The crazy long day to Dallas meant… we could enjoy day 2! We all slept in a bit and headed to a breakfast spot near our hotel, Snooze Eatery (looks to be a smaller, regional restaurant group). It was VERY apparent that they boys needed to stretch their legs when they asked if they could run in circles around the park by the restaurant. We had a perfect spot to watch them, sit with Tater and enjoy the perfect weather morning in Dallas. We jumped straight on the road from there, en route to Amarillo.

The drive stretched through endless flat, plains— very many windfarms (personally think they add, rather than detract from the landscape), oil rigs and Cotton patches. The path itself was one, to two lanes, 75 mph and an easy shot to Amarillo. With one stop for gas, we made it to our next spot around 4pm.

After getting our things settled in the hotel, we visited the Cadillac Ranch, a public art installation funded by Amarillo-native, Stanley Marsh. The installation consists of 10 Cadillacs sunken into the ground. The cars involved ranged from ’49 to ’63 models and supposedly are meant to represent the rise and fall of the Cadillac. The fun of the installation is that you can bring, buy or find abandoned spray paint cans and become a contributor to the installation. The personal contribution may only last a day or so, but we had fun joining in. As we arrived, there were two trailers flanking the entrance selling spray paint, one covered in Trump 2020 flags and the other in Pride/rainbow flags — even the entrance to this remote art installation laid out our current cultural division (not a tough guess as to where we purchased spray paint 😉

Afterwards, we drove through the historic Route 66 district in Amarillo — this once, only gateway to the West Coast feels a bit like the tired areas of A1A near Daytona.

We ended the day at Joe’s Tacos on their outdoor patio for dinner. This felt like our best option in the area, but was pretty much just “food”. The one highlight was seeing Shepherd, in his adventure travel mode, willing to try Guacamole. Even though this was a much shorter travel day, we were all pretty zonked, Rawls nearly falling asleep at dinner, and think we all crashed by 9pm.

Joe’s Tacos — nice evening / so-so tacos

We had several months to think through plans for the trip, but there’s always the last minute rush to pull the things we use daily, together. This week we spent making that happen, saying goodbye to family and celebrating shepherd’s birthday a bit early. William’s Daytona city council meeting Wednesday night (the date we had to make sure to stay through) wrapped not too crazily late and we were able to get things packed up Wednesday night.

We woke up early Thursday to take care of the very last things (stove-pot coffee, Tater’s insulin, Shepherd’s bunny and getting the bikes on the back of the Tahoe) and were on the road by 7. Our first day plan was purposefully to make it as far as seemed reasonable.. which when we were planning was Shreveport (12 hours). But…. when we set off on the Road we realized Hurricane Delta might be problematic so we decided to change our trajectory towards Dallas.  The drive went as well as could go – no border issues/accidents until the last hour of the drive 😉 To pass the time, the boys finished some schoolwork, watched a couple movies and played games.  Amazingly, with our stops and all, we made it to our Dallas hotel around 11pm CT and crashed.

Alabama stop at the largest (physical footprint) gas station in the world, Buc-ce’s.

Writing as we kick-off our fall home school semester on the road. We’d planned a long first day to get to Shreveport.. but with Hurricane Delta heading that way, we’re opting for a longer day and attempting to make it to Dallas. Dallas -> Amarillo -> Albuquerque -> Flagstaff – here we come!

Last stop of the visit – Lake Rabun. There are a number of lake communities outisde of Atlanta and the Lake Rabun community is gorgeous. The entire family came up for this portion of the trip and we spent the last long weekend hiking, kayaking and boating on the lake, cooking together and enjoying the downtime.

Hiking in Tallulah Gorge – lots of steps + great views

Hemlock Fall Trail — popular with some of the crew, but Rawls and Aubrey didn’t love that we made this trek in the rain

Lunch stop at.. Goats on the Roof (really 😉

And the best time… lake time!

We arrived in Dahlonega late afternoon on Monday, September 7th to “the school house”— the most charming Airbnb we’ve visited. The house was built in 1848 and was originally a working school house. Much of the decor reflects this history and there were a number of older desks that the boys enjoyed using. The first night we cooked at the house – carmelized shallot pasta and had a low key night settling in. 

Tuesday was a school and work day, but when the boys wrapped early, they went on a hike with William to the top of Preacher Rock. Gorgeous lookout and Rawls maybe a bit unhappy with the “work” it took to get to the top. We went into the main square in Dahlonega to Spirit’s Tavern for dinner — easy family option and we loved seeing Shepherd eating more adventurously. He ordered a salad and ate dressing (never!) and red onion (multiple bites!). Also enjoyed a spicier sauce (gasp!) on his Mac n cheese bites. 

Our last full day in Dahlonega was another work and school day, but the boys mixed in a bunch of activities. After school in the morning and lunch at the house, they visited the Dahlonega Gold museum in the main square. The boys were introduced to the Gold Rush, the Trail of Tears and the impact to the Cherokee Nation. They also learned that the gold in GA is much purer than most you’d find (95% vs 75% – not sure if this was just a marketing thing 😉

First part of our September mini – adventure in the books. We drove up to Atlanta on Sunday, September the 6th with Aunt Meg. Stretched legs visiting a park in Megan and Jordan’s neighborhood (the group picture has a ‘hard-to-find’ aerobie caught in the top of the tree) and sat an outdoor cafe area of a bar, Midway. Froze yumminess.

Rawls helped uncle Jordan grill some delish burgers for the boys. We ordered a pretty tasty spread from the Iberian pig – assorted tapas.

The Georgia Aquarium

The following morning we woke up ready to visit the Georgia Aquarium – all of us first time visitors. There are a number of aqua worlds represented at the Georgia Aquarium: tropical life, ocean expanse, southern coastal. The tanks are massive and each area felt like immersion in a different water world.

After an early lunch/snack of pizza and mashed potatoes, which S proclaimed was THE BEST, we went on a behind the scenes tour of the tanks. Our favorites were the beauteous beluga whales (me), patterned whale sharks (William), playful penguins (Rawls), tank the turtle (S) and dolphin show. During the tour — we were able to see the Belugas up close during feeding and training time (along with a baby beluga born in May — they’re born dark gray and become white as they age).

Jumping on the road to Dahlonega, about an hour north now!

Time for one last summer escape before the “school year” begins! William’s music highlight of the year, for the past many years, is a musicians gathering in Clifftop, WV. As with all large gatherings of people this year, it was canceled, but a (much) smaller group decided to find a way to make some music happen in the mountains. David Strickland found a great spot in Maggie Valley, NC (near Waynesville) called Hawthorn Haven (http://hawthornhaven.com). The “haven” has two lodges, a cabin with two suites and chicken coops, a chapel and a lot of room to explore. We stayed in the bottom suite of the cabin and had a nice space for the family situated close to the main lodge where several musicians stayed (or camped in the outside yard area). 

The weather compared to Jacksonville was heavenly- from mid 60s to 80s, at the max. While much of the weekend revolved around music, we took the boys on a few hikes – some around the property, one up on the blue ridge mountain parkway (Richland balsam loop) and on a longer / 3mile hike (Purchase Knob) where we saw an incredible variety of mushrooms. The boys helped gather blackberries for a cobbler that we made (and shared) that evening!

We also had our first family horse adventure with John at Panther Creek — bit off the beaten path and not a place to go if you appreciate a lot of instructional help, but the horses were solid and extremely familiar with the route – the boys both loved. Shepherd rose Spirit and Rawls rode Cinnamon – the horses were brothers, a year apart and took great care of our boys, especially the initially reticent Rawls.  

At the end of the day, Rawls shares his thoughts:

Great area to explore – and perfect time of year to be in western NC. 

Homeschooling was never in our plans.. but as we looked at the school year and options for the family, we felt like this may be just the year to take control of plans and learn from a different perspective.

Our fall semester is going to focus on the Southwest of the U.S. — Most time in Arizona and New Mexico. Couple visits including Utah and Colorado with a touch of Texas/Oklahoma (passing through).

Here’s a start of what we’re thinking:

• Drive out through Atlanta (quick Meg + Jordan visit) and travel out through Oklahoma to our first stop: Flagstaff
• Week in Flagstaff
• Head the first weekend to Williams, AZ – close town to the Grand Canyon
• After a week in Williams and hopefully a number of visits to the Grand Canyon area, we’ll spend a couple nights on the rim at the Grand Canyon lodgs
• From there we’ll head to Sedona, AZ
• Followed by a week of true vacation/off the grid in Lake Powell and Zion National Park.
• From there – New Mexico for a month – Santa Fe and.. TBD

Annnd we’re on the long route home. Quick note to share that all is good here// we made it back to Beijing tonight after a relaxing first part of the day in Yangshuo.

We have a long breakfast planned for tomorrow and then head to the airport around 9am to head back state side. Learnings today – Chinese coach is a good bit tighter than US domestic coach and airport chairs can be over engineered to less comfy results.

Last full visit today and was a really nice one. Tomorrow we head back to Beijing and then fly home the following day! Don’t yet feel travel weary, but expect will feel good to get home.  We’re currently sitting on the teak porch of this beautiful room (truly a room for a family of 4- most of China does not get this concept- one child policy is a very real thing)

Waiting for our guide Michael to pick us up:

We first stopped at a local market. We thought this was the worlds largest cucumber, but it’s actually a wax gourd:

Rawls’ favorite- snails!

(Rawls and I skipped the meat section and glad to have missed out on the alternative local meat options available.. meow meow 🤢)

Admittedly I was questioning this family visit / tofu making stop, but turned out to be a lot of fun, esp for the kids. Shepherd offered to work for them for free plus pork dumplings.

Grinding the soy beans:

Cooking and straining the soy milk

After being the targets of photos all trip, the boys decided they wanted a photo with this little guy

We picked out our river fish for lunch

And then headed on a long walk along the river. The guide here, “Michael”, has been great

And we ended with a bamboo rafting experience / definitely touristy + very fun