The Great American Road Trip 2019 - 4th Stop -Gulf Islands National Seashore

Traveling with my children last summer will be a memory that I will cherish forever.   Time away from the demands of the normal every day was like a balm to my soul.  Our next stop was Gulf Islands National Seashore in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.   We camped the entire weekend here.  Other than San Diego, we stayed here the longest on our travels.  We reserved a spot at the Davis Bayou campground.   Although we were in Mississippi, the Gulf Islands Seashore National Park happens to stretch all the way over to Florida.   We read about what the National Park site had to say on our way there about the wide variety of birds, the open beaches, the dunes, the woods, and the marshes.   Our tent site was near water, but not easily accessible.   Instead, we drove to the public water area for the children to get a swim.

After setting up camp, we cooked our first meal over a fire.  This was our first wildlife encounter, and it freaked my Emily more than a little bit.  We were eventually surrounded by raccoons that kept encroaching closer and closer to us and our food.   I let the boys throw rocks to scare them away or she would have been ready to head on home.   

The next morning we got stamped, and worked on our Junior Ranger handbooks at the Davis Bayou Visitor Center.  This was a beautiful center and we loved walking through it and learning about the area.   We also hiked a few trails while we were visiting.    The first was uneventful, the last we were attacked by biting flies.   It became more of a jog back than a nice ambling walk.

We also drove into Biloxi and visited the ocean there.   On our way back to the tent site we tried some Hawaiian rolled ice cream.  It was delish!!   Overall a fabulous weekend, and we rested up before the next big trek began..... next stop Louisiana.   

The Great American Trip 2019 - Tuskegee Airman National Historic Site & Tuskegee Institute - 2nd & 3rd Stops

We drove from Ocmulgee Mounds in Georgia to Tuskegee Airman National Historic Site in Alabama.  I made a file for each of our stops that included some facts from the National Park Service Website so we could learn a bit before we arrived at each stop.   We also watched about the Airman on Netflix.   They had many options, but we watched " The Tuskegee Airmen" one evening a few weeks prior to our trip.  This is a must see historical site.   Everyone was incredibly friendly and helpful as the kiddos earned their badges.   The children loved seeing the planes, hearing the planes outside the building taking off, and learning sadly about history we were ashamed to hear revealing how people of color were treated.

"In history, a great volume is unrolled for our instruction, 

drawing the materials of future wisdom from the past errors 

and infirmities of mankind." 

Edmund Burke 

Growing up a military brat who had friends of all races, I'm still astounded that people don't treat all people with kindness exactly the way they'd want to be treated (the golden rule).   I love hearing people's life stories.  Hearing some stories of the pilots about where they came from, what their education consisted of, how they were treated, how many survived, and what their lives looked like post war was truly interesting to me and my children.   Go to their website to plan your trip which you can find by clicking on this link.  

It began to rain pretty hard so we didn't hike as much as we'd have liked on the trails close by, so we headed to stop #3:  Tuskegee National Historic Site.

The rain slowed a bit, but the folks were out on their lunch break I suppose when we got there.  We looked into windows, and walked around.   We will have to come back another day so we can get our stamps, earn our Junior Ranger badge, and learn some history.

You can find out more by clicking on this website link.   It will help you plan your trip.  Happy trails, Michelle

The Great American Road Trip - 2019: Ocmulgee Mounds National Historic Park - Stop #1

Day 1 June 7, 2019!   We were off for a grand adventure. Myself and 3 of my children were crossing the United States to California to see my marine son.   

Welcome Center - Ocmulgee Mounds National Historic Park

This was a great first stop.  It took us a little over two hours to arrive.  Ocmulgee is located at 1207 Emery Highway in Macon, GA.   It’s the perfect price range for our family:  FREE.  

The first thing we did was check out the visitor center.  Our park ranger was very knowledgeable and welcoming.  She really knew her history.   Before you go, visit their website by clicking Ocmulgee.   It will give you great information on the history and the trails available to walk while you are visiting.  I learned a lot just checking out the National Park Service websites while planning our adventure.   I printed out the things I wanted to share with the kiddos on the way before we got there.   We also looked at the different trails ahead of time to decide which trails we wanted to walk while we were there.   

According to the website, this was the largest Archaelogical dig in American History.   The mounds were for the elite of their tribes.  We learned about the Mississippian period and the Creek Indians, and so much more.

Deer

I’ll probably say this at all the stops, but this is one I’d return to and hike more trails.   It’s a pretty area, close to the city, and not too far from home.  The adventure continues.....

2019 Great American Road Trip - Preparation

Last Christmas, I decided to give my littles that are still at home passports to the National Parks as part of their Christmas gifts along with an itinerary for us to travel across the United States from Georgia to California to see their marine brother.    It began as a 5-7 page itinerary that turned into 38 pages by the time we left in June.   I researched a lot to make this a successful adventure, and the Lord blessed us with some fabulous memories.  I'd love to share some tips for you to plan your next adventure whether it's visiting one park or 29 parks like we did!   Then I'll tell you a bit about our adventures in case you decide to visit the same parks, monuments, sites, etc. that we went to see.   It was so much fun, I hope to do something similar every year.  In fact, I have plans about once every other month to hike somewhere else on weekends.  

First thing I did was see what the most traveled routes were from my home to California.  Then I looked on a map that contained all the National Parks/Monuments/Recreation Areas to decide which ones I wanted to try to fit in each day.   Surprisingly. we squeezed a few extras in until the troops were ready to get home, then we took the last 3 off.   Be flexible.  You want this to be a trip of memories in the making.  You don't want everyone to feel like you dragged them from place to place with no time to enjoy the scenery, rest, and just be unplugged from the busyness of modern life.  

I mapped things out from place to place in Mapquest to see how much time and distance it would take to get from one location to another.  I also researched each destination online to decide what we would do, how much time we could spend there, things to watch ahead of time, and reminders to get our passports stamped.  

Give yourself some time to work on this until you are happy with the final agenda.  My agenda included the following items:

• Name of place we are going to followed by the address and the phone #
• If there was a book or documentary I wanted my family to look at before we left, that was listed in a different color.
• Each stop had a reminder to get our passport stamped
• Little history about the location, and options of things to do that we could decide on before we arrived. 
• Whether or not a Junior Ranger program was available. (More about this later.)
• If we were camping there for the night, the reservation #, camp site, etc. would be listed.  If you are staying at a hotel, or a lodge, just list your information at the end of that day for you to have on hand.
• We home school.  So if anything tied into our Memory work for Classical Conversations, I put it on the list.  I also counted our trip as school, because they worked on Junior Ranger books along the way.  They also listened to "The Hobbit" on Audible and read other books during the drive time.  They had to learn to set up camp, and take down camp, make meals on the fly, wash laundry at a camp site, hiked a lot of miles while identifying some trees, plants, and wildlife.   We learned a lot!
• In another color, I put page numbers from the National Park book I had so we could read about them before we got there.  It helped us enjoy the experience even more.  I even downloaded the Grand Canyon Audio Tour to listen to as well for when we went through the park.  It had some great information.  

Here's an example of one entry:

Day 14:  44^th stop ~ Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve (June 20^th) {312-319}

Time: 3 hours 47 minutes.  Arrive at 12:00

Visitor Center 
11999 State Highway 150 
Mosca, CO 81146

Get stamped here and pick up & turn in Junior Ranger Book

WATCH:  Heart of the World:  Colorado National Parks (3 episodes) on Prime, America’s 58 National Parks Season 1 Episode 26✔.

Phone:

(719) 378-6395

The Great Sand Dunes, and most of the forests, lakes and peaks of Great Sand Dunes National Preserve, are designated wilderness. These areas can be explored by day hikes or overnight backpacking trips. 

View of the 30-square-mile dunefield and Sangre de Cristo Mountains from highest

Dunes Exploration

Explore any part of the 30 square mile dunefield you wish; there are no designated trails in the sand. A dunes-accessible wheelchair is available for free loan at the Visitor Center. Summer air temperatures are pleasant at this high elevation, but during afternoon hours the sand surface can reach 150F degrees, and dangerous thunderstorms can develop. Plan to hike the dunes in early morning or evening to avoid heat exhaustion, burned feet, or fatal lightning strikes.

When there's water in Medano Creek at the base of the dunes, adults and kids alike love to splash in the stream. Watch for waves in the water, a phenomenon called "surge flow." As mounds of sand form and fall in the creek bed, water surges, similar to the action of waves at a beach. Watch a video, get detailed tips for enjoying the creek, and find current conditions and forecast flow on the Medano Creek page.

High Dune on First Ridge

This is the most common for hikers.  There are five dunes over 700 feet tall. The high dune on the first ridge is neither the highest in elevation nor the tallest in the park, but it looks that way from the main parking lot. This is the most common destination in the dunefield, providing a great view of the entire dunefield. It is about 699 feet (198 m) from base to top. Cross a half-mile (1km) of the Medano Creek bed, then zigzag up along ridgelines to reach it. Average round trip hiking time is 2 hours. See as much as possible in an hour

Hope this helps you get started on planning your next adventure.   Can't wait to tell you about the whole trip, and what we plan to do next.   Stay tuned and sign up to follow the blog if you don't want to miss any updates to our travels.