Nappanee, Indiana and Chicago, IL

May 27
The sleep over with Joe was awesome! We stayed up till midnight playing games we snuck into the tent. We read a little, and then finally went to bed. The next day was a hard one. We had to say good bye to the Wahls. We took a big picture, played a little together, and then left.

We went to another RV repair shop and had some repairing on that. We took a bike ride and went to the library to do some school. When we were done, we went to the local skateboard park and played there for a while. When we were done, we got in the RV and went to another RV repair shop. That’s where we got most of our repairing done. We played outside and then went back to Newmar in Indiana. I don’t know what we did there, but we got some kind of maintenance done there.

After that, we went back to the navy base north of Chicago where we have been before with the bowling alley, library, and hill. We got some arrows there, and now I’m great with a bow. I’m also not half bad with a throwing knife.

It turns out that our good friends, Alex and Sophie, Mr. Matt and Mrs. Julia (back in Disney World) are here! We went to Chicago and visited them two times! The first was when we went to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.! It was Mr. Matt’s birthday, and our waiter made him dance on a chair when they sang happy birthday. The next time we got to walk around the city, go on a boat tour, and have an amazing bike ride through the town and into a Zoo! We stayed at the Navy base and did school, went to a Memorial Day ceremony, did more school, watched a movie, did more school, and went bowling. It is a lot of fun here at the Navy Base. Bye!

Nappanee, Indiana

May 16
We went on to Mrs. Marlene and Mr. Larry’s house for dinner on Monday night. They have two very nice children named Keri, age 10, and Michael, age 14. They also have a dog named Sparky, very energetic, a pony named Beauty, a pony named Princess, and a horse that I don’t know the name of. We had great pasta salad, noodles, meatloaf, and mashed potatoes with gravy. For dessert we had pecan pie, rhubarb pie, and my favorite, peanut butter pie! I swear, she could make a living off of selling her food! Then we played with Michael and Kerry, and I got to drive a miniature buggy pulled by Princess! We then said goodbyes and thank you’s and left.

The next day we came home from a full school day at the library and saw a dad and a son unhitching the car to the RV next to us. Robby went over to them and introduced himself to the about twelve-year-old. It turns out that they were doing the same exact thing we are. Mr. Wahl and Mrs. Wahl have two boys and one girl. The twelve-year-old is named Joe and is the best with a BB gun. The second is named Anna in fourth grade and she is a crack shot with the bow and arrow. And the little 7-year old is named Sam and is great with my pistol. (If you are getting bored of this site, the Wahl’s have a blog too. There are two sites. The main one is called http://web.me.com/wahlsacrossamerica/ . The second is called http://moaablogs.org/wahlfamily/ .) They own a more expensive All Star RV than ours. They even have DVD players connected to their beds! We played fireworks, did homeschooling together, and all kinds of things.

Later we went to Amish Acres and had delicious ham and mashed potatoes, and mouth watering chicken and great roast beef. Then I had more peanut butter pie! Afterwards we watched a play about a boyfriend and girlfriend from New York going to a little Amish country town because the man, named Mr. King, has some land that he wants to sell. Down in the Amish country, a lady named Katie, is getting married to a person she doesn’t want to get married to. It is a funny, funny play and teaches you about the Amish life. Right now I am in the library, daydreaming about how we will set up the tents and have a sleep over this night! See Ya’!

Chicago

May 9
There was a good three hour drive we went on, and then found a navy base where we stayed. My dad went to a wind convention. While he was there, we got to do school! Yeahhhhhhhhhhhh! We did have fun breaks though. There were hills we could play on and when we finished we could go to the library, which had wifi, and the bowling alley! So the days weren’t very boring.
One day we went to a Harry Potter Exhibit in Chicago. It was very cool. There were the actual suits that people in the movies wore, and the actual wands they used! They had the sorting hat and all the beasts in Harry Potter. They even had moving pictures! Then we went to another great museum with all kinds of things like electric cars and dancing robots. They talked a lot about conserving energy from cars to cow crap.
After that we went to the wind convention and met up with Dad. We got to see more alternative energy ideas. Funny thing is, when we just moved from Alaska a wind company moved up there. There were booths about wind sensors, booths about wind mill transportation, there were some booths about new ideas like plopping a windmill on a truck and sending it down the highway. It was great, especially the trinkets! There was candy, stress balls, even boomerangs! It was great.

After that, my dad met up with some guys and mom and the rest of us got to go to a park. There was a huge fountain; we got to have ice-cream too. After that exciting day, we are now going back to Newmar! We will visit the very nice shop keeper who gave me a pocket watch. Mrs. Sara is coming too. Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:)

Springfield, IL, Nappanee, Indiana, and St. Louis, MO

May 2, 2009
We arrived at Springfield, IL and it’s just like any old huge city that adds a great chunk of pollution to our world. We drove through till we got to the quieter part of town. We then went to President Abraham Lincoln’s Museum. It was great. It told everything I needed to know about Lincoln. Lincoln was born in Kentucky. Then they moved Indiana. But he really spent most of his time in Springfield, IL. Whoo! Springfield! It told about their four sons and how everyone died but Robert, there oldest. I even got to go to Lincoln’s Tomb! I could see his skeleton! Just kidding. It was very cool.

We were going back to the RV, and I’ll tell you, I was pretty shocked that there was no Simpson’s museum. After that we drove to Indiana and went to Newmar’s RV place to get repaired. We had to wake up at 5:30 every day for three days.

The first night we went around town and met my mom’s friend, Sheryl. She has a husband named Ron. They were very nice and I could ride my rip stick there. They brought us to a pizza parlor and ate super good pizza.

The second day, we went to a museum about different people like Amish, Mennonites, and Hetterites. After that we went to the best ice cream shop ever. They made waffle cones as big as your fistJ We talked to the worker, named Mrs. Colleen. She has a husband named Mr. Ron and they have a dairy farm. They planted alfalfa, wheat, soybeans, hay and corn. We got to drive a tractor, feed a cow, and let the calf suck on our fingers. It was great!

The third day we met an Amish lady named Mrs. Sara. She invited us over to her house and we got to play with her two dogs, four cats, three horses, a calf, and thirty-nine chickens. We got to go in a buggy ride to the horse shoe shop and watched Boots, their horse, get his shoes replaced. We also went to an Amish store and there was the nicest worker I’ve ever known. She gave me a pocket watch and I bought a shocker pen. We went back to Mrs. Sara’s home and met and played with their four kids. Now I am here blogging while everyone is having fun outside. Bye!

April 28, 2009 - St. Louis, MO
My dad’s friend’s name is Mr. John. He and his wife, Mrs. Robin, are very, very nice and also have four daughters named Kelly, at age 9, Nicole, at age 11, Catherine, at age 13, and Mary at age 14. They were all very nice and fun to play with. On Friday we did school until everyone came back. Then for the next two days we didn’t do school! It was so cool! On Saturday we took a trip to one of Mary’s soccer games. After that we all got in the car and went to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. We went to a museum about Louis and Clark and went to a movie about building the arch. Next we got into a little 5-man elevator and went to the very top! The view was the best ever and I could even feel the Arch rock back and forth!

We were very hungry when we got back on the ground. So we went to a very fancy Italian restaurant. It was very good and I had lots of leftovers. Next we went to the coolest museum in the world. It is called the City Museum. But the thing is, it is not a museum at all! It is made from junk they found and they then turned it into the awesomest playground I have ever seen! There are tunnels and the biggest pencil in the world and seven story slides! We then went home and had a good night’s sleep. The next day was pretty much a stay-at-home day. Everyone had fun the whole day. Now we are driving to Springfield, Illinois.

Huntsville AL, Nashville TN, Ft. Campbell, KY

Space camp was amazing. We only got to do a day tour though. The first thing we did was we went to the Space Shot. It goes from zero to 264 feet in the blink of an eye! Next we wandered around the museum for an hour or two, and then we went to the Gravitron. The Gravitron is a ride where you stand in front of a board and it starts spinning so fast you flip upside down and you wouldn’t fall! We walked around a little more, ate lunch, and left.


The next day we arrived at one of my dad’s Alaskan friend’s named Mr. Scott Campbell, who just happened to be in Huntsville, visiting his wife, Mrs. Faye Campbell. They brought us to their summer cottage, (which is the coolest ever) and started out by jumping into a 60 ft. deep lake. It was very warm and we could be in there for hours without getting cold, so we had a fun time. We then ate lunch, jumped off the neighbor’s 20 ft drop into the lake, and then went on a very long boat ride. We stopped at a marina and got to feed crackers to some fish the size of my arm.

After that we went back and everyone got off the boat except my dad, mom and me. We drove out into the lake, and I slipped into the water with a slalom ski on. I got up, and it felt so good to slalom ski again! When I finished, we packed up, said goodbyes, and left.



We drove up and met Mr. Armstrong. We met him in our SUV while he drove up in a convertible Mustang! I got to sit shotgun in it even! It was awesome! We drove down to a swampy lake to have dinner together. Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong have two very nice kids named Trevor and Robert. We caught lots of little minnows and tried to use them as bait, though we didn’t get anything. We roamed around the area for a while, then raced the cars through lots of mud and left.
The next day we pulled up to more friends, the Gargulinski’s. They are very nice people who had the coolest house ever. They are right in front of a forest. Their sons, Tony and Chris have the coolest airsoft guns. My favorite was his C02 semiautomatic pistol. I shot my 22, and then went in and played halo with everyone else.
That night we went to a bar for my birthday. It is called The Wild Horse Saloon. I learned this really strange “cowboy” dance, and played darts and pool.

We walked around Nashville a little, then went home and ate cake and I got a rip stick, which is like a skateboard! That night was the last night Tucker would be with us. The next day I played outside with Tucker, Ben and Sam. It was very fun, but soon dad pulled up in the SUV and we had to say goodbye to Tuck.

We pulled up into a campground called Fort Campbell, KY and did three days of school. But it sure wasn’t as boring as it sounds. I, in fact got my own Co2 semiautomatic pistol. I also got to shoot a 20 gage at a skeet range.

Florida, Tennessee, and Alabama

April 15, 2009

After Dry Tortugas we drove and drove and drove. We finally came to Mr. Pascal’s and Mrs. Judy’s house. They were the nice people who I met at South Beach. We swam in their pool, used their wifi, and played with their children, Luc and Lea. We stayed there for one day, then, even when we didn’t want to, we left the house, and then Miami. We drove a little west, and then hit the Everglades. We went on a wind boat tour, which was very cool. We saw alligators, painted turtles and egrets. It was very cool, and I got to hold an alligator named Larry!

After that we went into Brandon to go house- hunting. We looked and looked, and I got to tell you, Florida is not my state. It is too warm and crowded. That evening we stopped at Mrs. Ann and Mr. Jim’s house. They have a pool with a water slide, and that sure kept me busy for a while. Then we ate dinner, watched a movie and had some wonderful Key Lime Pie. The next day we went to an ice rink in Brandon. It wasn’t bad, but I still like Alaska more.

We stopped at the Yogi Bear Campground in Northern Florida. It had a pool, a movie theater, and a water slide 60 ft. high! We stayed there for a while, celebrating Easter Sunday, going to an outside church, then going to the airport to get my cousin Tucker!

We drove a long way, and then finally saw Tucker again! It was awesome! He came back with us and we stopped at another campground for two days. We went to Look Out Mountain.

That is another place where people fought for freedom in the Civil War. We got to hike up it, and broke some rules and went off the trail. I even climbed in a cave and crawled through a tiny cavern, through the mountain, and reappeared on the other side. After that we went and got some dinner at a restaurant in Chattanooga, and went home. Now we are in Huntsville Alabama, and tomorrow we are going to Space Camp! Bye!

Dry Tortugas and Key West

Guess what I’ve been doing? That’s right, school! But we did have fun going rollerblading around town. Then my dad found something on the internet called the Dry Tortugas. The Dry Tortugas is a deserted island 70 miles away from America. So we went there, on a catamaran called the Yankee Freedom ll. It was a long journey, but I managed. We eventually came to an island where we docked. This wasn’t any other island either. This was abandoned by Americans after they built Fort Jefferson, a huge fort where they imprisoned Dr. Mudd, a doctor who cured the person’s ankle when he assassinated Lincoln. But the yellow fever got out and eventually everyone either died or left. So we walked around, and even got a souvenir, a Magic Kingdom hat that washed up on shore touching a dead pelican and next to a dead Sea Urchin.

We got our tent set up and then headed for the wind and wave with our snorkel gear. I saw a Barracuda, Stoplight Parrotfish, Spotted Blowfish, Blue Striped Grunt, a Yellowtail Snapper, School Masters, conchs, coral, sea cucumbers, lobsters and more. It was so cool!

Then we explored the fort. You could go up three floors in the walls and we could even go to Dr. Mudd’s fort! The next day I went straight for the water. There were some pilings that you weren’t supposed to swim in, so of course I was drawn to swimming there. I got on my fins and snorkel, and then went out to dive. At the bottom of the pilings there are hundreds of Sailor’s Choice. I even spotted a Queen Angelfish. I also saw a school of Silver Side minnows, and eating them were a bunch of Sergeant Majors. I hit some Fire Coral pretty bad and now I know why it is named that way.

After that some friends told us about the best snorkeling spot. We went out there and on our way we saw a puffer fish and a variety of other sea animals. When we got to the coral reef we could see lots of things from cleaning fish the size of my thumb to barracudas the size of Sam. We went back, and on the way there, I saw a Scrawled Filefish. It was vertical to blend in with its environment better, and it did.

When we got to the beach, we weren’t done. We’ve been looking over a fishing pier for a while and almost every time we saw a Jew Fish bigger than dad. Also it was off limits for snorkeling, so naturally, I was drawn to it. We got in, a little edgy because the Jew fish could be anywhere, then turned around and a dozen feet away was the giant Jew Fish! Now the scariest two things about a Jew Fish are that it stares right into your eyes, and its mouth is wider than my leg and taller than my arm. When it came at us its mouth was wide open, and I’ve heard stories about one swallowing a scuba diver to his shoulders. So I didn’t chicken out too much, but I also didn’t take any chances. I stayed a dozen feet or so away from it.

After that the boat came, we went around the island for our last time, then left. Now I’m back in Sigsbee (Key West). By the way this is my birthday month! Yeah! I’ll tell you what I do next later. See ‘ya!