Roadtrip Roundup: Bigfoot Weekend with the Girls

If you have a sister you trust with your heart, consider yourself lucky and send her something - even if it's just a card that says, "Good driving. Thanks for getting us home."

The weekend of the 20th, I joined Sis and her girls on a road trip to Georgia.

There was fellowship with Uncle Billy and Aunt Nancy at their place on Lake Sinclair, which is a calming oasis of big trees and fresh air. After spending two peaceful nights with them, I felt relaxed and rejuvenated, but we had to drive home through Atlanta in the rain. What one hand gives, the other takes away.

There was also the Bigfoot Challenge.

Lucia learned about Bigfoot early into kindergarten and is fascinated by the possibility of his existence, differentiating Bigfoot from bears, learning the ways of the Bigfoot, doing science.

Lucia uses binoculars to spot Bigfoot. Travis photobombs her like a rock star.

The Bigfoot Challenge was staged at a state natural area about an hour from Uncle Bill and Aunt Nancy's place, and the plan was for all of us to go, but I woke up with some significant gastrointestinal distress on Saturday morning, and after Uncle Billy decided to stay back at the house in case I needed something, Beatrice decided to hang with us.

photo by Laurie S. Golding

I was initially concerned that Bea, the wee-V, would end up missing her Mommy in a regrettable situation, but Uncle Billy made chocolate milk and taught girl how to peel a tangerine in-between her dives into a massive tub of toys and short walks out onto the back porch to watch fast boats come up and down the lake.

Beatrice, though not yet three, is honest and lets you know what's going on. When she was ready for lunch, she said, "I'm hungry. I want lunch."

When lunch was over, she said, "I need a show."

The guest house has a small TV with DirecTV, so an episode of "Peter Rabbit" later, she was all good to take a nap and slept until the Bigfoot hunters returned to the homestead.

I knew she was going to nap good, since I ran the V-girls from the guest quarters with my snoring the previous night, but that's a different blog post for a different time.

Also, I just want to go on record as saying there is nothing sweeter in this world than having a little kid ask, "will you hold me until I go to sleep?"

My heart.

Lucia came home with great photos of evidence from the Bigfoot trail, but the instructions for uploading the photos to facebook and "tagging" the event were complicated by my ignorance of how to facebook from my smarty-pants phone. I think I finally got the images uploaded appropriately, but as of this evening - more than a week after the hunt - no winner has been announced. 

From top: Fish and Bigfoot tracks near a stream, nut shells from where a Bigfoot has eaten a snack, Bigfoot shelter, Bigfoot in the distance in a stand of trees, Bigfoot poop. (Photos by Lucia Vernon)

Lucia documents findings in her Bigfoot journal while Cousin Laurie looks on.

I like to think that Team Tennessee was such a stand-out that nobody else came close, so bragging rights our ours, y'all!! I don't know that the official prize amounted to much more than that, but what we brought home from those three days and two nights together are the kinds of memories that last a lifetime.

Team Tennessee's Captain with map of findings.

The girls really took-to their Uncle Billy, which is no real surprise, because I remember being little like them and completely captivated by his tall and quiet ways. He knows how to make a girl feel special.

Aunt Nancy was just as much of a hit, and at one point, Lucia said, "Aunt Nancy is so good to us, I feel like we should call her grandma."

The world would be a much better place, if everyone had an Aunt Nancy.

Biscuit-makers.

Hands.

We hoped to get an extra-early start on Sunday morning, but breakfast turned into an event - a beautiful, delicious event with biscuits handled by little children - followed by an emotional, last-minute fishing competition.

Everything in these pictures tells the story better than I can with major props to Aunt Nancy's daughter, Laurie, for the breakfast photos:

Here's a link to the photos - mine and a few of Laurie's, too.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/54684154@N02/sets/72157651526951121/