Running the USA

So, we have been on the road for over a week and have run some amazing trails. The RV is just awesome. I can’t stress enough how perfect RV travel is with kids. If we had teenagers, it might be a different story, or at least we would need a bit more space, but traveling with little guys is tons of fun. Our pattern is breakfast, trail run with the kids, Mommy School, then afternoon adventure or travel, dinner outside with our grill, then reading and bed. So, our first trails took us through the battlefields of Harper’s Ferry. Our kids are really into Civil War history and this was a an awesome morning of running. We read every informational plaque and enjoyed imagining what it must have been like to live in the 1860’s. In their journals that morning, the kids sketched out scenes from Gettysburg, where we had stopped on our way to Harper’s Ferry. Our next good run was near Natural Bridge, Virginia on the wooded trails of a national forest. Then on to Charleston, SC where we ran the neatly groomed trails of Patriot’s Point. Easy footing for the kids. Our latest trail was our best so far, at Sweetwater Creek in Talladega National Forest, Alabama. We camped out in the forest, which is must nicer than being in an RV park. More secluded and quiet. This park is a huge horseback riding destination, where people camp out with their horses. So, the trails were wide and not too rocky or hilly. There was a 2 mile nature loop around a lake, with really interesting facts about the local creatures. In Mommy School, the kids recreated the ecosystem in their journals. The following day, we continued on our westward journey into Tennessee and Arkansas. We stayed the night on the site of one of the Trail of Tears campgrounds west of Memphis. The nature center was fun, and we were the only ones in the audience of the 20 minute film on the Cherokee Nation and the history of the Trail of Tears. Very interesting for all, but as Alex said, very sad. We entered the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma the next day, as we followed Rt. 40 west.