Tuscaloosa and the Ticknors

We had a rough route to head down through Tennessee and across Arkansas and over to Texas.  I love "rough routes" like rough drafts they can be totally scrapped at the drop of a hat or and incoming Facebook message.  I checked in with Foursquare to Tennsessee at a Rest Stop at top of the state.  Within minutes Dana Ticknor (Ticknor Tribe - traveling family of 14) messaged me and asked how far south we were coming.  They were just outside of Tuscaloosa and invited us to come see (meet) them.  We have been trying to meet for quite some time now, so I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity.  And so our rough route was scrapped.

We decided to make the long haul all the way to Tuscaloosa, knowing we would barely make the gate closing of 10pm.  But we were determined.  Not even a horrible thunderstorm, Nashville traffic and a wrong turn could keep us from making the gate closing.  Well at 9:52pm we called and the nice gentleman said he would wait for us...we arrived at 10:02pm, whew.

And in the morning we woke to this, the Ticknor Tribe right next to us!

We spent the day chatting (moms & dads), running in the woods and fort building (boys) and flower picking (little ones). 

I think there were three times the middles aged kids sat down -- before the two meals we shared and during the campfire :)  If you were an outsider you would have been AMAZED at how well meal time went, since there were 20 of us eating.  Bigger kids were helping little kids,  Mamas and Daddys able to sit and eat.  I feel so blessed that we were able to be in the presence of another "large" family who has bigger kids and see how well they all work together. 

It was a quick visit, but so glad we were able to connect.  And the cool thing is they travel, we travel, so we are bound to meet up again!