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I’ve never desired to visit Alabama, but here we are. And I kind of like it! So far, we’ve only just stayed in the campground. I’ve been sick since yesterday but I did get in one jog. Andrew’s been riding his mountain bike everyday, and raving about the trails.

There’s a closed road that goes for miles here inside Monte Sano State Park, and I was really surprised to see so many people here. And they’re not just older couples; there are families too. This campground costs $19 a night (possibly the cheapest we’ve had so far in 3 years), and there doesn’t appear to be a limit on how long you can stay. So I wouldn’t be surprised to find some other “roadschoolers” here with us.

How do you like our pumpkins? It’s only been a couple of days but Ingrid’s unicorn’s horn is beginning to curl.

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It’s been an awesome month for homeschooling… maybe a little too awesome? In the span of just one month, we have learned about westward expansion by visiting the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (the Arch) and the Lewis and Clark Museum in St. Louis, Missouri; stood in the place where greats like Johnny Cash and Elvis and Rock ‘n Roll got their start at the Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee; experienced what Rosa Parks went through at the National Civil Rights Museum, also in Memphis; and learned about the grim realities of war at the Shiloh National Military Park. And this weekend we are heading to the US Space and Rocket Center here in Alabama!

To prepare for the Rocket Center, we are going to study everything rockets and space this week. Or as much as Ingrid can take : ) Today we began by constructing a robotic hand, thanks to directions from the NASA website. It took us about an hour and a half of painstaking cutting, taping, and threading yarn through straws, and in the end we came out with this:

Kind of cool because it can grasp (well, sort of) at the pull of the yarn. It was a good opportunity to talk about what a robotic hand could be useful for, and the benefits of having a thumb.

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Last night was one of those nights in which I got -zero- sleep. An hour into my slumber, Ingrid woke me up to say that I was an awesome mom, and if she could dream her perfect mom it would be me :) Next was a loud train horn that went on and on… that happened two separate times. Then it was Pluto meowing to come back inside, I let him in. Then a freak lightning storm with pounding rain! I ran to close the huge hatch above the office and all the windows while Andrew ran outside to put away a couple of items that were out. The rain stopped as soon as he came back in. I fell back asleep for a little bit and then Ingrid woke me up to ask if she could come to our bed, she’d had a bad dream. I told her I’d come to hers in a minute but she fell back to sleep. I did too, but then Pluto started meowing to go out. Ahhhh!!! I said no way am I getting up again… A few minutes later it smelled AWFUL in the rv because he had puked on the doormat right next to our bed. I should have let him out.

Now we’re in Iuka, Mississippi at a beautiful state campground (JP Coleman) along the Tennessee River. We pretty much have the place to ourselves and we’re done with homeschool for the day, so I’m going to see if I can sneak in a short nap.

Here is the view out of our dinette window.

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Today the weather was super beautiful here in West Memphis, Arkansas. Pretty much perfect. We should have spent the day out sightseeing, but instead Ingrid and I made a fruit tart.

I didn’t realize I’d left my tart pan in storage so we had to make one out of aluminum foil. It came out fine, except the bottom burned a little. Next time I’ll use the bottom of my springform as an additional layer.

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We left St. Louis yesterday and drove just 5 hours to arrive in West Memphis, Arkansas. Didn’t think much of the rough surrounding neighborhood but this morning we awoke to this amazing landscape!

To top it all off, the weather is perfect: about mid-seventies with a gentle breeze. Too awesome to pass up so we are having breakfast and doing a river nature study for school today.

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