Monday we went to Congaree National Park. I was so excited to be there! It’s a pretty obscure park and there weren’t a whole lot of other visitors when we were there, but I’d had my eye on it for a long time. I wanted to see the swamps and cool trees and hopefully alligators. That place did not disappoint! Except we didn’t see any alligators, darn it. Congaree was a super creepy but amazing place. It was like nothing I had ever seen. It totally felt like walking in Jurassic Park. I felt like I wasn’t in control of anything, I was at the mercy of nature. It was hot, humid, swampy, full of hungry mosquitoes, bird calls, black snakes, huge spiders with webs we were constantly ducking, over-sized wasps, and rustling from unseen creatures on the forest floor. Creepy! Mason said it was worse than a haunted house because the things out there could really kill you! Drew and Darcy braved the 3 inch spiders and webs hanging over the trail for about 5 minutes and then ran back to the car crying. It was that intense! The four of us remaining freaked ourselves out the entire 2.5 mile walk about being in the clutches of death, only to find out at the visitor center that the snakes and spiders weren’t poisonous. Buzzkill. We also learned that runaway slaves used to hide out in the swamps to avoid being caught. It speaks to their desperation as that is not any place I would want to be unless it was on the nice, clean, raised, boardwalk. Such a horrible history in that area. I really liked South Carolina nature-wise, but I had difficulties reading all the info they had about slavery in the area. I guess its not something I deal with on a day to day basis and it was unsettling to be in the thick of where it would have been 160 years ago.
After Congaree we headed to Charleston, the one city I desperately wanted to visit on this trip. It plays a huge roll in Scarlett, one of my favorite books, so I was excited to see the places from the book, and I have always wanted to see all the Spanish moss hanging from the oak trees. It was so neat! Charleston was amazing! It was such a cool city with all the old mansions along the Battery, the plantation houses from the 1700’s, the mossy trees, the colorful homes, the cobblestone streets, and the much cooler weather. I had planned to visit Fort Sumter but didn’t realize it was a spendy ferry ride out to the fort, so we just went to the visitor center. While there I learned that most of the slaves from West Africa were brought to the port in Charleston, about right where we were standing, to be processed and sold. Another punch in the gut. What a horrible, horrible scar on the history of our country! Its inconceivable to me that that could ever happen, yet there we stood, where hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children had their lives torn apart while so many watched and encouraged, or even just turned the other cheek. Disgusting. Horrible feeling in that place I tell you. We did go over to Fort Moultrie, another important fort in US history, and walked around that some, and then we saw the Angel Oak tree. That tree was so cool. HUGE 400 year old oak with limbs so big and heavy they had rested on the ground and pretty much grew into it. I decided that we need to go back to the east and south in the fall to see all their amazing trees turning colors. I thought Oregon had tons of trees but the density of the trees in the east and south are amazing. I’d also like to see it in the wintertime when the trees are bare. Its mostly just deciduous so I wonder if its totally ugly then or if there is still a beauty to all those trees. It sure was gorgeous in the summer with all the shades of green.
July 24th we decided not to go south to Savannah,
GA because really, it seemed like it would be pretty much like Charleston and
we decided not to put the kids through that again. Not that they didn’t appreciate Charleston,
but we felt it wasn’t necessary. Next
trip! So instead of south, we headed
northwest back into North Carolina to Chimney Rock State Park where The Last of
the Mohicans was filmed. I love that
movie and we played the theme song from it as we drove up the hill. But when we got to the top, we learned the
good trail that they used for filming was shut down when the state bought the land
in 2007 due to safety concerns. So we
took the elevator up to the rock anyway and took in the stunning view of the
land. So many trees! North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky are
just gorgeous.
Following the Smoky Mountains, we finally crossed into Kentucky! Mason, Darcy, and Bree all needed to get to Kentucky as their 49th state. Drew crossed into Kentucky at the exact same spot with Paul in 2013, while the rest of us stayed in the trailer watching Spiderman. It turned out that was a mistake Mason didn’t live down till he finally got the monkey off his back on July 25, 2019. Now all the kids have been to 49 states. All they need is Hawaii and we told them they are on their own for that one. Let the race begin! We crossed the border at the Cumberland Gap and visited the National Historical Park there. We dropped the trailer and drove up to an overlook on one side of the gap. Pretty cool. I’m a geek but I totally get into visiting all these historic places. I find an incredible amount of joy getting out into nature and experiencing what those amazing men and women did before my easy-peasy life came along. I have so much respect for this country and its people. What a bunch of fighters our ancestors were! And I am so blessed to reap the benefits of their fight and hardships. Amazing.
We finished off week 6 today with a visit to Mammoth Caves
National Park in Kentucky. I saw
suggestions to book cave tours ahead of your visit, but I figured this was
another less popular park and we wouldn’t have trouble getting a tour. And Drew was not at all comfortable in Carlsbad
Caverns on our last trip so I wasn’t sure she’d even be able to go on a
tour. Well we got there at 10am and the
huge parking lot was almost full! It was
a crazy busy place and all the guided tours had been sold out. We were able to do the self-guided Discovery
tour where you see some cool parts of the cave system but not the really cool
parts of the caves. It was pretty darn
cool and Drew wasn’t bothered a bit. We
will definitely have to go back to that park some day and take a real
tour. And I will give it much more
respect as one of the more popular national parks!
Today ended back in Indiana.
Mason has developed a love for Purdue University, so we dropped the
trailer at a KOA in Crawfordsville and went north 30 miles to see Purdue! It was a nice campus but it seemed to be
lacking much character. Maybe because we
barely saw any students or people walking around. It was 7pm but I was still surprised. Mason was thrilled to be there and says we
can go home now! Unfortunately it was
too late to get him a shirt from the book store on campus but we’ll order one
when we get home. Not quite the same
thing but we had more fun in the caves than we thought we would and it ate up
our time today. We are trying to get to
Nauvoo, IL tomorrow for the pageant and things because the city shuts down
quite a bit on Sunday and Monday and tomorrow is Saturday so we have to get it
in or be stuck waiting, which we don’t want to do. After Nauvoo I think we are headed to
Colorado for some exploring since we haven’t spent a whole lot of time there,
and then on home. I shudder to think we
are coming to the end of our trip! I
don’t want to go home! But, and it might
be snotty to say this, we seem to be running out of things to see. We’ve seen it all! Or a lot anyways and we’re running out of
ideas on what to see next. What a
horrible predicament, I know!
Things I learned on the road this week:
1. There is no place like Oregon. All 49 other states have amazing things to offer, but you wouldn't catch me happily living anywhere other than Oregon.
2. If Hell is anything like the south in the summer I don't want any part of it. Choose the Right!
3. The density of the trees in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky is astounding! I think it is my life's mission now to get back there in the fall to see the mountains alive with color!
4. I have always sold Kentucky short. I even researched it before the trip and decided there was nothing to see. I was so wrong. We saw some amazing nature and history, and we had a couple of experiences of people being overly kind and considerate to us there. Kudos to Kentucky!
5. Paul doesn't speak North Carolinian. Two guys were making conversation with him at the gas station and he got back into Han and told me he had no idea what they were saying to him, their accents were so thick! He just smiled and agreed with whatever they were saying. Ha Ha! America is great!
6. A toothache can rock your world. Ever since the second day in New York I have been plagued by a horrible tooth ache. Our insurance doesn't cover treatment over here so I am living on Advil and Tylenol and trying not to chew anything on the left side. Its amazing how slow you eat when only one side does the chewing. I hope I lose about 50 lbs from this. That would be the only silver lining because being in pain for weeks sucks. I refuse to give in though, I'm committed to see this vacation through to the end!
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