They fly through the air with the greatest of ease . . .

They tell us this is typical late summer weather for Georgia, not early summer . . . all we know is that it’s HOT!  We spent the week doing whatever we could to beat the heat . . .

Monday . . . hanging out at the pool

Tuesday . . . shopping and a movie – San Andreas

Wednesday . . . another day at the pool, and this time we all got fried pretty well

Thursday . . . we stayed in the air conditioned comfort of the RV, reading and watching movies

Friday . . . we were ready for the pool again!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a nice crowd at the pool . . . but not so busy that it felt crowded.

We’ve had beautiful days, and some amazing sunsets!

We don’t have any shade in the area of the park that we’re in, but luckily there’s a loop road that’s in a wooded area where we can walk Casey every day – it’s nicely shaded and a dirt road, so easier on her paws than the asphalt.

I call it Yurt Village – the only thing in this loop are a group of rental yurts and some of the work campers.

We’re just down the road from the little village of Pine Mountain, and Callaway Gardens, a major vacation destination.  Almost everyone we’ve talked to has said that we should spend a day at Callaway Gardens, but we’ve been hesitant at a daily rate of $20/person.  The bike trails are supposed to be nice, and the beach, but as Michigan natives, where lakes and beaches are plentiful, we have a hard time justifying that kind of expense just to ride bikes on a path and go to the beach.

On Friday evenings, though, admission is just $5/person at the beach and they have a big circus tent where the Florida State University trapeze team puts on a performance, followed by a movie on the beach.  We figured that would give us a chance to check it out and see if it’s worth coming back for a full day.

We had an early dinner so that we could get there right at 5pm.  The beach looked like fun,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and Bryce was intrigued by Aqua Island.

Looks almost like a mini version of “Wipe-Out”.  Aqua Island is NOT included in the normal admission price, though . . . it requires an additional fee! 

Same goes for the various available watersports.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had some time to kill before the trapeze show, so we took a drive through the main area of the park to check out the gardens.

We didn’t see much besides a few areas of wildflowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The azalea gardens, which Callaway is famous for, either bloomed early or got wiped out by spring storms . . . we didn’t see any in bloom.

We stopped at the Pioneer Cabin . . . just so I’d have something to take pictures of.      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The inside of the cabin was set up the way it must have looked in the early 1800s.

Out back, there was a well,

 

and a smokehouse.

After our little break, we continued around the park and back to the beach . . . and made it back just as they were locking up the gate between the beach and the rest of the gardens!

We still had about an hour until the show, so we stopped in at the Rockin’ Robin Diner for milkshakes.

Based on our experiences so far, Tom was expecting the shakes to cost a small fortune, but we were pleasantly surprised.

We enjoyed our delicious milkshakes while learning about the history of Callaway Gardens from the diner’s owner.

After enjoying our shakes, we made our way to the big tent and found seats on the bleachers to watch the performance.

It began with a parade of performers,

 

and then the Ringmaster announced each of the performers.

The performers and crew are all college students, and this is an extra-curricular activity for them, not their field of study (probably isn’t a field of study at all!) 

 

There are acrobats that perform on the ground, and others that are up high.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The girls who performed on the high swing and the cloud swing were really talented – they were just as good as any professional circus performers!

The bicycle group was particularly entertaining.

The grand finale was a the trapeze act, and they were very good, also . . . they moved so fast, it was hard to get a picture of them!

All in all, it was a really good show, and would have been worth the $5 admission on its own!

Well Done, Florida State University!

Another college visit for Bryce . . . Spartan Country!

Go figure . . . every other day of the year, he’s in a Michigan State T-shirt, and today he doesn’t wear one!  He said he didn’t want to appear too anxious!

Bryce has been a diehard Sparty fan for quite a few years, and yesterday was his opportunity to visit the campus to see if he’d be comfortable making it his home for 4 years.

In my undergraduate years at the University of Detroit, my friends and I were always a little resentful of all the attention given to the “Big 2” colleges – Michigan State and the University of Michigan.  Our little private University, without a football team, barely existed in comparison!

So, I’ve never been much of a fan of either of them . . .

Living just outside Ann Arbor for 15 years, we became familiar with U of M and grew to appreciate the University Hospital, but I still wasn’t crazy about how the campus was intermingled with the city.  It just seemed too big and chaotic for me – I prefer a small, personal campus, and the boys do, too.

Never having been to MSU, I was expecting it to be similar to U of M, and was pleasantly surprised on arrival to find out just how wrong I was!

Our Admissions Presentation and Tour wasn’t until 1pm, be we also had appointments with a Career Counselor in Criminal Justice, and an Academic Advisor in Kinesiology/Athletic Training.  We parked by the football stadium and made our way across campus for our first appointment.

It’s definitely a big place, and it’s easy to get turned around when you’re not familiar, but with a little help from a kind stranger we found our way to our appointment.  It certainly is a beautiful campus, and I was shocked to see a river running through the center of campus, too.  Our tour guide later told us that the students go tubing and kayaking on the river in the spring and summer, and ice skating in the winter!

Both of our meetings were interesting and informative, and we all learned a great deal about the academic and professional options in the fields Bryce is considering – a very beneficial morning!

 

After our meetings, we grabbed a quick pizza in the food court (just $5.99 for a 14” pepperoni pizza, and it was really good – definitely better than Little Caesars or Dominos!), and made our way to the Student Union for the Admissions Presentation and Tour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The presentation covered all of the basic information – test scores, transcripts, deadlines . . . and when that was over, the participants were split into 2 groups for our campus tours with student ambassadors.

The girls were very friendly and personable, and enjoyed sharing their own MSU experiences with future students, and well as the history of the University.

MSU was founded in 1855 as a Federal Land Grant University (where federal lands are granted to a state with the intent of establishing a college, making higher education available to the masses).  It started out as an Agricultural College, and today still remains a leader in Agriculture and Animal Science, along with a full menu of undergraduate degree programs.

 

It was a beautiful day for a walking tour, and we saw museums, dorms, dining halls, classrooms, lecture halls, the library, and the athletic complex as we criss-crossed our way around campus.

We toured one of the older dorms, but I understand that there are several newer ones, and more under construction.  They’ve all been updated with new furniture, though, and are hardwired for internet access.

 

 

The dining halls are pretty impressive – somebody referred to them as an upscale Golden Corral . . . and that was pretty accurate!  Definitely an important feature for the parents of a boy!!

 

Bryce is going to have to put his “Baja Bug” dream on hold for a few years, though . . . no cars for freshman!  Very few students have cars, actually, with the vehicle of choice being the bicycle.

In addition to all of the walking paths (miles and miles of them . . . I can’t remember how many miles they said, but it was a big number!), there are also designated bike paths . . . and you had better be careful when crossing them . . . the bike riders move FAST!

 

 

We finished our tour with a walk along the Red Cedar River,

 

and then went back to the Student Union to try some of the ice cream made on-site at the Dairy Store.

We each tried a different “Big 10” football-themed flavor, and they were all good!  YUM!

It was a great day, and I know my previous prejudices were overcome.  Michigan State has a beautiful campus, and the university offers many great resources for students, and I can definitely picture Bryce in this environment . . . I think he’d be really happy here!

 

Now he just needs to get accepted!!

North Dakota–A Fort and a College Visit

Leaving the mountains of Montana behind, the land flattened out and we began to see more farm fields.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before long we crossed into North Dakota, a new state for us.

After an overnight stay at the Love’s Truck Stop in Williston, we turned south on Highway 85, directly into 50 miles of construction . . . what should have taken us barely an hour took over two hours to get through!  By the time we were through it, the car, truck and RV were all a muddy mess!

The construction finally ended right about the time we reached Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and the landscape changed drastically.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would have liked to visit the park, we continued on towards Bismarck.  We’ll have to catch this one another time!

We arrived at Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park, and took a drive through in the car to select a site.  They are 100% reservable, but we didn’t want to pick a site without seeing them first – many of them were described as “double pull-thrus” and we weren’t quite sure what to expect.

We ended up taking one of these double sites,

and we had plenty of room! 

The ranger in the booth said she would try not to put anybody on the other half of the site, but it really wouldn’t have mattered if she did.  The only bad thing was that we could only pay for 2 nights at the booth when we arrived, and then could pay for any extra days the morning of the same day – as long as nobody reserved it online in the meantime.  We needed to stay 3 nights, so we would have to pay for Wednesday night that morning, but luckily the reservation window was only good through Tuesday at noon.  There wasn’t too much risk of somebody getting the site before we could extend.

So, we settled in, and Tom, Bryce & Nicolas got busy washing the RV and car – they were a mess!  I was back to work this week, so I was busy on the computer while they were busy outside.

It was a nice quiet campground, especially during the week.  There were only a few campers there, and some fishermen along the river.

Nicolas liked this truck camper – it might be a good one for Alaska!

We took walks along the river,

and the boys played basketball and did some bike-riding.

We had marginal Verizon service in the park, and it seemed to be better in the morning than in the afternoon, so on Tuesday we went up to the Commissary (a.k.a. Gift Shop) to use their complimentary WIFI.  When I was finished with work, we walked through the Fort.

The Fort itself and a few of the buildings are open with just the entrance fee to the park, but there is also a Tour Package that you can buy for $6 per person to be able to tour the other buildings.  We just walked around the open buildings, but didn’t buy the tour option.

The first buildings we came to were the Barracks.

They were setup to appear as they did in 1875.

 

Next up was the Mess Hall and Kitchen.

 

Fort Abraham Lincoln had a relatively short period of use – from 1872 until 1891.  The Fort was first established as an infantry post, and then a year later as home to the 7th Calvary, under the Command of General George Custer.

 

Gen. Custer and his wife, Libbie, lived in this house until May, 1876,

when Custer led the 7th Calvary on their ill-fated campaign against the Plains Indians at the Battle of Little Bighorn in nearby Montana.

The house was one of the buildings that required the Tour Package in order to see it, so we didn’t get to go inside – we could only peek in the windows and walk on the porch.

After the Fort, we continued to the Visitor Center.

We toured the exhibits,

 

and learned about the history of the various inhabitants of this land.

Prior to being used as a military post, the land was home to the tribe of Mandan Indians from 1575 to 1781.  Their village, On-a-Slant Village, was a group of earthlodges built on the banks of the Missouri River.

In 1907, the land that the park is on was deeded to the state of North Dakota by President Theodore Roosevelt, making it North Dakota’s oldest state park.  The final inhabitants of the land were the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) who reconstructed the Indian Village and restored the remaining military buildings.

From the Visitor Center, we walked to the Indian Village,

and were able to look inside of some of the earthlodges.

I think we were probably supposed to be on an actual tour to go inside, but there was a tour going on and they had all of them open while we were there, so we just took a few looks inside a couple of them.

 

On our last day in we had a college tour planned for Bryce – our primary reason for stopping in Bismarck.  Our tour was scheduled for 10 am on Wednesday, at the University of Mary.

We met with an Admissions Counselor, an Instructor in the Exercise Science Department, and had a tour of the campus with another Admissions Counselor.

 

It’s a beautiful campus south of Bismarck, set on a hill overlooking the city and the Missouri River.

They have really strong programs in Exercise Science, Athletic Training, and Physical Therapy . . . and a really cool “Study in Rome” program that I thought sounds great . . . Bryce wasn’t as excited about it.

We really liked the school, although the buildings were a little older than I expected.  They just haven’t reached the point of being renovated yet, but maybe they will by the time Bryce is in college.  One cool thing about the campus was that most of the building are connected by passageways . . . you can get from the dorms to the cafeteria, to classrooms and the gym without ever going outside.  Not a bad feature during a North Dakota winter!!

We liked the school, but he’s still leaning toward Michigan State . . . we’ll see how he likes it when we go on a tour there in the fall!

That concluded our reason for coming to visit Bismarck, so we went back to the campground to get packed up to move the next day.  The boys also got the grime washed off the truck!

On Thursday morning, we got an early start . . . crossed the Missouri River,

 

and made our way into another new state for us, Minnesota!