I’m not sure if it was the overcast skies or the late nights and long hours in the car, but today I was pretty much useless. I wandered around the house from one half finished task to another. I took a nap. I went to the grocery store. I cooked dinner. But I’m just kind of blah. Hopefully tomorrow I will feel like writing but tonight I just want sleep.

Another long day of traveling in the books. Glad to be home and sleeping in our own beds.

Road trip with our youngest!!!

It appears my foray into the life of a soccer mom has drawn to a close, at least for now. Today was the last day of soccer for the kids. Baby E gave up playing weeks ago and Big E was visiting his grandparents, so C was our only kid on the field and she spent the entire time as goalie. I was surprised when she volunteered weeks ago to try that position, but she loved it and the coach has been letting her be goalie quite a bit. It’s been fun to watch her get more confident and skilled as the weeks passed.

She did great today and you could tell she was having fun.

Perhaps being a soccer mom isn’t quite so bad!

C had her last art class today and the kids did a pour painting on canvas. C was thrilled with how hers turned out.

This class was a great experience for her. It gave her the chance to make some new homeschooling friends!

As we were on our way home on Sunday, we decided to take our time and stop at any place we thought looked interesting. We hadn’t gotten far past Rocky Mount when we started seeing signs for “Historic Halifax.” A quick google search told us that it would only be a few minutes off our path, so we made the detour.

One of the things that Tim and I had noticed earlier in the day was that excepting the highways, everywhere we went seemed deserted. We come from an area that hardly ever slows down, so it was strange to be someplace where a Sunday morning silence descended on everything.

The town of Halifax was no exception. We drove into yet another quiet, deserted town. This one, however, boasted an impressive historic district. Think Williamsburg, but much smaller. There were plaques to read, houses and businesses to look at, and literally no one to encounter. I’m sure there are people there during the week, but on an early Sunday afternoon, we had it to ourselves. For the nearly two hours we were there, only one car passed us. We parked behind the historic jail and set off to discover what we could.

We had an impromptu history lesson as the kids learned about stocks and pillories. We wandered through a historic graveyard and peered through the windows into living rooms and dining halls decorated to reflect early colonial life. We even found a run down outdoor amphitheater and the kids sang and danced under the gently swaying trees.

One of the things that I like about traveling is discovering the quirky local gems that a town or county might have to offer. Forget the bustling downtowns or the outlet malls- give me the strangest and oddest roadside attractions you can find. Give me the parks with life size fiberglass dinosaurs from the 70’s, gigantic elephant statues that used to be a hotel, or the toy store shaped like a stealth bomber. These are the things I want to see.

When we settled into Rocky Mount the other night, I took some time to scour the internet to see if I could find something worth looking at. That’s when I came across the Wilson Whirligig Park located less than 30 minutes from our hotel. I was pretty convinced I had found our gem!

After eating breakfast at the hotel and packing up, we wandered around Rocky Mount for a little while before hitting the road south. Our journey took us through rural North Carolina and into the quaint, and seemingly abandoned town of Wilson. When we pulled up to the Whirligig Park, it was everything that I hoped for. Each contraption towered over us like a metal giant. Their many parts moved by wind power alone, they fluttered and twirled in their own time. It was a sight to be seen. And my how amazing it sounded. I could have sat there all day listening to them twirl.

The kids were just as enthralled as I was, pointing out the details- a plane here, a man playing a guitar there. It was truly magical. And absolutely, perfectly, exquisitely quirky!

We got home this evening after a long day of wandering and driving. I’ll post more tomorrow, but it was a lovely, fun, and exhausting weekend!

This morning we got in the car and just started driving. We had no destination in mind, other than to head down 95 and see where we ended up. We landed in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. We found a beautiful park with water access and we spent some time climbing rocks and exploring . We are at a hotel now and the kids couldn’t be happier!