Where are we headed?

Every once in a while, our family likes to pile everyone in van and take off driving. No where in particular to go... just going and exploring. Once we started out exploring small backroads close to where we live. As we explored, we kept finding oursevles always heading west. Barry laughed and wondered if we could get to Mississippi if we kept heading west on all these different backroads. Megan thought it would be great to go and tell her class that she had gone to Mississippi. Barry gave me a wink, and off we headed. We decided not to just stick to backroads, and hit the major highway that did indeed take us to Mississippi. What did we do when we got there? Filled up on gas and snacks, and headed back home.

A few weeks ago we all were feeling a bit cooped up, so we all jumped in the van and decided to go for another drive somewhere. Barry turned the GPS on, picked a random spot, and off we headed... to North Carolina! We had a great time together, and I was very thankful that I remembered to bring my camera along. The kids got along great, we laughed and talked the whole way there, and we just enjoyed the country side. We ended up going to Chatanooga, then to the Cherokee National Forest and the Ocoee River (this is the river that was used for the white-water rafting in the 1996 Olympics). It was a chilly day, but we stopped at several spots along the way. There are several TVA Dams along the river, and we were amazed by those. We were a little sad that the water was so low on the river, but maybe we will actually take a white water rafting trip there in the future when the water will be highter.

Here are a few pics from our day:


The kids at one of the TVA dams


We made it to North Carolina!


These are the Ocoee River, at the spot where the rafting took place. I remember when they were getting this site ready for the Olympics there was a lot of controversy over part of this course being man-made. The first picture really shows some of the work that was done.


Barry and the kiddos.


I asked Barry to sit there on the rocks with the boys so I could get a nice picture of them together... this is what I got instead! Gotta love him!

Who knows where we will head the next time we get the urge to get out of the house!