Easter and Texas TEA

We're headed west to see sights and also to avoid the frequent violent spring storms in the Southeast. Arizona and New Mexico are much more pleasant before sweltering temperatures arrive with the summer season! En route from east to west, we took some time at our home base in Texas to visit family, swap schoolbooks for the kids and some other items in the storage unit, add some features to the truck and camper, and triage the mail that had been collected by Linda's sister for the past couple of months. We were pleased that the timing worked out to spend Easter with family and also participate in a Tax Day TEA Party. Wish we could say we planned that out in advance, but not so – just coincidence!

It was great to see family! Email, cell phones, web photos help to keep in touch, but it's definitely nice to have the hugs and direct conversation and fun! We parked at the local KOA and gave the camper interior a 'spring clean' vacuuming and wiped down – then a dust storm hit and covered everything with a fine layer of red dirt. Gotta' love West Texas! So…we cleaned again, ordered a bike rack that would accommodate 4 bikes for the family and a tool box for the truck. LOVE the tool box and how it frees up some basement space in the camper. We continue to work at keeping only what is truly necessary with an eye on the weight and logistics of retrieving items. New, moderately priced bikes for the boys and Craig are now part of travel. Our youngest needed bike riding lessons and what better place than at the grandparents lake house! Nice, long, traffic free dirt driveway and lots of encouragers on hand! He picked up basic riding in only one day – no training wheels! He loves his new bike and we're already having a lot of fun at some of our stops with the built in entertainment and exercise.

A trip to the storage unit took care of trading completed school books for fresh material and a couple of kitchen items that are now deemed essential enough to travel along with us. The truck got routine maintenance. We intended to wash the exterior of the camper, but the dust storm and pending travel westward became handy excuses to skip the work – for now. We've had relatively few problems with the camper and the few things that are more nuisance than absolute malfunction, so no warranty work – so far.

Easter was nice and relaxing at the lake. Bluebonnets were in bloom, the weather was very pleasant. We were able to sleep through a possible hail storm under a secure roof with slight worries about our camper parked nearby, but no worries about physical harm to the family! Grandma had boiled eggs for the boys to 'dye' and we prepared 'resurrection rolls' for Easter morning. Resurrection rolls are plain yeast rolls, rolled and stretched to allow placing a marshmallow, cinnamon, sugar and melted butter in the middle. The roll is then folded around the goodies and 'sealed'. After baking, the inside is hollow – representing the empty tomb. This is a tradition for our family, so we just review the symbolism of the marshmallow as the body of Christ with the traditional application of oils and fragrance as we prepare the rolls together. We like the simplicity and also find the rolls yummy for Easter breakfast!

Crappie fish were biting and plentiful, so the boys had a great time fishing with their PaPa – and a tasty dinner.

We didn't take our camera, so no pictures from the Tea Party. In this relatively small community, hundreds turned out with handmade signs to peacefully protest our government's current overwhelming spending spree. From our perspective, this is a long-standing problem but has dramatically escalated at an alarming rate since the last national election. The problem is broader than the presidency but primarily lies with a majority of congressional and senatorial leaders that do not value fiscal prudence on behalf of the taxpayers. Media reports of Tea party events did not portray the people that we saw standing with us on the street that day. We believe that many people are concerned about the future of our country and the financial burden being built up not only for us, but for our children and grandchildren as well. We have written letters and made phone calls in the past to our representatives to voice our opinions on these issues, but we continually find ourselves ignored by the voting record. We don't know what the end result of Tea party participation will be, but we feel strongly enough about the erroneous political direction that actions may speak louder than words. We will be watching for more opportunities to show ourselves opposed to the gross deficit.

The Clarks take Vicksburg

Leaving Florida behind and bound for Texas, we planned a stop in Vicksburg, Mississippi. This made for a good travel distance in the right direction and allowed an important historical enhancement for our previous study of the Civil War. We had some difficulty finding an available RV park due to various events in the area. There was space at Ameristar which is a park associated with a nearby hotel and casino on the Mississippi river. With some reservations about camping amongst the gamblers, we headed for our site. We found the facilities to be good and very reasonably priced, (I suppose it is like rooms in casinos where they keep the price low hoping you will stay there and gamble with them). They even give you two free passes for the breakfast buffet and the casino. The boys were astonished at the scope of this thing, every breakfast item they had ever even heard of was there in bulk quantities. It was fun to watch them with big eyes wanting to try it all, but the stomach only has so much room.

Our main purpose was to explore the Vicksburg National Military Park and try to get a sense of this major battle of the Civil War. The park was amazing. The visitor center provided exhibits and displays that gave great background information. We learned details on the war leading up to the battle, the weapons and strategy of the time as well as insights into what it was like to live through this siege for Union or Confederate troops and the towns people caught in the middle of this struggle.

Armed with the information from the center and a purchased audio cd guide, we ventured out on a 16 mile driving tour of the main battle site. The whole area is well preserved and thoroughly documented with signs and monuments that describe each groups contribution and the many engagements and skirmishes and how these affected the outcome of the battle. Many cannon batteries were perched at locations of the original battle engagements and much of the landscape bore the visible scars that made up the defense trenches and impacts by bombardment attacks.

This battle centered on control of the Mississippi River and part of the fighting was on the water as well. The park includes the Cairo, an "ironsides" union ship that was sunk by a confederate mine detonated by remote from the shore. This salvage, brought up from the muddy river bottom in the 1960's, was a treasure of information. The ship and the museum of artifacts are wonderful windows into elements and activities of the Civil War that are not covered in other studies of this time.

The documentation of this battle extends beyond the park and you are led into the city where more of the story is told. So much of this city seems frozen in time around to the battle and this war. Exploring this event in this place has had a profound impact on our family. It has given us a much richer view of this battle and this war that so much defines what our country is now. The number of lives lost on both sides of the Vicksburg campaign by far exceeds many battles and wars fought since in our nation's history. While sobering to think upon, we look forward to visiting more Civil War battle areas as we cross the country and further expand our understanding of this period of our history.

We left Vicksburg thankful for what we learned and experienced in this whole trip. Our next stop is a return to Texas to rest and reload for a journey west. We thank God for leading us on this wonderful journey and the great plan He has for us.

Stormy but Fun Finish to Florida

We said goodbye to the piney woods of Otter Springs and traveled across the panhandle of Florida for an exploration of the Pensacola area. There were no problems on the drive and we comfortably settled into the Pensacola KOA. While most KOA's are a safe bet for parking space and amenities, this one was very nice. Everything was first class, with a big heated pool, large playground and free on site miniature golf, the boys classified it as "cool".

As confident as I am about this adventure being God's plan for our family, I sometimes wonder if I am in the right place at the right time. While staying in this great location, we watched as the weather turned stormy on three consecutive nights. These were wicked storms with tornado warnings, damaging winds and large hail heading straight toward us. We huddled in our camper with our slides pulled in, weather alert radio on (this salvaged from our Corpus Christi hurricane kit) and our eyes affixed to the weather channel. Each night we watched as the worst of the storms would turn, just before getting to the camp ground, and move north or south of us pummeling areas just a few miles away. Each morning we would get out and find that almost all of the other campers were sitting axle deep in water and our site was high and dry. It strikes me that God speaks, (and assures us), in strange ways.

The Pensacola area had many interesting things to offer us. Cory was just finishing a history study of World War I and we were here in a huge military area. We first traveled over to Fort Walton Beach and visited the Air Force Armament Museum at Eglin Air Force Base. This wonderful exhibition presented a rich history of our country's leadership in developing air weapons and delivery systems. Of course the boy were intrigued with the planes, bombs and missiles, but Linda and I were taken by the effort and dedication of our military in their work of protecting our country while focusing on weapons that will minimize the collateral damage to the innocent. The more we study, the more proud we become of our country.

Next day, we went to the National Naval Aviation Museum at Naval Station Pensacola. It was Huge! There was aircraft from all periods and of all types with historical information that was wonderful to enhance Cory's study of W W I and W W II as well as the more later challenges we have faced as the benevolent superpower for modern world. This museum is a jewel for home education and fills a huge void in history left by most of the mainstream texts. As with the Air Force Armament Museum, we all came away with a swelling pride in our nation and the wonderful men and women who dedicate their lives to protecting our country.

Of course we could not pass through the Florida panhandle without enjoying the snow white sand and blue-green water of this area of the Gulf of Mexico. It was cool after all the storm fronts coming through and very windy, giving rise to goosebumps on the skin outside the swimsuit. They were flying two warning flags on the beach as well. One flag was for dangerous undertow and the other was for hazardous sea life (Portuguese Man-of-War). Undaunted, we marched forward onto the beach determined to experience this wonderful seascape. We wet our feet (but not too deep), and kept a close eye on the water for sea creatures. The boys buried each other in the sand and worked hard on a sand castle. In spite of the challenges presented, we really enjoyed the experience as well as the drive around the sound to get there and back.

All things considered, we considered this a great closing to our Florida adventure and a true blessing to our family.

Back on the horse that threw you

As promised, the RV repairs were completed on Friday, however the camper was not ready to go until 3:00 pm. They did a great job and worked fast with all that had to be done, but paint, decals, caulking and such simply must have some curing time before you pull it out on the road. With our next planned stop 200 miles away, we wanted to delay our departure to the next day. Thankfully, the RV repair shop had offered that we could hook up to water and electric from their building and park in the parking lot. This worked great! We had our first parking lot experience (great practice for a future Walmart stop) and we got an early start for the next park.

Driving to Otter Springs RV park, we watched the countryside get more rural and more heavily wooded. The GPS had more and more trouble listing and tracing the surrounding roads. Approaching Otter Springs the GPS just pictured our truck in the middle of a pink sea without surrounding roads or even the road we were traveling on. We were so thankful that we were led to stay in the parking lot rather than groping through the dark in the woods searching for the rural roads.

We were struck by the rugged beauty of the park as we pulled in. I held a white-knuckled grip on the wheel as we wound along the main dirt road circling the park. Linda gazed wide eyed at the camp sites carved out of the majestic trees most of them larger than the one that took a bite out of the back end of the RV. The sites were loosely connected by vague grassy openings in the trees. Our first lap around the perimeter yielded no obvious fit for our 40 foot long home on wheels. Linda suggested we just park on the road and walk into the forest to form an entrance and exit strategy. Prayer and planning revealed a site that we could thread our camper through.

Scary as it was, the park was wonderful. Beautiful nature in the trees and springs, there were good facilities, few other campers, great sniffing areas for the dogs and (number one item with the boys) a heated indoor swimming pool!

Besides the great things to explore in the park, a short drive took us to Manatee Springs State Park. We did not get to see a manatee, but the other sights were amazing. The boys could wade into the springs as they bubble up underground. Despite the cold (72 F) water and a couple of water snakes standing guard near the stairs, the boys climbed right in. We then followed a great boardwalk that traced the path of springs as they flowed into the famous Suwanee (also known as Swanee) River. We are so blessed in this chance we have to build such rich and vivid memories for our family.

Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation

Next stop was in the northern area of the Everglades. We were struck by the rural nature of the central region of Florida south of Orlando. Miles and miles of open spaces and lakes - even in a period of serious drought. The good news from last hurricane season for Florida is that they were relatively unscathed. The bad news was that the state had well below the quantity of rain needed to replenish the lake areas and the Everglades.


We stayed at a campground between Ft. Myers and the Okeechobee Lake. It was so quiet and peaceful - very welcome respite from our adventures at Disney World and Cape Canaveral. This location gave us the opportunity to camp on the Caloosahatchee river near where it flows out of the huge Lake Okeechobee and empties into the Gulf of Mexico. The river, lake and a canal dug east out of the lake create a navigable waterway across south Florida from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. We saw a number of fairly large pleasure boats making their way across the state.


From our campground, we made an easy day trip south into the everglades and visited the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation. Quite the educational adventure, we split our time an Indian run Everglades Eco-Tour and the AH-TAH-THI-KI Museum. The BILLIE Swamp Safari was a replica Seminole village that included animal shows and exhibits as well as a swamp buggy eco-tour that took you into a huge everglades wildlife preserve allowing you to view native and exotic wildlife and vegetation close-up. The tour guide provided lots of information and made the experience interesting and educational. We spent the late afternoon going through the museum. This focused on the history and experience of the Seminole Indians in Florida and was very well done. Much of the information was new for all of us and a great amount covered the time in history that Cory is covering now thereby enhancing his history studies.



Among the many blessings we are experiencing on this journey, we also had a mishap as we were leaving the Cape Canaveral campground. We were amongst beautiful tall trees - but they were very close...too close! Craig had the foresight to have me watch the trees as he pulled the camper out. I did - but failed to warn him in time as the rear slide awning scraped a tree. I called out on the walkie-talkie to him, but it was too late. We not only had scraped the tree, but it was stuck on the awning. Thankfully, two gentlemen came over and provided well seasoned guidance for Craig to back up and get out successfully.


The insurance is going to cover the damage as well as our lodging during repairs. We had planned to visit the Ft. Myers area next and the insurance recommended repair shop was in nearby Port Charlotte. So, here we are in a beautifully located Best Western (which allows pets!) with a view of Charlotte Harbor at the base of the Peace River (see photo) while our camper gets a new awning, body repair, refrigerator vent and rubber roof. We're thankful that the camper wasn't incapacitated and humbled regarding our need to take better precautions. Craig was kind to me in the midst of the chaos - demonstrating his compassion for me more than aggravation and frustration with the damage. He's a good man!







On to Fort Myers/Punta Gorda/Port Charlotte. This is a lovely area and definitely worth a stop. One unexpected perk is that the Blue Angel pilots are staying in this hotel. The Florida Air Show is being held in this area on the weekend and the boys were excited to see the pilots at breakfast this morning! We toured the Edison/Ford Winter Estates yesterday afternoon. Thomas Edison built a beautiful home and surrounding buildings on the bank of the Caloosahatchee River and came here with his new bride in 1886. The grounds are beautiful and the buildings well-preserved. Mrs. Edison 'sold' the property to the City of Fort Myers for $1 in 1947 and the estate is open for visitors year round. Many of the furnishings remain along with exhibits about Edison's ongoing work and experiments. Mr. Edison encouraged Henry Ford to purchase the neighboring property in 1915 and the two maintained a fantastic friendship and business relationship for years afterward. It was amazing to walk the grounds and imagine these innovative giants chatting casually in the beautiful setting!





Today we will work on school assignments and visit the nearby shopping area, Fisherman's Village. We're also watching the Blue Angels practice over our heads and the harbor - spectacular!



Tomorrow we hope that the camper is fixed and ready to go. We plan to head north and inland to an area near Manatee Springs for a few days.

Cape Canaveral

We extended our stay in the Cape Canaveral area to attend a home school event scheduled for March 7th. It was great and the extended stay also allowed us to watch a Delta 2 rocket launch on Friday night. We didn't even try to photograph that experience as it's just impossible. The launch and rocket's rise to orbit is over in 2 minutes, but it's well worth the trouble to get to a vantage point and observe if ever within a reasonable distance.

While waiting for the home school day, we invested some time in touring the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Within the 140,000 acre refuge are hundreds of species of wildlife. We found more varieties of birds than we could count and many that we had never seen before. We were able to see an eagle's nest, but were too far away to see the eaglets. We also saw many alligators of which this one was the largest. She's 14 feet long and weighs 800 lbs. and she's pregnant. We were careful not to wake her as we captured the photo of her! No fences at the wildlife refuge!

We did not catch any glimpses of the river otters or manatees living within the refuge, but we enjoyed our afternoon in the peace and quiet with the animals.

We drove to Jetty Park to witness the rocket launch and it's an excellent vantage point. We barely arrived in time, but just made it and were glad that we did. We had to wake the boys as the launch was just before 11 p.m., but I think they will remember the sight and sounds.

Home School Day at the Kennedy Space Center was great. We were divided into groups by virtue of color coded arm bands and were provided an itinerary for both touring and participating in activities. The Astronaut Encounter was a very enlightening experience as we listened to Jack Lousma, astronaut, Sky Lab 3 pilot and Columbia commander. This gentleman had been within the NASA program from 1966 forward and had so much personal experience to share. The program was only 45 minutes long (but 20 minutes longer than the normal public presentation) and we could easily have listened to a whole day of this man's experiences. The kids were place into teams to gather information ('treasure hunt') in the Rocket Garden. This enriched their tour of the various launch vehicles on display with bits of facts. After lunch (which was included in the ticket price), the kids were back in their teams to build and test 'rockets'. Using balloons for 'engines', a straw for the vessel, paper clips for payload and masking tape for assembly, the kids launched their rockets on a piece of vertical fishing line. The charge was to determine the appropriate maximum payload with a successful launch - and design and build it in 20 minutes. Cory and Will were part of the only team that ventured to carry less than the maximum payload (8 paper clips instead of 15). Their rocket sailed twice as far as the others and their team won the competition. Not to brag or anything.....

We then toured the space center by bus to see the Apollo/Saturn V center, the International Space Station Center and an observation area near the shuttle launch pads. The home school event was $5 less than the normal admission price, included extra time for the astronaut encounter, lunch and the activities. Normal admission provides for a 2 day visit which we would heartily recommend. The second day allowed us to view the two IMAX theater presentations and ride the Shuttle Launch Experience (tame compared to Disney's Mission Space ride - but still worth doing).

We also visited Cocoa Beach while we were in the area, but didn't stay long. We haven't been gone from Corpus Christi for very long and a day at the beach - even one on the Atlantic ocean wasn't as appealing as some of the other choices. We visited an orange grove and purchased honey tangerines - the sweetest and juiciest we've ever tasted.

We're off to south central Florida - just north of the Everglades for our next stop. We're trying to miss the spring break crowd that's arriving for beach time.

Settling Down

Compared to our time at Disney World, this week has been practically stagnant as far as activity goes. We were up each day at 6 a.m., to the kennels by 7:30 a.m. to drop off the dogs and to one of the parks by 8:00 a.m. most days. We sometimes returned to the camper for lunch or dinner, but generally didn't stop until well after dark each day. We've no idea how far we walked each day as we toured the parks. We were having so much fun that it didn't seem like exercise! Wouldn't it be nice if we could feel that way about our daily exercise routines?

Now that all that excitement is over, we needed to recuperate physically and adjust our expectations of what each day would hold. Our ongoing challenge as we take this adventure is to balance some basic level of academics for the boys with the opportunities in our surroundings. Getting our books out this week reinforced the need to make sure we keep those basics going! I also think there's a life lesson in learning that everything mustn't be at the brink of exhilaration every day to be interesting. While I hope and dream that my boys will be able to work in an area of their own unique passions someday, some jobs and a lot of days are full of just plain old routine. Developing the patience and fortitude to carry on with routine activities and to maintain a level of contentment is just as important as any academic lesson of the day.

Someone asked me some time ago about how to stay motivated for the daily rigors of teaching. My immediate and unchecked response was "I'm NOT very motivated most days!" Further explanation of that response includes that I'm not all that motivated about a lot of things in each day, but they still get done through force of habit. It doesn't hurt to have a particular spark now and then, but persistence and diligence are much more important to assure continual positive progress. I also have learned to take comfort in the knowledge that God in heaven above loves my kids more than even I do, and He's not going to allow me(due to my ignorance, laziness or stubbornness) to do irreparable harm to my children. He has lovingly and persistently corrected us and guided us all along the way.

We are often asked what curriculum we use, so I'll write something about that soon. We've been home schooling our kids for over 9 years now, we we're pretty settled in our academic choices. Today, however, I hoped to share some 'reality' of our new life with this post. Some things never change - clean clothes become dirty, satisfied children become hungry again, dirt and pet hair collects in every corner of our living space. Living in a house on wheels is in some ways just like living anywhere else. Our surroundings and the opportunity to regularly change them is exciting and tempts us to look for something amazing every day. But sometimes, in our life, what is amazing may need to be that my kids (and students) just need to learn how to read, write and do their math. If we happen to have the opportunity to include some very interesting vocabulary words to support our trip to the Kennedy Space Center tomorrow – great! But maybe our vocabulary word can be something about the amazing bird in the pond across the way (we have to find that bird book to find the name!).

Enough soap box for today. Here's an inspiring quote from the very eloquent Oswald Chambers "My Utmost for His Highest"

Ask God to keep the eyes of your spirit open to the risen Christ, and it will be impossible for drudgery to discourage you. Never allow yourself to think that some tasks are beneath your dignity or too insignificant for you to do, and remind yourself of the example of Christ in John 13:1-17.