Thanksgiving Vacation

We took the kids out of school 2 days early over Thanksgiving break.

Their grades are good (Zachary has A's and B's and Caleb has all A's)

and about half the class wasn't attending anyway.

Mike had to work in NC again.

We drove to Savannah GA first.

The boys were fascinated that Savannah is

 one of America's most haunted cities.

We even stayed in a 'haunted hotel'.

Zachary had my phone and took several hundred pictures

 hoping a ghost would show up on the film.

Sadly, none did.  

The boys are such good car riders.

Thank goodness since the GPS on my phone had

us go a completely different way than our

regular GPS took us last time.

Which meant many hours in the car. 

Last time we came in to Greensboro from the east.

This time was the west side.

Originally we thought our drive would take us near

Darlington SC. But once we crossed over into NC

we knew we were on the wrong road.

However, this route took us thru Charlotte NC.

Home of NASCAR Hall Of Fame.

Can you see the look of joy on Calebs face or what!!!

Of course we HAD to stop and check it out.

3 hours later we were back on the road.

The boys were thrilled to see all the old race cars.

Ok, so were Mike and I!

They had all kinds of original race cars.

Some of the cars were even autographed by the driver.

Closer Daddy! Closer!
The boys even learned how to change a tire
and gas up a race car.

Zachary's favorite driver. Jimmie Johnson.

Caleb was wearing his favorite Tony Stewart shirt.

People gave him Hi-Fives.

Jeff Gordon's Pinewood Derby Car!

He was a boy scout!!

Maybe I will make my car similar this year.

Not copy!! Just... similar!!

None of us are fans of THIS driver....

And I am the ONLY fan of This driver! 

But we had a ton of fun and the kids bought

with their allowance quite a bit of memorabilia. 

We finally headed in the right direction and arrived

in Greensboro.

The hotel had mini golf, so along with the 

Wii, DS's, dvd's AND

playstation we brought, they could golf while Mikey worked. 

 Even tho I was cold, I took advantage of the 

outside play time. Or, as I call it, Get Rid Of the 

Spent Up Energy Boys.

 In this picture Caleb was not happy I

FORCED him to wear a jacket. I couldn't get Zachary

to wear one.I tried everything short of wearing it for him.

 He is very stubborn. It was 60!!

Fine be cold!! was my answer.

 We also got to go see what Mikey was doing in NC.

He BUILT this nuclear medicine machine by himself.

 Since his boss and several coworkers are not familiar

 with this type of camera, he built it in the warehouse so

the other guys could learn it.

 If you have ever seen a MIR camera or a CT scan

then this might look familiar.  You can see where

the table goes, and the machine moves around the

person taking pictures of their hearts etc.

  Caleb went on the computer and helped

Mikey finish hooking it up. Zachary was only

interested in his phone.

  On Thanksgiving we drove around the city and

found this wonderful walking trail.

 We found lots of leaves for Gramma Ann, 

and they are being flattened in a book right now!

 The kids had fun throwing leaves at

one another. 

 Every time we go hiking they find big sticks

to carry around. Thankfully none fit in the car.

 We love exploring new areas.

 Thought about dipping our toes in the creek,

but it was a bit chilly. for me...

 Say it with me now... Awwww....

I even cooked Thanksgiving dinner in the hotel room.

We had turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy,

sweet potatoes, green beans with mushrooms and a

salad. All portioned size so we wouldn't have leftovers.

I would of taken a picture but it was so good

we ate it all before I remembered to take a picture.

Friday morning we checked out of the hotel early so 

we could go to TN. Good thing we checked out

early. The GPS had us take a very teeny tiny

back road thru the mountains. But hey, it was

scenery we might not have seen otherwise!

We went to the Tipton-Haynes museum.

John Tipton is Mikes 7th great grandpa!

This was the house he built and lived in.

The outside has been redone since, but this picture that

shows the wood, is the original house.

John Tipton was a colonel in the Revolutionary war 

and was very involved in there NOT being a

state named Franklin which would have

taken land from TN and NC. If you have the time,

its an interesting read, and is something that is important

to my kids family history.

I took a ton of pictures because this is where

my boy's great 7 & 8 grandfather lived and I think

it is important that they see and remember

this house.

My mother in law Mavis has done a ton of hard work

in researching her family history.  She has given me a 

book that contains much information about John Tipton.

I brought the book along with us.  When I showed

the museum manager she was amazed that I had

a letter from John Tipton that the museum did not have.

She made several copies to hang and preserve.

Is there a ghost in the house? We were hoping!

If so, the boys kept saying, "Hi Grandpa!!"

Can you imagine how wonderful it would of been

to live on this land?

 I would love to have lived in the OLD

days. Horse and buggy life. 

 I read as much as I can about life in

the1700's and 1800's.

Most of this land has been preserved to look like

it did when Colonel John Tipton lived here and

raised his children here.

We could easily live here. Live off the land. 

Maybe their grandpa swam in this pond?

Or fished?

On the property is some caverns.

We explored quite a bit underground.

Here you can see the entrance to the caverns.

They aren't sure how far the caverns go. 

But we tried our hardest to find out.

This is quite a ways under ground. Several minutes

of climbing down and walking. After this I couldn't get

any pictures to turn out. But we explored for a long time!

Back up on the land we walked and walked the

property.  I have so many pictures. It was really 

a very neat and moving experience for us.

This is the grave of Colonel John Tipton.

It is located next to the property.

The museum closed at 4 so we decided to

head south towards home.

But someone mentioned that Bristol Speedway

(my fav racetrack) was not too far away,

so we headed north instead.  To Virginia.

Bristol is on the border, but we decided

to spend the night in Virginia. 

Once we drove by the racetrack we saw they

were having Christmas on the track.

We could DRIVE ON THE RACETRACK.

Now, if your not a fan of NASCAR this would be 

no big deal to you. However, if you know us,

you know how thrilled we were to be driving 

on the race track!!! They even had a drag strip spot

for people to speed down.

We had rented a car for this trip and it had a ton of 

'get up and GO'  so we did!!!

It was so fun driving on the track! 

This is the World's Fastest Half Mile.

However, to wait in line to do this, was

2 1/2  hours. Good thing Mike was driving

because the kids and I fell asleep waiting for our

turn. He woke us about 10 mins prior to 'racing'!

This was a great trip, with a lot of unexpected

turns. But we never would of seen what we did

had we followed the interstate. So while I am

not happy with my phones GPS, I am thankful

it took us to places we might never had seen!