Touring Taft's Turf

We toured William Howard Taft’s birth place in Cincinnati. His nickname was “Big Lub” because he was a chubby baby that grew into a big boy and an even larger man. He was over six feet and weighed 335 during his term in office- our heaviest president.

His son bought the house in the 1950s, which had changed hands and become apartments. He wanted to restore it to when his father was a child. He ran out of money and the national park system took over and finished the project. The family kept wonderful records of every home improvement they did, the items they had in the house and where they were located so it was easy to recreate the layout. For example, they knew from notes that this type of piano fit right in between these two doors.

The Taft’s liked expensive things, but didn’t want to pay for them so they were creative. Their cast iron fireplace was painted to look like marble, their floors were painted to look like tile and the pine doors were painted to look like oak.

Taft studied law and held several public offices, including the two highest offices in the country- president and supreme court justice. He was our 27th president and rode in on the coattails of Teddy Roosevelt because Roosevelt didn’t want to run for a third term. While Roosevelt signed many executive orders, Taft created laws. In the White House he was more conservative than Teddy. This frustrated Teddy and other Republicans and it split the party when they both ran against Woodrow Wilson in the following election. Wilson won.

Some interesting facts about his presidency- they were the last family to keep a cow at the White House. Mrs. Taft planted the first cherry tree and then the Mayor of Tokyo sent 3,000 more as a gift. Taft was the first president to throw out the first pitch at the start of baseball season. He was the first president to have a motor car. The first airplane, the Wright Flyer, was purchased by the government during his term. The first woman to head a federal bureau was appointed during his term.

Creation Museum

I’m a bible believing Christian. I know some people find the stories in the bible hard to believe, but after a visit to the Creation Museum they might change their mind. The Creation Museum is based on scripture. They believe dinosaurs lived, created on the sixth day, based on scripture. Noah took them on the ark, but they have since become extinct.

This is 1% of the ark size according to the bible. They are building a full-size ark; it will be complete in two years.

In the planetarium the stars in our solar system are explained with the bible as the starting point instead of “man’s” starting point of millions of years ago with a big bang. Mt. St. Helens eruption was shown as proof that our planet doesn’t have to be millions of years old. Mt. St. Helens carved a smaller scale Grand Canyon in just four hours and an area like the Badlands in ten days.

It was just incredible to “walk through the bible” and see everything from creation, to corruption, catastrophe, confusion, Christ, the cross and consummation. Things were explained, shown by video, backed up with scripture. There was a lot of learning in the two days we spent there. I highly recommend a trip to the Creation Musuem.

Longaberger basket in Ohio

I have a couple Longaberger baskets and was happy we were in the area to see their headquarters in this giant basket building. A friend that sells the baskets said that the handles have a heated core so that icicles won't form and then fall onto the roof.

Children's museum Pittsburgh

While looking for things to do in Pennsylvania I found the Crayola factory tour. I remembered watching Mr. Rogers tour it so it made me wonder if he was from the area. After some research I found out he was and that some of the items from his tv show were at a children’s museum in Pittsburgh. The kids were thankful for a relaxing, playful day at the museum, but I was the most excited one of the bunch.

There were some other cool things at the museum- a gravity room that plays tricks on your mind- and my stomach.

A giant kaleidoscope that "picks up" what you lay down and shows it on the wall. Faith had to check it out and became part of the design.

Shadow pictures

It was a fun day of play time!

Flight 93 memorial

I have wanted to visit the Flight 93 memorial a couple of times during our trip, but it was so far from where we were so I was happy when things fell in place so we could visit.

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There are some photos and signs to read refreshing the events from a decade ago before you head to the memorial. The memorial is simple, but symbolic. A short black wall lined our way to the white marble wall with the names of the passengers and crew. The black is symbolic of the coal mining industry, what the land was once used for, and it follows where the yellow crime scene tape was placed.

The white walls appear to be one wall, but they are really made up of individual pieces representing those that came together that day. They fought the terrorists and saved the plane from crashing into the US Capitol, just 18 minutes away by flight.

This gate's made of hemlock and is used for the family members to visit the sight during special ceremonies. The hemlock gate represents strength, courage and the hemlock covered area where the plane landed.

This rock marks the point of impact and their final resting spot among the trees

May God bless the families of the passengers and crew of Flight 93.

Wild, wonderful West Virginia

New River Gorge national park was our first stop in West Virginia so Faith could begin working on her Jr Ranger badge. We headed to the Canyon Rim visitor’s center and saw the largest single span bridge in the world with the biggest arch in the western hemisphere.

They believe the river was named by accident when some explorers found it and wrote “new river” on the map meaning it was new to them and not yet named, but the name stuck. It might actually be the oldest river in North America. The following day we headed to the other end of the park to see Sandstone Falls. We saw a lot of critters along the way- a couple of bald eagles, a chipmunk, squirrels, a friendly dog, spiders, caterpillars. The falls were beautiful with all the trees.

Our final stop in West Virginia was the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine. Our guide was 81 and had started working in the mines back in 1949. We rode through the mine on a little train type of thing and he showed us the coal seam, different things they used for light, and tools of the trade from hand loading to the more “modern” machines.

Miners put their tags on top of the carts so they could be credited for their work, but sometimes the tags were switched so they began to put the tag at the bottom of the cart.

This rat proof lunch box holds water in the bottom, food in the middle and dessert on top.

You put explosives in the hole and then yell “Fire in the hole” a few times before you light it. After our ride through the mine we wandered through the camp and saw a shanty for bachelors that rented for $2 a month, a family house that rented for $4 and the supervisor’s huge house. The company paid the workers with credit at the store so it was hard for them to get ahead. Once again the kids commented that they were happy to be alive now and not in the past!

North Carolina adventures

Our trip to North Carolina started by having dinner in Fayetteville with a friend. I used to scrapbook with Amanda when we both lived in Hawaii. The military relocated her family to Fort Bragg and her family’s grown by one since I last saw her a year and a half ago. It was an enjoyable time catching up and meeting her little boy.

We headed to Kitty Hawk to see where the Wright Brothers first flew. They chose the location based on high winds, a soft landing, and because there weren’t many people around to see what they were doing. They flipped a coin to see who would fly first- Orville won. Their fourth and longest flight, on Dec. 17, 1903, lasted 59 seconds and went 852ft with Wilbur as the pilot. These four markers show the flight distances that day.

After they finished flying they were standing around talking with their helpers and a big wind came and started to lift the plane. One of the workers, Daniels, held on to the plane, but the others let go. Daniels tumbled quite a distance with the plane. The Wright Brothers thought he’d be all tangled up in wires, but he was fine and joked that he’d made the fifth flight. Forward thinkers they were, they had a prepared press release with their father in Ohio and after their flight they walked four miles to send him a telegram with the details.

This memorial has a light on top that was lit at night making it look like the tail of a plane.

Our second stop was the Graveyard of the Atlantic museum with pieces of shipwrecks and pirate lore. The museum also contains the 1854 lens that was in the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. This giant lens was ”lost” for years as it was mislabeled and misplaced.

After the museum closed we thought it would be nice to drive along the beach. As we drove up to read the sign about the rules I saw that you had to have a permit and then I felt it. Rick and I looked at each other and knew we needed to head back, but it was too late. The sand was deep and the van couldn’t get any traction. The kids got out and started praying. Rick started pushing. There were a couple of 4wd trucks that drove by and I thought for sure they’d stop, but they didn’t. We didn’t accomplish much until some tourists came to help push. I’m thankful for those good Samaritans. Becca snapped a photo with her ipod.

Our last stops on the outer banks were at Cape Hatteras and Bodie Island lighthouses.

Cape Hatteras, the world's largest brick lighthouse, has 269 stairs you can climb, but it’s not open til the end of April. We enjoyed our day by the beach. It was our last day viewing the Atlantic ocean for this trip.

Bodie Island lighthouse


We headed for the hills in Boone to look for gems. We bought a bucket of “rocks” and sifted through it to find minerals and gemstones.

Jacob identifying one of the stones he found

Among our treasures were hematite, rubies, amethyst, opal, sapphire, garnet, emeralds and many more. Faith choose an ametheyst for a pendant and Becca chose rose quartz for earrings. Becca also bought a ring for herself. They are cutting, polishing and setting the jewels for us. Those will be a good memento of our trip.

Charleston

We toured the Hampton Plantation in South Carolina. They harvested Carolina Gold- rice. They had 350 acres and, according to a 1790 census, 340 slaves. It must’ve been a bustling place! The main house, built between 1730 and 1750, is still standing and in pretty good shape. When the national park service went in to fix it they decided to take down the plaster walls that were in need of repair and show the “insides” of the house so we were able to see the structure as well as what the room looked like back in the day.

They had a great parlor with a barrel roof. It was neat to be able to see that from above and below.

The floorboards were one long piece of wood. George Washington was entertained there in 1791. The owner made a comment about chopping down the oak tree in front of the home, but Washington said to leave it. It still stands today.

This area is a state park, but the land is also shared with descendants of the slaves that used to live/work there.

A friend referred us to several places in SC and NC and one of them was a u-pick strawberry farm. I think Jacob could live off strawberries and noodles.

The kids had a fun time picking strawberries. Remember when we picked 101 apples in Vermont? How many pounds do you think we picked? Tick tick tick. We were there probably half an hour. Tick tick tick. I just took photos so there were four pickers that picked… tick tick tick- ten pounds! Between just eating strawberries and making strawberry shortcake for dessert we polished off three pounds that same day.

We had rain, thunder and lightning each night, but sunny and hot temperatures during the day in Charleston. I was thankful the bad weather stopped so we could go on our pirate tour downtown. Our guide was dressed appropriately and entertained us with pirate stories. He showed us where pirates ate, drank, were imprisoned and where they died.

Surprisingly, a pirate ship was ruled by democracy except when they were in a battle- then you had to obey the captain’s orders. Another "first" was that pirates also offered worksman’s comp- if you lost a body part you were given a chunk of money. You received the highest compensation for your right arms- 600 pieces of eight or about $579. He said that they didn’t make people walk the plank- wood was too expensive- they’d just throw you overboard. The phrases “cat got your tongue” and “let the cat out of the bag” came from the Captain’s cat o’ nine tails being kept in a bag on the deck.

We saw lots of dolphins in the harbor and had some fabulous food in the French quarter too.

Finally, we headed to Fort Sumter, the spot where the Civil War started. We took the 30 min ferry ride out the fort. The fort was built by the government after the War of 1812 when they realized they needed more forts in the area. Rocks out there to make an artificial island on which to put the fort. The walls were five feet thick and were 50 ft high at the time although now they are about 25ft. They were made from seven million bricks hand made by slaves from plantations around the area. The fort was designed to have three tiers of cannons, but the project was never finished. After 31 years of construction, South Carolina seceded and the Civil War began shortly thereafter. During a ten day siege 7 million shots were fired at the fort making this the most fired upon 2 1/2acres on the continent and the longest siege on American soil.

We were hoping to visit the Button King in Bishopville, SC on our way to North Carolina. He has a small museum next to his home of the creations he’s covered in buttons from suits to toilets to cars to his coffin. He didn’t answer either one of the numbers we had so we didn’t stop. You can learn about him http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/18752 or see him on tv like we did.

How can you live in that small space with your family?

At Krista’s bachelorette party I met one of her friends who was very intrigued with our trip. She said she thought about me a lot, wondering what we were doing. She asked what my family was doing while I was at dinner. It stuck me as funny- “they are probably doing the same thing your family is doing” I thought, just in a smaller space. Many people have asked similar questions so I thought I’d post something about living in the rv.

Becca and I share the top bar of the closet, Jacob and Faith the lower bar. Rick's stuff is on the other side along with jackets, dresses. The bins in the closet contain shoes while the others contain toys, dolls. We have storage under the bed so we have seasonal clothes in Space Saver bags. We each have a drawer also.

My family has always gotten along well. Don’t get me wrong, my son loves to drive his older sister crazy and does so daily so there is arguing. But even when we had a house we were often in spaces/rooms that were next to each other. Rick was on submarines for his 24 years in the navy so he’s used to small spaces.

The other thing people forget is that we are not in the rv all day long day after day. Most days we are out sightseeing. On average we move the rv once a week driving four hours to our destination. It takes about half an hour to set up once we arrive. Set up consists of leveling the rv with jacks, putting our two slides out to increase the size of our living space, opening all the cupboards to make sure nothing will fall on us after traveling, getting the toothbrushes out of the medicine cabinet, taking the kid’s bedding off our bed and putting it in the drivers area until bed time. Outside Rick hooks up the power, water and sewer and then we unhook our van that we tow.

If it’s early in the day we’ll go sightseeing. If it’s late in the day I’ll make dinner or go pick up some groceries. Rick starts laundry. We have a tiny machine that washes and dries. The whole wash/dry cycle takes about three hours. Between the five us of there’s something that needs to be washed 98% of the time. We love having the machine with us though- we can throw stuff in and go sightsee, put towels in at night and they’re done in the morning, etc. We thought it would be better for us to have a machine instead of 2ft by 4ft of space for storage because doing laundry once a week would take time out of our schedule so we do a couple loads every day.

We have a gas stove top and a convection/microwave oven. It holds a 13x9 pan so I make the same type of meals I would if we had a full size oven. A friend came over with her three kids and we had an impromptu dinner for nine! I made Thanksgiving dinner and the only difference was that we didn’t have a full size turkey. I brought all my favorite tools and gadgets- my KitchenAid, VitaMix blender, Pampered Chef tools, rice maker, griddle, waffle maker, muffin tins, etc. We knew this was going to be a year on the road so we wanted to be comfortable with all our things. I like to prepare the meals because it costs money and calories every time we eat out.

If we have internet the kids can log into their school program and mark off the lessons they completed while driving. Shown here are most of their school books.

If we have cable and internet we feel like we are living the high life! There’s freedom with those two little things- we can each entertain ourselves as our two tvs can view two different channels with cable.

Dance party!


We take showers in the evening and in the morning because our hot water tank is small. Someone will take a shower before dinner and two will take one after dinner. Two more will shower in the morning. Most campsites have showers, but we haven’t used them. Like the laundry, we have found it easier to not have to pack up everything, wear flip flops over there, wait our turn and see if it’s too hot or too cold so we just shower here. We usually have full hook up so our “gray” water from showering and washes dishes drains away and doesn’t fill our tanks.

After our evening it’s time for bed. We have a queen bed in the back and a sofa that converts to a queen size bed. Two kids sleep on the sofa bed and one sleeps on the floor- they rotate nightly. The kids say they sleep better on the floor- interesting. After looking at new rvs and used rvs I told Rick this rv it was perfect for us except for the sleeping arrangements with our three kids. He asked if it bothered me enough to spend $70,000 more for a new rv with more sleeping space. Um, no. So there you go. Kids always need to have something to hold over their parent’s head when they get older right? Or instead of saying they had to walk to school uphill in the snow both ways they can tell people how bad they had it as a child sleeping on the floor, washing dishes by hand, and not having cable and internet every day (as they toured the country for a year). Oh yeah, that’s rough.