Time of Debriefing

Whenever someone makes a monumental change in one's life, it is always good to have some time of debriefing to reflect, adjust and prepare. Leaving a life of full-time traveling and moving back into a stick and brick house with a "regular job" is going to be a big transition in our life.

We have spent the past three weeks we have spent living in our temporary home, a house that belongs to Matt and Rachel Cassady, some of our family. We have stored all our furniture in this house in the heartland of America and stopped in a time or two to see how our "things" are doing. This little stay has been a good time to sort through all the mixed emotions of coming off the road.

During this time we have visited with lots of family in the area, starting with Patsy's brother Steve and his wife Jeanne. They bequeathed us with a house warming gift, a life sized cardboard cutout of Han Solo. We do have a strange family.

My entire family got together for some fun but also for a big roofing and painting project on my sister Rachel and her husband Matt's home. The house we have been staying in was in definite need of these repairs, so my dad and stepmom, both my sisters and their families and my own clan got together to help out the Cassadys who have been serving God the past nine years as Matt is a chaplain in the Army. We were so proud at how much we all got done over a weekend, even the kids worked hard at painting and clean-up! To celebrate we spent the afternoon at America's Incredible Pizza Company eating, playing laser tag and riding bumper cars.

Later we took a quick trip to Rockford to visit more family, to do a final interview with Paul Youngblood on WNTA about our big adventure to speak to a group from my mother and father-in-law's church about the things God taught us while traveling across the country. Add in some packing and taking care of normal household duties and we have had a pretty busy time of debriefing.

Final Paul Youngblood Interview

We did our final interview with Paul Youngblood on WNTA in Rockford last Tuesday. This was an hour long show but after taking out the commercials it is less than 40 minutes. So we took the audio and added some of our best scenic shots to it and made a video out of it. We talk a lot about what life on the road for our family was like after 21 months of this great adventure!

Creation - the Great Draw

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Out with a Bang

We are so sorry, but this post has been removed because it is a part of our book Napkin Dreams that details our trip around America!

David turns seven

This post has been removed because it is part of our new book - Napkin Dreams!

David wore his Chuck E Cheese crown for about four days -
even to bed at night!

Canada Kidology to Go

The Canadian version of Kidology to Go was a ton of fun. As I was presenting the material I realized how "American" some of the presentations. Still, those who came to the seminars were quite gracious with my southern accent and American terminology and we had a great time sharing together.

My name on a sign!

Several churches from the area took advantage of this Kidology to Go. Bethany Evangelical Missionary Church was a great host and Children's Pastor Tim Bryson really made this day a quality time of training, equipping and laughter! The church also asked me to speak on Sunday morning and I really enjoyed speaking with the church on the importance of reaching the next generation. Very cool to be with our friends north of the border!

The boys got to play hockey in the church's gym! Well, floor hockey anyway.

Grand Lake St. Mary's State Park and Blueberry

We stayed three nights at Grand Lake St. Mary's State Park in western Ohio. It was so nice to be at the state park and enjoy the area with just a few other guests. We took a few walks and saw a snake and a bunch of song birds greeted us with their songs each morning.

While we were at the park our trusty mini-van, Vangoh, gave up the ghost. It has been limping along for several months, but faithfully did its job, almost to the end of our trip. So we purchased a new van in nearby Celina, Ohio. This 2011 model is such a major upgrade for us, that we actually get excited going for a drive, whereas before we almost dreaded having to take Vangoh anywhere. We named the new van Big Blueberry because of its unique color. Patsy said no more silver vans because they are too hard to find in a parking lot with the dozens of other vans with the same color!

We also visited a fun little restaurant in St. Mary's called Lost in the 50s. This eatery is filled with memorabilia from the 1950s and there is a little museum with lots more fun stuff from the era. It is funny talking to our sons and how they think we grew up in this era! The lightbulb came on when I explained I was born a decade after the 1950s were over. This was our parent's era!

Staff - 8 - Spoke to one ranger who was nice and the camp hosts were helpful as well.

Natural surroundings - 9 - Right on St. Mary's Lake.

Roominess - 8 - Plenty big enough.

Facility Fun - 8 -Two playgrounds, BB court, mini-putt, walking trails and lake fishing.

Facility usefulness - 5 - Laundromat, dump.

Bathrooms - 8 - Bathrooms were clean and showers were hot and plenty of them. Flush toilets.

Cleanliness - 8 - State Park clean

Nearby attractions - 5 - Close to Lima. Dayton and Fort Wayne within striking distance.

Value - 10 - Paid $12.50 a night for a back-in site with electric hook-up only. Used our Passport America card.

Overall - 9 - Cheap stay, modern yet in the midst of natural surroundings.

Botkins Kidology to Go

Sorry, but this post has been deleted because it is a part of our new book called Napkin Dreams!

Pastor Randy in the Monkey Room

 

 

Ebony the mascot of the children's ministry

 

National Museum of Play

We are sorry, but we have removed this post becuase it is a part of our new book entitled Napkin Dreams.

 

 

 

 

New England treats

This post has been deleted because it is in our new book entitled Napkin Dreams. It can be found on Amazon.com

New England McDonalds whirlwind tour

We ran out of time while exploring New England and had to visit three states in one day in order to get an appointment in upstate New York in time. We will hopefully one day visit this area again. The states of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont were both firsts for any of us, not just on this trip, but anytime during our lives! They are quite beautiful and we basically drove through without appreciating all they have to offer.

We started off in Westport, Massachusetts where we stopped in for some iced coffees for Patsy and I. This was one of nicest McDonalds we have ever seen with some very classy landscaping! Wow, who would have thunk it!

For lunch the boys were treated to lunch at a McDonalds in Kittery, Maine. Patsy and I did not eat here, we will post about our Maine lobster treats later.

Later in the afternoon we stopped in Lebanon, New Hampshire for some cookies for the kids! Wow, this is a record for the Martin family!! We actually hit five restaurants in one day! We will blog about our Vermont dinner soon and special cappuccino later.

To top off our McDonalds in every state we visit we hit one for breakfast for Patsy and I in Burlington, Vermont the next morning. So now we can avoid all McDonalds for maybe the rest of the summer. Hmmm, I am not sure about that, after all, their coffees are divine!!

Crossing the Delaware

This post has been removed because it is part of our new book - Napkin Dreams!

 

Delaware McDonalds

Our Delaware stop at McDonalds was a quick run-in for iced carmel coffees for the adults in the family! We made this pit-stop in Smyrna, Delaware, driving on a small state highway avoiding one of the many toll roads that plague the northeast! We spent less on the coffee than we would have the tolls for a big rig like ours!

Campground Review - Delaware Jellystone

We stayed for two nights at the Jellystone Park in Lincoln, Delaware.

Staff - 9 - super nice ladies gave us the royal treatment.

Natural surroundings - 8 - trees surround the park, not many big trees in RV area, but this is nice for the satellite!

Roominess - 8 - Normal sized lots.

Facility Fun - 10 - Pool open during the warm months. Big playground, mini-putt, BB court, planned activities on weekends, game room, big use styrofoam blocks for kids to build with.

Facility usefulness - 10 - Laundry, dog run, propane, large camp store, dump, fire ring, exchange library, key card security, free Wifi and picnic tables at each site.

Bathrooms - 8 - Bathroom is clean and up to date, showers were push-button type and a bit luke-warmish.

Cleanliness - 9 - Clean and well maintained.

Nearby attractions - 7 - Close to Dover, DE and Delaware beaches.

Value - 7 - Paid $50 a night for a back-in graveled site with full-hook-ups including cable.

Overall - 9 - We love Jellystone Parks, just wish they were a little more affordable.

Broadway Diner

Baltimore is a great eating town! All sorts of crab and seafood dishes, ethnic favorites and tastes influenced by the other big east coast cities. While April may not be the best time for blue crab dishes, we still wanted to try one of these Baltimore establishments, so after a morning at Fort McHenry we ate lunch at the Broadway Diner.

The Broadway Diner was featured on Diners, Dives and Drive-ins and has a great 1950s look with silver and metallic. One of the dishes that Guy really loved was the shrimp creole, so that is what I ordered. I has some creamy crab soup along with my amazing main dish. It was all very tasty. Patsy loved her dish - a shrimp melt.  The plates were quite big so we took half of our dishes home and had a tremendous lunch a couple of days later.

Our adventurous boys had hot dogs, macaroni, spaghetti and cheese sandwiches. Yippee!!

Washington DC

This post has been deleted because it is in our new book entitled Napkin Dreams. It can be found on Amazon.com