From Space Camp to home

From Space Camp we had to drive all the way to Tampa – where our flight home leaves.
We passed a few unbelievable places on the way! 

Chattanooga is a city in Tennessee, near the Great Smoky Mountains.
It is a nice weathered area and is right next to the forest and large mountains.
I went to ruby falls which is over 1000 ft under a mountain called “The Lookout Mountain”, our tour guide showed us the maze of tunnels.
It was amazing looking at crystals as well as stalactites and stalagmites all lit up with beautiful colours.
I hiked through the cave, saw streams of water, the tour guide said it was very bad to touch the water because their calcium concentration is so high that it would eat your skin.
I passed several features of the cave including Stalactites that looked like Tobacco leaves, bacon and potato chips.
I made it to our major stop, ruby falls – a giant 150ft high underground waterfall. It is coloured in so many lights. It was Awesome!

I then went on the steepest tram in the world and took me down to the bottom of the mountain.
I had lunch and went back up to Rock City.
Rock city is a place where there is fresh lemonade, music, country walks and much more.
I went on one of the bush walks, it was surreal. I was walking through the Forest, through canyons and had a look at special stops. I got to the top of the mountain and on top you can see the borders of seven states.

After a bit of walking I reached deer park, it is a huge park filled with deer, there were deer playing and running around.
I moved onto a fairy tale walk, a woman painted clay figures in neon light, put each story in a separate room and rigged the room with UV lights.
It was SPECTACULAR! It looked unreal and all the figures were moving.
At the end of the walk there is a huge model of all the stories together it is truly amazing.

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Atlanta. During my stay there were riots in the streets so there were police cars and helicopters everywhere.
I was swimming in the pool on top of the hotel, looking at all the helicopters fly over. All night you could hear sirens and chanting. It was scary but amazing to see something like that.

We didn’t have much time on the way to Tampa so the best way to see Atlanta in a short time was to do a Segway tour.
At first the Segway was very wobbly and hard to control, then once you get used to it – it is a lot of fun. We saw the major buildings and sites of Atlanta including the home of Martin Luther King – he was a leader of civil rights movement.

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Tampa is a city within Florida, it has a lot of swamps and rivers.
The weather is very tropical, it is hot and humid. Every night there is a storm from after noon to early night time. It is like clockwork.
Once we came back from having dinner and we were going to the hotel from where we parked.
There was a lighting storm at the time. My mum ran first and she told me to run (since there was lightning hitting 300 times every 15 minutes) so I ran (slowly as I do when mum asks stuff) and then I heard lightning strike on the power line several meters away from me. Then I RAN!!!
It was so scary, when I was running I could hear the zapping and the explosion.

I went canoeing in the Hillsborough swamp the next day.
There were alligators everywhere and some would get so close to the canoe that you would be able to touch them.
My family and I are not the best at Canoeing. We would sway side to side down the river trying to keep ourselves steady, a few times we got stuck inside a bush and couldn’t get out. We would gravitate towards anything that protrudes and we shouldn’t be near. Problem is, you can’t get off the canoe – alligators and snakes are everywhere.
It was amazing to see the wildlife, we saw turtles sun bathing on the rocks. We saw huge birds (we called them giant chickens), jumping fish. I loved seeing the diverse wildlife in such a small area.
If you went that close to a crocodile in Australia you would be eaten.

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The flight home was long!! but I made it!!