Thursday morning of our RV-cation was nice and relaxed. The kids slept until we woke them up at 9:30. It rained a lot throughout the night and the day was rainy too. We lucked out whenver we did an activity it stopped long enough for us to do it before it started raining again.
After breakfast we went to the Raccoon Mountain Caves and did the walking tour. The boys were debating on doing one of the deep cave explorations but decided to do that some other time. The cave was pretty awesome. We saw some cave salamanders almost as soon as we went in. Our guide told us that two brothers discovered a big part of the cave by squeezing themselves through 7″ slot in the rock. Ugg, I started panicking just thinking about it. It’s bad enough when you know whats on the other side. I can’t imagine doing it if it was completely unknown. It was a pretty awesome cave. We learned a lot of interesting facts like a cave is basically a giant living thing and the oil from one finger touching a cave will stop the growth for 10 years. The water in this cave was also extremely high in magnesium. She said that if you drank one swallow it was like drinking five cups of milk of magnesia and it would clear your entire digestive system out in less than ten minutes. Our guide also told us that if you get dripped on while you are in a cave that is called a cave kiss and it is one year of good luck. For the rest of the day Emilee kept saying whatever we were standing by loved her-tree, rock, building, anything, because it was raining and it would drip on her.
We did a little panning for gems after our cave tour. Allison has always begged to do it and is our little rock collector so since it was a realtively inexpensive bag of prestocked dirt we let the kids split it and find some gems. We got an emerald bag, so they each found a couple emeralds.
We were planning on staying another night at Raccoon Mountain but with the rain it kind of put a damper on things to do there so we dumped, refilled, unplugged, retracted and were on our way. So convenient. I love not having to pack, repack and haul everything every time we go someplace different.
On our way out of Chatanooga we stopped at Rock City. A little pricey for what it is, but a beautiful, unique, place. It used to be a private garden and has developed into what it is now. It is basically a stone path that winds up through the mountain. There are lots of bridges and a few tight crevices even that you can walk through but are very narrow. There were some gorgeous overlooks and plants and tunnels through the mountains. It was almost like a cave without the roof. At about the half way point and the top there is a big water fall and Look Out Mountain. You can see seven different states from there. It was pretty cool. On the way back down they have made lots of little ‘fairy houses’ and nursery rhyme ‘villages’ in the caves as you walked through. I got a lot of pictures but they don’t do it justice.
The kids were anxious to get to Florida, I think the zipline there was calling their name. We started that way and realized that we would hit Atlanta right at rush hour so we stopped at a movie theater and watched the new Incredible II movie. We all really like the first one. There were mixed reviews on if the first or second one was better but either way they were both good.
THURSDAY FAVORITES:
- Emilee- Raccoon Mountain Cave
- Allison- Panning for gems, family Wacky Six game
- Matthew- Raccoon Mountain Cave
- Dad- Raccoon Mountain Cave
- Mom- Rock City and Raccoon Mountain Cave
We drove until about 10:30 that night then stopped at a gas station and slept. We got to Kenny and Sherri’s at about one in the afternoon on Friday. Like I expected the kids headed straight for the zipline. We only had a few hours before Ryan and Matthew had to be at the airport. They headed back for a baseball tournament that Matthew was in. The girls and I are stayed until Tuesday morning and then we flew home. As a little side note, flying with older kids now is awesome. I spent some time helping another mom with a 14 month old who was screaming the first hour of our flight. I didn’t mind it at all, I can totally relate. My kids were pretty good travelers but even if they are good travelers there is the constant worry that your kid will poop their diaper before you land, or start screaming and not stop, or find none of the 500 possible activities you brought to entertain them entertaining. My girls slept, colored, looked out the window, ate their snacks, and read books the whole way. I loved my baby years but I don’t miss traveling on planes with babies or toddlers.
FRIDAY FAVORITES:
- Emilee- playing with Aubry
- Allison- zipline
- Matthew-zipline
- Dad- relaxing in Florida for a few hours
- Mom- shower, nap, arriving at Sherri’s
I think our first RV-cation was a great success. It wasn’t all roses and lollipops. We had the regular sibling issues and not following direction or listening issues, but overall we all had a fun time. It was a cool adventure to do together. I hope we get to do it again sometime, and since we own an RV Rental company that seems highly likely. Now that we aren’t complete newbies I would be up for planning a longer trip to get to see some cool areas in the United states.