Bowie, Maryland
Wednesday - May 2, 2018
We woke up at 4:00 am and decided to go ahead and get started on our trip. We are headed to Bowie, MD to visit Scott, Elli, and Oscar. We left the house by 4:40. We traveled on Hwy. 62 to I49. At Joplin, MO we got on I44 and stayed on it until we got to I70 east of St. Louis. We stayed on I70 the rest of the day. We spent the night at a Clarion Inn in Englewood, OH on the west side of Dayton. We ate a burger and sweet potato fries for dinner in the hotel restaurant. It was really good and the hotel was nice. The weather today was nice - mostly sunny.
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Route from Prairie Grove to Englewood, OH
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Thursday -May 3, 2018
We ate breakfast at the hotel and left at about 9:00 am. We drove I70 to Hwy. 33 and 50, got I79 then back on I70 until we took Hwy 197 into Bowie. We arrived at 6:15. The day was nice and sunny. Scott was home when we got there and cooked us lamb chops for dinner.
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| Englewood, OH to Bowie, MD |
Friday - May 4, 2018 through Sunday - May 13, 2018
We stayed at Scott's for 10 days. On Friday Beth brought Elli to the house at 7:30 am because Elli was running a fever and couldn't go to school. We basically sat around the house all day. Scott took a week of vacation while we were there.
Saturday was Cinco de Mayo. Elli felt better when she got up so she, Mike, and I went walking on a nature trail while Scott mowed his lawn. Elli got to feeling sick again in the afternoon so we just sat around while she napped. Later, Elliot brought Oscar to the house so the kids and I made 2 sweet potato pies. Elli and I made origami snakes and swans for party decorations and we had tacos for dinner.
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| Mike and Elli on trail |
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| Mary and Elli |
On Sunday we didn't do much because Elli still didn't feel well. We bought a rotisserie chicken for dinner.
On Monday Scott and Mike took the canoe and went fishing after Scott took Elli to school. They didn't catch any fish. Oscar and I were going to go to a park, but Oscar got sick to his stomach so we stayed home until Elli got out of school. When we picked her up, I took them to Allen Pond park to play then went to Chick Fil A for ice cream cones. We finished the rotisserie chicken for dinner.
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| Oscar waiting at Elli's school |
On Tuesday Elli went to school and Scott, Oscar, Mike, and I walked on the nature trail. Scott grilled chicken and vegetables for dinner. Elli and Oscar are much better today.
While Elli was in school, we sat around basically doing nothing. We all picked Elli up from school and the kids and I were dropped at Allen Pond Park while Mike and Scott went to get lumber supplies. Later we went to Goodwill to buy the kids some shorts. We had leftover chicken for dinner.
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| Oscar and Elli on spinner |
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| Elli is a dare devil |
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| Oscar swinging |
On Thursday while Elli was at school Scott, Mike, and Oscar went fishing while I stayed home and washed clothes. When I picked Elli up from school I took her to Target to buy new tennis shoes. Then we went to Wendy's to get Frosties. The two Frosties only cost $0.53! Scott and Mike didn't catch any fish, but Oscar caught 2 that they didn't keep. We had crappie for dinner that Mike and I brought from home. YUM!
On Friday after picking Elli up from school we went to Del Ray and met C, and kids. We went and looked at C's new house that she just closed on then had bbq take out for dinner. We walked to a playground that was about a mile from C's old house then headed home.
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| The kids climbing a tree at the new house |
On Saturday we went to Wegmanns and ate lunch and shopped. The kids and I made chocolate cupcakes and cream cheese frosting as well as a small chocolate cake for Beth for Mother's Day. The cupcakes were delicious. We had grilled chicken and potatoes and corn on the cob for dinner. The kids and I watched the movie Kudo then called it a night. It rained this evening.
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| Oscar and Elli showing off cupcakes and cake |
Sunday was Mother's Day. Beth picked the kids up at 10:00 am. Scott, Mike, and I had pho for lunch then tried to hike. It was rainy and Scott started feeling bad so we gave up on hiking. Scott rested and I washed a few clothes and packed for us to leave on Monday. Scott made bbq ribs for dinner.
Charleston, South Carolina
Monday - May 14, 2018
We left Scott's about 8:45 am and headed south on Hwy. 301 to 207E to I95S to I26E to Hwy 17 to Mount Pleasant, South Carolina Springhill Suites Marriot Hotel. This hotel was really nice with a really good breakfast bar. The location was perfect for everything we wanted to do in the Charleston area. We bought a sandwich at the Harris Teeter that was close by for dinner and ate in our room. Our room was a 2 queen suite with a microwave, mini fridge, and a couch.
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| Crossing the Potomac River |
Tuesday - May 15, 2018
We got up and ate breakfast about 8:30. We went to the Patriot Point Visitor Center and bought tickets to the Yorktown Carrier exhibit. We walked a short distance by the water at the visitor's center then went on to the Yorktown. It was already getting hot.
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| View of Ravenel Bridge between Mount Pleasant and Charleston |
We spent about 3 1/2 hours looking at the exhibits at the Yorktown Carrier and the Vietnam Experience. Both were really interesting. There was a lot of things that we didn't look at since we were getting tired and hungry and it had gotten very hot and humid.
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| Yorktown Carrier with Laffey Destroyer in foreground |
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| Mike reading about one of the planes |
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| On the Yorktown with the bridge in the background |
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| On the flight deck of the Yorktown |
We ate a late lunch at Vickery's Bar and Grill at Shem Creek. I had shrimp, crawfish, oysters, and crab grits and Mike had fried grouper. We both had a wicked weed beer. It was all very good plus we had a great view.
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| View at lunch |
After lunch we went back to the hotel and rested for a bit then drove to Sullivan's Island. We planned to tour Ft. Moultrie, but it was closed for the day by the time we got there. We were able to walk a trail through the outside of the fort area. We also hiked on the beach on the island and drove by the island lighthouse.
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| Sullivan Island beach |
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| On the beach |
We stopped at Harris Teeter on our way back to our room for the night. It was a warm day with some rain showers.
Wednesday - May 16, 2018
Got up, had breakfast, and drove into Charleston by about 10:00 am. Traffic on the bridge was very heavy because the other bridge that crosses the bay is closed. It still only took us about 15 minutes to get to the parking garage next to the Charleston Historic District visitor center. We got information about where to walk in town and looked at the exhibits before heading out. We walked down King Street to White Point Garden at the Battery. There were some very old, beautiful houses as we got closer to the garden. There were also some pretty pushy vendors in the shop area where we walked on King Street.
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| An old house on King Street |
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This house dates to the mid 1700's and is still owned
by descendants of the original family |
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| Street of houses by the garden |
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| View of the garden from the water front |
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| Beautiful houses close to the garden |
After sitting in the garden for a while we walked along the Battery and then up Bay Street through Rainbow Row. This is a section of very colorful houses close to the water.
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| Rainbow Row |
We walked through the Waterfront Park past the Pineapple Fountain and then went to eat lunch at Pooghan's Smokehouse. Mike had bbq meat and I had a pulled pork salad. They were both very good. I especially liked the pickled red onions.
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| Pineapple Fountain in Waterfront Park |
After lunch we toured the Old Slave Market Museum. I learned a lot, especially about how rice plantations were the beginnings of slavery in the American Colonies. After that we walked up Meeting Street back to the car, total distance walked today of 4 1/2 miles.
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| Path we walked today |
We got back to the hotel by 3:30. We had left over bbq meat for dinner. It was a warm, pleasant day today with no rain.
Savannah, Georgia
Thursday - May 17, 2018
After breakfast, we left Charleston by 9:30 headed to Savannah. On our way to Savannah we stopped at the Caw Caw Interpretive Center. It is made of old rice plantations that have gone back to marshland. It is now a protected nature area and contains alligators as well as many different types of birds. We went to the visitor center where we got information about hiking trails. We hiked part of the Rice Fields Trail and the Upland Forest Trail. At the beginning of the Rice Fields Trail we saw 2 alligators. We also saw Snowy Egrets and a Wood Stork.
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| Small alligator by the trail |
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| Larger alligator in the water |
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| Mike next to the small alligator |
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| Mary resting by the trail |
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| Site where slave dwellings were on the plantatation |
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| Old rice field |
It rained on us off and on while we were hiking so we didn't hike as much as we really wanted. We went through the exhibit at the visitor center then ate a picnic lunch outside.
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| Areas where we hiked at Caw Caw |
We headed on to Savannah and got to the downtown Springhill Suites by 3:00. We had to do valet parking because it is in downtown, but it wasn't too bad. It is a nice hotel. Even though our room was right next to the swimming pool, it was very quiet. We walked to The Distillery for dinner where we shared a burger, smashed sweet potatoes, and french fries. Mike got a beer sampler of 5 local beers and I got a gin and tonic. Everything was really good. We walked back to the hotel through Orleans Square. This is a pretty square that we had walked through when we stayed at Tybee Island 10 years ago.
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| Orleans Square fountain |
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| Mary and Mike by fountain |
We called it an evening when we got back to the hotel.
Friday - May 18, 2018
We got up and had breakfast by 8:30 and left the hotel by 9:30. We walked first to the visitor center where we got lots of information from a worker named Mary. We started walking on the street where we were told there would be pretty houses when it started to rain.
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| Orleans Square (again) |
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| Pulaski Square |
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| Another view of Pulaski Square |
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| Tattnall Street |
Luckily we had decided to carry my umbrella because it rained hard on and off (mostly on) for a couple of hours. We finally quit trying to walk in the rain and caught the nearest DOT free shuttle to Forsyth Square. This is the largest park in Savannah. On our way through the park a guy offered to take our picture by the fountain. Turns out he was homeless so we gave him a couple of dollars. There are a lot of homeless people in Savannah.
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| Rainy view of the fountain at Forsyth Square |
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| Picture taken by the homeless guy |
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| Selfie in front of the fountain in the rain |
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| Best picture of the fountain at Forsyth Square |
We left Forsyth Square and caught the shuttle to the Riverwalk area. We had to wait quite a while on the shuttle to leave because they were changing drivers, but it was dry. It had started to rain very hard at this time. We ate lunch at the River House. Mike had a fried flounder sandwich and I had a crab cake sandwich both with cole slaw. They were really good. By the time we had finished lunch the rain had stopped, so we walked by the river to the Waving Girl Statue and back.
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| Statue on the Riverwalk |
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| Waving Girl Statue |
We left the Riverwalk by taking some steep stairs up to street level. We walked around town going through several squares and a cemetery before going by St. John the Baptist Cathedral. It is a really impressive Catholic church building.
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| Johnson Square |
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| City Hall |
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| Wright Square |
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| Mike in Oglethorpe Square |
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| St John the Baptist Cathedral |
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| Lafayette Square |
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| Fountain at Lafayette Square |
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| Madison Square |
We stopped at a coffee shop for ice cream on our way back to the hotel. We walked through a couple more squares before getting back to our room. We rested for a while before going back to The Distillery for a light dinner. We shared an order of bbq wings and Mike had a beer and I had another gin and tonic.
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| Chippewa Square |
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| Street on way back to hotel |
We went back to our hotel and called it a night. We had walked about 4 1/2 miles today so were pretty tired. We enjoyed our day in Savannah even with all of the rain.
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| We walked the magenta lines and rode DOT on the green lines. |
Chattannooga, Tennessee
Saturday - May 19, 2018
We ate breakfast and left our hotel in Charleston at about 9:30. We took I16 to I75 to I24 to Lookout Valley which is close to Chattannooga. It was very hot today. We stayed at a Best Western at Lookout Valley because it was very handy for getting to the Tennessee Aquarium. The hotel was very rundown on the outside and we were given a smoking room which really stank. However, the room was clean other than the smell. We ate dinner at Logan's Smokehouse which was just up the hill from our hotel. We went to the Walmart after dinner and got supplies for the rest of the trip then called it a night.
Sunday - May 20, 2018
We got up about 7:30 and had coffee and breakfast. The breakfast was okay, but not as good as it was at the previous 2 places. We got into Chattannooga at 9:45 and had a really hard time finding a place to park because there was an Ironman Competition at the riverfront. We finally found a place to park over 1/2 mile from the aquarium. It was a bit of a walk but not too bad. We got to the Tennessee Aquarium at 10:00 which was the time for opening. We did the Ocean Exhibit first. There were Lemurs at the beginning, then a large coral community tank that contained sharks and a lot of tropical fish. There was also a separate room that had several tanks of different types of jellyfish. We were in the Ocean Exhibit building for about 2 1/2 hours.
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| Butterfly in the garden |
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| Jelly fish |
We took a break and ate lunch at the aquarium cafe. I had a hamburger and Mike had a chicken sandwich. It was okay. After lunch we toured the River Exhibit. Especially interesting were the river otters and the tank that contained the 'monster fish'. While we were by the monster fish tank a couple of divers entered the tank to feed the fish. We stayed there a long time watching the feeding. This exhibit also contained a room which had tanks with a lot of different types of turtles. It was all very interesting.
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| View of Tennessee River Walk from aquarium |
After spending about 3 hours in the river exhibit, we got ice cream from a trailer outside the aquarium. As we were sitting eating ice cream some storm clouds started moving in so we walked very fast back to the car. We barely made it in time. We rested at the hotel for a little while then went up the hill from the hotel to a Mexican restaurant called Los 3 Amigos for dinner. It was very good food. After dinner we went back to the hotel and called it a night.
Monday - May 21, 2018
We got up and left the hotel at about 6:00 am. We bought coffee at a convenience store then headed out. We stopped at a McDonald's and got breakfast then just drove home. We took I24 to I40 outside of Nashville then stayed on I40 until we hit I49 to home. We stopped at a rest stop in Arkansas to eat a picnic lunch. It rained some after we had lunch, but was mainly an okay day of traveling. We stopped at the Harp's in West Fork to buy groceries then made it home by about 4:00. When we pulled into the driveway, we had a surprise. A large tree by the shop had fallen over on the roof. We think it probably happened the night before. At least Mike's truck wasn't in its normal parking spot, so it didn't get damaged.
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| Tree on shop |
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| Close up view of damage |
We had a good time on this trip travelling a total of 2950 miles. Always glad to get home.
