2552 (miles)

Rescheduled three times, it was the little trip that almost wasn't.  First postponed in the spring, because up north they got 18" of snow the day we were to drive;  if we cancelled, they'd charge us $100.  We moved the trip to September not realizing it was the Week Everything Begins.  So, off to October.  This not-realizing was that the park was essentially closed when we'd be there:  no CCC built dining hall for breakfast, no big gift shop, no boat tour of Lake Itasca.  (We made do, easily.)

The girls ran around inside and out despite the chill, and we so enjoyed our few days away exploring this park without the bugs or crowds.  We hiked and wandered and took pictures and didn't get our feet wet crossing the mighty Mississippi as it began its journey south (by going north).  We also slept in (though I got up - not early - to run the other morning, when I came back they were still sleeping) and made pancakes and watched satellite TV and looked at the stars and helped out our neighbors when they locked themselves out at 9:30pm and didn't climb a fire tower (Gret and I did not) and had wine and cheese and crackers whilst making supper.  And saw a Fischer (I did).  And took *more* pictures.  And made videos of sisters doing "magic" in the bedroom while parents ignore, reading in the other room ...  trips don't get much better than this.

"This is my Father's world, and to my listening ears

All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.

This is my Father's world:  I rest me in the thought

Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;

His hand the wonders wrought."

M. D. Babcock

(late summer walk) and photos

 

One walk, one morning.

"But WHY?" do we have to go?  "Isn't it time" to turn around?!?
The walk is more for me than them, I know as I Make them Do these Terrible Things, all of a mile and half.  (and "Do you have" fifty cents so I can buy another rock from a bubble gum machine to add to my collection of 3,403 rocks that are in glass jars so Mom can pretend there is reason to the chaos?) 
(I didn't have fifty cents, really.)

She'll keep sighing, but we'll keep coming, and that's okay.  It was mostly for me.

KY, VA, NC, among others (3 - finish)

 ~ there's a neat museum at the Mammoth Cave visitor's center

 ~ cutest 1960's motel bathroom ever (Mammoth Cave Hotel)

~ cooking supper at the motel, white-tail deer watching us

~ we took the "Historic Tour"

 ~ big caverns....

 ~ ...to tiny squeezy passages

~ 114-plus-year-old graffiti

~ pits that Greta, Jeff, and I did not like walking over

(~ what people without phones do to remember hotels 

they looked up on their laptop using visitor center wi-fi)

~ "the Claw!!"

And home.  (or, close, pictured, at least.)

Gret and I (and Jeff, too) loved the caves, but Kaatje was fighting some claustrophobia so we only too one tour.  Since Greta's eczema needed a bath, we got the last hotel room (with queen beds) for one night, and decided to get out of town along the way a bit to spend the next night.

A nice weekend in Des Moines (pick up the dog, eat homemade food!) rounded off our trip, and we rolled back home from another safe holiday away.

~~
We've fallen down the hole of the new school year around here...  although we started our own readings and workings in the weeks before, I knew we'd be hard hit when we had to, for the first time, have multiple "early" morning responsibilities.  (Spoken by the girl who got on the school bus at 7:15 am every day, I realize how good my girls have it.)  One day a week the girls go all day to take classes at a not-close but big co-op, which we're all learning to love.

After a couple weeks here, we're finally feeling a little more in control;  finishing projects and starting new ones, getting back into a rhythm even if it's a quicker one.  The upstairs porch project is nearing an end, hopefully a reveal will be soon!  (The girls say it's the "fanciest room in the house.")