Day 6 (June 30th) Driving in a Hurricane

Well, this started out as an uneventful day of driving. We drove from Atlanta, GA, to Greenville, AL, yesterday. We made a quick overnight stop at a nice little campground and today we're finishing the drive into New Orleans. It's not a routine drive, however, because right about Pascagoula, Missippi, we drove under the edge of Hurricane Alex (?). It's making landfall in Mexico and Texas, but today and tomorrow we'll be getting rained on in Louisiana. The rain was sudden and torrential, so there were a few accidents and we've been slowed down in the back-ups. We'd hoped to make New Orlean by 3pm and hit the campground's pool, but I'm betting more on 5pm and staying in while the torrential downpour passes.

Day 4 (Monday June 28th) Stone Mountain, GA

We got into Stone Mountain, Georgia last night in time to set up and take the shuttle over to watch the laser show. They use animated lasers and project pictures onto the side of the mountain as music plays and fireworks go off. They guys loved the show!

Today, we drove over to the amusement portion of the park. The first thing the guys wanted to do was called Sky Hike. It was a three story tall ropes course where you're locked into a harness in case you fall. It really helped to develop the guys' confidence in their balance. There was also a 40 ft. climbing wall for adults. Both boys had to try that before they realized there was a children's climbing wall. John tried the "expert" wall and made it more than half the way up before rain slickened handholds made him slip off. The big surprise was Jake making it to the top of the adult-beginner's wall. Tyler didn't do as well and we moved on to other attractions. Later on, we found the beginners climbing wall which the boys decided to race each other on. It was very close but Tyler won by about a second. It looks like we might have some climbers on our hands.

We took the gondola to the top of Stone Mountain and got a closer view of the stone carving on the way up. From the top of the mountain, we had an excellent view of the immediate area and could even see Atlanta, 45 miles away. There was a trail that hikers used to hike up/down the mountain that the boys wanted to take but the temperature and humidity was just too high so we opted for a return ride on the gondola.

We watched a glass-blower make flowers and a candle holder. The guys were fascinated. After dinner and a swim in the pool, we returned to the park to ride an old train that makes a 7-mile circle around the base of the mountain. It was relaxing and provided some wonderful views of the mountain in the light of the setting sun.

Instead of staying to watch the laser show again, we decided to return to the campsite and watch a movie. Since we don't need to check out until noon tomorrow we stayed up late for the movie. In the morning, we'll have a relaxing breakfast and head for Greenville, Alabama.

Day 2 (Saturday, June 26th) Charleston, SC

We went into Charleston to see Fort Sumter. The fort is on a man-made island that was created on a sandbar in Charleston's harbor so we took a ferry from Patriot's Point to the fort. The fort itself wasn't all that impressive, but the rangers were very informative. For those who don't already know the significance of this fort, it was here that the Civil War actually started. On April 12, 1861, the S.C. militia fireed the first shots ofhte war at Fort Sumter which was occupied by Union troops. After surrendering the fort to the Confederacy, Union ships and ironclads returned and shelled the fort almost continuously for the next two years, reducing it to 1/3 of its original height which is how it looks now.

After our tour of the fort, we returned to Patriot's Point to explore the submarine USS Clamagore and the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown. The sub was nuch like like the USS Torsk in Baltimore Harbor (maybe a little newer). The Yorktown was very inpressive; it truly is a floating city. In and on the Yorktown, there were over a dozen military aircraft on display, an Apollo space capsule, the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule, and the Medal of Honor Museum. The kids were duly impressed by the ship and the planes, but were really impressed by the stories of the Medal of Honor recipients. After a drive past Charleston's "Battery" and downtown area, we returned to the campground for another swim in their 80-degree pool. Tomorrow, we drive to Alanta, GA to see Stone Mountain.

Day 1 (Friday, June 25th) Leaving Home, MD

Drive to Charleston, SC was uneventful. We stayed up too late Thursday night so we decided to leave at 5am instead of 4am. We ran into a couple of back-ups, but nothing too major. We got into our campground about 3:45pm. We swam in their pool for a while. The water was too hot to be refreshing, but is was relaxing. We've been looking forward to getting shrimp in New Orleans, but figured the oil spill made that unlikely, so we went out for dinner at a little dive that had been recommended by the campground. The food was incredible!

Just 2 weeks to go

Tomorrow marks the 2 week mark. We still have so much to do before we're ready. Unfortunately, I'm stuck at work in the mean time. I really need to make a list or I'm going to forget to do something important.