- Today was the first morning of Camp Geyer this year, so my alarm was going off at 6:30. By 7, I was dressed and waking up the kids, and by 7:40, we were pulling out of the driveway.
- Now that seems like everything went smoothly-not so much. Graham had already planned to have a shower this morning. However, Whitman woke up incredibly "sweaty" so I had him take a shower as well-it wasn't sweat, it was a few too many gulps of his water bottle and going to bed too late. He hasn't done that in years, but of course it would be on a busy morning.
- Despite the rain, we were certainly early to church this morning, but that was nice since we didn't have to hurry too much. My crafts were already ready, but the big 3 started their things at 8:15. Campbell, Keaton and Whitman were able to go to their rooms at 8:30.
- Let's do a run down of where everyone was today-Reagan was a guide for 6th grade the whole day. Anderson was a guide for 6th grade as well and also the leader with Graham in outside games which took place inside because of the rain. Graham did games but he also was a guide for 4th grade. Campbell's track today was soccer which she enjoyed, but she did roll her ankle during it. Keaton went to construction for her track today and was the only girl. Whitman was in outdoor games and somehow he didn't get a snack today when he was in that track. (I asked his brothers about this, but they didn't know anything about it.)
- Robby came up to help during my craft time. He then stayed and picked up the kids. All but Anderson. His group stayed at the church house to tie dye their tshirts. I went to the library, but then just hung out in the car for a little bit while waiting on him,
- Robby took Reagan, Campbell and Keaton to the dentist for a few fillings-well, lots of fillings. Campbell even gets to go back for some more work Thursday. I then met them at the pool for a little bit when they were finished.
- Campbell and Keaton seemed to have no trouble with their mouth this afternoon and evening. Now, Reagan was a bit more sore and even put ice on her cheek for a while. I think she is better this evening though.
- On the way home from the pool, we ran to the grocery store and picked up some supper to cook. Afterwards, Robby and I took a walk before settling in to watching the Hogs play some baseball. They are still playing right now, but it isn't looking too good-so I am going to take a nap and try to help my team.
June 6, 2022
June 5, 2022
- This was a busy day which was fitting because it is the start to a busy week. We started off the morning with church. As we were getting dressed, I received a text asking if Reagan and I could work in the nursery, so that is what we did while the others went to church.
- Reagan and I had a lively group in our class which did make the hour or so go by quickly, Then it was on to Sunday school for a little bit. There we had a room full-I thought people were supposed to be out of town during the summer. Not, today it was packed out in the children's area.
- Whitman left from church to go to a birthday party. I think this is his second birthday party lately, and I do believe that he is enjoying these little outings. Today, there were water guns, water balloons, a slip and slide, hamburgers (one of his favorites) and ice cream (another favorite.)
- The rest of us went to Grannymom's house for lunch. We ate and visited a bit before leaving for home. Keaton and I had to head to the church house. So after sending an email at home and printing some things, we were off.
- We worked for about 2 hours getting things ready for our groups. Hopefully, things will run smoothly tomorrow, but it should still be a crazy day for sure. As we finished, the Crafts arrived so Keaton hung out with them and helped Traci while I went to a camp meeting for the big 4.
- While I was at our church house, Anderson, Graham and Campbell went to another church house for their Sunday night. They had a good time, but the boys were anxious to get home so they could watch the baseball game.
- At some point, Reagan left this evening to go to a pool party/camp planning meeting. She was gone for a while, but not as long as we were. We went to the Wilson's house tonight for supper. We stayed until almost the end of the Hogs game.
- We finally had to leave since tomorrow is an early morning-a very early morning. I believe that it is almost already quiet upstairs!
June 4, 2022
- Not a whole lot seemed to happen today, but I will say that maybe because we were up and going by 8 or maybe because we have been on vacation for so long, but this day just drug on.
- Whitman was the first one that we saw this morning. Campbell and Keaton had spent the night at their freinds' house so they weren't around. I did the normal chores and even walked the dog before leaving with Graham.
- We made 5 stops and were home again in less than 2 hours. Graham was pretty pleased with our speed shopping-9 shirts, 3 pairs of shoes, 2 gallons of milk, and 6 nuggets. The shirts were mostly white for tie dying or solid colors for Collide, one pair of shoes were already bought, Graham found one for him, and I bought one for me which I now think are too small.
- So we were back home before it was even noon. There was laundry-all day long. It just never ends, but I am finally getting finished with the trip laundry.
- I did use the shop vac in the camper today. I probably would be appalled at all of the dirt and dog hair that it sucked up. However, I do feel like it is a lot cleaner now. Tomorrow I begin putting everything back in it to get ready for the next event.
- Keaton and Campbell came home, and we soon left again. Campbell went to help take care of some kids during a swim party while Keaton, Whitman, Robby and I went to the pool. Whitman, as he does every year, loves the pool. He never complains about leaving, but he would go anytime.
- Then back home, and Keaton made pasta for everyone's supper while I made some cookies. I liked the cookies, but Anderson said some of the ingredients tasted stale (they did not) and Reagan would't eat them because they had peanut butter in them so I guess this is not a recipe that I will end up saving.
- Robby was mowing on the other side of the yard. I saw him walking around looking at the ground so after a bit I went to see what he had lost. A spring popped off his tractor-two neighbors even came over to help us look. We finally found it, but it was broken. It had shot pretty far from where he was so glad it didn't get anyone.
- The mower still has to be moved back to the garage, but that is a task for another day. Folks are working through showers now and soon it will be bedtime for the crew.
June 3, 2022
- First, I will apologize for not having any pictures from the day. And yes, this is the second day in a row with no pictures, but in my defense, all I have done today is laundry.
- I did squeeze a few other things into the day, but it really was mostly laundry. We heard someone getting ice early this morning, and later we did figure out that it was Graham. Both boys were soon up on their xboxes with Whitman sleeping still.
- Soon Keaton and Campbell woke up-mainly because they wanted to go with me to church. I had to work on getting my Camp Geyer stuff ready. Now, the girls don't really realize it, but they were so helpful today. What would have taken my a good long while, didn't take us long at all since I had their help.
- After Keaton did a lot of begging about using her gift card at Sonic, we went there. And somehow, I still ended up buying our drinks with my credit card and not her gift card. They were happy though.
- Then we were home for a little bit before heading to the pool. This was our first time to go this year and gracious me, I haven't even made my pool spreadsheet yet. I love to keep up with all of our pool visits. However, we did decide today that we just aren't going to be here enough for the kids to do swim team.
- Campbell and Graham were ambivalent about it. Keaton really wanted to do it, and even though I thought that Whitman wanted to do it, he did shout, "yes!" when I told him. No one really seemed to protest too much. We did some counting and just how camps and life falls, Campbell would only be able to go to 4 practices with Whitman being able to go to a whopping 7 and Keaton and Graham fell somewhere in between. So maybe next year-I care nothing about them going to the meets, but the exercise and the skill is good for them.
- We stayed at the pool for a good long time, but afterwards we picked up pizza for our supper. Keaton and Whitman went home with friends tonight. They were so excited to get to hang out with friends-I think they had been missing their friends. And you know who else had been missing people-my boys. They have been talking to their xbox people all the live long day. (Their xbox people are real people that we know)
- After eating our supper tonight, Nonna and Pops came over for a little bit. They were anxious to see the kids since we had been gone a while.
- Whitman had the best night tonight-he watched a movie that he had been so excited to watch. And speaking of Whitman, last night when we pulled to the yard, we all saw that Cash had parked his boat at our house. Robby even moved it before we all worked on the camper. I would have thought that all of the kids would have seen this. But Whitman came down the stairs this morning and nonchalantly asked, "when did we get a boat?"
- Later, we ran to pick up Shannon, and she came over and finished the pinto bean pecan pie with us as we chatted. Then it was bedtime-but apparently around here things just get started at bedtime. The boys are talking to people on their xboxs, Reagan is on her phone, Whitman is on his ipad, Robby is outside working on something and I'm about to start on my huge stack of books.
All Around Lake Michigan and Beyond-Trip by the Numbers
Days-19 (May 15, 2022-June 2, 2022)
Nights-18
Nights-18
New states for the camper-6
New states for Bentley-6
Total states-12 (Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee)
Gas stops-16 (around 545 gallons)
Miles-3543 in camper, around 400 in the car
Boondocking nights-2
New stickers for the camper-12
Times Whitman will eat blue cheese again-0
Ornaments bought-4
Loaves of bread bought-5
Times driving down the wrong side of the road-1
Jr Ranger badges earned-5 (2 more to complete and mail in)
New National Park Sites visited-4
Costco trips-2
Sams trips-1
Model T rides-4
Total Greenfield Village visits-7 (7/15, 6/16, 9/18, 5/19, 9/19, 12/21, 5/22)
Laundry loads done on trip-9
Laundry loads at home after unpacking-13
Times Whitman fell-10
Animals hit-1 (squirrel)
Hub caps lost-1
Ikea visits-2
Ice cream stops-12
Scoops of ice cream eaten at Turkey Hill-33
June 2, 2022-All Around Lake Michigan and Beyond
Going home days are always a bit sad. We were up before 7 this morning, and before 7:15, we had hooked the car up and were on the road headed towards home. Doing the car was pretty easy this morning though we did have one hiccup with the trailer lights not working.
Writing a blog on all day travel days is pretty difficult since really nothing happened today. Anderson and Graham stirred first. Whitman was up soon after along with Campbell. Keaton didn't appear until after our first gas stop.
During that stop I did run into Sams and picked up an assortment of things-water, bread, muffins and milk. The muffins were a happy for the kids since this was indeed a long day for everyone. Most folks did eat a muffin for their first breakfast or even for their second breakfast once I returned to the camper.
Then it was back on the road. I think the next stop was just a rest area. Robby did some work while I worked on making lunches for everyone. I guess all we pretty much did today was eat! I probably should have made the kids did one more day of their school work that I brought. I did get 9 of those days out of them, so I am still pretty pleased by that.
The next big stop was Ikea. We were on a mission-pillows, cords, and meatballs. We found those plus some candles (Keaton wanted some to give to her Sunday school teachers at the end of the year and Campbell just wanted one for herself.)
We did get a few snacks when we left ikea-we stopped at the little cafe at the end and bought some ice cream. Bless it though, by the time that we made it to the car, the tiny little dixie cup of ice cream that they gave us was pretty melting. We felt a little took there-but not as took as Robby did when we saw Eisenhower's house.
From Memphis to home did seem to drag a little bit. There was some rain that slowed us down. Plus two different wrecks on Lawson road. One we didn't have to stop at and the other we had to wait for about 20 minutes. Graham suggested that Robby get out the grill and start on supper, but we opted to wait until home.
Unloading at home took a bit. While Robby moved some things around, the girls went through the mail and found all of the things that didn't belong to us. I guess since we are on a rural route, our mail is not consistent. When it does show up, it usually belongs to a neighbor. They delivered some of the wrong mail and put the rest in the mail box.
I finished with the car and even worked on the house some before the camper was ready to unload. The kids worked really hard tonight helping unload. It is just a lot of carrying things back and forth to the house. I put it in laundry baskets and they take it where it needs to be-inside fridge, outside fridge, pantry, kitchen, dishwasher, outside freezer, mudroom.
Really most things just go to the mudroom. So far I have washed 2 loads of clothes, have one in the wash now, one load of coats in the dryer, will have 3 loads of sleeping bags, 3 of blankets, 1 of sheets and 1-2 of towels. All of those things are in separate piles in the mudroom. Reagan even tried to warn me so I wouldn't panic about all of the things in the mudroom tonight.
By 10, we were pretty much finished with everything and winding down. The kids are heading to bed now, and I'm heading to the shower!
June 1, 2022-All Around Lake Michigan and Beyond
Another great day here in the Smokys. First we headed to downtown Gatlinburg to meet the Hobbs. We were there a bit early and just chilled on the shaded steps of a church. Their parking was 5 dollars instead of the 20 on the strip.
Then we walked up and down the Gatlinburg strip. I feel like you can compare it to Branson, but it is pretty different as well. We did find another Byrd's Cookie store where we dropped some more money. And Campbell and Reagan found a tshirt and sweatshirt respectively. Other than that, we weren't there too long.
Now, we didn't plan accordingly so even though we had snacks, we didn't pack a lunch for the day. I am not really sure what we were thinking, but Robby saved the day by running to Subway to pick us up some lunch for a picnic later.
Then we all headed out along the Roaring Forks Motor Nature Trail. Basically it is just a 5 mile one way loop road in the middle of the woods. However, the scenery is spectacular plus Robby did purchase an audio guide that tells you so many stories and interesting tidbits that it is just so interesting. Even the kids were listening to it. (Actually, this guide made us want to stay another day in the park and hear more of it.)
The trail was really neat. There was one waterfall that I would really like to do when we return. There was just no parking there today. Once we did see some parking and since it was almost lunch time, we pointed for Matt to take that parking spot.
Robby intended to take the next parking spot around the bend. But there was no parking spot and no place to pull off. We drove for probably a half mile before we were able to stop. And sine there is no cell signal at all (none), we had the next best thing-Graham!
We sent him up the road to tell the Hobbs to come and meet us. I did briefly worry that he was eaten by a bear, but they showed up and even gave Graham a ride there! This then became our lunch stop. It was by a rustic log cabin-we actually ate by the chicken coop.
After eating, the kids found the stream and rocks to climb on beside the stream. Soon afterwards, the road was over, and we were back into town. From there we came to the camper to pick up Bentley. Then the caravan made its way to the Bush Bean Factory.
This was a little bit away, but we made it with 30 minutes to spare before they closed. We waked around the gift shop and....well, it wouldn't be a trip if we didn't lose Whitman. He must have gone out the front door of the gift shop and us the back-he sat down on the bench when he didn't see us, and we went on walking around the building.
Behind the building we sat and ate a pinto bean pecan pie that Robby had bought. And yes, we didn't miss Whitman until we were thinking about leaving. He was just about 50 feet from us, but our hearts did all skip a few beats. I praised him for staying right where he was-though if he would have just walked around the porch of the building he would have seen us! He is resilient and was just fine afterwards.
Now, the pie that we had-well, it was just pecan pie with some pinto beans. Sarah thought that she could taste them and possibly thought that the pie was not as sweet as normal pecan pie. However, it was still really good-there are about 2 pieces left that Robby and I will finish off tomorrow on the long drive home.
From there, the Hobbs headed to Kentucky, and we headed to the Nike Clearance store. Robby is in need of another pair of shoes, but he didn't find them there. However, we did mark a few things off of the list-socks for Graham and shoes for Whitman. (Did I mention yesterday, that when Whitman and Keaton spent the night with the Hobbs on Monday night, I knew we were going to be hiking so I brought Whitman tennis shoes the next morning. I could tell when he put them on that something was wrong-I asked and he said he wanted his crocs instead. Before he changed, I did bend down to feel his toe and yep, they were probably 2 or 3 sizes too small.)
So now he has new tennis shoes, but Graham and Robby, who both need them, couldn't find any. Graham did find a shirt, and Campbell and Keaton both found shorts. From there we came back to the camper where Robby and I started putting things away and trying to get ready for the drive home.
When you go somewhere, things are packed neatly and orderly. However, coming home is a different beast. Pretty much everything has to be taken out of here, and if things aren't taken out then they have to be cleaned/vacuumed so everything will the touched tomorrow or the day after we get home. So coming home, things aren't packed nice and neat. It is more of a shove it here and shove it there approach. Things do still have to be put away since we will still spend a long while in this tiny space.
We did most of this fairly quickly, and even had time for folks to swim. Campbell, Keaton and Whitman have been wanting to swim the entire time that we have been here. The pool here is pretty small, but today it wasn't crowded at all. Graham even joined them.
They were all able to swim for about an hour. And thankfully everyone remembered how to swim. Though Whitman still likes to bob up and down in the water. I had to remind him that it looks like he needs help when he does that. He asked if he could do it where he could touch, and the answer was certainly bob away.
After they swam, Campbell and Keaton took showers at the bathhouse. Robby and I walked Bentley over there and then drove back to pick them up. Then it was supper time around here-we did have our air fryer pizzas one more night. This was our third time to have them on the trip, but they are a favorite of everyones.
After eating and cleaning up, Robby and I headed back to Elkmont to see the fireflies one last time. This time it was a completely different experience. First, we arrived later, but parking was absolutely insane. People were parked everywhere-on the side of the road, on the grass, even in the road. We had to circle twice but were able to find a parking spot.
Now there were lots more people, but Robby and I walked to where we had talked to a man last night. While we were talking to him, on our way out, Robby did notice that he had a good spot to see the fireflies. We made it there-right after the big mud puddle-if we hadn't had a landmark then we never would have found it since it is the dark you are walking in.
The next difference was that we brought chairs-this was a good difference. A bad difference was that it was a bit scary! We were in a much smaller group, and we didn't see that many people-though people did keep walking behind us mainly leaving. Either way, I was a bit spooked!
We stayed for a while, but when we were almost to our parking lot, we noticed that the fireflies were just as active down there. It was just incredible tonight-I talked to a worker and she said this was nearly the peak. The entomologist said that the peak was going to occur before they predicted. I feel like we just really lucked out for sure last night and tonight. Today at the visitor's center, I even bought an ornament, and a sticker and a calendar. Yep, I might just be a sucker for fireflies now.
We drove through the deserted town of Gatlinburg on the way back to the camper. The kids were all still awake when we came back. We told them about our outing, and then started bedding everyone down. We are sleeping with the slides in so we can pull out of here tomorrow.
We will have to hook up the car which will take a minute when we leave, but hopefully we can get on the road at a decent time.
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