National Bafoon's Family Vacation

Well, I can't believe it's finally here. Time for the family to load up the "Family Truckster" (a rented Kia Sedona) and hit the open road for a few days of fun, festivities, food, and all the other stuff that goes along with putting three kids in a van for a few hours at a time.

The trip started on Wednesday, June 4th with little troubles. Traffic around Chicago was a lot better than I anticipated. With Candy riding "shotgun", we breezed though and was into Indiana in no time at all. The kids were really holding up well.

After many miles and several hours, I had just about taken all I could and decided to camp out at the world-famous Winchester Holiday Inn (where the towels are oh so fluffy). The next morning, we got up and had breakfast. Because we were not in any BIG hurry, we decided to check out a Civil War "Fort" we had seen signs for.

Well, after hiking up this MOUNTAIN for what seemed like an eternity, we finally arrived at the "Fort". It was the command center building that was now being used for personal relief purposes. There was also a couple of "Fortification Ditches" where the soldiers would fire from as well as.....

That's right, a REAL Civil War era cannon. And of course, the kids couldn't help but to climb on it and strike a pose. This thing stills rolls and is able to elevate and lower the barrel (just in case).

I then had Hannah take the time to pose solo for me so that I could try out a feature on our camera.............PANORAMIC!

I forgot to mention that this particular excursion was plagued by about one million (give or take ten) locusts. These things were EVERYWHERE!! Lily surprised me the most because she never freaked out while they were flying all around us. We also figured out what there was to defend:

A River Invasion from those pesky Yanks. I just thought that the scenery was really beautiful.

Anyway, after returning to the van and then the road, things went smoothly throughout Kentucky and into West Virginia and then Virginia. The whole trip was surrounded by absolute beauty that only God Himself could create. Lily didn't much like the idea of looking out of her window and being able to see a couple of miles down into the valleys but it was GORGEOUS! We even had to go THROUGH the mountains a couple of times via the tunnels that had been dug out.

Lily asked why it was so quiet in the van and we got to explain to her that we were inside the mountain and that not even the radio worked.

All in all, it was a great trip down to Winston-Salem, North Carolina to spend some time with Candy's sister Mary and her family before heading over to Gatilinburg, Tennessee and a chance to hook up with my mom and sister.

Check back as we should be posting about our adventures as wonderful things happen.