Southern Road Trip Part 4: Texas Again

While Tim and I were in Texas, Ty stayed in San Antonio with Grandma Diney. She kept us updated by sending us pictures of what he was up to. I was glad to be back with my boy after 5 days, though.

Below are some of our adventures once I flew back (while Tim was still gone).

Morgan's Wonderland is a small amusement park build specifically for children with special needs (and anyone with special needs gets in free, it's awesome!) Because of this, it's really great for little kids. Ty had a blast.

This area below had part of a car, an area you could create and paint your own car on a computer, and create noises with the tools below. Lets just say it was a big hit with this guy.

 

Below is an area you could go fishing, shoot water, and drive remote boats.

Ty LOVED the Go Karts

Another day we headed to the Children's Museum in New Braunfels.

Grandpa Rod was gone on a business trip to China for a lot of the time Ty was there, so they enjoyed playing once he was home. One of Ty's favorite games was to wake Grandpa up when he was (pretend) sleeping. Ty thought it was hilarious. Grandma Diney also had foot surgery while we were there. Ty kept her entertained while she was stuck on the couch by playing cars on her tray and talking to her.

Southern Road Trip Part 3: Alabama

Next stop was Montgomery, Alabama. We drove the route of the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965. Montgomery was a nice town. In the morning, Tim and I went on a run around the town. We went down to the river then came up the main street which has the stop where Rosa Parks got on her bus, the church Dr Martin Luther King gave his speech, and the Capital.

Our research took place at the county archives. We were allowed to take pictures here and even got to wear these cool white gloves.

This is a reminder of a southern rainstorm. Our hotel was only a few blocks away, but Tim ran home to get the car. I was outside just long enough to run from here to the car and by the time I sat down in the car, I was soaked! About an hour later, it was clear.

That night, we went to a Montgomery Biscuits game. One their mascots was Miss. Gravy, a real pig! I was pretty excited to pet her. Aubrey stopped by for the weekend, but the next morning, Tim took me to the airport in Birmingham. He traveled to a few other cities for more research, but didn't take many pictures. I flew back to Texas to see my Ty-Guy.

 

Southern Road Trip Part 2: Mississippi

As is said in Part 1 of our Southern Road Trip, Tim and I left Ty with Grandma and Grandpa for a few days while we headed to Mississippi and Alabama. Tim received a grant to do some economic research by collecting information from different counties in these states. I went along for a few days as his research assistant. 

Our first stop was in Vicksburg, MS where, conveniently, my friends Amelia and Jon recently moved. We spent the night with them (after a delicious southern dinner of fried catfish and other fried foods). The next day, Tim went to do work and I did some sight seeing with Amelia. First stop was the Vicksburg Battlefield.

 We watched the video about the battle at the visitor center then took off around the battlefield.

The battlefield road was several miles long, so we drove until I got carsick. We also stopped off to see the Cairo, a ship sunk during the battle, which was found just about 30 years ago (bottom left picture below). There were also some nice views of the Mississippi:

 

 After lunch and some shopping, we visited the Mississippi River museum and learned all about the river (and Jon's job!)  They had some fun hands-on activities like the one below where we got to carve out our own river path.

Amelia took me down to the river murals which depict some of the local events throughout Vicksburg's history.   She accurately described them as reminding her of the Pawnee Murals from Parks and Recreation (though quite less violent). It was kind of funny because it was true!

 

 Ty is really into red cabooses, so I took the opportunity to climb on this one as I missed him.

We finished in Vicksburg with this beautiful view of the river and bridge.

That night, Tim and I headed to Jackson where we celebrated our trip with a good old Mississippi Mud Pie! After a good (humid) morning run, we spent the next day researching at the state archives (top right picture below). It was high security in there, so we couldn't take pictures, but it was fun for me to start my journey into history! We barely made a dent in the microfilm before they closed and we then walked around the city.

After Jackson (Tim would go back later), we headed south for a few county records. Our first stop the next morning was at the Jones County Courthouse in a cute southern town called Ellisville. We asked for the 1890's Justice Court Dockets and the ladies working gave us a funny look and said "You're going to have to look in the dungeon." She then directed us to the dark and dusty/creepy third floor attic of the courthouse where we were left to sort through books (see the two bottom right pictures below). We found it! The ladies downstairs were surprised to hear this. They told us to check in with them every once in a while so they knew we were okay! It was like a fun treasure hunt!

  Work went quickly, so we drove through the town. I loved this church.

We headed to Meridian, MS for the afternoon, but I didn't get any pictures. We found the archives and book we were looking for, but it wasn't as helpful as we had hoped, so we took off to our next adventure...Alabama!

Southern Road Trip Part 1: Texas

Our family took a trip to visit Ty's Grandma Diney and Grandpa Rod in Texas! It was a LONG drive, so we stopped periodically to let Ty play. Our last stop was in a mall where we found these Texas-sized cookies. We finally made it to San Antonio where Ty settled right in to "Ty's Room." While there, we took Ty to his first movie in the theater, Planes Fire and Rescue. He also got a lot of park time in. This park below was a hit because of the fire truck playground.

Time with Grandpa Rod usually means plenty of trains. Ty was in heaven!

And before Tim and I left for a few days, we went to Krispy Kreme. Ty loved watching the donuts go "through the tunnel" (the glaze curtain).