🚙2008 ~Friday May 9-16, Trip to Whigham with Ron

Day 1: May 9, Friday 2008

I rode to Whigham, Georgia with Ron, to spend some time with my youngest son and his family.

Ron was going to Panama City to play in a band at a wedding.

Ron arrived at 11:00 A.M., we went to the ATM for cash.

We stopped at Foodland to get some chicken fingers for lunch.

Ron also bought some toiletries. 

We travel east on Highway 72, turn south onto I-65 to Montgomery, we took I-85 north toward Atlanta, Georgia. We turn south onto highway 231 souths to Dothan, Alabama.

We stopped at McDonald's in Dothan for a sandwich. 

Andy was going to meet us around 5PM at the Dothan Mall. 

Andy loaded my luggage into his van and we rode to Whigham, which took about an hour. Ron drove to Panama City. 

After we arrive in Whigham, I took a quick shower, unpacked and went to play with the grandkids. 

Day 2: May 10, Saturday 2008 

We ate a late breakfast around 10 A.M. 

Then we rode to Bainbridge Park, they were having a festival called River Town Days. River town Days is the largest yard sale in southwest Georgia, which is along the Flint River. 

At the park, people were dressed like early Americans. People at the festival were making soap, basket weaving, and using a spinning wheel to spin wool into yarn.   

Andy, & Charity, took the boys to the West Alligator Exhibition. 

Sierra and I browsed through the yard sale items.

It was very hot outside so, I bought Sierra and myself a large fresh homemade glass of lemon-aide. 

Andy bought the four kids an all-day armband, cost $5.00 each 

The kid's activities included all the inflatables, rock climbing, pool slide, the castle bounce house, and the train ride.

The boys inside the tent

The boys riding the train

The grandkids in front of the tent

Home Depot had a display tent, they were showing kids how to built birdhouses and sailboats. 

Montana and Nevada built a sailboat. Sierra built a birdhouse. Sierra asks for an extra sailboat to take home to her brother Dakota. Dakota did not come with us,  he went to a friends house to fish. 

The kids were begging for a slushy. Andy told the kids that we were going to Wal-mart to buy a slushy machine, and he said, you kids can make your own slushes

The kids made slushy’s all afternoon.

It was very hot and muggy and the gnats would not go away.

After a hot afternoon at the park, I decided to retire to Sierra's bedroom to read.  

I read number 17 of the Trixie Beldon series. (The Mystery of the uninvited guest)

Andy grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and invited his friends over for supper. 

Their friends attended the church where he preached and they were discussing some of the problems they were having at the church. 

When the company left Andy and Charity rode to Tallahassee to Sam's Club to purchase a new mattress for their bed. 

The grandkids and I watched the movie Ella Enchanted. 

Day 3: May 11, Sunday 2008 

Everyone ate biscuits with honey for breakfast.

After breakfast and everyone was dressed we went to church.

That morning the preacher,(my son) preached about growing up. He said my parents divorced when I was a teenager.

He said, I was told by a church member, that my dad made a great big mistake when we left my mom. The church member said I knew both your parents. Your mother was a very good woman, she did everything for your dad and she was a faithful Christian woman. 

Today, was mothers day and I had gone to listen to my son preach, I was very proud of him. 

Later that morning Ron called said he was on his way to Whigham but needed directions. 

We waited for Ron to arrive before we ate lunch.

For supper, we ate snacks.

We all sat around enjoying a relaxing word game on the game channel. 

Day 4 May 12, Monday 2008 

Everyone ate biscuits, ham, and honey for breakfast. 

Ronald, Sierra and I played monopoly on the game channel.

Later that afternoon everyone played two games of bowling at the Bowling Alley.

The bowling alley was located across the street from the Riverbend Ford Dealership. 

That afternoon Ron was wearing a green shirt with Adidas on the front, Dakota was wearing a black shirt with Don’t hate the player, Andy was wearing an orange shirt that said, Vegetables are not food, vegetables are what food eats.

Montana was wearing a red shirt that said, Awesome God and the story about Daniel. 

Sierra was wearing a tie-dyed t-shirt that read Florida, Pensacola Beach.

For supper, we ordered six pizzas and some hot wings.

After supper, Charity and I walked to the end of the road.

Again, I walked to the end of the road with Montana, Sierra, & Nevada.

I finish reading book number 17 of the Trixie Beldon series and started book number 18. ( The Mystery of the Phantom Grasshopper)

We watched the Memoriam Emporium on TV.  After the movie, Charity and I played the word game on the game channel 

Day 5 May 13, Tuesday 2008 

Tuesday, Charity went to work with Andy. Ron and I stayed home with the kids

Nevada rode his bicycle, and I walk to the end of the road. 

That day, I washed several loads of clothes, sweep and mopped the floors, and cleaned the bathrooms. 

I took the cushions off the couch and used the vacuum to clean inside, Montana said, 

“ We never clean out the couch.” 

For lunch, we ate leftover hamburgers and hotdogs.

Ron and Dakota went to Wal-mart. I gave Ron twenty dollars. I said,  get two boxes of chocolate pudding, two-gallon of ice cream, some strawberries, a case of doctor pibs, cheese and chips.

Later that day, I made two chocolate pies and some cheese dip. 

The kids make milkshakes with ice cream. 

I cut up some oranges, apples with a cameral for dipping.

For supper, I cooked a ham.

Andy brought a box of donuts home for the kids.

Everyone joined in playing word games on the game channel.

     

Day 6: May 14, Wednesday 2008

We rode to  Lake Seminole State Park.

Sierra, Nevada, and Montana enjoyed a swim in Lake Seminole. 

Ron and Dakota tried to fish but the kids were splashing and making a racket. 

We stopped at Wal-mart on our way to Lake Seminole to buy items the kids could use in the lake. We bought green and orange tubes and yellow skiboard. 

Ron & Dakota Fishing and the grandkids swimming in Lake Seminole

Lake Seminole has a sandy beach, the water is shallow enough for the kids to swim but not over their heads. 

The fish was not bitting, I guess they were frightened away by all the splashing. 

After everyone was out of the lake and changed into dry cloth, we rode around the Lake seeing the sights.

We played word games on the game channel later that evening.  

Day 7: May 15, Thursday 2008 

We spent the whole day having fun at Wild Adventures Theme Park in Valdosta, Georgia.

We took two cars, Sierra, Nevada and I rode with Ron.

Dakota, Montana, and Andy rode with Charity.

The charity was darting in and out of traffic, and we had a hard time keeping up with her. 

She did a quick merge into the right lane, she was going to turn, but the traffic was too heavy and we could not get over.

So we lost them,  Ron nor I had brought our cell phones.

What was worse was neither Ron nor I knew their cell numbers.

We stopped at a payphone booth, I called hubby and I had him call Andy.

He told Andy where we were.  

Finally, they arrived, Dakota gave Ron his cell phone, just in case we got lost again.

The entrance to the park was half price for homeschool and their families. 

Passing out tickets

Wild Adventures Theme Park has located 3766 Old Clyattville Rd Valdosta, GA 31601 (229) 219-7080.

The kids stopped long enough for me to take their pictures. 

I took a picture of Sierra and Nevada with their heads inside a monkey's body. Nevada on the right and Sierra on the left, with a picture of monkeys in the middle.

The two end monkeys were putting their fingers inside the ears of the middle monkeys.

Making Monkey Faces

Dakota, wanted to ride the big rides so, Charity, Andy, and Ron went with him and I took the smaller kids with me.

Trying to decide where to go!

I bought a large turkey leg and I shared it with the boys.

The kids and I waited in line for twenty minutes to ride the Safari Train ride. On the ride, we saw Zebras, elephants, giraffes, elk, antelope, addax, alligators, bobcats, pythons, Oryx and waterbucks. 

We saw the West African crowned crane, sheep, goats, macaw, donkeys, and water buffalos. 

We rode the swings, the bug out coaster ride, which had a 180-degree turn at 50 feet in, was in the Bugsville area. 

There was no one in line at the Frog Hopper, Nevada and Montana rode the Frog Hopper about ten times. 

After the first ride, the lady that controlled the Frog Hopper asks the kids if they wanted to ride again and they all said yes.

Riding the Frog Hopper 

Finally, I said let us go ride something else, we rode the bumper cars. 

Sierra rode a silver car, Nevada rode a black and Montana rode with me in a purple car, we had fun bumping into one another.

Riding the bumper cars

We rode the Gold Rush Roller Coaster four times. 

We rode the Merry-o-round, the Shoo Fly Carousel, and the crazy bus. 

The crazy bus went up, down, round and round it was so much fun that we rode it three times. 

We rode the crop duster airplanes two times, the frontier flume log ride two times.

We walked through the mystery maze, where we got lost and had to ask how to get out.

We rode the safari jeeps two times, the tilt-a-wheel two times, Venus Flytrap and we watched one show the creature show with snakes and alligators.

Watching the snake show

When we were on the Century Wheel Fairies Wheel, we saw below us walking  Andy, Ron, Charity, and Dakota. 

After we left the theme park we stopped at Sonny’s BBQ 14293 US HWY 19 south Thomasville, Georgia, for supper. 

We ordered their signature BBQ smoked pork plates with homemade coleslaw, BBQ beans, and french toast, with ice tea to drink.

We were home by 9:00 P.M.

Day 8: May 16, Friday 2008

I was up at 6:30 A.M., I took a shower, and I packed my bag. 

Ron loaded our luggage into his car, it started to rain we both jumped into his car and left.

I picked up my cell telephone called Andy told him that we were on our way home and I said tell the grandkids good-by, they were still in bed.

We bought gas at Wal-mart in Dothan, I walked inside Walmart bought a box of Kashia cookies, a can Mountain Dew and a can Doctor Pepper for Ron.

We stopped at Chick-fil-A in Athens for lunch.

We had a good trip visiting with family and Ron playing in a band in Panama.

Later that day after we arrived home I went to Deibert Park to walk 2 1/2 miles.

Hubby and I ate supper at Red Lobster.

While we were out we stopped at Walgreen’s, Wal-mart, Target, and Sam’s.

It had been a long day and I was ready to go home.

🚙2009 ~ April 13-19 Traveling with family to Atlanta, & Pelham Ga

Day 1; Monday, April 13, 2009

My husband took me to Lora’s at 5:20 A.M. We loaded up the van and left about 5:45 A.M. The kids were actually up, ready, and had eaten breakfast.

We arrived about 11 A.M. at the Atlanta Aquarium. We paid five dollars for parking. 

We walked to the aquarium and stood in line for tickets. 

There were buses for school kids, teachers, parents, etc. The aquarium was full to capacity.

Georgia Aquarium is located at 225-Baker Street NW Atlanta GA.

We started at Georgia Explorer Discover this gallery was an interactive touch pool full of horseshoe crabs, sea stars, stingrays, and shrimp.

Next, we went to the Coldwater Quest, the chilly unknown, where we saw Australian weedy sea dragons, beluga whales, giant Pacific octopus, Garibaldi damselfish, and Japanese spider crabs hanging among rocky ledges and kelp for food. 

At the Ocean Voyager, we made a journey with the giant fish. Here we walked through an acrylic tunnel where we saw whale sharks, manta rays, Nandi, schools of predatory trevally jacks, squadrons of small and large stingrays, enormous goliath grouper, and hammerhead sharks. 

This tank contains 6 million gallons of saltwater with over 4,000 square feet of the viewing area and the window is 100 feet long. The tunnel has 185 tons of acrylic windows and is the second-largest viewing window in the world. It is 23 feet fall by 61 feet wide and 2 feet thick.

We made our next journey through the river scout where we found freshwater mysteries from Africa, South America, Asia, and Georgia.  

We saw Asia otters, Electric Eels, catfish, and razor-sharp teeth of voracious predators the piranhas. 

Last, we visited the Tropical Diver, the Coral Kingdom. We saw eels popping out of the sand, seahorses, jellyfish, and fairy bassets, yellow-headed jawfish, and at the center of this gallery is one of the largest living reef exhibits of any aquarium in the world. Living corals and thousands of colorful reef fish are presented in a faithful recreation of a tropical Pacific coral reef.

We ate lunch at the Aquarium and I ordered a dessert.

Jelly Fish 

We left the aquarium at about 5 P.M. and traveled to RHM located at 5420 Peachtree Dunwoody Rd. Northeast’s Atlanta, GA.

A storm had come through Atlanta and there were trees, tree limbs, and debris everywhere. 

The power was out everywhere and the red lights were not working so the intersection became a four-way stop but some people did not honor the stop.

Traffic was being rerouted because of the heavy rain and debris which was causing traffic jams. 

We got checked in at the RMH and unloaded the van.

We rode to Malibu Norcross at 5400 Brook Hollow Pky Norcross, Ga. 

We had a ticket for unlimited go-cart racing, duck boats, miniature golf, and a large pizza with cokes complimentary of Malibu Norcross management. 

We traveled through the 5 P.M. Atlanta evening traffic and arrived at 7 P.M. and we stayed until 9 P.M. 

We rode back to Ronald McDonald House where we took showers and dressed for bed. 

It had been a full day.

Atlanta Zoo

Atlanta Zoo

Day 2: Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Meadow and Marcus, Jr., both have an eye appointment. 

They were seen fairly soon but Meadow was referred to a Retina specialist on the second floor. 

Meadow finished seeing the doctors at 3:30 P.M.

The doctors said that Meadow will have to come back in May for eye repair.

We rode to the Atlanta Zoo, which will close in about one hour, but off we went to the zoo. 

Several of the zoo animals had been bedded down for the night but there were still several animals on view. 

We ate dinner at Steak and Shake.

Next, we rode to Mountain Marietta Park where we had unlimited tickets for go-cart racing and gaming. We stayed until 9 P.M.

We had another full day of fun.

 Wild Animal Safari 

 Wild Animal Safari 

 Feeding the animals at Wild Animal Safari 

The pacing Ostrich

A Day 3: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 

We checked out at 10 A.M. and we arrived at 12:00 p.m. at the Wild Animal Safari located in Pine Mountain Ga.

Lora rented a safari zebra van and bought several buckets of animal food. We load into the van and go through the locked gate inside where all the animals roam freely.

The animals know that we have food and they start coming toward us drooling. 

We feed the American buffalo, deer, cows, giraffes, gravy’s zebra, Kangaroo, rhinoceros, emus, yakatusi, Blackbuck antelope, elk, rhino, camel, and, buffalo as we wind through the 200 areas of the natural habitat of the animals. 

We drove past the caged Siberia tigers, black mane lion, and liger. 

Do not roll down your windows if you do not want a long drooling tongue in your face.

The van has bars on the back windows but the front windows will roll down. The kids loved feeding the animals and we took our time feeding and watching, and the kids squealed with delight at all the animals.

After the safari ride, we had a picnic. We sat next to the fence where an ostrich was pacing up and down.

The rest of the park was a walk-through where we saw 

pigs, monkeys, American Black bears, American alligators, rabbits, capuchins, baboons, donkeys, parrots, peacocks, skunks, swans, turtles, foxes, and wolves

We arrived at Andy’s at about 8PM and the kids were excited to see their cousins and ready to get out of the car after the three-hour trip.

Getting licked by Sampson

Day 3: Thursday, April 16, 2009

Sierra and Madison spent the entire day playing in Sierra’s room only coming out to eat.

The boys played outside building a playhouse in the woods. They were covered in dirt but they were having a good time so, that day we just let them have fun.

For supper, we had two large pizzas from Pizza Hut.

We rested on the sofa watching TV.

That night Meadow, Lora, and I slept in the same bed. Madison and Sierra slept in one bed and the boys slept on the floor.

The remainder of the time we were the boys put up a tent and they all slept outside. 

Have fun at Wild Adventures Theme Park 

Day 4: Friday, April 17, 2009 

Today Marcus, Jr., Nevada, Madison, and Sierra walked to the cemetery across the road and I gave Madison my camera to take  pictures of the tombstones

We went to 1:00-8:00PM to Wild Adventure Theme Park.

We ate corn dogs, funnel cake, and French fries.

The bigger kids ride all the big rides and Meadow and Montana ride all the smaller rides. 

We ate dinner at McDonald's.

While at the park Madison put her leg between two boards in a fence and got her leg stuck.

Lora had to grease her leg with suntan oil and Madison slowly worked it out. 

Montana and Meadow rode the Ferries wheel, merry-go-round, airplanes bug out, wild safari ride, snake, and swings.

I rode the smaller rides with the kids and I took many pictures.

We had Another full day.

watching the fish at the Flint River Aquarium 

Day 5: Saturday, April 18, 2009 

Lora, Meadow, and I rode to Flint River Park. The bigger kids want to stay and play, and Andy said he would watch them. He was going to watch the Alabama football game that afternoon.

Lora, Meadow, and I left about noon, Charity said she did not want to go with us so she went shopping with her friend Heather.

Lora, Meadow, and I went to Flint River Park where we walked around the park and looked at the Ray Charles Statue.

 We went to the Flint River Quarium to see the animals and fish that live in the Flint River and all the different types of catfish that live in the river. 

We ate at Barb Q sandwiches and fries at the Flint River Barb restaurant. Some back lady came over to our table and was telling us about a special school for children like Meadow she said the Lord told her to come over to our table and tell us about the school. We told her we were from Alabama.

After we ate we walked along the overflowing Flint River where we met this nice couple from New Jersey. There were misquotes and they started to bite us so we headed back to the park. We stopped at Winn Dixie and I went in and got a two-gallon bucket of Napoleon ice cream, two packages of cookies, pecan sandies, pecan sandies with chocolate chips, and two packages of ice cream cones. I went to bed with Meadow because she was tired.

Lora washed clothes until 9:30 P.M.

When Charity returned she and Andy went to Outback Restaurant for dinner and they brought their leftovers home with them.

Montana asking if he can go!!

Sierra and Madison

Nevada and Marcus

Montana in his Sunday Best.

Day 6: Sunday, April 19, 2009

Our last day which was Sunday, Madison, Marcus, Jr., dressed and went to Sunday school with Andy. 

Lora and I packed and cleaned.

We left about 10:30 A.M. Montana came up to Lora and said,” Aunt Lora, if you will take me with you I will give you all the money that I have in savings.” He was very serious about that.

Andy came back to tell us goodbye it was between Sunday school and Church. 

Inside Desota Caverns

Inside Desota Caverns

Riding the tubs 

Riding the potty seats

Visiting Desota Caverns 

Going inside the Caverns

We stopped at Childersburg, AL at Desoto Caverns.

We stayed until they closed at 5 P.M. 

We bought some fudge, and cokes and snacked.

We toured Desoto Caverns which, took an hour. We saw stalactites which are rock formations that hang down and stalagmites are rock formations that reach up, other mnemonics to help us remember this is that the two words differ in the sixth and seventh letters — using the sixth letter, stalactites come from the ceiling and stalagmites comes from the ground. 

We saw a light show beginning with the first day of creation to the seventh day on that day God rested. It was awesome.

We exited Desoto Caverns and went to the park area where there were rides, archery, cave crawl, and mine for gemstones, we walked through, a lost trail maze. 

Lora, Marcus, Jr., and Madison rode the Hamster wheel and we all rode the bathtubs and potty seat scooters.

A man walked up to Lora and said the Lord told me to give this to you and he handed her some more tickets and wrapped up in the tickets was a twenty-dollar bill. 

Lora thanked the man but she did not know about the money until he had walked away.

We stayed until the park closed at 5 P.M. 

Lora fed Meadow and we rode home in the rain. We did not know that there was a tornado warning all around us.

The Lord was looking out for us that day and we made it home safe and sound.