Day 37 - Home!

We all woke up this day ready to be home. It seems the closer we get the more ready we all are! Once Dave and I were mostly packed up I peeked in the kids tent to see Ryan smiling back at me. The other two were awake so I said, "Whoever gets their stuff packed up first gets to push the 'Home' button on the GPS!" You would have thought I just offered the winner a million dollars. I've never seen any of them move so fast! I think I might need to rethink my bribing strategy!

While they were packing up I noticed the nice grassy area I had decided to set their tent must have been homes to all kinds of animals. All around the tent there were snails enjoying the new textures and climbing opportunities! Tyan was finished packing up first so she relocated all of them to a snail and slug sanctuary closer to the woods.

We packed up in record time and Ryan pushed the "Home" button as we all climbed into the car. We were all excited that it would only be a little over a 4 hour drive! As soon as we were out of the state park and into some small towns I found us a place for a biscuit for breakfast. We ate at Hardee's and talked about how many times Nana and Papa had taken the kids there when they stayed with them. 

The last day is the least eventful because of our pinpoint focused goal of getting home. I was thrilled though because Dave actually drove the whole way! We did stop again at Preisters Pecans for a sugar snack since Dave didn't get to stop on the way out. While I sat in the rocking chair, Ryan challenged him to flip tic-tac-toe but he beat her. She was consoled by a quick visit to the swinging horses before we hopped back into the car again for the short trip home. 

We were able to be home be early afternoon so we could start on the mountain of laundry and the kids could actively but grudgingly participate in unloading the car and organizing all their things. We were all SO ready for showers and a good, solid night's sleep in our own beds!

Day 36

We were on the road shortly after 9 to head to Alabama. I had no idea the route we were taking I just hopped into the driver's seat and set the GPS. I did know that I wanted to go back to the visitor's center for a sticker for our cargo carrier since we didn't have one from The Smoky Mountains. The kids were excited to watch the rest of the first Lord of the Rings movie and had their fingers crossed they'd be able to fit the second one in as well.  I was just glad I hadn't been driving 5 hours a day like many previous years!

We ended up skirting around Chattanooga after a lot of sleepy interstate miles then even more into Alabama. Dave fell asleep reading in the passenger's seat a few times so I knew he wouldn't be much better!

We finally arrived at the highest point of Alabama and got set up. I picked a spot near the top of the campground near the lookout tower but within walking distance of the pool this time. It was a terrible campsite for tents - we have definitely been spoiled by our perfect little tent pads this summer! I struggled to find a good spot for either of our tents that was even close to level but we settled on a dirt sorta level spot for the adult tent and a grassy tree-covered spot for the kid tent. Within 10 seconds of setting up we were walking down the road to the pool.

The weather was nice and the pool felt great. Unfortunately I'd forgotten my swimsuit so I was the penny thrower and referee once the chicken fighting and wrestling began. 

After about an hour a dark cloud started to make it's presence known in the distance so I went back to the campsite to get dinner going. I laughed most of the way back thinking about the whining from Dave as it was a straight up hike back up the hill to our site.

They were about 15 minutes behind me so dinner was in full cooking mode when Dave walked up. I asked him to turn the heat down on the boiling pot and I was met with silence. Both burners were on full blast and neither would turn down or off. We couldn't have asked for a better time for our trusty stove to die than the last meal of the last day of the trip! To add to the chaos it started pouring at that moment so I grabbed all the food and the pot of boiling noodles and headed to the picnic shelter across the street. We made do with watery macaroni and cheese and cold pizza quesadillas. The kid thought it was a great dinner however it left a lot to be desired for me for sure.

Lucky for us I had one of the kids grab the game box so we had some entertainment. We ended up playing card games while the storm passed and chatted about our fun memories of the trip.

Once the weather seemed to have cleared we headed back down to the pool again. I wasn't sure Dave would want to go with that big hill to climb but he didn't complain! Brayden brought his football this time so the kids had a good time jumping in to catch it.

This one-handed catch was my favorite of the night!

The kids eyes started hurting after too much longer from the chlorine so we decided to call it a night and head back to the tents. Dave did catch a tiny piece of the sunset before we left though!

Day 46

We woke this morning pretty early ready to get on the road to home. We'd had some rain overnight so the packing up wasn't the cleanest, but with all five of us pitching in it was relatively painless. After all the mud that had been on the tent and sand inside I knew I'd be cleaning them once we got home anyway. The weather up on the mountain was nice and cool and a refreshing peek into fall on the way I hoped.

Our first stop on the way home was just around the corner at Bald Rock. The kids and I had visited on our stay before and they wanted to show Dave. Brayden and I were surprised to find out after all our learning about the Civilian Conservation Corps, this was the first trail they ever built.

We enjoyed walking down the boardwalk together and the kids of course especially loved climbing over all the rocks. Ryan has been right next to me all trip taking pictures. I'm interested to see how her photos all turned out!

With some strategic camera rock placement, we even managed to get a picture of all of us!

After a quick stop at Cracker Barrel where we all found out we were not in fact, geniuses, we stopped into a shoe store for the kids' back-to-school shoes and Books-A-Million for a back-to-school book from Dave.  I think we were all pretty much ready to be home so the stops didn't take too terribly long.

Of course about 45 minutes into the drive Dave's sleepy-while-driving-straight issue creeped up so I drove the rest of the way home. I was so happy to see our home and our animals, but not so happy to see the mountain of all mountains of stuff that exploded from my car.

Thankfully we had dinner covered with a Santino's Pizza gift card from Grandpa Scott earlier in the summer. I was pretty sure we wouldn't be able to see the floor of the laundry room for a few days.