Sat., July 31 - Morganfield, KY (Family Time)
We left our house at 7:45am and arrived to Morganfield, KY mid-afternoon whereTim's brother's family welcomed us. Caitlin and the two kids were outside playing while Peter was waiting up in the tree above where we parked our van. A water balloon was involved.... lol
Sonya loves her cousins L & A.
We enjoyed fajitas for dinner followed by a dress-up show from Sonya and cousin A. Argh!
Sun., Aug. 1 - More Family Time
Cousins A & L were up before 7am and A REALLY wanted Caleb to wake up. He had been sleeping until noon most of the summer and was not quite ready for early mornings yet. We finally let her try at 8:45am. The door was locked, but that didn't stop her from knocking and sweetly pleading for him to wake up.
Tim and Peter went to the park to play tennis and the younger kids played on the swings while we waited for Caleb to get moving.
Once he was finally up, we walked over to where Cousin A's story was displayed on the story walk route. It was about Pirate Pete and a Monster who pooped mustard on his head. So great!
Cute Moments: Cousin A came up to Sonya and asked "Sonya, do you want to snuggle?" (She wanted to go lie down and hang out on the air mattress together). Cousin L held out his arms to Sonya and said, "Up!" Cousin A insisted on holding Caleb's hand for most of our walk - it was super sweet.
Then we headed over to the park to meet up with Tim & Peter. It was a pretty warm day and we arrived just as they were finishing. Peter won!
Back at the house, we had lunch and then Caleb talked big about playing pool. So he played against Tim and Uncle Peter. He didn't win, but there were some close games. He did beat me (Michelle) though.
Mid-afternoon and it was time to say goodbye and continue on our road trip.
Drove through the hilly and beautiful Kentucky countryside to Mammoth Cave National Park. We did a quick stop so we'd know where we needed to go the next day. Flint Ridge Road took us into Horse Cave, KY where our hotel was. Along that road, there were so many little farms, twists, and turns. Tim kept pointing out "horsies" only for us to tease him because they were cows. haha! Sorry, Tim!
At the hotel, Tim and Sonya went swimming while Caleb and Michelle watched Olympic beach volleyball. Then we all watched the rest of "Jumanji - The Next Level" and the last 20min of "The Parent Trap."
Mon., Aug. 2 - Mammoth Cave National Park
Arrived to Mammoth Cave National Park where we started on the Dixon Cave Trail and hiked along the Green River and in the bluffs, etc. We had a picnic lunch with subs from Subway.
After lunch, we took the 2-hr Historic Tour of Mammoth Cave. (We were thankful for the break from the heat since it high 80s outside and a nice cool 55 degrees inside the cave). A couple of the rooms were crazy big with really high ceilings. (I think I know where the name "Mammoth" comes from.You could probably fit a hotel or two inside one of the rooms!) Some of the tunnels were a little tight both horizontally and vertically. We had to duck our heads and squeeze through some spots in Fat Man's Misery, but that made the tour a little more fun! Next time, we'll have to explore another part of the cave systems because we didn't even make it in 3/4 of the tunnels/caves.
Driving through Pigeon Forge
Tues., Aug. 3 - Gatlinburg, TN & Great Smoky Mountains
Tim & Michelle had a timeshare meeting/tour at 9am EST. Fun stuff.... or not. (At least we got 3 free hotels nights out of the deal).
Then we grabbed the kids and waited in line to ride the chair lift up the mountain at Anakeesta, a theme park/attraction in Gatlinburg. Sonya was not crazy about going on the open air chair, but braved it so that we wouldn't have to wait longer to ride the enclosed gondola cabin.
There were a lot of cool activities once we got up there. The Treetop SkyWalk had a series of bridges and platforms 50ft up in the air. We did a lot of playing around throughout the park and climbed up AnaVista Tower to the highest point in Gatlinburg. It started drizzling on and off while we were on the chair lift already and we hadn't brought our rain gear, so we didn't stick around Anakeesta very long. Thankfully the line for the ridge rambler was short (and not up in the air), so we rode that down.
On the walk back to our hotel, we ate some amazing donuts from the Donut Friar. Mmm... Then there was swimming and water slides at the hotel.
Then we drove back down the mountain and grabbed some dinner in Gatlinburg. Foot long corn dogs for the kids and a cheesesteak sandwich and pulled pork sandwich for the adults. Back at the hotel -- more swimming.
Wed., Aug. 4 - Great Smoky Mountain National Park
It was a gloomy, drizzly day, but we put on our rain gear and hiked to Chimney Tops - just missed seeing a bear. We caught up to the family ahead of us who had stopped to let a bear pass through. We didn't see it anymore, but that was probably a good thing because we were at least an hour or more into this hike and there weren't many people on the trails.
We drove up by Clingmans Dome. The view was beautiful by the parking lot, but the fog was rolling in pretty good so once we hiked to the tower, we couldn't see much. The tower itself was pretty cool though.
Next, we drove to Oconaluftee Visitor Center (across the TN border into NC) on the other side of the national park, while stopping a few times for photos since the fog was not as thick in the lower elevations. (In the Visitor Center parking lot, Michelle smelled something like burnt rubber, but figured it was another car. More on this later). Took a walk around the Mountain Farm Museum. Then we drove back to Newfound Gap where the mountains were much more visible than the night before.
The kids were pretty tired so Tim and I walked a block to get some dinner from Slice Pizza Bakery. The slices were HUGE. Then we watched "Over the Hedge" and relaxed. Later, we tried to do another walk downtown, but the sky got really dark and the lightning was getting closer so we ended up back at the hotel. Tim, Sonya, and I played air hockey before returning to our room where we all watched more Olympics and fell asleep.
We were too busy trying to beat the storm so none of us posed with it.
Thurs., Aug. 5 - More Smoky Mountains, an Adventure, and driving
Tim went on some early morning hikes before the rest of us got up. We all packed up, ate breakfast, and then headed out for a family hike. Roaring Motor Fork Nature Trail was a windy road that led us up to the Grotto Falls trail head. The hike to the falls seemed easy after the more challenging Chimney Tops hike the day before. All the greenery gave a rainforest feel and the waterfall was cool. We all took some photos and the boys played on the rocks.
Once we got back to our car, we started driving down the mountain when 2 or 3 cars ahead of us were all stopped in a line. (This was a one-way road so you couldn't really go around them). We immediately started looking around for wildlife and spotted a mama bear and her 3 cubs ambling further into the woods. Thank goodness we were in the van and not out hiking!
View from the car - kind of hard to see
We drove through Gatlinburg and then got back into the national park where we briefly stopped at the Sugarlands Visitor Center. (Michelle smelled that burnt rubber smell again, but thought it was just from riding down the mountains or something). There were a lot of cars there and also by the picnic area so we kept on driving to find a quiet place to eat our lunch before driving through the Cade's Cove loop. We found a nice stop by the river. (Again.. the burnt rubber smell).
At this point, we were all a bit tired and cranky. So Tim got out to eat his food while the rest of us stayed in the van. All of a sudden, he ran up to the van and told us all to get out because it was smoking. Eek! Upon further inspection, the front right tire area was really hot with small puffs of smoke coming out from that area. We determined that it was probably something with the brakes, but didn't know what to do. I poured a little water on the tire and it bubbled and sizzled on the hub cap while steam floated off. It was HOT! At this point, neither of us had a phone signal so we couldn't call anyone or look up what to do next. We could've waved down a car, if needed, but decided to just let the brake cool off. Tim eventually filled his water bottle from the river a few times and managed to cool it off some more before driving again.
Since the tire and brake were cool, we decided the safest thing to do was leave the park and try to find a mechanic. So we drove towards Townsend to exit the park instead of doing Cade's Cove loop. It was a bit disappointing because the weather was absolutely beautiful and we hoped to get some better views of the mountains since the previous days were a bit cloudy and rainy. Once we got to Townsend, Tim went in the gas station to see where the nearest car garage was. There wasn't another one until Maryville, TN, another 18 miles away. Thankfully, our front tire and brake were still cool and we figured it was ok, but still a bit nerve-wracking, to drive the additional miles to get our van checked out before we continued traveling.
A few miles on the road and we both had phone service again so we got ahold of AAA who recommended we go to Pro Care Tire & Service in Maryville. The mechanic was nice and was able to take a look at the van while we enjoyed blizzards next door at DQ. Apparently, it's common for the front right brake to overheat in vans, especially when constantly pumping/riding your brakes down a steep grade (the mountains). We had the van in a lower gear, but maybe we should've just stopped at more pullouts. Oh well! At least the van was ok to continue driving and now we know what to do in the future.
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Our drive from Maryville, TN to Georgetown, KY was rather uneventful. Part of the drive was through the Daniel Boone National Forest. Even though we were on the interstate, we still had some amazing views. Once we arrived in Georgetown, we stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner and checked into another hotel.
Fri., Aug. 6 - The Ark Encounter (KY)
The Ark Encounter was pretty surreal. It still amazes me how Noah built this huge boat in 75 years and prepared it for his family and the animals during the flood.
After a lunch of pizza, cheeseburgers, and a hot dog, Tim and Caleb decided to check out the Truth Traveler Virtual Reality experience. Michelle and Sonya went over by the park and then by the zoo where we watched the kangaroos relaxing/napping, the zookeeper fed the giant tortoise, and people enjoyed the camel rides. It was a warm day outside so we ended our time at the Ark with some ice cream and few last photos.
We took a shuttle back to the parking lot and drove to Crawfordsville. After a busy day, we were all pretty tired, so we just got salads and subs at Walmart and Caleb ate his leftover fried chicken from the night before.
At the Hampton Inn, we watched the end of the one of the "Harry Potter" movies. Tim and Sonya went swimming while Michelle enjoyed the hot tub. Sonya and Michelle played Doodle Dice and then we all fell asleep with "Fantastic Beasts" playing on the TV.
Sat., Aug. 7 - Turkey Run State Park (IN)
Drove to Turkey Run State Park (IN)
Horseback riding -- Caleb was betting that Tim was going to fall off again (like he did during our last riding experience in Colorado). He didn't though! But... poor Sonya felt motion sick for most of the ride and didn't enjoy it nearly as much as she wanted.
After Sonya walked around a little and started feeling better, we took a short hike by the turkey run hollow. There was a canyon with a creek where we took some fun photos and did a little rock climbing.
