I'm Home

After a long and grueling drive, I arrived at my parents house at 7:30 AM. I had very little hope of surprising them since the dogs bark whenever a strange car drives up to the house. Our lovely dog Cody did bark, but not much, and apparently my mom assumed Cody was barking at something random in the yard. I came into the house very quietly and said hi to my OLD sis at the computer and we both went into Mom's room. She heard us coming and did a double take when she saw me. Mission accomplished!

This is just a short post put up in a hurry. I'm going to be busy for the next month or so, but I hope to find time to share some of the sites I saw along the day. Ooops. Mom and Jesse needs use of the computer. I'll see ya'll later!

David's Second Day of Traveling

We last left David starting into Nashville, TN last night. When he called this morning, he seemed to have a very strong impression of the center for country music - loud, live musicians. There was approx 6 square blocks of drinking bars that were full of people listening to live musicians. There couldn't have been much talking going on because the music was so loud even out on the sidewalks! He left there about 10:30 at night and drove on to a restful night at his wigwam. :^) Next morning he was ready for spelunking at Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. For the long 6 hour tour he needed different shoes and clothing than he was wearing so he took a somewhat shorter but enjoyable tour. His impression of Mammoth Cave was - big! Abraham Lincoln was his nest stop - birthplace that is. He enjoyed this piece of history, especially the Lincoln Memorial. There was not a lot of documentation available here, something on which the Helen Keller museum had been strong. Driving through Elizabethtown was the next stop and this appeared to be a small version of a typical midwast town. Finding a night's stopping place in West Virginia is the next hurdle at which we left him. He ate Subway once yesterday and once today, but has otherwise subsisted on a box of miscellaneous snacks - a thoughtful gift from Florida friends.

David's 1st day and night of traveling

Hello! This is Margaret, my baby brother, David's, OLDer sister. I was asked to write a short story about his first day (Monday) being on the road. He had a great time driving around and sightseeing the places he stopped at along the way. At the end of the day, he decided to spend the night in the parking lot of a church and sleep in his car. What he didn't know was the church had recently been burglarized, so people driving by were watching the church for any suspicious activity. Now enter David. (SCREAMING SIRENS) Hours later, before he realized what was happening, he was rousted out by police with a few police lights around David's car. The police told David (through the police car's horn) to get out of the car immediately. They patted him down while he stood with palms on the car and fired some questions at him. Still heavy with sleep, he answered the question about his social security numbers WRONG TWICE!!! Gasp! He was about to be arrested. WAIT!!! On his third try, he gave the police the correct SSN. WHEW!!! It did not help that his car was full of stuff. The police did not know if these were things he had just removed from the church. Eventually they decided he was okay and told him to keep driving. All the fuss because of a person's wild imagination when he or she saw David and his car full of stuff in the parking lot and thought he was stealing stuff from the church. So the person called the police on my poooorrr baby brother. What is the sad part is that I was not there to bask in the excitment. Hopefully I get to have my turn someday. :) David was in Montgomery, Alabama this morning ready to see more sights. As of 9:00 PM Tues, he was just parking in Nashville, Tenn, ready to see some new sights. He has reservations for the night at a motel where the rooms are a big teepee or wigwam. We will find out tomorrow morning about Nashville and the wigwam.

My trip - edited as I travel.

Google Map of the path I take.


edit: 8:36AM August 25th: last blog before I leave. Should be off in 10. Wish me luck!

For those new to my wonderful world of blogging, welcome to my wonderful and wild blog. I'm hoping I get a few new readers while I'm on my trip home. Mostly because I'll tell people to check. :-P

I've finally opted to just do this post myself and I'm going to give the job of updating this list to my super-great-sister. Well, they both are, but my OLDer sister will be the one helping me out.

Alabama Shakespeare festival - unfortunately, the appearances that are put on ended the 22nd during my recheck Sunday night, so I think I'll be passing that by. It's not too far out of the way. so I may hit it yet.

First White House of the Confederacy - Montgomery Alabama - Jefferson Davis first residence as President of the Confederacy.

Unfortunately, I can't see any more of Alabama without adding a few hundred more miles to my trip home, so I'll hit other sites along my route that have more sites to see. Onto Tennessee!

First stop - Chatanooga. Why? Because it sounds cool. :-)

The next stop in Tennessee is Nashville, home of Country music. I'm going to see how I feel when I roll through this little burg. There is a lot to see in Kentucky, so I may just pick one or two quick sites to see and then roll on. I'll let ya'll know!

Unfortunately, we've had an all too short trip through Tennissee, but we'll make up for it in... tum tum tum.... Kentucky!

First stop Mammoth Cave. I'm planning a full day stop here. Apparently one of the trips into the cave can lasts a full working day - WOOT - 150 foot ceilings - 200 foot long caverns - I'll bring extra batteries and film.

Hodgenville is home of the Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln and civil war memorabilia reside in this lovely area along with other random historical memorabilia.

North another 2 or three miles and I'll hit Elizabethtown. What are the big attractions there? Not much. It bills itself as a traditional town with residents such as Abraham lincoln and his father, and tours with authentically garbed guides. Mostly, I just like the movie with the same name, so I'll stop by so I can satisfy my own personal quirk that has driven me to visit this town.

My travel book has a few other places I might hit such as Maysville with the National Underground Railroad Museum and the Cumberland gap, the Tuskeegee institute. Mostly, I'm just going to see what comes up along the way and plan the side trips according to my time schedule. I have educational CDs on Swing and Jazz, Japanese language CDs, Korean language CDs, and all the sermons and audio books on my computer, merely one download-to-a-personal-listening-device away. I have lots to occupy my brain, family to be inquisitive, friends to be updated. It will be a relaxing trip. Not quite as relaxing as canoeing in Canada for a week - nothing has EVER been that relaxing, but close.

Welcome Wyatt!

I would like to announce that my sister has birthed a lovely baby called.... drumroll please.... Wyatt! He is Seven pounds 7 ounces and very healthy. After Katie arrived at the hospital, it was only a two hour wait for the grand arrival. My mom said Kate is doing fine and that she (my mom) will keep me updated.

Key Largo Trip Pictures

No underwater pictures will be posted yet - not that I'm in that big of a hurry to get them up. The pictures don't do the fish and coral any justice.


First picture is one of my lovely sister's shoulder... and Christina! I snapped this while I was home during the end of July


We went through some rain but there were some beautiful clouds before the rain hit.


A friend of my scuba partner met us for dinner.


Uhg... horrors that was the motel room the first night. At least the water worked and flowed quite strongly.



The Marriott had a much better room.



Half the skyline of Miami. The towers are quite spread out, so you go about 10 miles before you skyscrapers aren't nearby. Most of the skyscrapers on the shore are motels.


A picture looking down from 19 stories up. Our motel room had a lovely view. In fact, the horizontal space by the shore is so expensive, that the swimming pool, jacuzi, bar, workout rooms, were all on top of the fifth story. The camera lens got something smudged on the lens so all my morning short have a haze in the middle.


The church roof the workers are on is around five stories up.... way down there. :-)