We are at Red Gate Farms for a 4 day stay in Savannah, Georgia. At the RV park they have horses, donkeys, goats, and turtles. You can buy goat and turtle food at the store. My favorite part was feeding the turtles, when you chucked out food their heads popped up right next to the dock, we even had 13 at once in our view! Feeding the goat was also fun, I stuck out my hand flat, and then they suck it all up!
The most important reason we stopped in savannah was to see our cousin Harper, as well as Uncle Ryan and Aunt Lauren. Harper had just beat cancer before we got there 🥳🎉!!!we haven’t been able to see her so it was so nice to finally go trick or treating with her!
We took a day to go explore downtown Savannah, where we saw cargo ships and went to planet fun. Planet fun is a store in downtown Savanah where they have cool video game stuff like Mario and sonic. Uncle Ryan gave us each 30 dollars to spend.
I got a switch game and a comic book! We also took a walk on River Street where we walked right next to the water and they had many cool stores and splash pads to do (it was a little to cold to do the splash pads when we were there, but they’d be great in the summer)
Halloween was happening while we visited. We had decided since Moana is Harper’s favorite movie of all time, we would do a group costume with theme. I got to be Maui and Eli was the angry coconut known as a Kakamora. Harper was of course Moana.
The street that they live on was great for trick-or-treating we got a massive candy haul, especially with the trick or treating at Winding Waters the week before. We also watched the Steelers play in Ryan’s media room, he also has super fun video games that played a lot when i was there.
We left Atlanta on our way to Savannah but stopped for a short stay for 4 days in Warner Robins, GA. There is an Air Force base called Robins that we stayed at. The campground was pretty nice but the weather did not cooperate and it rained most days we were there. We did explore the local library and did school in the mornings. There is a pond right next to the campground that supposedly has Alligators inside but we saw none, unfortunately. We wanted to do the Air Force museum on base they had, we heard was really good, but because of the government shutdown it was not open.
We are mostly excited about our next stop and seeing Aunt Lauren, Uncle Ryan and Harper! We have a group costume planned for Halloween… so stay tuned!
We are at Winding Waters RV park for a week’s stay, it is right outside of Atlanta so we did some fun things there. We bought the city pass which let us into the aquarium, zoo, college football hall of fame, the Coca-Cola museum, and the Natural History Museum. We did 4 out of 5!
First, we did the world of Coca-Cola museum. They had a tasting exhibit, smelling exhibit, pop culture, and Icons. My favorite was the tasting room. There were so many different drinks from all around the world, including things like cucumber sprite, and passion fruit Fanta! They also had an Icons Exhibit where they had an interactive model downtown of where CoCa Cola first started. AI was even used to transport us back to the time with our photos. There was also a short film about coca -cola. It was one of my favorite things we did in Atlanta.
Right next to the World of Coca-Cola museum was the Georgia Aquarium. They had so many different animals there ranging from whale sharks to tiny shrimp! They also had turtles, my personal favorite! We started at the Predators of the deep. It is a new exibit featuring many different species of sharks including Hammerheads, Blacktip reef sharks, and white tip sharks. My favorite were the hammerheads because of their heads. They have eyes on the end of each side giving themselves good vision to see behind them, it’s like a rear view mirror! We also saw a seal show where three seals competed to be the best. the three contestants were Peaches, Scarlet, and I can’t remember the third ones name. We were cheering on Peaches and she won! The beluga whale exhibit was my favorite. The belugas played by going up to the surface to get air, then coming down and blowing a bubble ring and then swimming through the bubble! It’s like they knew we were watching and kept coming up to the glass and put on a show for us. It was really cool.
Other adventures while we were in Atlanta was the Zoo and the College Football Hall of Fame. The best part of the zoo was the meerkats because they dug holes and kept watch while we were there. We read about how they always have a lookout watching the sky and the ground for predators. They have a special call for aerial predators to alert the other meerkats of danger. They also have a special call for ground predators. When they get alerted they go into their underground tunnels where predators can’t get them. While at the zoo, we also fed Giraffes lettuce and watched elephants eat hay from high up in a feeding net. The Lions were also awesome. One came up to the glass right by Eli’s head! We thought the lion might have thought Eli looked like a snack!
The campground was really nice. It had a heated pool and waterslides that Eli was sadly not tall enough. So I went on them and were pretty fun one was red and went super slow but there was also a tube slide that went really fast! There was also a hot tub that we spent most of our time in 🤣. On Saturday night they had lots of family activities for families for Halloween. We did candy bar bingo and trick-or-treating. We won 3 of the 4 games i won two and my dad won one. There were about 15 other people there. We won 15 candy bars and another kid one 10! The trick-or-treating there was better than I thought and we got some pretty good candy!
We are at Racoon Mountain for a weeks stay. It is right outside of Chattanooga in TN. We went to Rock city for a day on Lookout Mountain, which started as somebody’s backyard and had some really awesome rock and cave formations! They turned it into an experience that we could do. There were 4 trails and a big lookout over Chattanooga from the top of the mountain. There were also small cracks that you have to squeeze into to continue the trail. My favorite part was a big suspension bridge that shook when you walked on it.
Back at the campground we went on the spooky caverns tour, it was dark and you took a small flashlight at the entrance to see. The tour guide told us the story of how the all-powerful wizard, Vanir, cursed and ruined a castle and the ruins were the caves. It had a good story but the cave was not better than endless caverns in VA.
Downtown Chattanooga was nearby so we drove and than parked and went to the pinball Museum where we got endless plays on over 100 different pinball machines! They were all good especially the ones from the 1990’s, those were the best.than we took a walk to an ice cream store nearby called Clumpie’s Ice Cream it was some of the best ice cream we’ve had so far i got a waffle cone with cookie dough and cookies and cream i give it a 9.8907980/10. It was so close to perfect but the waffle cone was a little bit too sweet to blend well with the ice cream.
We are at Redstone arsenal for a 3 night stay. Redstone is an army base in Alabama, NEW STATE UNLOCKED! The Coolest part of the stay is the space museum in Huntsville, Alabama. The space and rocket museum was my favorite part, they had the rocket garden where they held one of the original Saturn 5 Rockets which was cool to see in person they also had stands to see how far away the planets were and what there sizes were (to scale)! We saw a movie in the planetarium which was about facts on the different planets in the solar system!
My Dad and I went to the Giga Parts store that was nearby, they had computers, 3-D printer, telescopes, radios and photography supplies! My dad spent a while in the HAM radio section. I spent all my time in the computer section looking at new keyboards and desks. Hopefully, when we settle in the forever house I’ll be able to have a cool computer setup!
We are at Old Stone Fort State Park in Manchester, TN for a 3 Night stay. This spot wasn’t our favorite, it was the tightest one yet and a challenge to park. It was also oddly organized with the picnic table on the wrong side of our camper. The weather was bad the whole time we were there so we weren’t able to do any of the fun hikes around. Both days we had school at the local library which was probably our favorite yet. I liked it because it is the biggest and has the most selection on different books. They also had kid programs to do in between lessons.
The highlight of Manchester TN was the food. First stop was Common John Brewery. I had buffalo wings and a flatbread pizza, the wings were some of the best I’ve ever had. They had football on TV and also a live country band playing with a lot of outdoor seating. It was a really cool place. They other place we tried was Jiffy Burger to eat lunch. The whole inside was styled like the 1960’s. There are license plates all over the restaurant and many decorations from the 60’s.I got a burger which was delicious i give it a 9.5/10! You could also drive in your car and they brought it out to you, kind of like Sonic.
This place is definitely in the running for the best spot. Bob is parked on a dock overlooking the water. This spot was awesome. It was a pretty chill few days. We rode bikes and played at the playground with other kids that were camping. We did school and mostly relaxed. We did explore the state park visitor center and went up the birdwatching treehouse. You go up a flight of stairs ( 98, exactly) that had lots of bugs and we unfortunately didn’t see any birds! The visitor center did have a corn snake named Corndog that the ranger took out and let us pet. She told us that venomous snakes in Tennessee have triangular shaped heads and non-circular eyes. Corndog had round eyes and a narrow head so you could tell he was not venomous. Although I don’t know if I will trust my new knowledge about snakes if i happen upon one in the wild.
We had to go to the famous Smoky Mountain NP. We were there for a whole day and we did 3 out of 4 visitor centers in the park. The park was beautiful and it was like skyline drive in Shenandoah NP where you could pull off and see the beauty off the park, and it sure did not disappoint!
There was a hike up a massive hill to the top of the mountain where there was a lookout where you usually could see the whole park but our view was “Smoky”. It took 40 minutes to go anywhere in the park which was crazy! Driving back we saw an Elk it was the biggest elk I’ve ever seen and it was drinking in the river, and then it pooped ( Eli told me to put that in 😂). There was a ranger bear talk we had and the ranger was honestly so funny. He talked about how they put collars on baby elk to help them know where they are and monitor them. He also talked about how they trap bears causing trouble in campgrounds and picnic areas and then bring them to a far away location in the park.
We stayed in a campground in Gatlinburg, TN. By far the coolest part was seeing black bears in our campground! Mom, Eli and I were walking back to the camper and other campers alerted us to a momma and her 2 cubs walking down the creek eating the chestnuts. We followed at a good distance and watched! The babies wrested each other and played under our neighbors campground. I told my dad who was inside and he didn’t believe me! Boy was he surprised when he walked outside to see them!
Dollywood!
We took a day to go to Dollywood because it was so close to our campsite. I was excited to ride the world-class roller coasters at the park! I rode ThunderHead which was my favorite, I went 2 times at night and 2 times in daylight. I also rode Mystery Mine twice which was a hybrid indoor outdoor coaster where you went though the mine and after you climbed up the big hills you went straight up on a chain lift. And then it looks like there’s no track and drops you straight down into a corkscrew where you did a loop upside down! It was different but not my favorite! Next up was Big Bear Mountain and Dragonfly which were cool. Best part was that Eli did both! Big bear was the longest and it accelerated you with magnets. There were no intense hill but the acceleration was fast! Dragonfly was a hanging coaster where you “Hang” underneath the track. There was a big hill and it was the shortest at the park but still fun. I ranked the coasters: 4. Dragonfly- only because it was short. 3 – Mystery mine it was slow at some parts but it had a story to it. 2- Big Bear Mountain the longest and the acceleration was intense. 1 – the wooden coaster it had the biggest hills and it was sooo smooth and fast! The food at Dollywood was also amazing especially the cinnamon bread. They make it hot and fresh and it comes with icing that they make at the park. It was delicious and definitely a 10/10! Dinner was at Reds Drive-in which is a 50’s style gas station/ drive in. I got my standard -burger and fries. Which was delicious 🤤 probably a 9/10. Dollywood also had great shows. Mostly we were to busy riding rides but we did see a show about birds of pray. They had owls, bald eagles, hawks, and falcons. We learned about each of them. The bald eagle, named Challenger just retired. He was the first bald eagle to go to Hawaii! He went for the NFL pro bowl game. If you ever saw an eagle on TV at the beginning of NFL games, that was Challenger!
Dollywood was fun but we also had to try the mountain coasters. They were awesome and cool. There are lots of mountain coasters in the Smoky’s so after some research and talking to some people we met, we decided to do the longest one and we got to go twice. The coaster was nice, you went fast and went through a tunnel. I really liked it because you got great views of the Smoky’s!
Our last full day we set out to explore the last visitors center in the Smoky Mt. National Park. Unfortunately with the government shut down the visitors center was not open so we did not get our last set of stamps for the park. However, the road to Cades Cove was closed to cars but open for bikers and walkers. We biked the entire 11 miles and had the park almost to ourselves! It was a beautiful ride but the hills were a lot by the end. Best part was coming around a corner and seeing a black bear. We startled him a little bit and he hurried off the path!
The coolest part of this campground was definitely the pool. What made this pool special was the big waterslide they had. Eli and I swam in the pool every single day cause the weather was so hot and humid 🥵. The campground also had pickleball and basketball courts. My mom sadly beat me in pickleball but it was very close. There was also a good ice cream place across the street named Molly’s, we were able to ride our bikes there.
Lots of entertainment choices at near by Pigeon Forge. Our entertainment for one evening was the Hatfield and McCoy dinner feud show. Dinner consisted of fried pigeon (chicken) and badger stew (cream based soup) for dinner. I was not a fan of the soup but the chicken was delicious. After dinner, they started the show which was the best part. It was really well done. There was a section where they jumped off diving boards into water and did tricks to try and be better than the other family and splashed the first few rows of people in the audience, which was us 😂.
Early one morning, we took a fishing trip on Douglas Lake with the whole family. Captain Nathan, our guide, he was the best. First off was bluegill fishing and then bass fishing after. Our charter was 4 hours in total and we caught maybe 6 bluegills and a massive freshwater drum. Nathan supplied everything including a nice boat, rods, crickets, and live shiners. We caught the drum on the shiners and bluegill with the crickets!
Dad planned some evening entertainment for us at Country Tonite a live country music show. We got front row seats. The dancers and singers were amazing but sadly i did not know many of the songs they sang, but my mom and dad sure did! My favorite part was Bufford. He is a comedian and ventriloquist. He was very funny and sang a whole song back and forth with a doll! Incredible!
My mom and I researched museums in the area and found Wonder Works in downtown Pigeon Forge. The outside looked like an upside down house.the inside had rock climbing,ropes course, tesla coil and much more. We got to lay down on a bed of nails, ride a 3-D roller coaster ride, and laser tag. We also had a slushy! It was a good day!
We are at Warriors Path state park for a 4 night stay. On the first night, we went to the night race at Bristol Motor Speedway. We stayed for the first 200 laps but then we got tired so we went back and missed all the traffic leaving. The cars went 200 miles an hour down the stretch. The cars were so loud you couldn’t hear anything other than the engines!
It was everyone’s first Nascar race ever. I thought it was awesome, the best part was the when they started because they were so loud and the whole stadium shook 😂. At the beginning they had a flyover with jets, fireworks, and helicopters which was one of my dad’s favorite flyovers in a long time. BRISTOL, BABY!!!
Then we went to a Dino park where this guy hand-makes a bunch of species of dinosaurs and put them in a park in his backyard. We stayed for three hours because they had a lot to see. He starts with a wood base in the shape of the Dino then he puts tape over chicken wire and paints it to look like scales on some Dinos! He hand-makes them in his backyard which i thought was awesome.
We went kayaking around the island on the last day. On the way to the dock we saw a snake in the water which kind of freaked me out 😳. Coming back from around the island we saw a deer (doe) eating in the field on the island. We did not get eaten by a snake and came back with all of our limbs still attached 👍.
