The Great Road Trip: The Cookie Monster Shirts

Our next stop on The Great Road Trip was to visit Conal and Monique Whetten up in Chicago. The Chicago-ian Whettens have five children that are always dressed in matching outfits. We thought it would be funny if we arrived at their house in matching shirts, as well. So the night before we left we made a midnight run to Wal-Mart to find shirts. Much to my absolute chagrin, the majority vote was for these hideously bright blue Cookie Monster shirts. Personally, my vote was on striped polos. Everyone (but me) thought the shirts were hilarious. So all seven of us (plus Dad) bought a shirt.

We definitely got funny looks as we stopped at gas stations along the way. I think most people assumed we were a Baptist youth group since the seven of us seemed like a storming mass because the shirts were so flagrant.

This is how ridiculous we looked:
Oh well. In the end it really was funny.

The Great Road Trip: Stone Mountain

On Monday night (July 27th) we went to Stone Mountain. A few of us hiked up the side of the mountain for a hazy pink view of downtown Atlanta. The weather was pretty stormy and after a few licks of lightning we were asked to hike back down.

Stone Mountain is another family tradition. During the summer the park puts on a laser show. It's displayed on the side of the mountain with the carving of three Confederate leaders on their horses: Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis. The show always has the traditional, favorite songs: the bubbly soda song, "God Bless America", "Georgia On My Mind", "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", and "Sweet Home Alabama". And they display all the local professional and college teams and everyone hollers for their favorite. And it gets a little crazy. And some people still have a lot of Southern Pride. But no matter where you're from and no matter how much you resist, when they've got fireworks shooting off and Robert E. Lee's image is shown breaking his sword and the music is swelling, you get a little emotional. It's tradition.

The Great Road Trip: The Barn

On Saturday, July 25th we drove home from the Nantahala Village in North Carolina back to good ole' Suwanee. After unpacking and cleaning ourselves up we piled back into the cars again to drive over to downtown Suwanee for some Barn music.
I discovered the Barn in high school when Josh and the high school gang would go hang out there after the Stake dances. I thought the boys were ridiculous because they thought it was so cool to sit on old church pews in a barn converted into a stage/hall and listen to old people sing about the Civil War. But the more I went I realized that it wasn't always the Everett Brothers singing old songs but it was newer, younger groups playing some mighty fine blue-pickin'-grass. You could listen to more professional groups play in the Barn or you could walk across the driveway to the Everett home and listen to a different pick-up group play in each room of the house.
So now it's tradition to take any and all visitors on down to the Barn for some foot-stoppin' good music. And Saturday's performance was just as good as I remember.

The Great Road Trip: Whitewater Rafting on the Nantahala River

Crew in Boat #1: Dad, Mom, Darcy, Tim

Crew in Boat #2: Cristin, Matt, Josh, Clarissa

The trip in a few words:

Wet,
Terrifying,
Cold,
Really Funny,
Scary,
Wet.




































Ha! Boat 1 getting stuck on a rock (for a rather long time, I might add)!

The Great Road Trip: The Appalachian Trail

On Friday the 24th (Pioneer Day) the whole family went hiking. We split into the "Rough 'n' Tough" group and the "Easy Breezy" group. The tough group hiked a portion of the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina. We piled the van with Cristin, Dad, Matt, Alec Goldi, Scott Goldie, and me and Josh.

The trail head---okay, we didn't really hike that far.














a mushroom















Josh found a fuzzy catepillar










Heading to Charlie's Bunnion















Lilies along the way






























At one of the shelters












Josh being stupid, I mean, adventurous.












Matt and I below the bunnion.












Hiking = Happy






The other group













walked a nice paved trail to this spot














for this beautiful view.

The Great Road Trip: Deep Creek

We went tubing again, this time down Deep Creek. There were thirteen of us (Susan, Alec, Scott, Craig, Jaclyn, Jarom, Whitney, Stetson, Lindsey, Cristin, FaFa, Josh, and I). We rented the inner tubes and drove a couple of miles down the road only to walk a 1/4 of a mile to hop into the river. Some of us tried to tie down our tubes on the roof of the car; others just held onto them tightly as they hung outside the Suburban's windows. As we trooped up the trail to a good spot in the river we sang the numerous verses of "The Ants Go Marching" which was complete with choreographed synchronized tube formations. We made quite the scene but it was hilarious!

The Great Road Trip: Nantahala Village

On Thursday, July 23rd, we all drove up to Bryson City, North Carolina to spend our reunion at the Nantahala Village. The entire group that got together consisted of:

Jeana Whetten
Curtis, Michelle, and Matt Whetten
Clarissa and Josh Haycock
Darcy Whetten and Tim Shaw
Cristin Whetten
Jarom Jordan
Whitney and Stetson Robinson
Lindsey Jordan
Conal and Monique Whetten + kiddies
Chris and Elena Whetten + kiddies
Craig and Jaclyn Whetten
and
Susan, Alec, and Scott Goldie

The drive up there looked something like this:



























And the view from our collection of cabins looked like this:























The reunion consisted mostly of dancing, jokes, movie quoting, parlor games, eating, random videos made up by the Jordan cousins, Settlers, Crazy Eights, one big RISK tournament, a talent show, and unlimited outdoor fun.

The Great Road Trip: Atlanta

After we went tubing in Helen, we drove down to Atlanta to watch the Braves play the San Francisco Giants.