Helping her brother out

Maria finished her dinner last night much faster than the rest of us. Sam was hungry but dawdling--Maria sat next to Sam with fork in hand and said, "if we eat together we can beat Josh."

Either way they will burn you

The hashbrowns were sizzling in the oily pan when I slid them onto the kids plates. I warned, "these are hotter than boiling water." 
Maria blew on one and said, "they're not hotter than boiling water, they are warmer than boiling water."

From the mouths of babes

Yesterday as Sammy was trying to get my attention he said, "Mommy." Mommy!" "BIG TUMMY!"

Well, for better or worse that did work to get my attention.

Home again, Home again, Jigity Jig

Precisely two hours after my last blog post late Sunday night. I felt a rumbly in my tumbly, and spent the rest of the night getting to know the toilet better. I don't know for sure but I must have lost 10 pounds in  four hours. I don't mean to be too graphic or anything, but I think I set a new record for tossing cookies the most times in four hours: 13. 

Anna was the best, she made me a bed on the hotel bathroom floor with the extra pillows we had and I did not get up from this cozy spot until late the next morning. 

(sorry no pictures, you'll have to use your imagination).

Luckily, it was only food poisoning from the Bean Burrito I ate at taco bell, so nobody else shared my agony. After a day in bed, Tuesday morning rolled around and I felt much better. But the Ripley's Believe It or Not Aquarium had not been checked off Joshua's "Road Trip To-Do List" so even though there was a 10 hour drive ahead of us we went for it.

Boy was it fun: huge Sharks, giant Jelly Fish, jumbo Sting Rays, a big Sea Turtle and a little tiny sea shell filled with deadly poison (not kidding). Best of all everything was designed for maximum kid enjoyment.

We pulled in the drive way at 12:30am early Wednesday morning, just 31 minutes later than planned. The extra 31  minutes may have been the Italian dinner at Buca di Beppo we enjoyed in Cincinnati. 

You know what? the it seems we have had some great chefs on our trip. The chef at Buca brought us out a free Calamari (out of the blue) so all the kids got to eat baby squids. Thanks to God for that nice touch: after looking at more sea creatures than you can shake a squid at we get to eat some too.

The Appalachian Mountains are Beautiful

We got up extra early this morning, partly because there was an 8AM mass at St. Paul's in Seneca SC that we wanted to get to. But also because we could not wait to get out of our ultra crappy hotel room. It was what you would call a "dive" and it was abysmal...we now have both a good and a bad experience from using Priceline.com.

Our plan for today was to get from Seneca, SC to Gatlinburg, TN which google maps said should be about a 2.5 hour drive...it took us 

10 hours.  

We stopped at practically every spot to pull over and with the GPS set to "shorte

st" instead of "fastest" route we also found some beautiful back roads through the mountains, including some dirt roads with steep drops and no barriers. 

We found breath-taking untouched land, an

d stumbled upon some of the most gorgeous building sites 

with waterfalls in their ba

ck yard and mountain v

iews. And some of the scenic communities that we passed through lead me to feel

 that I was in Switzerland 

(except that everyone talked with a souther

n drawl instead of French). 

The Smokey 

Mountain National Park Road was the last park of our journey today. I cannot imagine taking the trip on a foggy or snowy day because mountain motoring 

is so challenging on its own. Someday I would like to do this drive again in a Mini Cooper or Porsche with a stick 5 speed stick!! 

Anna was a

 real trooper through the whole trip

 as she was not feeling good yet hardly complained that I was taking sooooooo long.

We are now safe at a comfy hotel in Gatlinburg. The kids went straight for the pool when we got here. 

Maria has been pushing the limits of a 4 year old trying summer-salts under water, trying to touch the bottom

 of the pool (5 feet down) and swimming with great strength across the pool and back many times with no assistance. 

Samuel has no fear leaping into the pool, wanting to go completely underwate

r without plugging his nose, and only then can I lift him up. He is also very close to swimming on his own. 

Joshua has a desire to swim, and he is overcoming his fears bit by bit. He was venturing out on his own where the water came up over his mouth. 

We crossed strom thurmond dam onto south Carolina

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A bright RED dirt road near Harlem Georgia

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Okefenokee National Swamp

It sounds like Okeedokee, but Okefenokee, in the language of the Seminole Indian, means trembling/unsteady earth. You might guess that it refers to the swampy ground, and you'd be right. But I think it also had to do with how trembling scared they were walking though the swamp with all the alligators and poisonous snakes lurking about. Even the little 18" long alligators that the staff held in their hands have 45lbs of biting pressure and bacteria in their mouths that kills people more than the bite does.

Luckily we didn't see any wild snakes. It's not that I wouldn't have enjoyed seeing them, but in Michigan we are so comfortable with the fact that most snakes are safe that we drop our guard when we come across them. In Georgia there are 6 poisonous snakes, and they had some of them in cages. The Diamond-Back and Cane Break Rattle snakes were huge. And the herpetologist said that recently a Cotton Mouth was swimming in the water at the edge of the amphitheater. That story got better because she said a huge non-venomous King Snake darted out from under the stage and bit the Cotton Mouth behind the head...and proceeded to eat him over the next 40 minutes.

Anna was most excited to see the aligators, and see them se did. We saw a bunch of of them. They were very cool and they like to keep their distance from us. Our boat tour guide was a bit crazy though and took the boat right up to the edge where a pair of gators were sunning in the 67 degree weather. We were literally only 5 feet from them with nothing to keep them from joining us in the boat. That was exciting.
It was a bit unnerving to bring along three little morsels (I mean children) because the gators were free roaming and wild. There were actually signs placed on a tree near the handicap parking warning about the alligators. The first sign said that "alligators are dangerous," but because the creatures would come right up to the edge of the side walk (not when we were there thankfully) and hold so still people thought they were statues. Visitors, we were told, would even arguing with the park staff in disbelief. So the a second sign was added warning that the alligators are "not fake."

The boat tour guide spoke with a thick-as-molasses southern accent. He used words that I didn't even know existed. But man could he pilot that boat down the narrow waterways. He said his daddy drove boats in the swamp, and so did his granddaddy before that. He told us many a tale about his childhood, making the 30 minute boat ride last 50 minutes. What a character he was.
Joshua wanted to touch anything that he thought might be alive. The herpetologist brought out three big snakes to touch, a big King snake, a Corn snake, and a Grey Rat Snake? and Joshua wanted to get up real close. More than once she had to tell him to stop touching around the mouths because they were likely to bite him. There is a picture that I will post soon that looks like he was actually trying get his finger into the snake's mouth. This crazy kid is fearless when it comes to animals. The other two had no problems petting the snakes, but they didn't seem to have the same gusto that Josh was bursting with.

Joshua at the Georgia swamp entrance

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38 bucks buys a night near Okefenokee

Following the advice of Dave Campbell I tried Priceline's "name your price" for a hotel room in Waycross Georgia. We got one for cheap, the Hampton next door was $68 but we are staying at a southern chain of motels that has everything we need, and it is only $38 a night. 

Today we are heading out to the Okefenokee Swamp. Hopefully we will see some alligators, but not become their dinner. I am also thinking that a old fashioned steam train ride is also on the horizon, so we'll try to get some videos of that for Anthony Love.

We'll have more Peanut Butter sandwiches now...

...because of Winn Dixie

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An Armadillo as we left Canaveral National Beach

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Canaveral National Seashore is COVERED is seashells

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Joshua's favorite: Comb Jellyfish - with flashing lights

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Sea World was a Blast

There is no time today to share all the fun of the day, but here are a few pictures to hold you over.

Mary, Queen of the Universe

I like to think that this church was named before Universal Studios was built, but I am not too sure. The church was built 25 years ago. Does anybody know?

Anyway, the structure did not carry the gravitas of a 500 y

ear old church in Rome, but the stained glass bible stories were amazin

g. One could spend hours just looking at them, an

d there were lots of them telling the whole sto

ry of salvation from Genesis to the M

artyrs.

The side chapel had dark blue stained glass with stars that looked just like we were in space.

Crazy People Drive all night

...and God must like crazy people. We left Nashville at 11:00 am Sunday morning, and we planned to end our day in Valdosta Georgia, just north of the border of Florida. We also planned to stop at Cloudland Canyon along the way, a Georgian state park that is "off the beaten path" and very beautiful.

But the crazy part came in when we spent more time at Cloudland, just because of the sheer beauty of the whole place, and the friendliness of the few people who happened

 to be there with us (including the

 owners of this Porsche parked next to our van, which put me in a precarious  situation...which one to drive back down the mountain???). 

Anyway, we where still pretty far from Valdosta when the kids were begging for sleep, and I was not interested in

 driving another 6+hours on the day we were supposed to be arriving in Florida. So we stopped, got the kids as ready for bed as we could, brushed their teeth with plain water, filled the little kid potty (ewww) and got them in their PJ's (for Maria that is just undies and nothing else :), tipped the kids seats back as far as we could with all the luggage and food behind them, then daddy got some Mountain dew (ignoring the calories for the caffeine), and off we went. Anna was a real trooper. 

We only stopped

 for who hours along the w

ay from 2-4am, Anna slept on the floor under the kids feet while I tosse

d and turned in the front seats. I don't think we would request to sleep like that again under norm

al circumstances. But it worked this time.

I woke up refreshed (no joke) at 4am to the crickets chirping on my phone alarm. The only thing we weren't too sure about was checking into the hotel. We apprehensively called at 5am to ask what our options were. We are told 4pm was normal check in time, but w

e could check in as early as 7am. I was overjoyed.  

And by golly we arrived in Orlando at 6:30 after a 20 minute 

GPS mistake which took us to the wrong Lake Street in a little neighborhood that looked scary in the dark.   As we pulled in to the Embassy suites at 6:30 the kids started waking up, to them it was normal to wake up and be safely in Orlando where mom and dad told them they would. But we don't want to take for granted all the little details that God worked out for us along the way. Yes, God really blessed us, either in spite of our craziness or because of it.

The T-Rex display near Lego land in downtown Disney

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Our room has a kitchenette and a livingroom! Yay

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Arrived in Orlando@ 6:30 am; and they let us check in 10 hours early

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Driving through the Appalachians at Cumberland

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Sad to leave Nashville

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How many chefs care this much?

Yes, I think we found a very unique man. Someone who really cares about how others feel. He made us feel like family, or better, like royalty. The food he made at his restaurant Volare is unmatched: Anna’s Crab-stuffed Salmon, and my Chilean Sea Bass were so good they were almost spiritual. Every bite gave off a magical burst of flavors that kept our taste buds busy, and our souls praising God for such talent. Despite the busyness of the restaurant on a Saturday night, before during and after the meal he came out to just be with us, listen to the kids get to know us a little bit better, and just smile. I don’t mean to over do all this praise; but rarely has the world found a man with such visible a talent that also can focus on “people” as and balance those gifts of relationships as if people were what was really important to his world. Would you not agree that this is a rarely found balance? Our kids and we too love our new uncle Bobby Bell.
If you are ever in Nashville, stop by the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and see Bobby at the Volare Italian Resturant. (and don’t forget to ask for a free valet parking validation and save $25 on parking) :) 

Of the event at: www.rayclan.com/roadtrip

The Miracle Hotel Room

After the Mammoth Cave expedition this morning we did not have any plans set in stone. Our goal was to get two more hours south to Nashville see the and find a cheap place to sleep. On our drive down Anna searched for a hotel on our iphone but many of the known-brand hotels in Nashville were pricey. The King of all hotels in Nashville is the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and it runs $260-$300 per night with taxes, but it is the MOST beautiful place I have ever stayed at in my life. So anyway, about that miracle, after dinner at the aquarium restaurant we arrived at the hotel, but after a 10 minute walk from a nearby mall (because even parking is $20 at this place). We entered one of the three gorgeous glass-covered atriums just after dark. We wandered around a bit, watched the fountain/light show, stopped the kids from grabbing at the koi goldfish, and just enjoyed ourselves...we even commented that time spent without “somewhere to go next” is much more fun than having a rigid schedule. It was getting a bit late though and we needed to find a hotel room before the kids got too sleepy to walk. I told Anna that I would really like to spend the night here at the Opryland Hotel, and that we should pray and ask God to get us a cheap room. So we did. We held hands at the little koi pond with the gold fish listening and told God that we needed a place to stay tonight and that we would really like him to help us to stay here. As we started walking again I contemplated calling the reservation desk, I even pulled out my phone and looked at the number, but I got a sense that it was not the way God was going to bless us.
Minutes after, we walked past a familiar resturant, Volare, a fancy italian place: “$30 a plate” fancy, and we remembered that we ate there 3 years ago during a conference for my Dad’s company. Sam was just a baby, and when we asked for something soft for him to eat the Chef actually came out to our table and talked to us for few minutes. He told us about his family and his kids and his faith in God. He then brought us a bowl of blended up carrots decorated like it was for the president. He was the kind of guy whose manager you call to lavish praise upon, (which we did).

As we walked past the restaurant we recalled this event and tried to remember the Chef’s name: Freddy, maybe, something catchy that ended in a “y” for sure. He had made such an impact on us with his friendliness we thought it would be really cool to see him again and tell him how we still remembered how he took care of us. I approached the maitrde’ and asked if they had a very friendly chef whose name was Freddy or something like that. She recognized his description of “friendly” right away, which was no surprise, but his name is Bobby she told us. She quickly offered to go get him...and quickly hopped away before we could say that it was not important enough to pull him away from his work.

Out came the familiar face of Bobby Bell, the chef who cared about us like only a Christian ever could. He remembered us immediately, from 3 years and thousands of customers ago. In fact he told us that we had given him a Curious George book for his son the night he had given us our memory. He sat down on the stairs at the entrance to his restaurant, asked about the kids, what we were doing here, etc. We told him about our trip and how we plan to go to Sea World and back on a tight budget. “Good Luck,” he said. When he asked where we were staying and found out we were not staying at his hotel, and had not found one yet, he said, “wait here, I might be able to do something for you.” We waited for a few minutes, he came back and said to wait a few more. After waiting for about 10 minutes, he came out with a big smile on his face and told us normally he has to go though the HR department to get room discounts for family members only, but because it was late and at the last minute the HR office was closed so he thought he could go to the reservation desk with us and pull some strings. Right then and there he walked with us, about 20 minutes round trip, to the reservation desk and got us a room for $49.95.
You can only imagine our joy gratitude that God chose to bless us through Chef Bobby Bell, father of four, and six-year-old christian. So God Bless Bobby Bell and his family for generations.

When we got to our wonderful room with a balcony overlooking an indoor tropical paradise, we got on our knees and praised God. Ask and we shall receive. Give Him our trust he will not forsake us. For He delights in providing us with our needs. And I am sure that he delights even more when we are truly thankful to Him. It is now 12:53 AM and I am going to go to sleep. Who knows what adventures lie ahead.

Our miracle hotel room in Nashville, more on the story later

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We're eating at the Aquarium Restaurant in Nashville: 200,000 gallons

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Only 500 miles to find warm weather!

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Maria's stripey tights - at Mammoth caves

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Road Trip Links

By The Way
we are simultaniously posting some stories and pictures on our website www.rayclan.com/roadtrip

Also, we are posting pictures on a cool mapping site that can be found at Panoramio

Only 400 miles from home and it's 44 degrees already!!

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Fun with glowsticks in Kentucky

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Getting started early

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Elizabeth Rose at 23 weeks.

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