Setting Sail - Keels go to Canada day 1

Today was the first day of our trip. We packed and prepared most things the night before, and were able to be on the road by 10am! The kids were excited about the trip, having LOTS of extra screen time, and eating mommas travel foods. Chloe was excited about eating cheese, she asked for some about every 30 minutes.

We stopped at the Georgia visitors center for a picture, this was probably the only stop for pictures that the kids were excited about. The rest of the times they were not impressed. Also note that Chloe has a will of her own and will not conform to anyone's desires that she looks at the camera with the rest of the family.

Our first National Park stop of the trip was at Andersonville National Cemetery and POW museum. The reason we stopped at this one, even though it was about 45 minutes out of the way, is because the kids have been working on Junior Ranger badges. This program offers high interest educational opportunities for the kids to learn while in National Parks, and rewards them with a badge or patch at the end when they have completed the requirements. We were working on the Civil War Historian badge, which required Andersonville, one other park, and a completed packet of the Underground Railroad. Since we were going to be near Andersonville we stopped.

The museum was hard, not only did it have displays and information about Prisoners of War from the Civil War, but also from other wars. The kids were able to see how prisoners were treated, their living conditions, and the effects that being a POW has on a person. It was a heavy trip.
We also were able to see the many monuments from Union states that were erected in memory of those prisoners who died at Andersonville, which was a POW site for the Civil War.
 

I think that seeing the model of the living conditions was one of the hardest things, the kids stood next to one of the nicer shelters set up. We learned that 45,000 Union prisoners were held there during the Civil War, of them nearly 13,000 died from illnesses related to their living conditions. The stream that would adequately provide water for around 10,000 prisoners was not enough for the nearly 33,000 held in August of 1864. This single stream was not only the drinking water supply, but also the bathing and latrine area.

Prisoners that had been held here looked like skeletons with skin. PR asked if they got to eat three times a day, unfortunately the answer was no. He stated that if he was here and in charge of prisoners he would feed them... too bad that wasn't the case.

We continued our trip, which would land us in Byron Ga for the night. We passed the hotel exit, dad said it was because of moms beauty... he was really just distracted by talking.

Our hotel, a Holiday Inn Express, treated us well, they gave us a box of snacks and our room was just right for the family. Our credit card (that is paid off every month) is one that accumulates points for hotel stays, because of that sometimes we get upgrades or extra perks when we check into hotels.

PR and Sarah took the bunk beds, Abigail made her own bed out of the chair and footstool. They had a TV in their little room and thought this was the best hotel they had ever been in.

Not pictured is the crazy big play ground at Burger King, where we ate that night. This was the first evening of a cool breeze we felt on the trip, so the kids played and we enjoyed the weather.