Journal Day 12

Journal Day 12

It’s the final day of vacation and we will be darned if we rush it or waste any of it. We didn’t have to check out until 11:00 a.m., so while Mom typed up the blog for yesterday, we all laid around and watched a couple of old family style movies on Turner Classic Movies.

It is extremely refreshing to see the boys so into movies that, in today’s standards, wouldn’t even probably make it to opening night. The first movie was about a con man who “got sold some swampland in Florida.” He traveled south to collect on his investment and, many hi-jinks later, unloaded the land on a sweet pair of newlyweds. As always happened in movies of the late 50s, early 60s – the hero got the girl, the bad guys were shot or arrested and the endearing con man got out ok – if not any richer. At one point, the young hero wrestled a huge alligator to save his girlfriend from being eaten. My oldest looked over at me with really big eyes and said, “Man, Mom! That was intense!” We’ve done something right, we have.

Once the blog was published, we packed up and headed to the Cherokee Heritage Museum on the southeast side of Tahlequah. This museum is a little challenging to find, but worth the effort. For the price of admission, you get access to the Trail of Tears exhibit, a self-paced tour of a frontier Cherokee town and a guided tour of an ancient Cherokee village. There was one difference that we noted for not the first time on our trip. No matter where you were outside, it was hot.

We did the ancient village first as there was a tour beginning right when we arrived. This tour had several similarities and some differences from the one that we did in Cherokee North Carolina. First of all, our guide was an older woman in her late 50s and 60s. From the quality of her tour, we knew she was a teacher and guessed her to be a professor of history or anthropology. She was an excellent teacher and guide.

The main difference I would say between the two tours was that our young guide in Cherokee, North Carolina focused on the “what” and the “how’s” of Cherokee life in the ancient times. Our guide in Oklahoma focused slightly more on the “why’s.” Both showed examples of blow guns, weaving, and canoe building. Our Oklahoma guide added two things to the “how to” list that were fascinating.

First, she demonstrated how to make an arrowhead using a striking rock, a piece of obsidian, and an antler. She talked about why the particular properties of the striking rock and the obsidian made them excellent choices. And, she explained why an antler was so useful in refining the shape of the arrowhead. The boys – all three of them – were in love with this woman from that moment forward.

Second, she finally demonstrated for us how the stick ball game is played. She actually threw a ball with the sticks to show the technique. We also finally got why they called stick ball the “little war.” Apparently, Cherokee’s used stick ball to settle disputes before going to war. War was only discussed if a good game of stick ball didn’t get the aggression and disagreement solved first. This would be an interesting experiment to try in the modern world, I think. Just fit the two fighting factions out with football uniforms, and let them have at it. Best two out of three wins the argument.

There were a few differences in the villages. When I pointed out these differences to her after the tour, she explained that they were most likely because the village that we saw in Cherokee NC was a slightly more modern version than the one being exhibited in Oklahoma. All in all, if you can – go to both. If not, either one will give you an excellent view into Cherokee life in ancient times. The experience is well worth the time and expense.

The museum exhibit on the Trail of Tears is terrific. In many ways, it does a much better job of bringing out the emotional experience of the Cherokee nation during their forced removal from their mountain home than the museum in North Carolina. There is one room in particular with life-sized sculptures of about 6-7 Cherokee. While in the room, voices repeat words from actual interviews of family members of people who marched on the trail. If you leave this exhibit with dry eyes, you haven’t really immersed yourself properly.

The village in the back is also interesting, although I must admit that we were way too hot to appreciate this fully. I can say that several of the buildings are authentic. They have been relocated to this area and placed in the village as representations of typical buildings of the time. There is a school house, a general store, several one and two room homes, and some farm buildings.

We finished up at the museum and headed quickly for the air conditioned comfort of the car and the continuing trip west. We were all quiet for the ride into the Tulsa area where we stopped for a brief respite from traveling and toured the Bass Pro Shop at Broken Arrow. We took a very close look at the hiking equipment and all tried on backpacks. We discovered that between the pack and sleeping bag alone, you would be carrying 8 pounds on your back. A four man tent adds another 4 pounds to someone. It appears that when hiking, food is the heaviest thing to carry.

After the Bass Pro Shop, we got back into the car and headed north and west to Winfield. The final stop was for dinner at the north McDonalds in Bartlesville. After that, it was a quick 1.5 hour drive home.

Journal Day 11

Well, we certainly know that we have left the country. There are people everywhere in our hotel. It almost seems that they are multiplying – kind of like squash on a vine. We got up to a noisy hotel and headed out for the early service at Christ the King Lutheran Church.

The church has a radio broadcast of its services as well as a parochial school. This was a much different experience than our little mountain church of a week ago – but just as friendly. We were greeted warmly at the door and welcomed in person by both Pastors Neugebauer and Goble before the service.

While we were sitting in the pew waiting for the service to begin, a man sitting with his two children turned around and spoke to my husband. “I think that I’ve seen you before,” he said. After a few quick questions, turns out this man’s wife – the church organist – was a graduate of St John’s in Winfield. They come back every so often for the college reunion. Apparently, he and my husband had talked while they were visiting Trinity Lutheran in Winfield. We spoke with his wife later and found that we had several common acquaintances. It just goes to show you that no matter how you slice it, it’s still a very small world.

The service was great. The boys still didn’t want to go up to children’s time – too shy. During the summer, Pastor Goble let children take a bag home and bring things back. A young girl had taken it home and brought it back filled with two additional bags. Taped on the outside of the bags was $1 bill and a message for Pastor Goble. It read, “Pass the buck to Pastor Chuck.” And Pastor Goble gladly did.

Paster Neugebauer preached on Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43. He started with a great illustration on the futility of living for this life only. He talked about some of the wonderful achievements he had done in his life – athletic awards, getting a date with the most beautiful girl in high school, raising four boys and even being a grandpa. Then, he said that he had just done something in the last week that made him the proudest of all. Prouder than any of those other things – and he held up a tomato. He said, “Look at this. I, Pastor Chuck Neugebauer grew this beautiful tomato.” Then he caught himself. He said, “Well, God actually grew it. I just managed to not kill it.”

He went on to say that he would like to put the tomato on a shelf for all to see. But, in reality, he knew that the tomato’s life would be fleeting. In fact, if he put it on the shelf, it would soon begin to rot and die. I’m not sure how he did it (I had to do a little parenting in the pew just then) but he began discussing how we should live each moment of life reacting to and treating people as they will be in heaven, not as they are now – a good way to move through life, I think.

After church, we returned to the hotel, changed, packed up and headed out to see Mud Island – a museum and river park on the edge of the Mississippi River. The museum, about the culture and history along the Mississippi River was terrific. It had 18 galleries and life size replicas of a gunnery boat and steamboat. The boys enjoyed climbing on these. They also had an audio tour that added embellishments and voices about the exhibits on display. The museum was well done. The pace was just right. The tour Nazi called out the numbers that we were to type into the MP3 again. We had a great time.

Outside of the museum there was a to-scale model of the lower Mississippi. It was a topographical map which was a great hands-on way to demonstrate the curves and depths of the river as it rolls from it’s juncture with the Ohio all the way to it’s delta in Louisiana. We spotted the location where we crossed at Cairo and the boys had fun wading in the river from there to the Arkansas line.

After that, we headed back to our car on the monorail that we had taken out to the island and headed across the Mississippi River bridge and into Arkansas on I-40. The trip was easy this time – Interstate the entire way. I sat back, began to read one of my library books and enjoyed the rest of the day on the road.

We stopped at about 8:30 in Tahlequah, OK at the Holiday Inn Express. We sat for about an hour while the boys enjoyed swimming in the pool. We met another family of boys that were looking forward to a canoe trip on the Illinois the following day. We told them about our harrowing adventure on the Green and wished them a sunny, cloudless day.

Journal, Day 10

This day of travel started extremely slowly as none of us were really very excited to leave the railcar. We were having a ton of fun just hanging out and watching TV in our beds – my husband and I had a queen size and the boys were sleeping on a daybed with a trundle. I finished my book, my husband got a nice long sleep in and the boys were completely pacified watching cartoons on TV. Things were peaceful at the rail station.

But, all good things must come to an end – and, just like in a real hotel, they kick you out around 11:00 a.m. So, we got up, showered, packed the car and checked out. But, before we left we took advantage of some more free stuff that we got with our room and went to view the model railroad museum located on the hotel property.

The brochure said that the model railroad was valued at $1 million and has taken more than 50,000 hours to build and maintain. The railroad is 174 feet long and 33 feet wide at it’s widest point. It had over 3000 feet of track and there were four trains running on continuous loops while we were there. There were also push buttons to operate a downtown trolley and an incline railway.

There is just something about model railroads. I don’t know what it is, but I could stand and look at them all day long. And this one was exceptional. The attention to detail found in this display was breathtaking.

We spent about 30 minutes making the long trip down the room and back and marveling at the new things we discovered each way. They even had a miniature of the hotel there when it was a working depot. That was cool because it was an excellent opportunity for us to explain to the boys how passenger trains worked. They were fascinated.

We ate lunch at the dining room again and then hopped in the car and headed west across the great state of Tennessee. We drove mostly on Highway 64. The majority of the road was a scenic byway and we enjoyed watching the native hills, houses and livestock as we went. It would appear that the state is attempting to make this route a 4-lane highway all the way from Chattanooga to Memphis. There are several spots with brand new 4-lane and others where it is clear where the 4-lane is to go and still others that are being developed into 4-lane as we speak. This project occupied much of our discussion during the trip.

At Savannah, TN we stopped for a short break at the Shiloh National Military Park. We got to the visitor’s center just as it was closing, but got the map for the driving tour and did a hurry-up-and-look job around the museum.

This battle was a little more self explanatory. Basically, General Grant and his troops were headed to Corinth MS in an effort to take a strategic position there along the railroad in order to cut off the south’s northern rail supplies. He was to be reinforced before he took the city so he was camping in the Shiloh area and occupying a two mile stretch south of Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River. The confederates in Corinth learned of his plan and decided to attack him and his troops before he was reinforced.

They met the outlying post of soldiers at 4:55 a.m. on April 6 and fought a bloody, tough battle for the entire day. Federal troops were pushed back to a line just about 100 yards from Pittsburg landing where they massed and held the confederates for the remainder of the evening. The fighting stopped at dark.

As luck would have it, Grant was reinforced that evening with two additional platoons of soldiers, increasing his ranks to 50,000 men. The tired and diminished confederates, who were hoping to finish off the Federal troops the morning of the 7th, awoke to an overwhelming and fresh set of Federal troops that outnumbered their 35,000 ranks. They quickly gave up and were pushed back to Corinth.

The most interesting part of this battlefield was viewing the confederate burial trenches that are scattered about. This war saw 23,000 casualties – men that were killed, wounded or missing. To bury the confederate dead, General Grant created mass graves where he buried men 7 layers deep. There are memorials at each of these trenches.

These battles are so much in our distant past that it is difficult to imagine what went on so many years ago. It is moving to see the problems that can happen when people can’t use their words to resolve issues and instead use people like chess pieces on a political playing board. The brochures all talk about how both sides of the conflict felt that fighting would not be necessary and, if needed, would be over in 3 months. Obviously, they were wrong. And many, many people on both sides paid a significant price.

After the battlefield, we hopped back in the car and drove the last stretch to Memphis and our hotel. We are all tired from the road so we immediately went straight to bed.

Journal, Day 9

Our youngest is seven years old today. I had remembered to bring his presents along with us and had laid them out on the table before I went to bed. He got up, came in to our room to cuddle and didn’t even notice they were there until my husband said something when he got up.

He was so excited! We had nearly convinced him that he probably wouldn’t get presents until he got back home, so this morning’s bounty caught him completely by surprise. While he examined his new DS and TMNT game, we packed up ourselves and the car.

We said goodbye to the cabin and were on the road, headed to Chattanooga on Highway 74 by 9:00 a.m. On the road we passed several groups heading out to raft on the Nantahala River. The town and areas reminded us of the Big Cedar Lodge area around Branson. The river was also fun to watch and looked really inviting. It was difficult not to stop and wade.

At Lake Hiwassee we saw some impressive white water rafting. The groups started at the Hiwassee dam, shot a huge waterfall at the dam’s edge and then headed down river for several more rapid areas until the pull-out spot just prior to where the lake widens. It looked absolutely like the most fun thing in the world. My husband thought they were crazy and said he would never do that. So, I guess I will place my hope with my boys and pray that I will have someone to experience some white water rafting with someday.

After that it was a fairly uneventful drive to the Georgia Visitor’s Center on I-75. We ate lunch out of the cooler and grocery bag again and then headed to the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. We stamped our National Park passport and grabbed the junior ranger book. (They don’t have a program for anyone less than 3rd grade so we opted to not do the activities at this time to keep the peace.) And then we toured the Visitor’s Center.

Now, I’m sure that if you are in to the civil war and all, this is a fascinating area and museum. The boys did enjoy walking through the gun and cannon display. And, there was one exhibit with a map and lights showing how the battle progressed and where the forces went. It looked a little like a video game and held the boys’ interest.

The Battle of Chickamauga began when the Union army took Chattanooga – a town that afforded the Federal army an extremely strategic position for supply lines to armies raiding into the deep south. The confederates attempted to regain Chattanooga and met the Federals at Chickamauga. General Rosecrans held them fairly well until the fighting got intense and there were some fatal communication errors.

At one point in the middle of the fighting, General Rosecrans thought that a gap had opened in the Federal line. In reality, he had received poor information. He did not verify the scout’s erroneous report. Instead, he sent orders to the regiment one section over to move and fill the gap. This action opened a real gap and gave the Conferederates a perfect spot to break the Federal line and win this particular battle.

They chased the Union army back to Chattanooga and spent the winter holding it under siege from nearby Lookout Mountain. General Grant didn’t just sit around and wait for things to happen. He attacked the Confederates on Lookout Mountain and routed them. Chattanooga remained in Federal hands and became an extremely important and valuable position as the Federal army marched to take over the Deep South.

Most of the exhibits required reading very much above the 8th grade level. Since we have two very important folks on our tour that are not even there yet, we breezed through the museum and went on to the auto tour. Unfortunately, I must say that this didn’t really get any better.

The boys were actually pretty disappointed. I don’t exactly know what they were expecting, but I think it was something like life-size wax figures poised around the battlefield in actual battle stances. High expectations, maybe? There was one very cool monument erected at the sight where General Rosecrans made his error in judgment and opened the gap in the Union line. It was an 85 foot high tower that you could climb to the top of. One of the people coming down said there were 136 steps. Having just walked 4.5 plus miles the day before, this seemed like chump change. And the view at the top was definitely worth it.

After the battlefield, we headed into town to check into our hotel. We stayed downtown at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Convention Center hotel run by Holiday Inn. The hotel is a restored train depot and tracks in the center of downtown. They have restored and repurposed 37 passenger cars into hotel rooms decorated in the Victorian style. For a few hundred dollars, you can stay the night in one of them and get free tickets to the downtown Aquarium and IMAX theater. Another perk that we didn’t even realize we had was a free engineer’s hat from the gift store for each boy. How cool was that?

After we unpacked our stuff and checked out our really cool room (it was like sleeping in a museum), we headed for the downtown aquarium on the free, electric trolley system. The aquarium boasts that it is the largest, fresh-water aquarium in the United States. I believe it. It is a study of the flora and fauna in the Tennessee River Valley. You ride an escalator up to the very top where the river starts in the Smokey Mountains and you continue by walking down into lower levels of the museum as you descend downstream. Eventually, you end up in the Gulf of Mexico just like the real river does.

The whole thing was really great, but if we had to pick our favorite areas, we would probably pick and exhibit about turtles showing turtles from all over the world. There was a sturgeon touch pool that was really cool. There are two buildings to the aquarium – one on fresh water and one on animals of the ocean. This second building had a butterfly garden at the very top that was super cool and where we spent much time. It also had a touch pool.

I can say with some first-hand knowledge now that I would rather touch a sturgeon with my hands than a manta ray.

Once we had exhausted the museum’s, it was across the street to the IMAX where we watched a 3-D show on the Grand Canyon and Colorado River. It was a fabulous film about water conservation and the very critical problem that is occurring in the Southwest. There were some impressive pictures showing just how much of two lakes have been depleted due to excessive use of water. The movie, which is narrated by Robert Redford and (I’m sure) partly funded by Bobby Kennedy is definitely worth experiencing if it comes to your area.

After the movie, it was back to the Holiday Inn – where kids eat free! – a quick dip in the pool and then back to bed. What a full day! I fell asleep in bed watching a documentary on Carol Burnett and didn’t get around to posting this blog. For that, I apologize.

Journal Day 8

Our last day in Smokey Mountain National Park – and no pussy footing around…it was time to hike! We got up early and were at the park gates by 9:00 a.m. We headed up the 45 minute long drive to Clingman’s Dome – the highest point in the park.

Two things we noticed about this climb: 1) the air was chilly, and 2) the trail was steep. The walk to the top was a little dampened by the results of a Frasier fir eating aphid called the Balsom Wooly Adelgid. The insect came to the US on imported nursery stock in the 1950s from Europe. It has been eating the snot out of all the Frasier firs since. The rangers are concerned because this is one of the only places in the United States that the Frasier Fir appears in the wild. They are attempting to control its spread, but it is a tough job.

The devastation of this tiny, little bug was far-reaching. Thousands of bare trunks stuck up amongst living trees marring the landscape and creating and eerie mood. As we and some of our fellow hikers looked at the ravaging, one phrase from an earlier trail guide came to mind. “The only thing in a forest that is constant is change.” And so, though this may be sad right now, it is a blip in history. The future can hold much – the majority of which is unknown.

So, our hearts a little lighter for remembering that God is in charge, we headed back down Clingman’s Dome and on the way hiked another ¼ mile section of the Appalachian Trail. This part of the trail near Clingman’s Dome is narrow and rocky. We got lots of mountain kisses on our legs (dewy grass drying itself on our shins). And, we enjoyed meeting several hikers like ourselves. We also met two real, honest-to-goodness, bed-roll packing, in-it-for-the-whole-shebang hikers. The boys were impressed.

After we returned to the car, we finished the 8 page requirement in the Junior Ranger books and headed on back down to the Oconaluftee Visitor’s Center. The boys had to do 8 activities each, attend a ranger talk, pick up a bag full of trash and then get sworn in. To get our “Not So Junior Ranger” patch, we had to attend 3 ranger talks. We were not done with our job. So, we headed back to the Mountain Farm Museum to attend a presentation called “Batteries Not Included.”

This ranger led activity was really fun. The whole family enjoyed playing fox and geese, tops, corn darts, clothespins, a springy thing that I don’t know the name of, a wooden dancing man, marbles and stilts! Dad’s particular skill was with the fox and geese game, our youngest was a whiz with corn darts and our oldest gave several lessons on how to make the dancing man dance.

Mom, however, was declared the best all-around at stilts impressing several tourists and the ranger with my excellent stilt skills. Little did they know that I spent many childhood hours walking from the garage to the machine shed on my very own pair. Apparently, walking on stilts is like riding a bike – even I was surprised at how easily it all came back. I ended up holding kind of a stilt clinic right there teaching several other families the best grip hold and the easiest style of mounting.

After that, we ate a lunch of boiled eggs and headed into the ranger station to be sworn in. We got a really good ranger who looked carefully over all of the boys’ work in their books asking them questions while he looked. “What’s your favorite national park?” he asked. “Yellowstone,” the boys promptly answered. Not missing a beat he said, “That was the wrong answer, try again.” They got it right the second time.

Properly sworn and badged, we hopped into the car and drove to the Deep Creek campground to do some more hiking around two water falls found in that area. We ended up hiking about 4.5 miles of trails from about 2:00 to about 6:00 p.m. We hiked up the Deep Creek Trail and then joined with the Indian Creek Trail about halfway in and followed it down. We waded at the bottom of Indian Creek Falls – freezing water, but it felt excellent on the feet and shins after 3 miles of trail. We finished by watching the tubing along the bottom half of Indian Creek.

The tubing looked very fun, but we were most entertained by a tattooed woman getting out of the creek wet, smiling and exclaiming to anyone who would listen: “That is dangerous! I was wondering why everyone was walking back down with their tubes, but now I know why! They need to post danger sounds around here!”

Secretly, we thought she probably had a pretty good time.

We met some people on the trail. One family from Raleigh, NC waded with us at the falls and a mother, father and daughter were fly fishing up at the top of Deep Creek and followed us back down the trail. It was nice to have their company.

On the trail we saw several of the plants that we had learned about in the junior ranger books. One in particular is the tulip tree. The leaves of this tree look chopped off at the top – sort of like it forgot to grow in that part. We also are seeing Rosebay Rhododendron everywhere – even though there is a small family argument about whether or not to call it R.R. or Mountain Laurel.

After the trail, we were definitely ready to get back to the cabin and spend our last night enjoying it. We ate spaghetti for supper and then got into the hot tub to soak our sore muscles. It was incredible. We will miss our little cabin on the side of the mountain very much.

While we were soaking, we sat and watched a rather large spider gather her dinner for the evening and talked about the last few days. For my youngest, the best part was the nature trail where we discovered the remains of Nick McCarter’s cabin and explored John Ownsby’s cabin. For my oldest, it was the hike to the top of Clingman’s Dome to look around. For my husband, it was holding the honor of being one of the very first ever “Not So Junior Rangers” sworn in on the first year of the only National Park that has the program in place. For me, it was making the corn shuck doll and playing with the old fashioned toys.

We each enjoyed the Smokies in our own way. Tomorrow we turn west and for home.

Journal Day 7

We are officially halfway into our trip. If I had to put a label on today it would be “the day of doing whatever we wanted.”

This was created mostly because I think that the pace of our trip finally caught up with us. The alarm went off at 6:00 a.m., but neither my husband nor I could stomach getting up that early. The boys were even out until an unheard of 8:45. We lazed about the cabin until nearly noon.

After their breakfast, the boys played a little foosball, tried making spears out of their arrowheads, and explored outside while my husband and I read, did some laundry, and nibbled on breakfast. After that, we sat around the dining table and worked a little on the Junior Ranger books and then hopped in the car to head to the park.

When we got there, we picked up two “Not So Junior Ranger” pamphlets. This is a program for people from ages 13 to 130. We figured, why should the boys have all the fun? Then it was back to the Mountain Farm museum for a ranger led program called “Aw, Shucks.”

The program was a brief orientation to the importance of the corn plant for the mountain farm family. Corn was good as food because if you don’t crack it, it apparently never spoils. I did not know that. Because the area is so high in humidity other grains spoiled rather quickly and wouldn’t keep. Corn quickly became a mountain staple.

All pieces of the corn plant were useable and the ranger informed us briefly about what some of those uses were. And then, she started talking about the corn shuck. Apparently, the shuck is one of the most versatile parts of the corn plant. She showed us a rug, a chair seat and a mop made out of dried corn shucks. We then got our own shucks that had been soaked in water for about 3-5 minutes and sat down to make corn shuck dolls.

Now, you wouldn’t think that boys would be interested in making dolls, but this was the quietest ours had been almost the entire trip. They were enthralled. The ranger showed us how to make the dolls into boy dolls with legs and we now have two of them. On the way back to the car, my oldest decided that we could put a cape on his when we got home so that his could be a superhero. My youngest started trying to figure out how his could hold a lightsaber.

After that program, we headed up the Smokey Mountain Highway towards the Sugarland Visitor Center on the Tennessee side of the park. The road is tree-lined and beautiful with several pull-offs where you can get out of your car and walk a quiet little trail or peek over the edge of a rock wall for a fabulous view. There is one particular spot in the road called “The Loop.” This was really fun, because the road curves and loops under itself to get back down one of the mountains. The boys spent this part imagining they were on a rollercoaster. My husband was fighting motion sickness.

At the Sugerland Visitor Center, we went on a one mile long hike through the woods to view the homesteads of Nicholas McCarter and John Ownsby. We spent $1 for the guidebook at the entrance of the trail and were very happy that we did. The trail would not have been half as interesting without it.

The guide showed us how we could tell where a corn field had been by looking at the age and type of the trees growing in the area. The type of trees is determined by how much sun the area gets. When the pine trees grow to a point where most of the area is shaded (a process that takes several years), the type of trees that need full sun to grow give way to trees that fare better in the shade. The guide also explained that the change from open fields to forest also affects the types of birds and mammals that live in the area.

The McCarter home had all but disappeared. The trail went right across what would have been Mr. McCarter’s front porch had the house still have been there. All that remained was a pile of rocks where the chimney had been. Nick also had a boxwood in his front yard that was the biggest boxwood my husband and I had ever seen. It made the boxwoods in front of our house look kinda wimpy.

The trail continued on to the John Ownsby cabin. This cabin had been restored by the park rangers and sat as a testament to the people who called the Smokey Mountains their home. Between the Ownsby land and the McCarter land the guide pointed out the remains of a stone fence.

After this little hike, we headed back to the visitor’s center for another ranger talk on what it was like to be a kid in 1808. The ranger did a great job with a large group of kids, showing them pictures of what kids wore (boys would wear dresses because they were simpler to hand down to younger siblings) and what kinds of chores they did.

Because the doctor was sometimes a two-day horse ride from a mountain family’s home, the ranger also showed the kids some of the things that families would use for medicine and bandages. She played a human “memory” game by having six kids stand in front of the group. Three of the kids held modern day medicines (Band Aids, Tums and bug spray) and three held corresponding old day medicines (moss, a berry plant, and opossum oil). The six children had their backs turned to the group so that the audience could not see what they held. The rest of the kids had to match the old medicine to the new medicine by calling out the shirt color of the child that they wanted to turn around.

Then came the fun part! The ranger handed out the materials to make a Mountain “buzz” toy. The toy is basically made of a wooden cookie that had two holes bored in it to make it look like a two-inch round button and a piece of string. You thread the string through the two holes, tie a knot in the string and wah-lah – you’ve got a mountain buzz toy. We all made one of those. The ranger offered to the adults and my husband was the first brave soul who held his hand out. After that there were several parents who chimed in.

After we all got our journals and cards signed saying that we’d been there, we grabbed a snack for the road and headed home. On the way back, we stopped at a turnout on the Tennessee/North Carolina line called the Newfound Gap. It was also a spot to access the Appalachian Trial. Because we could and because we wanted to say that we had, we hiked about ¼ of a mile of the Appalachian Trail to see what we could see before heading back to the car.

The boys had gotten into a habit of asking us how long each trail we saw or walked on was. When I said that this one was 2,150 miles long, they were completely floored. “Are you kidding mom?” my oldest asked. “Not kidding,” I replied. “Wow,” was all he could say in return – shocked into silence.

Because we got such a late start, it was dark by the time we got back to the cabin. We grabbed what we needed out of the car and went to bed.

Journal Day 6

True to our word this morning, we slept in! We started this morning very lazy. I even got a little time on the couch with my book – just me and the birds outside.

After breakfast and getting around, we hopped in the car at around 10:00 a.m. and headed out to the Museum of the Cherokee and the Oconuluftee Indian Village. The museum did a good job of tracing the history of the Cherokee nation from its beginnings, through trade with the British, the Revolutionary War and the era of the Trail of Tears. The boys were most interested in the models of the Cherokee village and the talking exhibits.

The tour began with a 5 minute video of the Cherokee view of the beginning of the world. They told a story of a water beetle that helped to create the land out of mud from the bottom of the ocean. They also explained that the mountains in the land of the Cherokee were created by the great buzzard flapping his wings too close to the ground. From there, patrons wound around through exhibits on the history and ways of the Cherokee tribe. It was extremely well presented.

After that we headed further into the woods to tour the Oconuluftee Indian Village. This was a living history museum where we were lead through a series of stations of local tribesmen practicing their various crafts. Our Indian guide would describe what the person was doing, the tools that were being used and how the tools would have differed in the olden days.

There were stations on beadwork, basket weaving, canoe building, blow gun demonstrations, spear and arrowhead making and pottery. We also saw several examples of Cherokee homes as well as bear, fish and small animal traps. Finally, we were lead to the square grounds where the seven clans would gather to dance. And the tour ended at the Council house where the seven clans would gather to make decisions and govern themselves.

We probably enjoyed the final two things the most. John Walking Stick, an elderly gentleman spoke passionately about the Cherokee ways. He explained that unlike what most people think, Cherokee’s dancing was a way of praying to the Great Spirit for thanks and to ask for things that he wanted. The little gal in the Council House did a good job of explaining the political and justice system of the tribe. She also spoke several common phrases in the Cherokee language. And, it was from both of them that we learned that there is no word in the Cherokee language for “Goodbye.” This is because Cherokee’s always expect to see you again, either on earth or in the afterlife. So instead, they both said the Cherokee equivalent to “See you later.”

Following the Indian Village, we headed on up the mountain and into the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. We stopped first at Mingus Mill – an operating grist mill on the banks of Mingus Creek. The mill runs on a turbine system and was fired up and grinding corn when we got there. We hiked to the place where the water was diverted from the creek and into the wooden chute to eventually run the turbine. They had one grinding stone put together and working hard. The other they had taken apart so that you could see what it looked like on the inside.

Upstairs was a demonstration of the process of bolting flour to separate it into four types of quality (fine, middlins, bran, and I can’t remember the name of the final one). The sorted flour was routed through a chute back to the first floor where it was bagged for sale. The man working the mill explained that they only ground flour one day of the week. The other days were used for corn – a much easier and quicker process.

While we were there, he stopped the mill for a while to show us how the water would begin to overflow and spill over the side of the chute. There was a little boy playing beneath the chute when he stopped it. The man, who realized that he had Kansan’s in his midst said conspiratorially, “Watch this, that little boy is going to get wet.” Something tells me this man enjoys his job.

After the Mill, we returned to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center to stroll through the Mountain Hill Farm. The farm was comprised of relocated and restored buildings from the Davis farm. There was a house, meat house, outhouse, chicken coop, corn crib, apple shed, barn, and blacksmith shed. There was a full vegetable garden and large corn field. Each spot had a brief introduction to what the building was used for and how it was used.

There were also a couple of surprises. When we reached the barn, I smelled something that I haven’t had the pleasure of smelling for quite some time. Instantly I looked around and asked my husband, “Where’s the pigs?” And they were there! Penned over a little ways in the shade of the trees were two gilts rooting around in the mud. The smell took me straight back to childhood on the farm.

My oldest was enamored by the brood of chickens that called the Mountain Hill Farm home. There was a beautiful rooster, several hens and teenage chicks running around in and among the buildings. The farm was just a little way from the Oconaluftee River so we spent just a little bit playing in the shallow, rocky rapids before heading back to the car.

After that it was back to the cabin for dinner and a dip in the hot tub before calling it a day.