Day 5 - The Great Smoky Mountain National Park

Monday, June 4, 2018
Posted from: Imagination Mountain Campground - Cosby, TN
Miles Driven: 46
Total Miles: 1036

Today was our first of three days in Smoky Mountain National Park. We don’t have ambitious plans for the day. We slept in after a late night of fun. We finally made it to the Sugarlands Visitor Center around 10:00 am.

The kids picked up Jr Ranger booklets and we did a scavenger hunt in the museum.

We then drove through the one lane motor nature "hike". This was a beautiful drive to view waterfalls, lots of flowers, and crazy people parking in insane places on the side of the road.

Finally we went back to the campground and enjoyed all of the fun things to do there.

Mom can take selfies too.

For the most part our motor "hike" looked like this, but at times we had to pull our side mirrors in flat to avoid hitting anyone or another vehicle.

Swimming at the campground was next on the agenda. If you ask Caleb, it was actually first on the agenda, but we clearly became confused and did our day in the wrong order. The kid is a fish!

I was a little concerned about this creepy grown man with a mini water gun...Hey, just because I married him doesn’t mean I can’t be concerned. Matt and the boys had a whole water gun fight/game going on. Grace was trying to stay clear or hide behind me since there was a firm no-spraying-mom rule in place. 

The boys are working on starting a mini fire. They ultimately tried to cook a mushroom over the fire. No one ate it. 

Today we cooked potato and ham soup for dinner. We all should have plenty of iron in our blood after two nights of cast iron cooking. 

Day 4 - Is it Time for a Travel Day Again?

Sunday, June 3, 2018
Posted from: Imagination Mountain - Cosby, TN
Miles Traveled: 275
Total Miles: 990

Have you ever really thought about the services and stores that aren’t open on a Sunday? Well we have.

Camping World doesn’t open their parts and maintenance on a Sunday. So when your refrigerator latch breaks off in a Walmart parking lot where you have just stocked up on produce, the Gorilla tape you carry on board is suddenly the most important thing.

The handle for the freezer and refrigerator are the same and we use the freezer less, so Matt decided to swap them. Of course this means I had to move the chocolate stash from the freezer to the fridge...it’s just harder to hide in the fridge, but I like a challenge. ;-)

Fridge handle + Gorilla Tape = successful camping

Today was another travel day, thought thankfully not as long as Day 2. We traveled from Mammoth Cave to Smoky Mountain National Park. We didn't get on the road as early as we would have liked, and we needed to stop for groceries, so it ended up being a longer travel day than we planned. We were going to stop at a Camping World (mega camping store) in Knoxville, TN to get (or at least order) a new refrigerator handle, but that would have added another 90 minutes to our day. We decided refrigerator handles are overrated. 

Does anyone know I took this picture? I don’t. Absolutely no idea. 

Lunch break in the camper with the slideouts pulled in. 

We arrive at what I can only describe as a magical campground. Imagination Mountain Campground is small and each site backs up to a babbling brook. There are bridges, lots of trees, a pool, mini golf, giant chess, huge game/hangout room, store, ice cream shop, and the best part: it backs up to the National Park. One tenth of a mile and you are hiking in the park. I’m not sure we will ever leave. Matt gets credit for finding and booking this one as well. 

The kids hiked through the stream that circled the campground. Cameron is way up ahead in this picture. 

Mini golf!

The saltwater pool was refreshing.

The boys playing a friendly game of chess. (I am actually too far away to know precisely how friendly it is...so let’s all just pretend.)

The 9th hole ends in an outhouse. Your ball falls down the toilet, which sounds rather unfortunate.

Matt found a Subway sandwich shop that also sells craft beer less than a mile from the campground. That was unexpected. 

Caleb likes to plant these little flowers at our campsites if we are staying for three or more nights. Great Grandma Linn made these for us and we take them on all our adventures.

Cameron building a fire while Caleb plays in the stream. 

While Matt is tending the fire, the boys are "cooking" goldfish crackers on hot rocks. Do with that what you will...

A few of the fish got a little too crispy. Poor fish.

Hot ratatouille cooked by the campfire in the Dutch oven. The picture doesn’t do it much justice, but it was amazing. We had to add sausage for the carnivores in the family.

Day 3 - Mammoth Cave National Park

Saturday, June 2, 2018
Posted from: Rock Creek Cabin Campground - Cave City, KY
Miles Driven: 12
Total Miles: 715

We dug deep and brought out our inner Batman today. As we entered the Bat Cave, we tried to be confident, brave, intimidating, and think heroic thoughts. But mostly we were laughing hysterically because Mom got unexpectedly dumped on by a waterfall on our way into the cave. A nice cold water shower dripping down your face and back is exactly what you want before you walk into a 54 degree cave for two hours. After a few minutes it wasn’t too bad, but I worked the sympathy card for a little while.

We had pre-purchased tickets online for the 10:00 am Historic Tour. This is a two hour tour that takes you through some of the biggest rooms in the cave, smallest passages, deepest holes, and tallest tower staircase. It was so cool! (54 degrees cool to be precise.)

BUT FIRST! The beloved pictures of us in front of a national park sign. If you recall from our adventure two years ago, I am not a big fan of jumping through this vacation hoop. But I am glad that I have the pictures at the end of the vacation.

The beginning of the tour involved walking down several steps into one of the natural entrances of the cave.

This fun little path is known as Fat Man's Misery. It was a bit tight and wound along for quite some time. We had to duck (well, everyone but Caleb) at several points on the tour. For as big as this cave is, it also has its tight spots. 

Grace needed me to take this picture. BAND!
This writing was burned into the cave walls over 150 years ago (when it was allowed and you could pay to have it done). I guess band was cool back then too. ;-)

There is light at the end of the tunnel.

After our tour, we enjoyed our picnic lunch under a shade tree on the lawn by the visitor center. It was a hot day, but there was a nice breeze under this tree. 

The kids worked on their Jr. Ranger booklets. Thankfully for our 13 and 15 year olds, the program at this park only requires that you are a minor. 

Caleb had a little fly buddy (on his pencil hand) that walked around and pretty much stayed there the whole time Caleb worked on his booklet. 

Though she fit through the hole with plenty of space, once she was on the other side of this little tunnel, she was too long to climb out on her feet, so she had to go face first. Growing up is hard. 

Cameron diced the boiled eggs for our salads.

Caleb used our little mini camper rolling pin to crush the crackers to go on top of the salads.

Game night! Grace won.

Calvin & Hobbes are at it again.

Grace is on her second book already. I'm not sure she even knows we left Ankeny. 

Day 2 - Long Travel Day

Friday, June 1, 2018
Posted from: Rock Creek Cabin Campground - Cave City, KY
Miles Traveled: 473
Total Trip Miles: 703

Travel day! Also known as, "How much longer?" Day, or "Where’s the next fuel stop?" Day.

Today was the second longest travel day of the trip. We left the campground around 8:00 am CT and arrived at our Mammoth Cave campground around 5:30 pm CT. That is a LOT of butts-in-seats time. BUT if we do a couple of these days, then we have more time to chill and explore.
The next three pictures sum up our day pretty well with very few words:

We finally arrived at the campground. To Matt’s credit, he actually booked several of the campgrounds on this trip. I didn’t even look at some of them…like this one. We pulled up and I tried to inconspicuously look up other campgrounds in the area. I’m not usually a judge-by-the-cover person, but this place looked a little rough and we only saw one other camper.

For the first time ever, I sent Matt in to register. He came out with the exceptionally friendly guy who runs the place, and they walked around to pick out our site. (Full hook up, believe it or not.) Behind the "cover" was actually a beautiful yard and a very peaceful setting…and a few more people camping. We ended up liking this place.

We parked, got set up, bought firewood, and got to work building a fire and making dinner. We made loaded rotini salad (lots of veggies, meat, and cheese) and potatoes over the fire.

Finally it was time to take showers and call it a night. Grace reported back that this place had some of the best campground showers she had ever used...and the girl is a bit of an expert.

When we are on vacation, Cameron reads Calvin and Hobbes to Caleb almost every night. Cam is really good at reading these comics aloud. He has the perfect voice for it. I try to position myself so that I can hear too.

Good night!

Day 1 - Truck Stops and Other Attractions

Thursday, May 31, 2018
Posted from: East Glensdale Campground; Knoxville, IL
Miles driven: 230
Total trip miles: 230

This morning started out like any other school and work day, and pretty much continued that way for the kids and me until about 4:00pm when Matt pulled to a stop in front of the house with the camper in tow.
Naturally my work computer forced a software install at 4:00. Deep breath. So 30 minutes later...
Our bon voyage committee consisted of Matt’s parents and my dad. It was nice to have a sendoff crew!

We appear to like each other at this point.

We pulled out at 5:00 pm. Not bad.

The giant flag at the dealership indicated a lack of straight line winds. Bonus. 

We took I80 east. I’d like to say we made it pretty far before we stopped, but, well, our truck REALLY likes truck stops. And our daughter REALLY likes water. So we stopped to fuel, eat a sandwich, and use the facilities before we even made it to Iowa City.
And then I realized that we were going to pass the World’s Largest Truck Stop (WLTS). Wow. This day was going to be better than I could have imagined. I remember stopping here once when I was a kid, but have not been since (can’t imagine why). Matt was relatively willing to stop. I believe his words were, "Are we really going to stop?" Heck yes! Who wouldn’t?! (Y’all just stop yer judgin’ right now.)
WLTS Observation 1: Uhh, this is nothing like I remember. It was nicer and trendier than a Whole Foods.  (See pic below)

WLTS Observation 2: It really is pretty massive, and not all of the cheesiness was lost with their very recent 2018 remodel. (Again, see proof below.)

And now it is getting late.

We had to make one more stop to get an iPass transponder at a Jewel Osco in Moline, IL. We will hit a lot of tolls on this trip and having an iPass just makes it an easier and cheaper process.

We got off the interstate in Moline and immediately ran into construction that meant we could not go to the store we planned to go to. After some recalculations and awkward moments pulling the camper through a very old (narrow streets) part of town with a strong law enforcement presence, we found another store four minutes away. This store was right in the middle of a neighborhood, and we did not fit in with our camper. Literally. We took up 20+ parking spaces. Thankfully it was late enough that there were 20+ spots to take!

Back on the road, we watched a lightening storm and drove through a little bit of rain before arriving at the campground a little before 10:00pm. We put the jacks down, slideouts out, and called it good. We stayed hitched to the truck.

Bonus material: How to NOT make friends at a campground

1. Pull in at 10:00pm
2. Underestimate your kids’ ability to talk in LOUD whispers while putting the jacks down
3. Pray that the process of putting out the slideouts is quieter than you remember
4. Push the button to put out your slideout while cringing (because the more you cringe, the quieter it might be...perhaps)
5. Realize you have a second slideout 
6. Cringe more
7. Put out the second slideout
8. Wake up at 5:30am the next day. (hey! Guess what?! In the daylight you can see the train tracks located 100 yards from the campsite.)
9. Repeat the above in reverse order, but don’t bother cringing because seriously, the train. We were practically silent by comparison.