28 Feb 2013
We had a two-hour jaunt north today before we turned west,
which is when we really felt like we were heading home. We could have cut diagonally across the
southern states toward Missouri, but we took the longer route, heading straight
north for Chattanooga, just for Kaleb.
Kaleb earned a Jr. Ranger patch in Vicksburg, Mississippi,
which is where he found out about a “limited edition” 150 year anniversary Civil
War patch he could earn if he visited two Civil War parks and completed an
on-line booklet about slavery. Well,
once he heard “limited edition” - that’s all it took. He’s easily motivated by the unique. So we added hours and miles to our trip home
so he could earn another Jr. Ranger patch and get the special Civil War one,
too. He completed the on-line portion
while we were traveling. Unfortunately, today,
it took much more time than I bargained for in order for him to earn the
badges, so we are now about 2 ½ hours shy of our destination for the night –
which was supposed to be Memphis.
Tomorrow will be brutal.
We spent several hours at Chickamauga, near Chattanooga, driving
through the park, finding the answers to all the questions Kaleb had to
answer. At least we all learned
something in the process. It was kinda
cool that Kaleb’s birthday is the big “day that will live in infamy” and today
we learned both Kory and I also have famous “battle” birthdays. The battle at Chickamauga, which the south
won, began on September 18th.
And the subsequent battle in Chattanooga on Lookout Mountain, which the
north won, began on November 24th.
Who knew. We also learned there
was a guy living in the park until 1943 when he died just 16 days shy of his 123rd
birthday. If he hadn’t been born a
slave, which meant there was no official paperwork for his birth in 1820, he’d
have been in the book of world records for the longest living person. He loved to tell stories of battles of the
Civil War, since he saw it all happen in front of him. I have four great great grandfathers that
fought in that war, but not in the battles at Chickamauga and Chattanooga, but
at least they fought for the winning side.
History never gets old. Ha.
So we got a little homeschooling in today. Kaleb is getting better at self-starting his
school work and working through all his requirements, which takes a huge burden
off me to keep him motivated. We were on
the freeway quite a bit, which is so boring, he doesn’t miss a thing when his
nose is in a book. We opted to take the
southern highway route through Tennessee, rather than the freeway which would
make us go north to Nashville then south to Memphis, but in doing so, we lost a
lot of time. We could have made Memphis
if we stayed on the freeway, but then we would have missed seeing all the
beautiful rolling hills, huge farms and old barns, country mansions and well
kept properties along the way. I can’t
believe how much more “proper” Tennessee is than Alabama, Louisana and Mississippi. Tennessee just looks like one big horse ranch
with houses sitting on top of nearly every knoll. Quite the contrast to the southern states.
We didn’t see any sunshine today as it was overcast and a
bit chilly, but that was fine with me.
We had to stop driving by 6pm when it got dark and we are now in another
Walmart parking lot for the night. We
gained an hour today so hopefully that means we’ll be up extra early and on the
road into Arkansas tomorrow. There are still a few more things to experience
before we make the beeline home.
I’m grieving today from the news we got yesterday that Tante
Kari, in Norway, is in the hospital with leukemia and pneumonia and not doing
well at all, then today we got the news of the death of someone dear in our
church. It’s so not how I was expecting
that one to turn out. And I’m sure we
won’t be back home in time for the memorial, and I’m sure Tante Kari won’t make
it until we are back in Norway in April either.
I hate that we miss these important events, as we’ve already missed the
memorial for the mom of a guy in our home fellowship group, and we missed two
important weddings while we were gone, but I guess there has to be some
downside to all the freedom we otherwise enjoy.
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