Hey y'all

Made another trip across the country! We went to Tennessee and Virginia. Just gotta love the south (and it's food!)
Thought I'd put up some links for the places we went on this last trip - just in case you are in the area. These are my recommondations:
Our first stop was the Oregon trail ruts in WY. These were really neat and FREE!! Hanna said a really cute blond comment, but I won't repete it. If you are traveling through WY it is in the SE corner of the state. http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/oregon.htm

We visited the museum (FREE!!) under the St Louis arch. http://www.nps.gov/jeff/
It was small but pretty good. Mostly about the Lewis and Clark journey. We arrived too late for the Imax movie (whew, saved me $). We have studied quite a bit on L&C, so this was a nice review. We have been on about 1/3 of the L&C trail and almost all of the Oregon trail now. I just LOVE the hisory of the 19th century!! We did get to see a video on how they made the arch. Yikes! I was scared just watching! We didn't take the tram up cause - well, it's just a ride. Next time.

Our next visit was at Land between the Lakes in KY/TN. We went to a living history museum called The Homeplace. It is set in 1850 - before the "civil war". We learned how they delt with the hot humid summers in TN with a special porch design. They raise tobacco, flax and a garden. They also had homesteading animals and make fermented food products. We learned a lot about raising flax.
http://www.lbl.org/HPGate.html

We spent 4 days at a conference learning about internet affiliate marketing. Hanna was the photographer for the event. She has been the back up photographer at other events that Rhea puts on, but this time she was all on her own. She did great! She edits and posts the picts to a web site. She will miss the August Entrepreneur Days in CO, but is planning on going to Atlanta Georgia for the end of August. Here is a link to Rhea's Entrepreneur Days.

www.MyDadCameHome.com
So if you are interested in going this year on the first weekend of August in Colorado Springs let me know. II would love to introduce you to people I know or just meet you. 
These conferences have helped us so much with our working from home mindset. (Having dad home and lovin' it!)
Back to the trip
After the conference we went to Polyface farms in VA, the farm of Joel Salatin. I read his articles all the time in _The Stockman Grass Farmer_ Wow did I learn a lot there. An apprentice was very nice and answered my many questions. I bought some books, a dvd and some pork sausage. Yum! If you want to see what is special about the pork look it up on his website.
http://polyfacefarms.com/
After that we visted another living history museum. These folks know their stuff. They make cheese from the cows they milk, raise flax: prepare it, spin, weave, die the clothe and sew the clothes. The have gardens and cook. It was top notch!
http://www.frontiermuseum.org/visit.php

The next day we visited Lehmans store in OH. It is a non-electic store with homesteading type stuff for amish and folks like me. I got some butchering knives for John and some misc. stuff.
http://www.lehmans.com/?gclid=CNPz9Y...

We spent the night at a friends home in Detroit. It was really fun to listen to the kids play music in this very musical home. We also slept in the next day...At last!
Our next night was spent at a homeschool friend's home in the midst of Amish country near Nappanee Indiana. I had gotten to know Kristine and her son Ryan at the conferences we attend. They are also part of a business mastermind group we belong to. www.RheasProtegeGroup.com Kristine and I agreed to be accountability partners for our business ventures. I'm very excited about that as she knows more then me on internet stuff and her son is very sharp too (and has a hosting service and designs websites!!). We had a great time there and learned some interesting inside stuff about the Amish. No space to write about that here...
The next day we got all mixed up in Chicago traffic! Finally we made it to another friends house where we spent the night. Then we went to MN where we were able to reconnect to old friends.

On the way home I learned about a place in MT that has old west (it is mostly 1860s civil war era) living history. http://www.virginiacity.com/
This place is near Dillon not to far from I15 and close to Yellowstone - below Butte. I'm also interested in Bannock just west of Dillon http://www.legendsofamerica.com/MT-B...
Well, those places will be for another trip not so far from home. We'd love to do some old west stuff with anyone who likes to travel. Let me know. One last link for those who travel I-15 through Idaho. We stop at Lava Hot springs when we go to AZ. It is only $12 a family and it is open till 11:00 at night. What a treat. AND no chain stores, motels or restaurants...just pure HICK!! Gotta love it! http://www.lavahotsprings.com/
That is quite enough for now! Happy Trails!!