So, it's good to have a friend like Jenn, who can come up with good names. Our trip is renamed the Great Chase Trace, which is a better not only because it is shorter and catchier, but because it is a tongue twister! When we shout out the name when we crank the engine, it's so hard and funny to say. We have started saying it 4 times over every time.
Today, we spent the whole day on the Trace. The morning was rainy and yuck, and in order to keep our spirits up, I said, "We are the kind of people who are so much fun that rain cannot stop us. It cannot dare to suck up any of our fun." To which Livy replied, "What about locusts?" (Can you guess what books we really like?) And I said, "No, locusts would not dare come near us. We are that fun." Now, since I am the kind of person who intends not be upset by the rain but has bouts of self-pity when we are in it, and since Livy is the kind of person who is upset by it at the beginning but never thinks of it again once the rain is in her plan, I made our "locusts dare not approach us" saying, and she reminded me of it whenever it rained on us and I complained. :)
We had some of the best moments of our day in the rain. We hiked down to waterfall and climbed up the side to get a better look. We saw a house built in 1816 by the owner of a ferry, and we hiked down to see where he ran his ferry across the Duck River. I fell down in the mud, but I didn't mind because locusts dare not approach. After the rain stopped, mostly, we hiked a nature trail and skipped stones at Sweetwater Branch, saw where Meriweather Lewis died (some say murder, but most say suicide) and was buried, picnicked where the Colbert Ferry carried people across the TN river, climbed up Bear Creek Mound (Mississippian Indian temple mound and some Indians even earlier), explored a sinkhole/former cave and climbed all over the fallen-in ceiling rocks, and explored the Pharr Mounds.
The Pharr Mounds were a lot of fun, my favorite thing of the day. The rain had stopped; it was nearly dark; and we had the 90 acres to ourselves. We read the info about the mounds and walked out to three of the biggest. We ran up, ran down, and Livy rolled down like a log. She compared the heights of the two biggest by counting her steps. We thought we saw a deer on the top of one in the distance, but it was only a clump of tall white grass. :( We climbed up onto those big round hay bales and jumped from bale to bale. We ran with our eyes closed across the big open space. Basically, it was awesome sauce. Irreplaceable fun.
We had dinner, a bath, and now we are playing a version of Memory I made up with Choctaw word flashcards that came in her Junior Ranger book. We also managed to finish The Last Battle and start James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. Good day.
Today, we spent the whole day on the Trace. The morning was rainy and yuck, and in order to keep our spirits up, I said, "We are the kind of people who are so much fun that rain cannot stop us. It cannot dare to suck up any of our fun." To which Livy replied, "What about locusts?" (Can you guess what books we really like?) And I said, "No, locusts would not dare come near us. We are that fun." Now, since I am the kind of person who intends not be upset by the rain but has bouts of self-pity when we are in it, and since Livy is the kind of person who is upset by it at the beginning but never thinks of it again once the rain is in her plan, I made our "locusts dare not approach us" saying, and she reminded me of it whenever it rained on us and I complained. :)
We had some of the best moments of our day in the rain. We hiked down to waterfall and climbed up the side to get a better look. We saw a house built in 1816 by the owner of a ferry, and we hiked down to see where he ran his ferry across the Duck River. I fell down in the mud, but I didn't mind because locusts dare not approach. After the rain stopped, mostly, we hiked a nature trail and skipped stones at Sweetwater Branch, saw where Meriweather Lewis died (some say murder, but most say suicide) and was buried, picnicked where the Colbert Ferry carried people across the TN river, climbed up Bear Creek Mound (Mississippian Indian temple mound and some Indians even earlier), explored a sinkhole/former cave and climbed all over the fallen-in ceiling rocks, and explored the Pharr Mounds.
The Pharr Mounds were a lot of fun, my favorite thing of the day. The rain had stopped; it was nearly dark; and we had the 90 acres to ourselves. We read the info about the mounds and walked out to three of the biggest. We ran up, ran down, and Livy rolled down like a log. She compared the heights of the two biggest by counting her steps. We thought we saw a deer on the top of one in the distance, but it was only a clump of tall white grass. :( We climbed up onto those big round hay bales and jumped from bale to bale. We ran with our eyes closed across the big open space. Basically, it was awesome sauce. Irreplaceable fun.
We had dinner, a bath, and now we are playing a version of Memory I made up with Choctaw word flashcards that came in her Junior Ranger book. We also managed to finish The Last Battle and start James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. Good day.
