March 30-April 1- Stone Mountain Park, GA
What an activity filled (and exhausting) weekend for the kids.  We headed out for Stone Mountain Park  after Rebecca and Lee Thomas got home Friday afternoon.  We were lucky with Atlanta Traffic until about Spaghetti Junction (285/85), but it still wasn't too bad.  It makes me glad I'm driving a small motor home as opposed to a big one!  We got to the campground well before sun down and got set-up, built a fire, had dinner, watched a movie, and turned in.   (see PS at end)

March 31 - Saturday morning we caught a water taxi then a shuttle to the main part of the park.  The twins' high point was meeting Dora and Diego.  We went to the 4D theater, got squirted by a talking fountain, helped paint a mural, rode a train around the mountain, ate lunch, did the tree house challenge, visited the plantation (made rag dolls), petted sheep, goats, and pigs, washed our hands, rode the gondola to the top of the mountain, drank about $25 worth of water, then rode the water taxi back to camp.  Needless to say, after another campfire and dinner, everyone slept like babies Saturday night!


April 1 - Sunday morning we broke down camp and took Homer (our RV) to the antique car museum (it was lightly raining).  We saw a Tucker, one of only 51 ever made.  I saw a little Mustang pedal car just like I had when I was a kid.  I introduced Lee Thomas to an antique PacMan game (yes, it's an antique).  Then we headed for the riverboat ride, but it started pouring down rain, so we ate lunch in Homer instead.  We considered going on home, but luckily, the rain stopped about 20 minutes before the worlds largest Easter egg hunt was supposed to start, so we headed that way.  There were around 300,000 Easter eggs there, and I think we got about half, each with SweetTarts.  If anyone would like some candy, just let us know.  When it started to rain on us again, we headed back to Calhoun.

PS. Camping at Stone Mountain was a little different that we're used to.  There's something unusual about being in a campground with 400 other RVs, sitting by the fire, and listening to sirens off in the distance.  Another thing, to all you other campers, if you're going to go camping with your beloved pets, and you leave your RV for the evening, TAKE YOUR STUPID YAPPING CHIHUAHUAS WITH YOU!

March 25, 2007: Pigeon Mountain/Rock Town near LaFayette (pronouned lu-faet), GA
Well, the Cederstrom tribe showed-up on Saturday evening (less Chief Jeff who's in China on business, we miss you Jeff), and we made a last-minute decision to do Pigeon Mountain's "Rock Town" on Sunday.  Rock town is an unusual collection of rock formations atop Pigeon Mountain in the Northwest corner of Georgia.  The Sunday forecast was sunny and hot (87) which is very unusual for March, so we dressed as cool as possible for the two-mile round trip hike.  Before leaving I had to snap a picture of Cookie on Herbie begging for a ride.  We drove Homer (our RV) so we'd have a place to cool off and eat when we finished our adventure.  After a little talk about rattle snakes and bobcats, we started our journey.  The kids loved climbing on the rocks, and we watched a demonstration of rock climbing from a guy that looked like he knew what he was doing.  The surroundings at Rock Town are like something out of a science fiction movie.  I took as many pictures as my memory stick would allow.  We plan to go back to Pigeon Mountain to explore more in the future.  Many caves can be found on the mountain including Pettijohn's cave and Ellison's cave which includes "Fantastic", a 586' deep pit (deepest "straight drop" cave in the US).

I took a different route home so we could stop by a rock Quarry and pick up some agate for the Cederstrom papooses (although it was Chiefette Heidibelle that we had to wait for when the kids were ready to leave).  I could have stayed the rest of the day, but it was very hot and dusty, the kids were tired, and our rock bucket was pretty heavy.  By the way, I wanted to get these pictures up as quickly as possible so Jeff could see what the family was up to while he is on the other side of the world.  Jeff, I know you'd rather be here climbing on these rocks, and I'm trying to make you as jealous as I can.  Next time, you'd better be here.  Maybe we'll make it to Michigan soon.  I hear they've got some great rocks up on Gitche Gumee and in Petoskey.

    

March 11, 2007: Chattanooga Zoo, Chattanooga, TN
After our adventure at Cloudland Canyon, we headed out for the Chattanooga Zoo.  It had been a while since we visited that particular zoo.  It was fairly close by, and the twins had never been, so we thought it'd be a good idea.  Turns out, they've done quite a bit of work and gotten some new animals.  It's not Zoo Atlanta, but it's pretty cool because it has different animals.  Our Zoo Atlanta membership got us a 50% discount, so that made me like it even better.  On the ride home, we all discussed our favorite zoo animals as we ate ice cream sandwiches.  Everyone had a little different opinion about the animals, but everyone seemed to enjoy the trip.  It was early enough when we got home to play outside and take a long ride on Herbie.  Whew!  We were tired!  What's more, time changed and the Passie Fairy decided that this was the weekend that the twins should lose their pacifiers.

 

March 10-11, 2007: Cloudland Canyon State Park - Rising Fawn, GA
On Thursday , Dad and I traded his big old "Class A" motor home  for a smaller 24' "Class C" unit better suited for our needs. It's practically new with only 5,000 miles, and it's much easier to drive.  Since we're splitting the cost with Mom and Dad, our "RV dream" is coming true much sooner than we expected.  So, we had to figure out somewhere we could could go to try it out.  Cloudland Canyon is a state park that both Rebecca and I have visited several times throughout our lives, but none of the kids had been there, so, Cloudland it is. 

We packed the RV (hereafter known as Homer, named for Homer Deever, a person I once met as a teenager) and headed for Cloudland Canyon before lunch on Saturday.  It's in the northwest corner of the state (GA), and took us a couple of hours to get there (scenic route).  First, we had our PB&J lunch at a picnic table, then hiked down to the falls at the bottom of the canyon.  The walk back out was tiring for the kids, but they made it.  We headed for our campsite on the west rim and set-up camp.  The kids painted, colored, and played and played in the woods, collecting acorns, rocks, snail shells, and sticks for the fire.  It was very relaxing knowing we had nothing we had to do.  After a steak (and hotdog) dinner, we sat by the fire for a while.  The kids were anxious to try out Homer's sleeping arrangements (and DVD player), so we retired to the RV to watch Cinderella and part of Shark tales.  Lainey was the first up on Sunday morning.  We ate donuts and pop-tarts, then hiked the west rim of the canyon before packing up Homer and heading for Chattanooga, but that's another story (above)...

 

March 4, 2007: Zoo Atlanta - Atlanta, GA
We hadn't really planned on another PB&J adventure this weekend, but it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day, and we love the zoo (some might think we belong there).  We've been members of Zoo Atlanta for several years now, so it's a pretty cheap day, considering we don't have to pay for everyone's admission.  We also wanted to look at another RV or two at a dealer in Atlanta.  We saw one unit we liked, but after some inspection, it appeared to have a lot of rust underneath and some stains inside.  The salesman was typical "don't worry about how much, we can get you in one with a low payment".  Apparently you can finance these things for like 100 years.  Yup, it's 50 grand, but your payments will just be $195.00 a month...FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!  

March 3 2007: Rock City - Lookout Mountain (Chattanooga, TN)
Rebecca had been wanting to take the kids to Rock City for a while, and this looked like a good weekend for such a trip.  We met-up with Pamba, Parker John, and Calbert in Calhoun, and made a two-car caravan to Lookout Mountain.  The day was a little windy and cold, but we had a great time anyway.  Rebecca and I have been talking about how a small RV (motor home) would be great for these PB&J adventures, especially the "take-along" bathroom and kitchen aspects. So, today, we stopped by an RV place in Ringgold, GA, and looked at some of the available floor plans.  We looked at one unit we really loved.  It's something we'd love to do, but it will be a while before we can pull it off.