Mt. Pleasant Classical Academy

Day 1: John Bryan State Park, Yellow Springs OHIO

560 miles

We departed from DE at 6:05am, heading west through MD, WV, PA, WV, and into Ohio. The trip was uneventful, which is the way I like it. SK exploded a couple times at me, a rather common occurrence when I place him into a situation that is different from the norm. Now, a few days later, I can’t even remember distinctly why he exploded; oh sure I remember the places—at the Arby’s when I thought the boys had said they were hungry but SK wasn’t and he exploded—when I asked for directions coming into Yellow Springs—-but I can’t remember what I said or Michael said. As I explained to Mark when he complained about how Michael needed to look on the sunny side, Michael needs to learn how to deal with change and I need to learn a new approach to Michael when he explodes. This trip I am trying—-and it is not easy—to talk very softly.

We pulled into Yellow Springs, purchased a few food items at Tom’s Market, and headed into the State Park. The sites were in a grassy meadow with randomly placed tall trees which provided nice shade. The shade was not sufficient to counter the 92 degrees heat and 90% humidity. Not a fun environment to set up a tent in. Mark went to check out the bathrooms and reported back that they were one step up from an outhouse. He was very correct. Lesson learned, next time I will double check on the bathroom situation. Even for $15/night I want a flusher and no flies biting at my butt. We picked site #17 simple because it was flat and the previous user had left a good quantity of wood, although I couldn’t imagine a fire in that heat.

As we set up the tent the thunder began, the black clouds rolled in and then out. I was so thankful that the sky had not opened up on us, and for the cooler temperatures that we had a little bonfire before saying our goodnights at 9pm.

Day 2: National Air Force Museum at Wright-Pat Air Force Museum

Mammoth Cave National Park, Mammoth, KT

270 miles

At Mark’s request we returned to the Air Force Museum for a few hours. The museum is excellent, holding billions of $$ of vintage airplanes chronologically laid out, with numerous docents to answer any question you might have. It is well worth a visit and would be worth an admission charge but is a free museum. BTW, it far exceeds the Smithsonian Air and Space museums in DC.

After our 4 hour visit we headed south leaving Ohio and entering KT. We left the highway and 10 miles later arrived at Mammoth. The first order of business was to obtain a few cave tour tickets, and then settin up our camp. There are flushers here, and the bathhouse is very modern. We all remarked about how we set up our tent like old pros, and then we had our dinner.

Before leaving DE we had agreed to twice daily checking-in with DH, however we didn’t have any bars at our campsite. I suggested to Michael that head to the camp office to see if he could make a call from there, a short ½ mile walk-there and back-and that I would clean up the dinner dishes. When I had Mark take the trash to the dump area I asked him to see if he could see Michael. There was no Michael!

Mark and I started out for the Visitor Center, a mile or so away with thunder booming all around us; perhaps SK had thought I said he could head there. We hiked, we called out for Michael, but still no Michael. I was getting frantic to say the least.

When we left the visitor center a ranger spotted me and called to ask if I was looking for someone. I must have had that frantic look and frantic pace. We returned to our campsite and behind us came the Park Police ready to start a missing kid search. Thankfully MichaelK was in the tent; he had followed the bars on his cell phone and found a site within the campground where he could call his Dad. When he returned and found us gone he then realized that perhaps his 20-minute call to Dad was a bit too long and that mom had gotten concerned.

I cried, we hugged and Michael had this look on his face, a ‘she still cares and gets worried about me’. Shortly thereafter the skies opened up, the lightening flashed, the thunder boomed, and the rain came down like someone had opened the dam above our heads. In the morning there was over 2” of water in the bucket on our table.

Day 3: Mammoth Cave National Park

Our first cave tour was the Violet Lantern Cave tour. We learned that Mammoth Cave had been used by early man as a place where he collected gypsum for some unknown purpose. We saw his drawings scattered throughout the cave. Then in the late 1700’s or early 1800’s the cave was discovered, and explored. The war of 1812 brought the need for saltpeter and slaves were employed to mind it. Once mined it was sent to Dupont in DE to be used in making gunpowder. After the war the cave owner wanted to continue making money from the cave and decided that perhaps folks would pay to tour the cave. Imagine that! They would, and still do so today.

Mammoth Cave has 5 layers, and over 300 miles of routes, however only a few are on the tour routes. Our Violet City Cave Tour was 3 miles and traveled from one large room to another. The air was cool and filled with the cave dust smell I remembered from my spelunking days. When our tour guide mentioned the wonderful acoustics of the large chambers one tourist sang the Star Spangled Banner. It was lovely. We heard about the cave being used as a hospital for TB patients—a dismal failure— and the early tours and explorers. Michael walked beside our tour guide asking questions and having his own personnel tour. Mark observed and pointed to various names written on the walls throughout most of the 1800’s.

It was hot when we returned to the surface and we really wanted to just stay down below. After lunch at camp we walked a few short trails and enjoyed seeing a few springs and other cave entrances. At 6pm we went on the Star Light Trail. Unfortunately the first park ranger who advised us on which tours to go on, and who assurred us that the two trips were quite different, had misled us and most of this tour traveled on the same path as our first tour. Thankfully the ranger pointed to different cave items and told different stories than our first tour guide. We all wished we had joined the Historic Tour during the afternoon. Oh well, it gives us a reason to return to this cave again.

Day 4: Mammoth Cave to Nashville (and on to Sherman TX)

808 miles!!!

We broke down camp at 6am, and were on the road by 7. Our first stop, Nashville was to the Ryman Auditorium. If you don’t know what the Ryman is then you are not a country music fan. Not knowing its history Michael and I both exclaimed that it looked like a church and we soon discovered that that was its first use. It was beautiful, and our back stage tour was just the ticket to get a feel for just what might go on before a show. I loved the charcoal drawing of Johnny Cash in the one dressing room. So life-like.

I sent Michael and Mark on stage for a picture and requested them to pick up the guitars and play. Then I told them to play. Still they refused claiming they did not remember how too. UGH!!! Mark plays so many pieces from memory and they both can play quite well, but it has been awhile since I forced them to practice. Something to add to our fall school day.

We left the Ryman and headed west to Centennial Park to see the Parthenon. During the Starlight tour at Mammoth Caves, Michael had listened to others conversation and at the end of the tour left the cave talking to a woman from Nashville. He introduced me to her, told her we were headed to her city the following day, and asked if she knew what we should take in, in a few hours. I had heard about the Parthenon building, knew it was somewhere in the south, but had forgotten it was a place I wanted to see. How nice she suggested it and that Michael had brought us together.

After Nashville, we decided to drive as far as we could before finding a hotel for the night, but when we passed Memphis I decided that I could probably drive to Sherman, TX and my sister’s home. It would be a long day, and 808 miles for the day but it would mean an extra day with her and her DH. Finally at 11:45pm we arrived. WHEW!!!

Day 5: Sherman, TX

It was an enjoyable visit with my sister and her husband in Sherman, TX. He teaches at Austin College, gave us a complete tour of the campus, and got me thinking about whether Michael shouldn’t attend a small college rather than the mammoth ones on my list. He probable didn’t even know that he set that seed in my mind either. Such a nice man, soft spoken, and so very interested in others. What happened was that he spoke about the Pre-Med kids on campus, their acceptance rate into a medical school, and the school’s lack of emphasis on athletes. Michael reacted quite positively that schools exist that do not focus on athletics, or provide athletic scholarships, since the emphasis is instead on academics. Then my BIL spoke quite positively about the homeschooled kids he has had in his English Classes, while Sis tried to play the “S” card and how most or all the HS’ed kids are not properly socialized. She is supportive of us hs’ing—or so she says, and her actions back up those words—-however, she believes we are a rarity, that others should not hs and all hs’ing should be highly regulated. UGH!!! All this while her DH is going on about how wonderful all the hs’ers are that he has had in his classes.

On Saturday night we visited a true Texan BBQ restaurant—Double Shot BBQ in the tiny town of Tioga west of Sherman. It was delicious, however Mark had an upset stomach when we left and just a few miles down the road lost his cookies, and then had to use the high grasses to take care of the other end. UGH!!!

Day 6: Sherman, TX to Lubbock, TX and then north past Amarillo to Dumas, TX

500 miles

My sis and her DH suggested that I not drive the boring, direct route from Sherman to Amarillo, but instead drive to Lubbock and enjoy the scenery that would change quite often. They warned me though to fill up in Seymour before driving on. I’m so glad I listened to them. During the 120 mile drive there was really only 2 places where we could have gotten gas! How void of services, but so filled with beautiful vistas! After we had committed to this drive I discovered that this added 100 miles to our drive, but it was worth it. It was the Texas that we had seen on TV, the one described in books, the open range with scrub bush, cows in the fields, and even cowboys mending fences. SK used our GPS to check on our elevation change—-1270’ and tonight we sleep at 3800’. Mark used the Streets and Trips to inform us of the upcoming town which if you blinked you would really miss. I was surprised that more than once a car came up beside us, waved hello before traveling on or even pulling back behind us. My guess is that they hadn’t seen folks from DE before!

We pulled into Dumas, TX and checked into our hotel. Tomorrow we leave TX and head into the Rockies Mountains. It was 100 degrees today and SK, who hates the heat exclaimed that he LOVES Texas, enjoys this dry heat and the friendly people with their Hi Y’All’s.