June 29--Days 17--Canada Day BBQ

Happy Canada Day (almost)! We went to a Canada Day BBQ at Shanna and Nigel's house on Sunday.











Just like in the states, we had tons of fireworks (many from Hobo Joe's in Walterboro, SC!) and good food.

Can you see my new blue socks? Nana made them for me! Take that all you Build A Bear stuffies (that's Canadian for stuffed animal; I'm really picking up the language, arent' I?)!






I found out how Canadians make firewood as well.













This is Ashlynn with one of her new friends.



















Nana, Ashlynn, Terry, and Ari.












Let the fishing begin! Ashlynn was the first to catch one (with a little help from Chris, who cast in her line for her).
















Don't worry--there's plenty of fish for everyone to catch!




















































Here's another of Ashlynn's friends. She did actually make friends with human children, we just don't have any pictures to prove it.

June 27 and 28--Days 15 and 16

This was the day I'd been dreading. Ashlynn went to Build A Bear and came home with a new bear. This one is pretty neat though. She's got maple leaves printed all over her. She's actually very cute. Her name is Maple. You can't see it in this picture, but Ashlynn has Anna in her backpack sling. And of course Anna got lots of new clothes and shoes. She even got roller skates!

Even Angel got suckered into the BABW allure and came home with a moose. Jonathan (the guy helping Ashlynn stuff her bear) told her the moose was not available in the states and that they were retiring that design and that there were only three left. So Angel couldn't resist. He's ok I guess. We don't talk much. He's talks mostly to Monkey because I'm always out with the girls. His name is T. Horton. If you don't get it (his name), you're not Canadian enough. Email Angel and she'll explain it to you.

On Saturday we went to the Children's Museum in London. Ashlynn got to practice driving me around on a snowmobile. We don't have those down in S.C. She's not a bad driver!











I spent some time hanging out with the scarecrow in the farm section. Obviously we didn't do too well protecting the corn.

















Ashlynn was very proud of her ears of corn. The ears can be zipped up into the husk and velcroed (I just made a new verb!) to the stalk. She was having a great time putting it all together, and as soon as she would get them stuck to the stalk, some kids would walk by and start pulling them off. She finally got them up long enough for this picture.







The Snake Lady showed up with her three socially inept helpers and boxes of reptiles. She's about to show off a baby African Bullfrog. Ashlynn is making her way to the front of the table for a better view. She had all kids of turtles, snakes, frogs, millipedes, and lizards. Good thing that boy from the zoo wasn't here. He would not have made it out alive. Angel would have fed him to one of the reptiles.

June 26th--Day 14, Part 2--To Canada!

We went through the tunnel from Detroit into Windsor. It only took about 10 minutes. Luckily we were able to go across at a slow time. There weren't too many others trying to cross. I've heard going across can be mad at times!





















It was about a 2 hour drive from Windsor to London where the family lives. And by the family, I'm talking about Nana (DJ's grandmother), Terry (his aunt), Chris (Terry's husband), and their kids Shanna, Kyle, and Ari. Actually, Shanna and her fiance Nigel live just outside London.

I made it just in time to catch Ari's soccer game. In fact, they were a few players short, so they put me in for the last little bit. Guess who scored the winning goal? You bet! They asked me to join the team, but I told them I had too much going on to commit to something like that.


Terry printed my adventures so Nana could read them. Kyle hadn't been keeping up with them, so I read them to him at Nana's house. Sort of a "Storytime with Sock Monkey" kind of moment.


It sure feels nice to be in Canada! We've been talking about and planning this trip for so long it felt like we would never get here!

June 26th--Day 14, Part 1--Detroit Zoo

We made it to Michigan! None of us had never been there before. The thing that we noticed first was how many more Mac Trucks were on the road. And they do not look out for anyone but themselves. They'd pull right out in front of us and never look back. But we made it to Detroit without any problems, and only one missed road to the zoo.













We came to Detroit to the zoo for one reason...

















... polar bears!!! The Arctic Circle is a relatively new exhibit that houses five polar bears and several seals. There's a tunnel you walk through and the bears and seals can swim over and around you. It's really amazing. Don't worry though--the bears and seals only look like they're in the same tank. The two enclosures are separated by glass.







Ashlynn thought it was really funny to come up into the groundhog enclosure and have one right next to her digging around.











And what American zoo would be complete
without a few bald eagles?











This is a great video of one of the polar bears. It's only about 10 seconds long, but really cute.


Aside from how hot it was, there was really only one problem with the zoo. The loud kid in the reptile house. Keep in mind it must have been "Day Camps Come to the Zoo Day," because there were tons of groups from various day camps. This kid was with his family; or to be more specific, ten yards ahead of his family. He would jump in between us and the camp group ahead of us, look to see what was in the exhibit, and then report back to his family. Loudly. His mom kept calling him back, but he'd show up again, look, and scream. "SNAKE!" "TURTLE!" "LIZARD!" And since that's pretty much what makes up a reptile house, that's what he kept screaming over and over. Right by us. Angel thought she was going to lose her mind! Luckily we made it out of there without any bloodshed. And the rest of the day went well.

June 25th--Day 13--AF Museum

This is the National Museum of the United States Air Force, located at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton.











I jumped up in one of the bomb bays when no one was looking.


























Ashlynn is pretending to walk with the AF ladies. This is the first part of the exhibit on the Disney designs for the Air Force.











The future of space exploration is in good hands!!























































Even Canada's got a plane in here! This one's from the Cold War exhibit.

Yeah, there's a ton on planes in this museum. In fact, it's amazing how they all start to look alike after a while.

June 24th--Day 12--Dayton

Yeah! Someone else like me! Well, sort of. Verde is more like a sweater monkey, which I think is a third cousin twice removed from sock monkeys.















We went to the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, which has all kinds of fun things for kids to do.

















I got lots of hugs from Jansen on this trip.



















Hmmm...













Crunch is this big, ancient turtle. He's even older than Ashlynn's grandparents (but not if you put them all together).

June 23rd--Day 11--to Ohio

It was a great visit in Flintsone, GA. On Sunday, we rode over to Ringgold, GA to visit Michael and Brandin Prettyman. They were in our church in Savannah, and moved here last fall. Brandin and Angel went to the Philippines together with the church summer before last.

We were up and in the car early Monday morning to make the drive to Dayton, Ohio traveling up I-75.
As we're driving through Tennessee, we notice that Solomon was right when he wrote "There is nothing new under the sun" in Ecclesiastes. Seems like every town we passed was from somewhere else--Cleveland, Dayton, Charleston, Athens, Decatur, Philadelphia, Huntsville, Oneida, etc.

It didn't get much better in Kentucky--Lexington, Richmond, Williamsburg, London, Paris, Athens (yes, another one), Georgetown. I stopped there, because I grew weary of trying to keep track. Despite the lack of originality, Kentucky sure is a beautiful state to drive through.

When we saw the sign for the Mayfield Ice Cream Factory Tour, did we stop? No. How about when we passed the Lost Sea? Nope. The Cheese Factory or birthplace of KFC? No way. Where did we stop? In Lexington to go to Build a Bear Workshop. Yeah, another trip to BABW. Did I mention we went there in Chattanooga? We keep stopping there because Ashlynn has to get Anna and Fly-o's passports stamped. When we went to the BABW in Chattanooga over the weekend, I overheard the sales lady telling them about a special, limited-edition bear in Canada that has maple leaves on it. I guess we're going to end up getting that one once we get there, because they don't sell them in the U.S. Great, just what I need. Another friend from BABW. When am I going to have a friend like me?


So we drive and drive and drive through mountains and horse farms, then go around a curve and ....


there's Cincinnati! This big city just pops up out of nowhere!












And it's way on the other side of Cincinnati that the welcome center is located.
















Guess what we found outside Dayton? Hooray! I thought I was going to have to wait until we got to Canada for some Tim Horton goodness!



(You may have noticed I'm now missing my Philippines flag pin. I was flying through the air as SuperMonkey, and when I landed, my pin broke. I haven't had it fixed yet; I keep forgetting.)

June 19th--Day 7--Sonic Fun!

What a great time. The SBC girls and I got to go to Sonic for a treat. Maybe it's not too bad being around all these girls. They do love me, and I am the center of attention here!


(Yeah, I know this post is out of order. I got so excited by all the great things I saw on our way to Flintstone from Toccoa that I forgot all about this. Come on, give me a break. I'm a monkey for Pete's sake!)








Errors! They're everywhere! Even PowerPoint is not exempt! That's supposed to say "Directors," which is the group name for the leaders. If only this and the green direction sign were the only errors I'd find on this trip, I'd be ok. But I'm sure there's more to come. Especially when I get to Canada. They add an unnecessary "u" to everything! And don't even get me started on "zed" for the letter "z." Hahaha!

June 20th--Day 8--Backroads

It's Friday and camp is over. Our next stop is Flintstone, Georgia, which is at the base of Lookout Mountain just on the other side of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Angel's cousin Joy and her family live their (you saw pictures of her three kids in the reunion entry). Angel decided that the backroads would be more fun than the interstate, so she put me in charge of the map. GPS? We don't need no stinkin' GPS!





All goes well for a while. We pass through Cleveland again (remember the CPK hospital?) and are making pretty good time until ...

Angel though "Oh no, not a hay truck!" And she was right. It was the only thing slower than a hay truck. A tractor. And if you look close enough, you'll see that it is also carrying a bale of hay on the front. Wonderful. We finally made it to a dotted line and passed.







We finally make it to Highway 60 and are driving through the mountains. Angel can only go about 35 mph because of all the twists and turns. But it is a beautiful drive, and guess what we found? The Appalachian Trail!









Ashlynn on the AT at Woody Gap. There was a sign warning that bears were active in that area, so we did not stay long. I doubted bears have ever tasted monkey, and I didn't want them to start today!









So Angel's making her way along the mountains, winding around all those curves, and we turn a curve and this is what we are faced with:

That's right--a big mound of stones. In the middle of the road. It looked like a roundabout.











This is the sign posted beside the stones. I hope you can read it, because it's pretty interesting:












Not long after the stones, another slow-down. This time we just rolled down the windows and turned off the engine, because we were there for probably 15 or 20 minutes. Re-paving mountain roads takes a while. We finally got on our way, but a short while later...









Yep, slowed down again. This time for horses. It wasn't too bad though, since we couldn't drive very fast on the roads anyway. Keep in mind, however, that it is lunch time, and Angel and Ashlynn are starving. Angel kept asking me to look at the map and see what town was coming up next. Then she'd tell Ashlynn they would stop at that down and get something to eat. Then we'd get to the town and there would not be any place to eat. So we'd go on to the next town. I was hoping to have something nice to say about Suches or Morganton, but sadly, we just kept on going. I think Angel even sped up to get past the one store in Morganton that had a big sign advertising that it was "Confederate Owned." Seems these mountain people never got the news that the war is over.

OK, this is probably not very PC, but when has that ever concerned me anyhow? We finally made it to civilization (I think there's some irony in this situation, but will leave it to you, my reader, to interpret)! I never would have considered the town of McCaysville to be a metropolis, but considering the towns we've been passing though, this was big time! DJ and Angel came to McCaysville last summer for his birthday to go whitewater rafting. If you ever plan a trip to the Ocoee River, use Rolling Thunder. They're a great company. Anyway, lunch was at a little 50's style place. Compared to the camp food we've been eating for a week, this place was 5 star! (And I don't care what Angel says--that was raccoon they served last night.)






McCaysville is right on the border of GA and TN, as you can see by this sign we're standing under. So officially, Ashlynn is in two states at once. The town on the Tennessee side is called Coppertown. Guess what they used to mine.

We also passed through Cleveland again. But this one was in Tennessee.

And for the record, we did make it to Flintstone safely and without having to go down any dirt roads. Ha! I spit in the face of your GPS! Now go away before I taunt you a second time!