Ye Olde Tourism.

Caden

Good day. I’m gonna start off by telling you to try to read the rest of this thing in a British accent. I’ll be doing my best to write this in Olde Englisheyness.

Williamsburg, Jamestowne, and Yorktowne be three good strong townes abustling with the men visitin’ the tavern and the blacksmith ahammerin’. There be lots a trade shoppes on the main street but there be some others farther toward yonder river. I liked the blacksmith and I was right ready to start me apprenticeship. There also be the weaver, candlemaker, bucketmaker, silversmith, tinsmith, dressmaker, basketweaver, cabinetmaker, shoemaker, wheelmaker, swordmaker, barrelmaker, and some I’ve surely forgotten. My favorite parte of Williamsburge was the court trial. I got to act as apprentice to master John something or other. The problem be that Mr. Camm of Camm’s tavern knowinly served me up some liquor right quick. There also be an outdoors marketplace that be much alike a gift shoppe. Now at Yorktowne there was a lot of weapons demonstrations. Union and confederate infantry, musket charge, confederate artillery, and union cavalry. I got to pet one of the horses and it liked me its rider told me. At Jamestowne a lady with a chicken called the chicken lady talked to us about some of the people who came to Virginia. I liked her, she was funny and ye could pet the chicken which just wandered around scratching the dirt eating ants and other bugs. We got patches from Yorktowne and Jamestowne and Fort Monroe gave us laser cut wooden badges. AWESOME. (Alright, did I do good Olde Englisheyness?)

Good day to you all,

Caden

Stuff

Huck

We value experiences and relationships more than we do stuff.  But stuff still has a way of keeping you tied down. So part of the idea of this adventure, at least in my mind, was to force ourselves away from our stuff and replace it with those things we value more.  When you live in tight quarters there is not much room for physical stuff.  Even if we had the space, we are filling our days with exploring the outdoors, nature, history and science that we don’t have time to futz with physical stuff.  Yet somehow we still have too much stuff and so something’s got to go.
Ditching the dead fridge

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Lost

Huck

I’m positive that I took American history during my school years.  But for some reason, nothing (or very little) seemed to stick.  I can remember my childhood friend Gordy Carlson’s phone number (598-2426…it was even before 10 digit dialing!) but can’t remember when the war of 1812 was!  Just kidding.  But its almost that bad.  I’m ashamed at how little I know.  But I think this old dog IS learning some new tricks about history and its filling me with lots of questions and desires to learn even more!  I hope this adventure is having the same effect on the kids.  Perhaps when they are learning American history in the classroom they will already have a solid foundation and they can capitalize on the opportunity to dig deeper to where their questions lead them.

All that to say, I had no clue that there was a group of English settlers who came to America well before the Pilgrims I learned about in school.  It was 1587 and they settled on Roanoke Island just a short drive from our campground.  So we packed a lunch and drove out to the Roanoke Island Festival Park.
Ship

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Wright Brothers Memorial by Brielle

Brielle

Today mom, papa, Caden, Dacen and me Brielle went to wright brothers memorial!! Why am I so excited ? Well the 2 brothers were the FIRST IN FLYTE!!!! Their names are Wilbur and Orville. It was so cool!!!! They came from Ohio they wanted to go to Kitty Hawk becuas Kitty Hawk had wind, isolation and sand. They built there own airplane!!!!!!

There was this one stachu (statue) and we got to play on it. It was really fun playing on it. It was really slippery so you could slide off. It’s really fun to slide off it.

Not the statue but the one the rangers built (The working life size replica) it wasn’t the one the brothers built but it was like that one. The one the rangers built you couldn’t play on but the statue one you could play on.

The one the rangers built was made out of cloth and wood. It was cool. It worked like the two brothers plane. It had a statue of one of the two brothers on it. They wanted it to look like one of the two brothers was (laying on it/flying it). I told mom the guy hasn’t moved.

They even have picures of the diary. You can’t read it that good.

 

 

 

–Brielle

 

Lights and Flights

Huck

We had to say goodbye to Ocracoke as we moved on northward.  We arrived at the ferry terminal just as one ferry was leaving which gave us an almost assured spot on the next one.  This ferry will take us to Hatteras, does not take reservations and is free!  While we waited for the ferry we did a little more beach combing where we found a dead puffer fish (we think) and a dead jelly fish (we think).  We boarded the ferry and set sail.  I took my computer into the passenger lounge to do some work while the rest of the fam stayed in the vehicle and….uh, I don’t know what they did.  We arrived at the Hatteras ferry terminal and made a beeline to the famous Hatteras lighthouse.
Hatteras lighthouse

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My friend the lighthouse

Huck

We had heard great things about the Outter Banks of North Carolina and so this was on our must see list.  Ocracoke was the low key gem that many suggested and the target of our next visit.  Little did I know that I shared a special bond with this island that goes back almost 20 years.  But first, we must take to the seas to get to this barrier island and for this we have to load Ava and the Beast onto another ferry.  This one, unlike the others we’ve ridden, costs some cash and reservations were recommended.  The ferry was at 10:00am and they asked that you arrive at least 30 minutes prior to that.  We had a 2 hour drive so to give us a little margin I wanted to leave the campground at….WHAT???  What time did you say??  7:00??  In the morning??  Yeah…this is early for us but I am proud to say that we were rolling at 7:15…not too shabby.  We loaded onto the ferry and sailed away.
Ava on the ferry

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Neuse news

Huck

A year or so ago I came across a PBS show called A Chef’s Life and found myself enjoying it quite a bit.  I liked the story, I like the farm to table concept and I like Chef Vivian’s involvement with the community.  Kinston NC sounded like a pleasant place to live.  Totally unrelated I was reading a blog from a full time traveling family (honestly don’t remember which) and saw that they stayed in Kinston, NC.  I put two and two together, added twelve and carried the five and realized that maybe we could stop through Kinston during our trip!
Date night
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Earth Day And Neuseway Park

Steph

We had a busy earth day!! (Yes it was a couple days ago but the festivities were today). A local club had a kids fishing day at the pond next to us. I was left holding the worms, so I decided to go pick up trash (sadly there was a LOT).

– Dacen held a dead water moccasin/cotton mouth. Luckily I’m not afraid of snakes because that boy is a little obsessed. We learned a lot about snakes from the teens who killed it. We later found out even though the snake DID have the diamond shaped head and other appropriate markings, it was another very similar looking snake. So, Dacen STILL wants to hold a cotton mouth. Sigh.

– Caden rescued a turtle who was trying to cross the road. There’s a joke there I’m sure!

– Brielle rescued an injured or stunned toad. Sadly it was camera shy and hopped out of her hands before we could take the picture.

Snake  Caden's turtle rescue  Marsh

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North Carolinian Fun

Caden

So far North Carolina is very different from South Carolina. I think its dryer and treeier (trē-ē-ur) but I don’t know. At the place we’re staying there’s a bird that can sing happy birthday, flying squirrels, a mouth and heart, and a cool playground! All that and full hookups is only fifteen bucks a night! We hung…no hang…no hanged…no- well we saw the Staats and it was fun to play with them. Mrs. Staats made a good dinner and we drove in a go cart with no brakes that we nearly wrecked (really Dacen nearly wrecked it. I almost nearly wrecked it too but I stayed cool-headed enough to slow it down too and no one even thought I was out of control and if I go on I’ll be gloating).

We got to go to a chocolate factory with Calvin and Melody Deutchbein which was awesome. We got to see how chocolate is made and we even got to try some chocolate for free! I thought we’d only get samples but Mom and Papa got us normal dark chocolate and even liquid chocolate.

Ocracoke is part of the outer banks in North Carolina. It’s also the first ever national seashore. You really aren’t supposed to take the shells but lets just say we were clearing room for the next shells. Along with shelling, the sand dunes are also super fun. Sadly you’re only allowed on the dunes meant for walking on. The houses are also cute. Its such a small place that you can travel all over by bike. We went to three beaches and on one we found sand dollars, one small one wasn’t broken, but Mom found it so I didn’t get to keep it. 🙁 We got ranger badges which was cool. We visited Cape Hatteras and its lighthouse and even though we didn’t get a badge the view was amazing! Now I’m done talking so now the only reason I’m typing is… huh I don’t know why I’m typing,

Yours in confusedness,
Caden Wach

Hmmm typing… cheese… knees cheese… cheesy peasy kneesies… why am I still typing!!!???