Day 3...South Carolina finally!

Day 3 started out with the knowledge that we would finally reach our main destination!  Most of this day was spent driving, but we did get a small break in that fun when we stopped for lunch in Madison, GA.  While we noticed that almost every town in Georgia is "historical" according to the brown signs all over the place, Madison was a bit unique.  They still have most of their pre-Civil War homes in tact, in beautiful shape I might add.
According to the story, Joshua Hill was able to convince the generals/soldiers to leave the homes alone when they burned down the mills in the areas.  This was his home...

And they were all like this, some smaller but still gorgeous.  And there are blocks and blocks of them. Here's one for sale...I'm still trying to talk T into it...it's called Broughton Hall.

The reason we stopped in Madison to begin with...Arby's.  For some reason, J had it in his head that we HAD to eat at an Arby's since our town no longer has one.  He wasn't as thrilled as he thought he would be, but the deed was finally accomplished :)

And then we finally reached South Carolina!!

After this, unfortunately...there aren't many pictures because 4 miles into SCarolina, we ended up stuck in a traffic jam on interstate for over an hour...had to take some back roads before finally heading in the right direction to Charleston. 


So to make up for the lack of pictures, I thought I would start sharing drawings from J's travel journal :)  Now, just remember, his little cerebral palsy drawings aren't up to Picasso's par, but I love them.  And also remember, he just doesn't care much about coloring or drawing (especially when it's sort of like school work and when it's not Star Wars related!).  I asked him to draw something from each day of the trip to help him remember his travels.


Monday's drawing:  the USS Cairo from Vicksburg park and a Coke (from the quick stop at the museum)

Tuesday's drawing... a bullet (like a statue at Vicksburg), an army man and Alexander Bridge at Chickamauga (there was a group of army men touring the park, he asked them what they were doing there)

And last drawings for toda...Wednesday's drawing: cotton ( we stopped on the side of the road and Grandma snagged it for him)

And the trip continues...

Since we ended up staying the first night in Tuscaloosa, and just one mile from University of Alabama, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a quick picture in my TCU shirt.  I mean, come on...who knows how many times a Horned Frog will have the chance to be this close in the rankings to the number one team in the nation in college football! 

 Then, for reasons unknown to my normal Krispy Kreme radar...we totally missed this coming in the night before, but J & I spotted it pretty quickly the next morning :)  After a quick stop for gas and the world's best donuts (yes, Round Rock donuts still just about tie Krispy Kreme, but there's just something about KK donuts!), we headed on to Georgia. 

 Our goal was ultimately Chickamauga National Military park, but on the way, we found a Lego store...so to appease the youngest member of the traveling party, we hopped on over to a mall in Birmingham.  He even made a quick video tour of the store to send his cousin.

 

We had to head up through Chattanooga, TN to get back down to the battlefield, but it was a great drive.  Not only is this a Civil War battlefied, where the bloodiest of the battles occurred, but my great-great-great grandmother lived in a house as a girl that was on this battlefield.  There is even a bridge (has been modernized a bit) named after the family, the Alexander Bridge.  

Where the house once stood.

Alexander Bridge

All that's left of the house is remnants of a root cellar and cistern, but it was cool to see the name Alexander on all of the battlefield signs throughout this part of the park.  At the visitors center, once the park rangers knew we were related to the Alexander family, Grandma was given a copy of the contents of a folder that had all of the information the rangers had on that family.  We learned that the Alexander family had actually left this home in December 1862, months before the battle.  We also learned that the house burned down the day before the battle (when a different family was living there) because of what they think was a misfired artillary shell (mom can correct me here).  It was really interesting and made a bit of history much more personal for us all.  Ok...well, by this time I will admit that J was about done with touring for the day, but he thought having a bridge in his family was pretty cool :)

After taking this picture, J noticed that this canon was actually called a 12-pounder Rifled James, ha!

The "Butterfly Man" never stops, even in Georgia!

Decided on Cracker Barrel for supper, stopped somewhere around Rome, GA to stay the night.

Poor J, the schooling never stopped...although I promise I didn't make him do much.  He really got into writing postcards and we collected state information at all borders and fun tourist stops.  Notice the Legos...they were never far from his hands from this day on.

The journey begins...

Dad and his navy buddies (he's the third one from the left)

2 Sundays ago, J & I headed to Grandma and Grandad's to prepare for a 7 day trip to South Carolina and back. (Sadly, T couldn't take the week off, however we were all in Alabama at the same time b/c he was in Birmingham for work!  crazy)  J & I were joining them on a trip to Grandad's navy reunion for the USS Pictor.  He has been attending these reunions for a few years but had to skip last year due to his recovery from cancer and treatments.  Every year it's in a different location, usually with something historic to tour and enjoy.  This year, it was historic Charleston, South Carolina, a place none of us had ever visited and couldn't wait to see (and perfect for our history studies)!

On the first day of the trip, we traveled through Louisiana and stopped in Vicksburg, MS to check out the Vicksburg National Military Park.  T & I had toured this with my parents back in high school, if I can find one of the pictures, I'll post it later ;)  You have to understand...not only is my Dad interested in many things Civil War, both of my parents still claim "The South Will Rise Again"...yea...and they do it often on trips like this...pretty much to embarrass their kids (right, mom?)   After lunching at Walnut Hills we spent about 2 hours at the park. 

"Hey, mom, look...De Soto!" 

The old and new bridges spanning the mighty Mississippi River between LA and MS

Walnut Hills Restaurant...good home cooking (listed in the book "1,000 Places to See Before You Die", just fyi)

One of the newer monuments in the Vicksburg battlefield park, recognizing the first African American soldiers who fought

The USS Cairo, pulled up from the bottom of the Mississippi

 We also made a really short stop at the Coca-Cola museum in Vicksburg, which is J's favorite drink...was a week-long joke between he and Grandad who calls Dr. Pepper his "medicine". 

 

 

One month!

We have completed our first full month of school (are currently in our 5th week) and so far, it's been fantastic!!!  We have gone from the Mayans to Pocahontas, from Roanoke to Georgia, from Christopher Columbus to the Quakers, with several other groups and explorers in between. And we both are actually remembering most of it, that's the best part :)  T just shakes his head at me and laughs...he's the history buff in the family, I never liked it...till now! (doing the full year of American History from 1500 - present)

Making apple pie for our Pilgrim dinner 2 weeks ago

J began learning how plastics are made, how volleyball is played and the capitals and states in the USA through co-op.  

In science at home, he has learned what a chemist does, what an atom is, what the parts of an atom are and tomorrow he'll be building 10 element atoms with marshmallows (yummy!). 
 
He has finished reading Om-Kas-Toe, Pocahontas and the Strangers and the Matchlock Gun (plus a few books on his own for fun).  Together we have so far read Walking the World's Rim (which I highly recommend, it has etched Esteban in J's brain forever I think) and Witch of Blackbird Pond.  Here's what I am loving...the fact that these are not J's typical choices for books but he loves them, gets into the characters, worries about them when they are sick, gets sad when they die...these books have opened up so much for us.  (Although I'm still not looking forward to Old Yeller...makes me sad just thinking about it). 


Oh yea...and we just returned from a 7 day trip to South Carolina with Grandma and Grandad, on which we toured 2 battlefields, an aircraft carrier, a Civil War fort, historic districts and spent a few minutes in the Atlantic Ocean.  (pictures to come)


How fun it was today, while reading our history book, when we read that South Carolina was one of the original 13 colonies and J quickly said "you mean, where we were last week?  That's awesome!"  I can't wait till we get to the Civil War and we can look back the photos from the three places we toured.  


Yes, one of our main reasons to start homeschooling J this year was to give him some rest and more detailed schooling...but it was also to travel and enjoy what's around us.   After reading over this post, I think I'm coming across a bit over-excited, but I guess that's because I am.  We are truly enjoying our time together, something my hubby was concerned about, but turns out when we are on our own schedule, we get along better!  Now I'm not going to lie...there are days when J is really tired of history or wants to skip a math lesson but he gets to learn in his pajamas (ok...sometimes just his underwear)...almost always shirtless and he thinks that's pretty awesome (his word).


Will we keep doing this after 5th grade?  Who knows...but for now, it's exactly what was needed. 

Let the Season Begin!

Football season that is :~)  
Oh YEAH!!!  
The Frogs are back!  

My wonderful hubby and son sent me to the opening game of the season this past weekend.  TCU vs Oregon State...#6 vs #24...best of all...the Frogs vs. the Beavers in the all new fancified Dallas Cowboys stadium, or "Jerry World" as we call it around here. (yes, I wrote "fancified!) 

My college friend Seamus and his family (wife, brother, brother's wife, sister, sisters' hubby and 3 kids) adopted me for the weekend and let me tag along with them.  We hit the famous Angelo's for lunch before heading to Arlington for the game.  (which I had actually never eaten before....even after 4 years of school there!). 

As we walked into the stadium, we couldn't help but have flashbacks to the misery that was the Fiesta Bowl last January, when we lost what should have been a well-matched win for us in our first BCS bowl appearance.  Seamus, his brother and myself, especially, since we had actually been present for that depressing game.  

The main reason we love these games...watching Patterson's tirades!

And while this first game of the season kept us tied in knots, we found a bit of redemption as the last few seconds of the 4th quarter passed and we had beat the Beavers, 30-21 !!

Sunday afternoon, after our second visit to the bookstore for yet more purple t-shirts (and of course I NEEDED a new TCU breast cancer hat for my 3Day walk this year ;)   ), we walked around campus.  I haven't walked around campus in years and MAN, the changes!  Over the last few years, they have finally started spending some of the money they raise on updating not only athletic areas, but also dorms, academic buildings, etc...  The old student center has been replaced by a new academic/office building, Seamus's dorm and several others were torn down and/or completely renovated.  What was once a large concrete parking lot between 4 dorms is now a beautiful grass covered common area.  The new student center is large and welcoming.  

the view from the new student center...the building you see facing us is in the spot of where the old student center used to be...this whole grassy, landscaped area used to be parking lots...and the buildings to the left and right were not there.

this is the same view but from the 3rd floor of the new student center.  The older (but newly renovated) dorms that are still standing are behind these newer dorms)

This is the view from the opposite direction...only thing we don't like is that now you can't see the stadium from inside campus b/c of the new big student center.

Frog fountain is still there (just moved back 20 feet). 

We took turns rubbing the horned frogs nose (although I would swear he's not the same horned frog from 1994...and Howard confirmed my suspicions).  

And my brick is still there.  I know it's silly, but that is a cool feeling. to know that is something that has been there for 16 years now...a more permanent part of the campus.   We were the first class to buy engraved bricks that continue to line the area around the library.  While I was taking the picture, I realized I can't wait to show this to J sometime!

I was even able to spend about 45 minutes with Howard and Mildred...my adopted grandparents.  

I worked with them in the Rickel Building during school, back when Mildred was known for her purple typewriter, and have kept up with them ever since.  They were even my honorary grandparents at our wedding.  Howard is now 85, Mildred is now 83 and Howard finally retired from TCU last week.  And even more amazing...while they were showing me around the new student center, a young student recognized them as Mr. and Mrs. Claus (they dressed as them every Christmas for many events for years and years!).  I love how much they are still adored today.  Mildred now uses a cane to help her walk...but of course it's purple!  They are TCU through and through and have been since they were students themselves.  Howard also mentioned that they will be donating their purple typewriter to the new historical displays set up in the student center.  Their names will be there for all to see for years and years to come :)




We have plans to attend one more game this fall if possible because the stadium is about to undergo major renovations also...after the last game this year, the West side will go tumbling down and the building will begin!  We spent a lot of Saturdays in that stadium.  And this time, I'm not letting T and J off the hook, they'll be with me.   Gotta get J more "Horned Frogged" and introduce him to a college football game without the TV commentators!