Day Seventeen (9/30) & Day Eighteen (10/1) - Groom & Shine

Day 17 (9/30)

It was a day of schoolwork at camp. The kids started the day by reading their journals to Gramma K. and Grandpa. Don had to drive to the nearest town of Falmouth so that he could work. The campground's wireless was down, so he split his time between the laundromat, Subway and McDonald's. We did our usual book work, then we made Confederate Johnny cakes. And we thought hardtack was dry. Blech! Grandpa was a trouper and ate a couple :-)
We took a walk with the grandparents and Bernie and checked out the campground. We discovered that there are some washers and dryers here. Unfortunately, that was after Don spent a couple of hours and $21 at the laundromat in the morning. We also spent some time at the playground so the kids could get some energy out. Plus, it was the one spot in the campground where our cell phones kind of worked.
Once Don got back, I made dinner and we all hung out in the camper for the evening. Very grateful for our new living area layout - plenty of room for all of us to sit and still be semi-comfortable.


Day 18 (10/1)

I was a big meanie and made the kids do some school work in the car on the way to Lexington. It was a really nice ride - we saw lots of beautiful horse farms with miles and miles of fences and stone walls. The houses were ridiculously huge.
First, we made a stop at the Parkette Drive-In, yet another place featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Despite the name, we chose to sit inside. Several of us enjoyed the "Big Mouth Bourbon Barbecue Bacon Burgers." How could we resist with that name? Bob praised the fried chicken and Gabriella chowed down her fish (she's not big on the chips.) Everything was incredible greasy, delicious, and very filling.

After lunch, we went to the Kentucky Horse Park. It turns out that we should have gotten to the park first thing in the morning, because we certainly could have spent all day. The park is humongous! It is home to many race and show horses and hosts many shows and competitions. We started out at the Kids' Barn, where they had a lot of informational displays about horses and their care, jobs related to horses, barrels and wooden horses for the kids to "ride," horses to peek in on, and a "practice" horse for grooming.

We walked over to the State Troopers' barn next and chatted with the trooper on duty. It turns out his family is from Johnstown! Crazy small world. He introduced us to the police horses and took us outside to show us his horse that was out in the paddock.

He said that the horse is a great partner for him, but doesn't play well with others. There was another horse in the stable with broken legs as a result of his horse's desire to be the dominant one.

Gabriella didn't limit herself to horses

We headed back to the Kids' Barn for a "Groom & Shine" lesson. Our kids were the only ones there, so they got to brush and comb "Cody," who was very patient. Gabriella remembered all of the different types of brushes and combs and the order to use them in from her time spent on the practice horse. She was so comfortable with the horse, a lady later asked her how many horses she had at home. Both the kids loved the experience so much that I think I'm going to look into some riding lessons when we get home.

We also took a horse-drawn carriage ride around the park.

Next, we hightailed it up to the Hall of Champions to see a presentation of some of the retired race horses that call the Horse Park home. They showed highlights of the horses' careers and we got to see horses like Cigar and Funny Cide. We met a lady whose daughter lives in Saratoga - seems like everybody knows somebody in upstate NY.

Funny Cide

We walked through the Big Barn and admired views of the park. I was trying to get some photos, but this kept happening.

I was finally able to get a few shots that were photo-bomber free.

We stopped at the farrier's and visited the International Museum of the Horse. Initially, I wasn't too excited about going to the museum, but it was very well done and we could have spent hours there. We got kicked out at closing time.
We spent the ride back to camp trying to keep Gabriella awake. We wanted to stop for ice cream to perk her up a bit, but this is apparently an ice cream deficient area. We all had steak and potatoes for dinner at our place. Bella spent the night at Bob and Linda's. She was so exhausted she conked right out and they all got a good night's sleep.

Day Fifteen (9/28) & Day Sixteen (9/29) - Corn Maze & Date Night

Day Fifteen (9/28)

The kids let us sleep in this morning, which was very, very nice. Once we got moving, we went to Tudor's Biscuit World for breakfast based on a glowing recommendation by one of the Hillbillies on Thursday night. I think that he may have overrated the place a tad. It tasted like a typical fast food breakfast, though the biscuits were pretty good. We went to the local Piggly Wiggly to stock up on basics. We had planned on going to a historical farm museum in the afternoon, but we had just gone to the Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown last month and the kids are starting to OD on museums :-) Plus, it was such a beautiful day, we wanted to be outside. We went back into Milton to a farm to do a corn maze. It was about eighty degrees out, so it didn't feel quite autumn-like. We had Halloween themed trivia questions to answer along the way to help us choose the right path at various checkpoints. Once the kids got over their anxiety about getting lost, we had a really good time. It was actually the first time that we have finished a corn maze! We've tried some pretty big ones, and after a couple of hours the kids have had enough. This one only took us about forty-five minutes to navigate and we had some friendly competition going with some other groups in the maze. On the wagon ride back to our truck, we chatted with a WV State Trooper and his family. They are from a town near the campground we stayed at last week.

We made it through - victory pose!

Back at the campground, we found we had another new neighbor, so we now have to park the truck across the road from our site. Don and Gabriella washed the truck while Gavin and I chilled out in the camper. We had a late Korean steak dinner, then the kids had showers and watched tv. Time to get cleaned up to get ready for another move tomorrow!

Day Sixteen (9/29)

We packed up and finally headed out about 10:30 or so. It was a gorgeous drive to Kentucky, though the weather got drearier as we went. We got to go through the mountains again, so I was happy. We have determined that every road around here is a "winding road" according to the GPS. We made one stop for a bathroom break and to wolf down some PB & J. Of course, Teaser peed in her carrier anyway. Cats just aren't good at holding it.

We saw a lot of tobacco farms - all of the plants are hung up and drying in the barns. It must still be a lucrative business, as the farm houses were almost all big and fancy. We also passed a crazy number of cemeteries. Where did all of the people come from to be buried here? We're in the middle of nowhere!

Kincaid Lake State Park is the boonies, and coming from Galway, you know it means a lot when I say it! Plus, our campsite is a few miles in from the park entrance. We had to find the camp host to check in. We have a really nice site, but very uneven. We found out that the area is going to be filling up soon due to this weekend's "Wool Fest," which is a huge area festival with food, music, and crafts. It would probably be fun, but the campground is all reserved and we have to leave on the day the festival begins.

The kids and Bernie were very excited when the grandparents arrived! Once everyone was settled, Don and I were granted a date night while the kids stayed with the grandparents. We drove almost an hour up to New Richmond, Ohio to the Front Street Cafe. It was a cute little place on the Ohio River, but we were the only customers, which was a little odd. Luckily, everything we ordered was delicious! We started out with crab cakes with remoulade, then I had Pasta LaFayette with shrimp and andouille sausage, while Don had a rib eye. We both ended with creme brulee. We were stuffed and happy by the time we left!

We stopped at a Kroger's to restock AGAIN and prepare to be feeding more people this week. We are collecting grocery store membership cards as we travel around! We also bought discount tickets for the aquarium we're going to visit later this week. When we got back, we had to put our steaks in Bob and Linda's enormous freezer, because we can't fit anymore in our tiny one. Don discovered that the campground's wireless isn't working, so he has to find a place to go to work tomorrow morning!

Day Thirteen (9/26) & Day Fourteen (9/27) Hillbilly Hot Dogs and Health Royale

Day Thirteen (9/26)

It started out as a weird, foggy morning. Don worked outside at the picnic table all day today while we did schoolwork. We did our usual bookwork, including writing in journals. Today, they had to write a story pretending they were soldiers in the Civil War. I guess everything that they have been learning about how hard their lives were has sunk in. At the end of her story, Gabriella wrote: "I broke my arm and they had to cut it off."  But I am very impressed with how much they are learning on this trip, about history and even their regular subjects.The one on one attention goes a long way. Gabriella even started working on fractions today!
The kids and I took a walk around the campground. There are more people here than I thought, but some of the sites in the back are right up against the highway. I don't know how those people sleep at night! We stopped at the playground, but the equipment was mainly for younger kids. We checked out the camp store and Gavin asked about the advertised game room. Turns out it's just a room with board games in it. Much less exciting than he was anticipating. The owner said they have a walking trail and he marked it for us on a campground map. We made it about half-way before giving up. There was no actual trail - we were basically just going around the perimeter of the campground. It not been cut back at all, so I got to wrestle all of the pricker bushes and burrs to make a path for the kids. We did get to see some huge fish jumping in the pond. After, the kids and I sat outside when the sun came out and read together.
After lunch, we did a camper clean-up: bathrooms, floors, rugs, etc. It's kind of nice to be able to clean the whole place in less than an hour.
In the evening, Don took the kids fishing in one of the stocked ponds while I prepped schoolwork and watched "Chopped." They were gone quite a while, but had no luck. We headed to Hillbilly Hot Dogs for dinner - yet another place from Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. It was a funky little place, and we had it pretty much to ourselves. The guys working there were very friendly and entertaining. The kids sang and clapped along with the Hillbilly Hot Dogs theme song to get free ice cream for dessert. We spent the ride home trying to keep Gabriella awake so that she would be able to sleep at night.


Day Fourteen (9/27)

We did schoolwork in the morning, then drove into Charleston to the Clay Science and Art Center. What a fantastic place, though the neighborhood is not the greatest. The best part was that we got in free with our misci membership.
Their new dinosaur exhibit was awesome! The kids' (and Don's) favorite part was a video game simulation where you were a dinosaur trying to survive.

Gabriella spent quite a bit of time playing with build-your-own dinosaur figures. She made a friend named Zachary that spent the rest of the afternoon trying to follow us around :-)
Another highlight was a Hollywood Squares style game show, "Health Royale," about health and the human body. It was really impressive - it had its own studio room and people could take turns being contestants. Each body part was animatronic and most were based on celebrities.

Notice "Pelvis" on the middle right

There were also lots of hands-on experiments with water, sound, bubbles, etc.

The kids managed to get most of the room wet with this contraption

You know those pin-things in a frame that you put your hand on? This was a full-size version. And that's Gavin.

Bella blowing a gigantic bubble

Don giving the arms a workout

Gabriella's turn hoisting herself up

We attended a short program about reptiles. We didn't get much info out of it, but the kids got to touch snakes and turtles, so they were happy. We did a quick walk-through of the art museum upstairs before we left. Some of it the kids weren't too interested in, but they got to experiment a little bit with color.
After we left, we went to a Steak 'n' Shake for dinner. We don't do too many chains, but we really like this one and have visited one in Iowa, Indiana, Florida, and now West Virginia. The milkshakes are sooooo yummy! Everyone else in the place was heading to a big high school football game. We've noticed that no matter how poor a community appears, every high school has a huge stadium with lights.
When we got back to camp, we discovered that a lot more people pulled in for the weekend, and we now have a neighbor on one side, so we had to find another place to park the truck.

Day Eleven (9/24) & Day Twelve (9/25)

Day Eleven (9/24)

What a gorgeous, sunny day! We had a busy day of school work today. In the morning, we did book work. Gotta love equivalent fractions! Gabriella is reading Magic Tree House's Civil War on Sunday. Her reading is phenomenal! Gavin is working on creating a graphic novel based on a civil war era book he read called The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg.
After lunch, we did spelling, then set off for a hike around the park. The kids and I took a trail down to the lake and played on the playground for a bit. We then took the trail all the way around the lake. We checked out the docks, the dam, many scenic views, and all of the ducks. After, we took a couple of different trails back up to the campground - one was a little steeper and rockier than expected, but it was fun.

When we got back, we broke out the clay and made models to show how the Appalachian Mountains were formed. It was informative and fun for a while, but then the kids ended up making Super Mario Brothers characters instead.
In the evening, Don took the kids to Walmart while I made chicken chili and some extra chicken for tomorrow's lunch, and picked up all the stuff laying around the camper. I have to say, it was nice to have a couple of minutes to myself, even if it was spent cooking and cleaning.


Day Twelve (9/25)

It was a dreary, chilly morning. Don wanted to pull out at 11:00, so the kids and I packed everything up, they wrote in their journals, and we were ready to go by 10:20. So, of course, Don's meeting ran late and didn't finish until almost 12:00. While we waited, the kids did math at the picnic table, practiced our Spanish color words, and I read them some chapters of a book we're reading about Civil War signalmen. We had to stop at the dump station, get fuel, then a policeman loaned Don a compressor to blow up the still leaky tire that we already had fixed. We finally got on the road about 1:00, which was the time we had expected to arrive at the next campground.
The drive was beautiful, even in the rain. The highway was winding and hilly. I will certainly miss these mountains. Teaser was very unsettled for this trip. She peed in her carrier. Whoopee. Gavin was a bit grumpy, and Gabriella napped. We were happy to arrive at the Huntington/Fox Fire KOA. It is small, but a cute campground. Our site is very small, but will be fine as long as we don't get any neighbors. Bernie can't go to far into the tree line to go to the bathroom - he will fall off a cliff! We were a bit leery when we heard a train whistle, as we have had bad experiences with train disturbances in the past, but the trains were quiet in the night.
Once we got set up, the kids and I were lazy and watched PBS for the afternoon while Don worked. We have real cable for the first time here. Don helped another couple get their television hooked up in their new class B. In gratitude, the guy gave Don a bottle of "homemade" cleaner that he had invented. Don said the guy even sprayed some on his hand and licked it off to demonstrate that it was non-toxic. Wow.
I made curry chicken salad pita sandwiches when we got here, so we weren't really hungry at dinner time. The kids ate a little bit, took showers, and headed off to bed. Don and I got to hang out on our own for a while.

Day Ten (9/23) - Hardtack and Lumps of Coal

Mornings are a bit chilly around here, but the sun was bright and shining. I had a very exciting morning of laundry duty. It was very nice to have the laundry room just down the road, but there was only one washer and dryer, so I spent most of the day walking back and forth. At least it was only $1 a load here! I did meet the camp host's wife there, though. She actually retired from NPS and now they camp host at Little Beaver from April to November and go to Florida for the winter. Not a bad plan! Gabriella and I also met a friendly camp kitty that came to see us in the laundry room. That made Bella's day. To move things along a little, the kids even did their math sitting on benches in the sun outside the laundry room.

In addition to regular book work, we read part of You Wouldn't Want to be a Civil War Soldier to learn more about the soldiers' daily lives. We then made a common Union soldier food - hardtack. We had some along with our lunch with some honey and jam. It's made from flour, water, and salt - basically baked paste. It wasn't as bad as we had anticipated, though it was a tad hard to bite into. The kids actually liked it! Of course, the soldiers didn't have honey to put on it, and they had to carry it their pockets for days at a time, so it was nice and stale and mealy by the time they ate it. Yum.

Don's last meeting of the day was canceled, so at 3:30 we made an impromptu trip to the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine. A coal mine was not my first choice because of my slight case of claustrophobia, but the boys were very interested in going. The mine was discovered when the town bought the land to develop into a park. The entrance was discovered at the bottom of a pond, so they shored up the tunnels and started giving tours. A coal car pulled our little trolley cars down into the mine.

Our guide was a former electrician in the West Virginia mines. He was quite a character and showed us different equipment and techniques used in mining through the years.

Gabriella didn't like it when he turned off all of the lights to show just how dark it was in the mines (can't see your hand in front of your face,) but otherwise the kids thought it was pretty cool.  I do believe they have both decided that mining is not the life for them. They each got a gen-yoo-ine lump of WV coal to take home.

Looking back down the tunnel behind us

After the tour, we checked out restorations of a coal camp - houses for the men and their families, the superintendent's house, a school, etc. They also had a small youth museum on site. They had an architect's exhibit going on with many different building materials to experiment with. The kids could have spent all day long in there, but we only had twenty minutes until closing time. Oh well - we take what we can get!

We headed back to camp, but had to stop at an old-fashioned frozen custard place that bakes their own waffle cones every day. It's okay, though. It was our first ice cream stop for this leg of the trip!

When we got back, Bella and I made meatloaf and put it on the grill. We took a walk to the dumpster and stopped to play on the playground for a bit. I scared the tuna salad out of her a couple of times while playing hide and seek! We went back to finish dinner, then we all watched "The Princess and the Frog." I did get to see the season premiere of "Castle" - it happened to be on one of the two channels we get here. It's the little things in life that make us happy!

Day Nine (9/22) - When they say Strenuous Trail, they mean Strenuous

What a fabulous day! It was mostly sunny skies with some passing clouds here and there. We packed up the kids and the dog and headed to the New River Gorge National River Park. We started at the Sandstone Visitor's Center, It was really well done - the whole floor of the place was inlaid with a map of the surrounding area. The kids did a quick scavenger hunt for animals within the exhibits, then they got to scan their animal cards at learning center computers to learn more about them. Animals and technology together - can't get any better than that for these kids. We could have spent hours there, but Don and Bernie were waiting out in the truck, so I picked up a trail map and got some hiking recommendations from the ranger and we headed out. As I was getting in the truck, I heard screams coming from the other side. Gabriella shut her thumb in the door of the truck. And those are some darn big doors. I hustled her back to the ranger station to see if they had any ice. They didn't, but eventually found one of those ice pack things that you break open to activate. Gabriella is a real trouper and after a couple minutes was ready to go and hit the trail.
We first went to an overlook over Sandstone Falls, which was just a quick walk downhill. We met a nice couple with a dog. Bernie wanted to make friends, but the Jack Russell wasn't having it. At least Bernie enjoyed the view.

We drove down through the town of Hinton to cross the New River and go to the Big Branch Trail. It is rated "Strenuous" by the NPS, but it was recommended by the ranger, so how bad could it be? Perhaps we will take the ratings more seriously in the future. The first two thirds of the trail were climbing up the side of a steep ridge. We had to stop a couple of times to catch our breath for a minute, but we made it to the top! There was a little bit of complaining from the kids (and, okay, probably me, too,) but they were very proud of themselves that they made it all the way up. Don had an advantage because Bernie basically pulled him all the way to the top. He is still terrible on the leash, but he isn't trustworthy enough to let loose. If he caught the scent of one little squirrel, he would chase it all the way to Kentucky.
The view from the top of the ridge would probably be pretty spectacular, but it is so heavily treed that we couldn't really see anything. But it was actually a very cool trail, because it crossed over a stream several times. I was impressed because we made it across the rocks every time without anyone getting wet. Well, except for Bernie. He believes in wading across. The kids loved all of the little waterfalls along the way.

The way back down was ridiculously steep in spots. You can tell that the trail isn't used all that often because there were a lot of downed trees that we had to climb over/under. To add to the fun, the past couple days of rain had made the clay nice and slippery. Our toes were all sore from being jammed into our boots as we descended, and we had a couple of close calls with slides on the way down, but we all made it unscathed. My feet and legs were nice and muddy by the time we finished. We celebrated when we finished! It was definitely the hardest trail we have done as a family, but it shows that we can tackle most anything now. We just won't be setting any land speed records.
We had only planned on being out for a couple of hours for a quick hike or two in the morning, then going back to the camper for lunch, but it didn't quite work out that way. We had been out for a long time, so we had a quick snack in the truck (thank goodness for granola bars!) then went down to see Sandstone Falls up close from the other side of the river.

We did a little boardwalk trail out by the falls, then went on the Island Loop Trail to take the scenic route back to the truck. It was short and very rocky. We drove back across the river and headed north. We stopped at King Tut's Drive-In for "linner," as Gabriella calls it. The menu was horribly bad for you, but oh, so good! Don had a "nightmare" - polish sausage and sauerkraut, I had a King cheeseburger with everything, which was a lot, Gavin had a hot dog, Gabriella had chicken nuggets, and Bernie had a hot dog. We all also enjoyed our various fried sides.
After we ate, it was clear that we were not going to be doing any more hiking that day. But I was determined to at least get up to see the New River Gorge Bridge. The gorge was one the reasons that we came to this area. There are some incredible hikes around there, but it was already 5:00 and we were all plumb tuckered out. We did actually get to drive over the bridge - it's the longest steel span and the second highest bridge in the US. It's very picturesque - it's the picture on the back of the WV quarter.

The in-motion picture doesn't do it justice - it's a jaw dropping view when you cross the bridge.
You can fit the Washington Monument and two Statues of Liberty stacked up underneath the bridge, with twenty feet to spare!

We drove to the Canyon Rim Visitor's Center and walked to the overlook. I was disappointed that the view from there wasn't the greatest.

I was bummed that I didn't get the fabulous panoramic pictures that I was expecting to take, but I was very happy with the awesome day that we had!
We headed back to camp through some little towns. You can tell that the area's economy is on the poor side. There are many old mining and railroad towns. I am absolutely in love with the natural area - I would never get tired of these mountains! But, I haven't seen any communities that I would want to call home.
Don was determined to finally have a campfire when we got back. The camp host told us that someone had left a bunch of firewood on another campsite, so we had a nice freebie fire. We were even able to use our new pie iron to make some campfire pies that the kids loved. And we were all very ready for bed at the end of the night!