Nashville Tennessee

Rory and I enjoying Centennial Park

Nashville Parthenon

We visited Nashville when we left Mammoth Cave KY.  This has been a place that as a family, we have been wanting to stop at for quite some time.  On our travels over the years we have crossed through Nashville dozens of times but never actually took the time to stop and enjoy the city.  I found an RV park right outside the city limits which gave us room to settle in but also be out of the of the hustle and bustle.  We ended up staying for 4 days experiencing what we could in that small time frame. Of course the Opryland Hotel was on our list to see.  We also ate some good ol' Nashville barbecue as well as some great tacos at a hidden gem of a restaurant named Taco Mamacita. We were also able to visit Centennial Park and the Nashville Parthenon.  I never would have thought that a complete replica of the Parthenon would be in Tennessee but none the less someone built one!                                                                                            One of my favorite highlights of the trip was visiting the Tennessee State Museum.  I  always enjoy getting my kids into an environment where they learn and be stimulated by their surroundings in a good way.   This museum was full of educational material on the homesteader, family life in the wilderness, and of course the development of Tennessee.  We always learn interesting facts when we visit places like this. During our time there we also had to dance! Here are the boys dancing away, this time Sophia jumped in.  We will definitely return to Nashville!                                                    

Taco Mamacita, notice Owen's face!

Canada! Oh Canada How did I forget you?

Canada, the land of Eh'

I totally forgot to blog about Canada.......... Those Canadians can never catch a break.  We visited the awesome land of Eh' for 3 days while we were in PA.  We took the time to make the drive in our van and keep Penelope London at our friends house in the driveway.  I was able to get a great deal on a hotel and get the family some space to operate in for a few days.  The drive was not bad, only around 4 hours to get there from our PA location.  The scenic drive was outstanding.  We saw Lake Erie and hundreds of grape vine fields.  We also saw Fall coming into the beauty that it is with all the leaves changing color.  Thank God that we got a chance to see the beauty of this.  Everything worked out well and the kids had a great time.  The sheer amount of water coming over those falls is awesome!  I summed up our trip in this awesome video! We hope you enjoy!

Mammoth Cave National Park, Mammoth Cave KY

 

Mammoth Cave National Park


 After leaving Big Bone Lick State Park we traveled 4 hours south to Mammoth Cave KY.  Now I know most people have seen the inside of a cave but this cave is over 400 miles in length!  This is one of the most massive caves ever found and it is still being explored.  This was a National Park and it was a guided tour given by a park ranger.  It was really cool to have the kids experience this cave tour.  They have never seen anything like this before so they were pretty excited to get into the cave and see what it was all about.
The cave was so cool.  It apparently was found by a local man who laid claim to it in the early 1920's.

Epic stalactite formation

 He used the cave as a tourist attraction up until the time the Park Service came in and took the land over.  Yeah! Thank you government!


Interesting fact, the stalactites and stalagmites take 100 years to grow 1 inch! 

The most interesting part of the tour was when the park ranger took his flashlight and shined it on the ceiling to reveal hundreds of cave crickets hanging on the ceiling! It looked like something our of horror flick and it really freaked Rory and Alli out.  Owen wanted to catch one, Sophia didn't have a clue and Ethan was trying to get away.  Apparently since the cave is dark, (completely dark), they respond to sound.  Once one responds then they communicate to each other and pretty soon a whole bunch of them are coming at ya!   Can you imagine yelling in the cave and having hundreds of voracious cave crickets coming to rip your face off?  Yeah me either......(they didn't really attack us but they do use this sense for direction!)

Cave entrance, pretty ho-hum! 

Frozen Niagara

The entrance was kind of ho-hum but it soon opened up in a labyrinth of extraordinary stalactites and stalagmites.  Some  of the areas of the cave were up to 80 feet high and made up really cool experiences to see.  One particular area was called frozen Niagara.  It resembled Niagara falls frozen.  Another area was called the drapery room because well it looked like drapes hanging off the wall. The tour concluded by the Park Ranger turning off all the lights and the group staying quiet.  Let me just say, I don't ever want to get lost in a cave with no light.  It is literally as dark as dark can get.  It kind of made me think of hell because it is without light and boy was this cave not letting light in.  We ended our trip riding back in the park service bus that smelled like a cross between burnt tacos and sweaty dog.  All in all we had so much fun visiting this really cool park.  I would really like to encourage you to visit this cave if you have a chance!

burnt taco, sweaty dog bus

Travelling south, Big Bone Lick State Park Kentucky

     Since we left the Pittsburgh area several weeks ago, we have been making out way south to Rory's parents house in Georgia.  We have been taking it pretty easy driving only around 4-5 hours a day and then stopping to rest and then travelling again the next day.  We stopped off several places the last few weeks to teach and learn and experience new things.

Mastodon skull!

    When we left Pittsburgh our first stop was in a place called Big Bone Lick State Park.  I know the name is funny but the word lick actually means pond.  It was a place where people first discovered Mastodon and Woolly Mammoth bones and other animals.  Apparently the animals used to travel to the area to lick the salt that was streaming out of the ground.  The area is actually a large sulfur spring that smells like rotten eggs.  This stuff is supposed to be pretty tasty to animals and actually needed for humans.  The animals would travel in packs to this area and then while enjoying the goodness of the salt licks they would start to sink in the boggy terrain and became vulture bait.  All of sudden you basically have a killing ground for anything that has weight enough to sink in the bog, to die an early death.   Humans soon found the springs and for a certain period of time the salt was harvested by indians then later by those moving west to establish their new homes.  The springs are not very active anymore but evidence of all this previous activity is still being found in the archaeological digs that are going on today.   Apparently this park and area has supplied most of the museums of the world with their Woolly Mammoth and Mastodon tusks and bones.  It is also widely known of in Europe.  Who would of thought some podunk park in KY would be world famous!  Here are some pics of our time in Big Bone Lick State Park, KY.

Stuck but their bellies are full!

These guys were pretty massive!

Owen loving his sister.

Travelling in PA

For the last several weeks we have been in PA visiting family, taking in the sights and learning along the way.  We made our way up to Butler PA to visit with some great friends of ours, Cory and Jayme Steighner and their family.  We always enjoy spending time with them and it never seems to be dull when our kids and theirs get together and we get to spend time together.  This also is the first time in our trip that we had a cold spell hit our RV.  I was really anxious to see how it would perform.  Our other RV, the BBT, as we affectionately call her, was very hard to manage in anything below freezing.  Our new RV, Penelope London, has held up quite well.  I have been using the diesel firing burner to keep it warm while parked at our friends driveway.  Normally I would use the 3 heat pumps but without a proper 50AMP plug I was kind of stuck to burn the diesel to keep it from freezing and to keep us warm while we slept.  It seems to be working and I am quite certain that we won't have the problems we had with the other one.
I also had the chance to go to Ikea in Pittsburgh.  I really love that store.  I only know a few people who don't enjoy a shopping trip to Ikea, my wife being one of them.  I was on the lookout for any new design style I can put into my renovations that I do on my investment houses as well as any new kitchen designs I can incorporate.  I took the kids with me when I went.  Thank you Ikea for the kids play area! That one hour of peace was awesome!  I met a woman there by the name of Kate who was also putting her kids into the play area.  We got to talking and she had asked why my kids were not in school and it moved into what we were doing and such for the next year.  She was so excited because her husband and her wanted to do something like that with their kids.  So Kate, if you read this, it was great talking to you!

We took a little detour into Ontario Canada for the last couple days.  Another blog will follow on that.  Thanks for keeping up with us and our journey.  I will be posting a map soon of our travels so far as well as what is going on for the next several months.

New York City

In my previous occupation as a stock and options trader, I would occasionally have to take a flight and visit New York City.  Because of the nature of the financial heartbeat of the world being centered upon this city, it was necessary for me to have to conduct business in a personal nature.  I never really liked going there.  I was never really a fan of leaving my family and getting on a plane to go to a place where most of the people are so busy pursuing things that have no life.  I say this tongue and cheek as obviously there are fine people in NYC, but for the most part I never enjoyed the millions living in the city who most of the time could not care about the one next to them.  I know it's kind of harsh but it was my perspective from visiting there on business for over 12 years.

I am happy to say now that I thoroughly enjoyed my time with my family in New York City this past weekend.  We had a great stay and a wonderful time.

Our accommodations were right on the times square madhouse and my kids thought that was just awesome.  We were on a corner of the Millennium Building and it was a nice room.  It served as our HQ while we were there and we were positioned nicely to do the things and see the sights we wanted to.  Some of our great sights that we saw were the Empire State Building.  We bought the really expensive tickets and took the whole family up to the observation deck! It was so worth every penny! Next we went on a boat cruise which was very informative.  The captain definitely loved being a New Yorker and was very entertaining.  We finished the cruise by staring at Lady Liberty for a few minutes while the captain discussed our freedoms that we have as being Americans.  It was really cool.  The big highlight of the trip was being able to see some of our family.  My wife had an opportunity to see her Aunts and Uncles and her Grandmother.  We got to spend the afternoon our in Long Island talking and visiting.  It was really a blast.

The trip was short and of course it went by quick but none the less it was worth the time, energy, traffic and driving.  We left our motorhome parked in front of my sisters house for the weekend and drove the minivan to the city. I think it was a pretty good idea.

Here is a video, courtesy of Magisto, that I made of NYC.  Also some pics of our adventures over the weekend!  Thanks for keeping up with us! We have had almost 5000 unique visitors now who have read our blog! pretty sweet.