RoadSchool-DeepSouth Go south as FAST as you can!

11/16-19/2018
Eric came home from a work trip to Houston and said, "I heard the wind is blowing from the north... I assume your plans have changed?" I laughed and wondered if the girls had been talking to him... nope... he just knows me.

Scrapping the midwest for now, and onto a new goal. Stay out of freezing temps and all that comes with it. This meant heading south and driving until we made it to the Florida panhandle... with one driver, the sun setting at 4:45pm (bleh), and some stops along the way, it took us four days.

South!! As quickly as possible.

Papa, Nana, and Eric came home to see us off... the tears didn't last nearly as long this time, and our overnight stop was with my cousin Heather, and her family, which helped ease the homesickness. :) There were second cousins AND kittens to play with, and we awoke to a lovely snowy landscape.

Thank you to Heather, Billy, and the kids for their hospitality!

Goat feeding chores...

Our route took us through Hannibal, MO, so we checked out Mark Twain's hometown. It's a quaint place with cute shops and storefronts, and a little area museum with the cutest Tom Sawyer diorama. Lily was smitten. If she could make dioramas for a living, she would.

Hannibal, MO

Tom and Huck

The fence!

Mark Twain lived in Hannibal, MO from age 4-17.

So creative!

The man behind the dioramas.

The girls also found some painted rocks around town, which led to an idea... stay tuned.

Hannibal Rocks!

This is the part where RoadSchool isn't very romantic... we are NOT above staying the night in a Walmart parking lot. ;) On fact, as I write this, it's our 10th night out on this #DeepSouth leg, and we've stayed at four different Walmarts. Hey, it's free, we're en route, and our dog doesn't like strangers. It's all good. ;)

Walmart in Paducah, KY

Tacos for dinner at Walmart in Prattville, AL.

We're very thankful for him.

The Journey Church, just outside of Montgomery, AL, was kind enough to let us leave the trailer in their lot so we could go downtown to tour the Capitol, AL State Museum, and Jefferson Davis White House. So much Civil War and Civil Rights history in this area... it is mind blowing to think about what segregation looked like. The museum had a series of short videos that led you through all of the events that the city is known for... so many changes, and yet again, not really.

Alabama State Capitol

Gorgeous doors!

On this site, Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the President of the Confederacy.

A lot of the items on display actually belonged to the Davis family, and before she died, Ms. Davis carefully drew the layout of each room in the house. 

Pieces of history.

Alabama History Museum

We found it sadly intriguing that a good number of those that fought for the confederacy didn't consider themselves Confederates. They were only there because they were loyal to their state, such as General Robert E. Lee and Virginia. What a difference it might have made if they'd stood up against it instead? 

RoadSchool-SD Almost Home!!

10/21-22/2018
Whelp. We've been home for 3 weeks and back out on the road for 9 days again, but here's to getting caught up! ;)

The last 2 days of our First Leg took us to the Laura Ingalls sites in De Smet, SD, and Walnut Grove, MN. The former is the homestead site with building replicas set in place according to Laura's descriptions, as well as the nearby burial site of her family. The latter is multiple museum buildings with lots of reading about Laura's life, things that belonged to her, items relating to the t.v. show, and hands on displays of the era. We spent a couple hours at the latter, and would've stayed longer except we were SOCLOSE to home!

Cottonwood trees planted by Pa Ingalls.

Laura Ingalls Wilder is buried in MO, but the rest of her family is in De Smet, SD.

The fireplace mantel from the show, Little House on the Prairie.

Shopkeepers, bankers, and postal workers.

We stayed overnight at Big Sioux Recreation Area, and enjoyed some time visiting with some church friends, Andrew and Audra Sternke, and their kids! The USS South Dakota Memorial was on the way to their house, so we stopped by, as Eric's Grandpa Will England served during WWII on board.

The scale of this ship is huge!

Kate likes to photograph her feet in different places along the way, and we thought this one was especially cool... the decking of the battleship her Great-Grandpa Will England walked on.

Monday we walked the path at Pipestone National Monument... sacred site for Native Americans that believe the pipe smoke carries their prayers heavenward. The stone is beautiful, but takes work to get to under the other rock. Apparently it can take up to 5 years for the government to grant permission to a tribal family to dig in their own space. They consider it an honor to work the soil and rock in search of the pipestone.

Dig sites from tribes looooong ago.

So smooth!

We made it to church in time for Taylor to surprise her friends at youth group, and were so giddy to see Eric that we didn't even bother parking the truck and trailer... just pulled in the yard, threw it in park, and joyfully skipped/ran to him in the front step lights. :)

RoadSchool-SD Pier or Pierre?

10/19-20/2018
(Taylor) Today we went to the capitol building in Pierre, SD. The locals pronounce it "Pier", although we've talked with some that roll their eyes at the lack of French... because it IS French. ;) At the Capitol I learned that there were 66 Italian artists that layed tile throughout, as well as other projects. They were strict Catholics that wouldn't do their job perfectly, as God is the only one who is perfect, so they purposefully put a railing in upside down, which remained unnoticed for 20 years.

Capitol in Pierre, SD

Marble drinking fountains

(Kate) At the Capitol, the Italian artists were each given a bright blue tile piece as their "signature", and heart tiles later on when they repaired any cracked tiles. We found some of them.

Signature blue

The gift store volunteer has lived here "forever", and was a wealth of information on our self-guided Capitol tour. Her dog, Pumpkin, was very sweet. 

In the SD Senate Chamber

Here she goes again... breakin' laws. Guidelines anyway.

The capital being in Pierre, SD is quite a story! You can read it HERE if you're as curious as I was! Long story short, it took rivaling towns 3 votes over 15 years, and the current Capitol building was finished in 1910, for the small sum of $1,000,000 ($58M in today's market). A complete restoration was began in 1976, and it is absolutely beautiful!

Rotunda

Beautiful stained glass dome

In the House Chamber

House Chamber... Lily is above the clock.

House Lobby

First Lady Inaugural Gown Display

Saloon door bathroom stalls, with water closets... cute, huh? Don't worry... no one was in here but us.

Did you know that there was a box column retrieved from the rubble of 9/11, that the Oak Ridge (TN) High School Student Council, and the Army Corps of Engineers dedicated in 50 pieces to the capital cities across the nation? Every state should have one as a permanent memorial to those that died during the attacks and rescue missions. We didn't know this... does your capital have it set up somewhere?

The SD Cultural Heritage Center was, hands down, a highlight of this first leg, and one of thee BEST museums we've EVER been to! It was a beautifully laid out treasure trove of artifacts, information, photos, videos, full-size displays, hands on activities, and incredible interactive kids' scavenger hunts. We've been to a LOT of museums, and this one got two thumbs up from all of us! Kate and Lily especially LOVED the backpack scavenger hunts... you can tell that a lot of thought was put into drawing the kids into learning, and they had a blast doing it!

Completely built into the hill. You'd never guess all that is inside.

(Lily) Kate and I did a scavenger hunt (she did 2, and I did 3) at the museum, and it was fun! I liked packing the immigrant train car, and the hippie room. We also went on the roof of the museum.

Start here!

"I thought this was going to be cheesy, but this is actually REALLY cool!" -Kate, upon opening her scavenger hunt backpack.

Packing an immigrant train car

Can you even imagine???

Another station...

Math was done here... yay!

Younger kid version... still really thoughtful, and this is showing just the pouch about horses. 

Create your own 70's home in the temporary exhibit about the 1970's.

They couldn't believe the decor and fashion of the 70's. I agree.

Upstairs observation deck, with a view of the Capitol. Definitely not what St. Paul, MN looks like... we kinda prefer the rolling hills. :)

Seriously... let the kids loose with the backpack scavenger hunts, and take your time wandering through... so well done!

Mount Rushmore facts

We couldn't leave before they scrambled up on the roof.

Remember what we said about state parks? Yah... Farm Island Recreation Area is also fabulous. Beautiful back-in spots, clean bathrooms, swimming beach on the Missouri River, and playgrounds... we've been so pleased with ALL the state parks in ND and SD!

Lots of fishing here on the Missouri River! Our trailer is on the far right.

Nearby path to....

... the playgrounds...

... and beach!

He loves sunshine, and happily napped in it for hours while we got caught up on stuff around the trailer.

Getting caught up on smashbooks, blogs, grocery shopping, and swimming for a day (well, Lily swam), and tomorrow we head to Sioux Falls, SD... inching closer to home!