You Said This Trip Was To Slow Down, But All You've Talked About Is go Go GO!

It's a long title, I know, but seriously, do you think we're that family? Maybe you're waiting for that day in the store to see a magazine titled "The Truth and Inner Lives of the Merchants", or "The Lies the Merchants Told Us". Well, before our story goes viral, let me tell you the truth. We aren't always out and about spending a bunch of Benjamins a day. We have downtime. What do we do you ask? Well,  the campgrounds have activities, and normally one or two are utilized every day. These activities can include the playground, pool, possible hiking trail, and general store exploring. 
During meal times, it's normally the same as you and your house(or RV)hold. That is cereal, yogurt and granola, or toast for breakfast, ham sandwiches, quesadillas, or egg salad for lunch, and homemade dish for dinner. I have noticed, however, that when we eat out, it's a great experience. Not just the fact that there are sodas when we eat out (that's obvious), but the quality of the local food is amazing. When you think about it, there are probably 2-4 restaurants in your area that you really like. But when you eat out you don't always go to your favorites, since you also want variety. For us, we get both of those. It doesn't take long to see the favorite (and sometimes only) restaurant in town. We don't eat out often, but when we do, we can get variety and quality in the same experience. For example, in Dollywood a few days ago, we ate a cinnamon bread in the Grist Mill. That was really tasty, and we ate something that we haven't eaten before! Or Grill 73, the Russian restaurant my dad was talking about in his last post: quality food, and a new food. 
When we're not licking our lips from great food, or utilizing the amenities in the campground, we hang out as a family in the site itself. We have a corn hole which we sometimes play. I set up my Eno hammock at our campsite in Gatlinburg. It's been very relaxing doing some school work in it. In fact, the draft of this blog was written in it! The campgrounds have offered a great variety of walks, and we have had many a good walk in the grounds. We also have a yellow playground ball. Tossing the ball around in a new campground is always fun!
School has started up (and all the parents said "Amen"), and I have enjoyed it for the most part. Physical science, geometry, and blog writing (I know, right?)  are some of the subjects on my list. A few hours a day are dedicated to that, so there's less laying around reading or wondering when the next "exciting" thing is going to happen. Not that I did that, of course.
Nate has enjoyed the trip a lot, and in his down time (he has down time?!), he likes to play with his Legos. Recently, he built "The World's Greatest Puppet Show" in which my mom and I were the puppeteers, my dad was the audience, and Nate was the guard. Here is the picture of him in his room.

My dad enjoys playing with me, Nate and my mom. He also does most of the exterior maintenance of the RV.
My mom enjoys hanging out with us, walking around the campground, and reading. She also does the main interior maintenance of the RV.
And, of course, we get to go to the grocery store every week or so. (We don't have a mobile garden yet!) However, in new places, you can see so many cool things even when you're going to a kind of store you always go to. For example, you don't just walk out of a Walmart and see the Smoky Mountains. But we did! That was a great view.
Thank goodness for free time! Now you all know now that the Merchants are enjoying down time as well as go, Go, GO! time, and have a logical excuse, er sorry, explanation for what we are doing. 

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-Woodsman Will-