t very interesting

I imagined…

…wonder

…friendship

…cat naps

…and playing footsie with my love under the table.

(Okay so I really didn’t imagine footsie but I sure do like it.)

I wish I could just hold my breath and with it these moments. These not-so-small-anymore-hands grow as I hold them in mine. I’m all to aware that these days are limited. I do my best to stuff as many of these moments as I can into my soul. My soul is infinite but these moments are not.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

The post Days 51-53: Stuffing My Soul appeared first on Newschool Nomads.

Just when I was almost caught up blogging about our trip, we lost a strong internet connection. One night I sat at the computer for over an hour trying to upload 5 pictures. Frustrated, I decided the blog would just have to wait. Then we came up to my parent’s for Christmas so we’ve been busy with family. I’m going to be here for the week and I’m hoping to get all caught up so I can start writing in (almost) real time again.

Tuesday morning, we left San Antonio for League City near Houston. It was the longest driving day we’ve had since we left Marfa.  We pulled into the campground before dark which, for us, was very exciting.

And meant time to to just hang out.

Wednesday morning we visited Space Center Houston.

Space Center Houston is cool. Really cool.

The space center is filled with exhibits, tours, movies, and hands on activities for the entire family. (I sound like an infomercial, forgive me.) My favorite part was the Starship Gallery. There were videos featuring one of the astronauts (I can’t remember his name..ooops.) on the last Apollo 17 mission. He talked in detail about the last mission and what it was like to see earth from outer space.  While listening I kept looking at the Apollo 17 Command Module imagining it in outer space and looking down at the earth. Thinking about it gives me chills.

Next time I want to complain about the shower in our RV I will try to remember the shower in Skylab.

We also took the tram to see historic Mission Control, the astronaut training facility, and the Saturn V rocket. That thing is crazy huge. HUGE!

The space center opens at 10:00 am but we got there at 11:30 am. At 5:00 pm security was pushing us out the door as we lingered in the exhibits trying to see just a little more. We considering hiding in one of the space capsules until after closing so we could play all night but the security guard was pretty frightening.

I thought from now on it would be nice if I share some visiting tips. Maybe someone will find something helpful.

Visiting Tips

- Buy tickets online. You will save $5 per ticket.

- Try to get there when it opens at 10:00 so you have all day. They told us it takes people 4-5 hours to see everything. We had 5.5 hours there and wished we would have had another hour or two more. We didn’t even watch all the movies or read everything. If you purchase a ticket two hours before they close they will let you come back the following day for one day’s admission.

- The audio tour was totally worth the extra admission to us. The only downside is you really have to look for the audio guide numbers. I ended up missing quite a few including the one at the Saturn V exhibit. I listened to it on the tram ride back to the museum which wasn’t nearly as interesting as it would have been walking around the rocket itself.

-We were glad to have brought our lunch (which they let us bring in because it was cold outside) as there was only one restaurant open in the food court. The guy at the door did say that they normally don’t let people bring in food and they have to eat outside at the picnic area.

-Watch Apollo 13 the night before you go! It adds an extra layer of excitement. Of course, if you aren’t in the mood for something as intense there is always Space Camp. It was all fun and games until someone got “launched”.

Love and  Laughter,
Jenn

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Today, we visited Carlsbad Caverns National Park.  We opted for the self-guided tour with an audio guide.  We were all happy we got the audio tour because not only could we move at our own pace ,we learned a lot.

The descent into the cave is something I’ll never forget.  I really didn’t know what to expect.  We wound down the path until we came to this massive black mouth. It was sublime. The cave was first discovered by a 16 old boy, Jim White, when he saw what he thought was a volcano or twister in the distance.  He set out to investigate and discovered bats coming out the cave. Can you imagine?!?! Over the next several years, Jim White continued to explore the cave using homemade torches, lanterns, and ladders. Talk about brave!  While I’m adventurous,  I think I prefer the paved paths and lights that are present today.

The cave was magnificent. Crazy. Grand. Beautiful.

A whole other world existing below the surface of the earth.

The only thing that would have made this visit better is the BATS who had already migrated to Mexico for the winter.  I love bats.  They are so cute.  (I’m also the girl who had pet rats as a teenager.)  Thing 2 and I play this game in the mornings called “baby bat”.  We pretend we are bats. I wrap my wings around him and we snuggle.  My bat voice a really bad Asian/British/Southern/what-the-heck accent.  Baby Bat tells me he is hungry for “fish”.  I have no idea where we got the idea “bats eat fish” but that is what Baby Bat always wants.  I had never really considered a bat’s real diet which turns out to be insects.  Recently, Baby Bat has been wanting “cat” and Mama Bat reminds him “bats don’t eat cat” but it doesn’t seem to help.  Any excuse to chase Meow Cow.

Ummm anyway…

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

The post Day 27: The Magic and Mystery of Carlsbad Caverns appeared first on Newschool Nomads.

Oh the possibilities!

One afternoon, it was particularly hot and everyone was particularly cranky.  We decided to seek comfort under the big avocado tree in our backyard.  We set up a fan (because we’re classy like that), spread out a blanket, and read a book.  Everyone’s mood changed dramatically.  It was a small change of scenery but since we normally read on the couch reading outside became an “adventure” (kids are so easy to please).  Adventures always help bad moods.  And the fan!  Who doesn’t love a fan on a hot day. We weren’t the only one to enjoy ourselves so did the pugs.

With love,
Jenn

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