Voss Vaca 2020 - Day 9 - Shawnee National Forest - Lake Glendale

Our trip is coming to an end ad we begin our journey back towards home.  On the way back, instead of doing a long driving day, we divided the trip up into two shorter driving days and added some more activities to the schedule, because, you know, we didn't do enough yet.  Like I said before, Illinois wasn't a state we planned on hitting and adding to our map this trip.  We have a Great Lakes trip planned that will start in Chicago, go around Lake Michigan and Lake Erie, hitting Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and possibly West Virginia.  But since we were going right through this National Forest, it felt like we should at least stop for a bit and take a look around.  I emailed the forest a week or so before our trip and asked about their Junior Forest Ranger program.  The woman I spoke with mailed them to me, but they didn't get here before we left.  We also found out, once we got home, that they needed additional postage, so we had to put some money in an envelope and put it back in the mail to get the books delivered.  And, if I'm totally honest, I haven't checked the mail again since right after we got back, so those books are probably sitting in the mailbox waiting, but I haven't got to them yet, lol!  She also said she was sending the things that you receive for completing the books, so we wouldn't need to worry about sending them back in, and could just give the kids their stuff once the books were completed.  I did a little looking online when we were on our way to the forest, to see if there were answers we'd need to look for while we were there.  Turns out, the books have learning information and the corresponding activities right there in the book, so you don't have to be present with the book to be able to complete it.  Which worked out great for us!  So we just enjoyed our hiking, and once I get the mail, the kids and I can go through a few pages per day and finish the book up here at home.

We stopped at two different sites in Shawnee National Forest.  When I was emailing with the woman from the park, I mentioned what highway we'd be on and the ages of our kids and asked for recommendations of where we should go and what we should visit.  She recommended Lake Glendale and Garden of the Gods.  Lake Glendale was a fun little lake area with a hiking path that went all the way around the lake.  We began hiking, but as we had already done so much of it during the week, and we were wearing down, we didn't end up making it all the way around.  We had been hiking for about a mile and a quarter when we stopped to rest.  Avery wanted to keep going, all the way around the lake.  But Michael and I knew that we had only gone about 1/3 of the way around the lake, and we didn't think the kids would be able to hold out for the rest of the hike, so we started making our way back.  This turned out to be the right call, because we were all pretty tired by the time we got back to the car.  2.5 miles in total.  There were some neat camping areas around the lake, and if we lived in the area, we'd probably go back and camp there.  There was also a swimming beach, but as we still had one more place to stop in the forest and a few more hours to drive after we left there, we decided not to stop and swim.  Here's what our first hike of the day, around Glendale Lake, looked like...

Our next stop in Shawnee National Forest was The Garden of the Gods.  Obviously, the first thing I thought of when I heard the name was of Colorado.  The area was beautiful with cliffs that you could see for miles from.  This area was actually pretty busy with other people!  We got one of the last parking spots in the area.  I was surprised that it was as busy as it was, because the day we were there was the 4th of July!  I figured everyone would have family things to do, but maybe since a lot of parades and other celebrations were canceled, they decided to go to an outdoor, open air area instead.  We tried to stay away from people as best we could.  We also had our masks on through most of our hike because they paths were narrow and since it was so busy and a fairly short path, we couldn't stay as far away from people as we would have liked.  We even got crazy and, when someone asked if they could take our picture for us, handed the phone over and let them.  Michael really enjoyed this stop on our trip.  He said that through much of our hikes all you saw to the left and right were more trees.  He really wanted to get up high enough to see over the trees and into the valleys.  We were able to do that here.  :-)  The sign at the front said the loop was a quarter mile, but when there was a fork in the path, we, inevitably, took the longer route again.  I can't remember exactly how long it was, but I believe it was somewhere between 3/4 of a mile and 1 mile that we ended up hiking at this stop.  Not too terribly long, but by this point, I was completely done, tired, and over the hiking thing.  So we left and started making our way the rest of the way through our drive to St. Louis.  (I have already added a lot of pictures to this post, so I'm going to add the Garden of the Gods pics to the next post.)

I specifically requested a high floor at our hotel in St. Louis, and paid a little more for it.  You couldn't see the Arch from our room, but you could see suburban St. Louis off in the distance.  It was still going to be a few hours until it was dark enough for fireworks, so we enjoyed the hotel.  Because of COVID, they were having people sign up for an hour long time slot in the pool, and weren't letting more than 10 people in the area at a time.  During out time slot, there were the 4 of us, plus 2 other people.  Needless to say, it was easy to distance ourselves.  The employees came in before and after each group to sanitize things.  I thought they did a really good job trying to keep everyone safe.  We also let the kids hit the vending machine, just outside the pool, because, why not?  We let them each get two snacks and they were happy little campers.  It turned out to a be a good thing we did that, because getting food delivered to our hotel on the 4th of July turned out to be a total nightmare.  I didn't think about the fact that it was the 4th, but I'm sure it leant to the problems we had.  We ordered from one restaurant and waited over an hour before finally getting our order canceled.  After all of that we found out that the restaurant was close.  Grrr!  We ordered from another restaurant and waited another hour, and finally got food, but several items were missing, including the pizza we ordered for the kids.  *facepalm*  So they ate some of my pasta and Michael's sandwich and their snacks.  What a mess.  When our food finally arrived it was late enough that the fireworks were going off like crazy in the distance.  There was nothing nearby in the city limits going off, but the hills on the horizon were going crazy for hours!  Pictures don't do it justice.  It was beautiful!  And they just kept going!  At 11pm we were closing the drapes and going to sleep, but the fireworks were still going strong.  It was a nice way to end the evening.  <3  One more day until we would get home.  (Again, already added a lot of pictures to this post, so I'm going to add hotel pics and fireworks pics to the next blog, or maybe the one after that.)

How's That?!?!?

It's been a little under an hour since I posted my first blog this morning and now, counting this one, I'm up to 5 blogs in that hour!!  Not too shabby!  Now, given, a few of them are just little ones like this of me saying, look what I did!  But still!  Not bad!  Of those 5 blogs I finished posting about one day on vacation and completed two other days, so that's good.  I was just too pooped and too behind to get all of this done while we were on vacation.  Plus, a couple of times I tried to blog while we drove, and kept losing everything.  It wasn't worth the frustration!  Coming up are the last two days of our vacation where we experienced Illinois the first time in Shawnee National Forest.  We didn't plan on adding Illinois to the map on this trip, but decided if we have a picture we like better when we go to Chicago for our Great Lakes trip, we can always change it.  And our last day, we hit another Missouri destination and saw the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.  I considered changing out our Missouri photo on our map, but then thought, well I can't take down our Royals picture!!  But it's nice that even if we have visited a state and checked it off the list, does not preclude us from going back to that state if there's something more we want to see.  For instance, we have every intention of hitting Arches National Park, among other scenic spots in southern Utah on our way home from Vegas, during our southwest trip.  We've already got Utah checked off our list and the picture is on the map, but there is more to see, and if it works into our trips, we aren't going to skip it because we already have the state checked off.  Especially when it comes to National Parks!  (Speaking of which, I still need to mail back the kids' Stones River booklets...  Probably ought to get that done soon)  Anyways, this makes blog #5 in an hour, so I'm going to take a short break (she said, knowing she may not get back to the blog until this evening or even tomorrow) and be back after a brief word from our sponsors!  😉  Have a good one!  Love you!

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Voss Vaca 2020 - Day 8 - Shopping in Murfreesboro

There's very little to show for this day of our trip.  It was Friday and our last day in Tennessee.  Shanna and I had talked about going to a place where we could rent kayaks and go on a lake (she's as scared of running water as I am after a slip that ended with her skin on the corner of a rock and, what she thought initially but turned out not to be, a broken leg).  However, the more I got to thinking about it, the more I thought Michael and Connor could use a break.  I tend to pack our vacations full and leave little to no time for rest.  So this time, before our 2 days of driving home, we decided to just rest.  Michael slept in (blackout curtains are AMAZING), we lounged around the house, drinking coffee and listening to music.  The kids watched TV and played on their tablets and used FB Messenger for Kids to call their friends and tell them about vacation.  It was really nice.  

Friday was also the last day of Chuck's vacation, so he and Shanna decided to go ahead and go out and find some water to play in.  Turns out, everywhere they went was CRAZY busy.  It wasn't a huge surprise when we got to thinking about it, it was Friday before the 4th of July, so chances were, many people had the day off.  And with some people being leery of going to indoor places or in town, it made sense that there were lots of people at the outdoor activity locations.  They drove about an hour and a half to find their spot overrun with people, so they came back to Murfreesboro and ended up at a quieter spot only 10 minutes from home.  🤦🏼‍♀️  

Meanwhile, after resting all morning and a good part of the early afternoon, we decided to venture out for just a bit.  One of our friends from home recommended Mayday Brewery in Murfreesboro and said it was one of his absolute favorites, and that he liked it more than any brewery in Wichita.  Pretty high praise!  So we went to check it out, as well as a couple boutiques in Murfreesboro, looking for souvenirs. 

I found a watch to buy at one of the boutiques!  I love the rose gold!  At another boutique, but not pictured, I found a sweater I bought to wear to school, and Avery got some fancy, homemade earrings!  Connor and Michael were less impressed with these places.  😂

Made it to Mayday!  They had a food truck there too, but Shanna and Chuck were planning wings for dinner, so we stuck to beer and snacks for the kids.

Flights are the best way to get to try things and decide what you like!  We each ended up choosing 2 beers we liked to bring home.

Played some Kings Corners at Mayday while we worked on our snacks and drinks.  It was nice getting out, just the four of us, for a while.

That was most of our day.  We went back to Chuck and Shanna's and had wings for dinner.  We stayed up late to get a head start on packing.  We opened up the blackout curtains so we wouldn't sleep too late.  I can't remember if it was on this night, or the night before, that we got supplies to make smores and did that as well.  All in all, we had a wonderful time in Tennessee!  As always, Chuck and Shanna were excellent hosts!  I have a lot I can improve on and always get ideas from them about how to better host others in our home.  😊  It was a great day and a very nice was to finish up our exciting and exhausting time in Tennessee.  😁😉

Voss Vaca 2020 - Day 7 - Nice Mill Dam and Recreational Area

Ok, so let's recap, on Tuesday we hiked around Mammoth Cave National park for about 5 miles.  On Wednesday we hiked around Stones River National Battlefield for about 4 miles.  (I think I may have written 3 miles on the last blog where I actually talked about Stone's River, but I just checked on my phone, it was 4 miles.)  So when we woke up Thursday morning, we were pretty exhausted.  We decided to take the day pretty easy.  We slept in (each day we got up later and later it seemed), and when we did get up and around to go out, we stayed pretty close to home and made sure our activities were relaxing.  Apparently there are rivers and water play areas all over Tennessee!  Shanna sent me a list of places to look up before we came, each spot looking just as great, or more wonderful than the last.  So on Day 7, we were ready for some R&R.  We packed lunches and brought chairs and enjoyed the nice cool water for several hours over the afternoon.  We reapplied sunscreen periodically, and, shockingly enough, I think Michael ended up being the only person not to get a little bit of a burn.  The kids' cheeks turned a little pink, and after Connor's trunks got wet, despite having sunscreen on his back, they sagged a little and he got a little line of red, right on his lower back.  My burn was mostly the result of not being sprayed all the way over.  I had a couple spots on my chest that missed sunscreen and got a little pink.  We had a great afternoon enjoying the warm sun and the cool water.  The pictures from here are actually where our Tennessee picture for our map came from!  Avery wanted to play in the fall, especially because some older, larger kids were going down in like a water slide, but as she's never really played in running water, and we didn't pack a life jacket, I said I hard no to that one.  She just doesn't understand the danger of running water or how quickly she could get pulled under.  Connor, ever cautious, had no problem staying close or playing frisbee in the shallow area.  Avery tried to catch minnows in a water bottle, for what seemed like hours, but they were too elusive for her.  It was a great day!  We had lots of fun and thoroughly enjoyed our day of R&R!

I don't want to jinx myself, but I think I discovered the key to adding lots of pictures to a single blog and not having it due on me...  Saving every 5 pictures or so.  Seems to be working so far...  🤞

These last 4 were from Shanna's phone, and I have to admit, those iPhone photos came out clear, crisp, and full of color!  I love them!  Not enough to switch to and iphone, mind you, but I am very impressed with the pictures!  😉👍

Vacation Photo/Post Update

Hey guys!  Sorry it's taking me so long to get all of these taken care of!  Since I have to do a lot of the pictures from my phone, I type the blogs on the computer, then save them and have to go back and add pictures on my phone later.  It's a mess!  But my phone is telling me I have low storage now, and that it might slow my phone down.  Not surprising, since I have over 1500 pictures on my phone.  So I need to delete the ones that have been saved to Google Photos, but I wanted to make sure I got the blogs finished up first.  So I think that low storage was the kick in the pants I needed to get this finished up.  Just added pictures to our Date Night in Nashville blog and published it.  Our day at Nice River Dam is already blogged, just need to add pictures and publish that one too.  Then there's only a couple of days left.  They'll probably all be on here by the end of the day tomorrow at the latest.  Thanks for hanging with me and being patient!  Sorry it's taking so long!  Love you all!