“LONG DAY” the Long Version

January 4, 2024
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The tradition that defines our family

This notebook. My first real job. The weird way I organize my life.

My first “real” big-boy job was working at a bank. Eventually, I would accumulate 15 years in banking, but at first it was just a way to make ends meet.

What I noticed about all the suit-wearing, high-powered executives was that they usually didn’t work late or work on weekends.

I discovered something interesting about the banking industry. Business can’t be done unless a bank is open. You need tellers, you need processors, you need the vault to be unlocked. The bank held to all the government holidays so if you had a big, important deal you were about to close, and Columbus Day hits, you just have to wait.

This is when the idea of creating a “holiday” for our family originated. All the big-wigs at the bank would stop whatever they were working on when a holiday, even what is considered a minor holiday, would come around.

So, we decided to do the same thing.

Set aside a day of the year.

Observe that “holiday” – NO MATTER WHAT

Back to the notebook.

When I first started my job at the bank, I wanted to be organized and I wanted to think through some things. Every time I had a major thought cross my mind, one that would be important MUCH later in life, I tried to figure out a way to capture that thought. Through trial and error, I worked on and established this notebook that had a table of contents like so.

1995

It was 1995, 2 years after we got married and it occurred to me that June had the longest day of the year.

So, I simply jotted it down as a note on page 6 of my little notebook.

It sat there for 2 years before we decided to do something on “The Longest Day of the Year.”

Maybe it was because in 1997, June 21 was on a Saturday. Maybe it took that long to be serious about it. Maybe we had nothing else to do and we decided to just go for a hike and it “Just happened” to be the longest day of the year.

Whatever the reason, “LONG DAY” was created in 1997.

Photo lost

We actually went on a long hike, had a picnic and enjoyed both the sunrise and the sunset. We took our dog, Jazmine, with us. I remember a photo we took together at Elrod Falls in Sneedville, TN, but after years of looking for it, JoAnne and I now believe somehow we lost the single photo of that first Long Day.

Records lost

In fact, we KNOW we did something, but we can’t find any records or any notes from 1998 or 1999 for Long Day, either.

LONG DAY – Defined

While it started off in 1997 with a sunrise and a sunset with a nice hike in between, we didn’t know at first how it was all going to play out.

But we started. That is an important side note about family traditions. Start them. Start lots of them. Be creative and be flexible. Some will stick and some will fade.

“LONG DAY” as it is current day, is a day that we ATTEMPT to fill the day with as much fun family activities as possible from sunup to sundown – barely stopping to eat or drink. We GO>GO>GO> until someone cries or falls asleep.

Ice Cream is a requirement.

You don’t have to like ice cream or want it, but it is one of the few requirements of LONG DAY.

We have often said that LONG DAY isn’t complete until you’ve had ice cream, someone has cried at least once and someone, completely oblivious to the irony, says in exasperation “Whew, its been a LOOOOONG Day!”

Some Long Days are more epic than others, but as a whole, this unique family holiday that we created holds some of our fondest memories.

2000 Morristown/Jefferson City, TN

In the year 2000, we stayed local as we bought our first ever minivan! Our dog, who you can see in the photo, just had surgery and we had a new 10-month-old.

We got up early, went on a short hike, had a picnic lunch with Chicago-style hot dogs and went and bought our little minivan.

2001 Charleston, SC

Took our first out-of-state trip for Long Day in 2001. We camped, took submarine tours, went tot the beach and – ate ICE CREAM!

This was the year that eating ice cream AND running so hard and so long became the goal. Haha.

2002 Knoxville/Maryville TN

Our first of MANY trips to various zoos across the country, Zoo Knoxville was fun and entertaining!

2004 Atlanta, GA and Chattanooga, TN

In 2004, we had another newborn, Emma Jo, who was 4 months old. But that didn’t stop us from going to the Atlanta Zoo and the Tennessee Aquarium before we stopped at Steak and Shake on the way back to Maryville, TN, where we lived at the time.

2005 Maryville, TN – through KY – Metropolis, IL – St. Louis, MO

Lamberts Cafe – Home of the “Throwed Roll”

Metropolis, IL – home to “SUPER MAN”

St Louis, MO – Zoo and Magic house

This LONG DAY was the first one where ALL of us were ready for it to be over, but OH WHAT MEMORIES. Just our stories from Lamberts Cafe is enough to make this Long Day very memorable.

***Special Note*** JoAnne’s college roommate, Crissy Davis is from Metropolis and her parents, Toby and Judy still live there. We both got to be close with them due to JoAnne’s and Crissy’s friendship. They met us and took us around and Toby Davis is the gentleman in the photo at the superman statue with JoAnne.

2006 Maryville, TN

By the time Long Day 2006 rolled around, JoAnne was 8 months pregnant with our fourth child and we had a 7-year-old, 5-year-old and a 2 1/2-year-old and she DID NOT want to travel very far.

Fortunately, we had some friends that loaned us their pool, the kids went to Bible School that night and we went to see a movie. Our movie of choice – CARS.

Here we are at Marble Slab ice cream in Maryville, TN with a very pregnant wife and 3 wild kids!

2007 – The year it got crazy (and technically the 10-year anniversary)

Birmingham, AL – Nashville, TN – Louisville, KY – Indiana – Cincinnati, OH

On that 1 single day in 2007, our little family of 6 drive into or through 5 states, we visited 3 different zoos (we literally ran through each zoo using strollers as our secret weapon to keep going) and visited 2 museums.

In addition to going to the Nashville Zoo, Louisville Zoo, Cincinnati Zoo we also went to a famous candy shop in Indiana and we stopped in at the Louisville Slugger Museum.

I would also be in the wrong if I did not point out that the past year or two we tried to match but this year, we were all in camo!

There is no way to describe this year’s Long Day. FULL of memories. Completely too much! Our kids spent A LOT of time in the van as we broke the speed limit racing from zoo to zoo in an effort to make it to Ohio!

This is the Long Day we mention when we are trying to describe the tradition to others.

2008 – Birmingham – Memphis – Little Rock, AR

If you are keeping up, we hit our 10th state and 7th zoo in 2008.

We hired a professional photographer to follow us through the Memphis Zoo. We had never done that and have not done it since, but the photos speak for themselves!

2009 Asheville/Hendersonville, NC (Fast forward, Max moved to Hendersonville, NC in 2021)

We went to Biltmore House, Tweetsie Railroad and the North Carolina Nature Center. We hike in Hendersonville on private property of some of our dearest friends, but the MEMORY MAKER of this trip was a simple bathroom break.

As we traveled via I-40 towards NC, we all needed a bathroom break. As we drove through east TN, we realized our very good friends, the Oakes family, lived just off the exit. We had not seen them in a while, and we knew they probably would not immediately recognize all our kids if they saw them first.

So, (and this DID NOT take much convincing) we talked Levi into just getting out of the car, boldly and confidently walking into their house, walking straight to the bathroom and closing the door.

We knew the Oakes typically sit in their living room which would be visible from the front yard.

As Levi did EXACTLY as we had hoped, we were all able to watch all 5 of their heads just turn and following this little 7-year-old boy walk right into their house and go to the bathroom!

It was so fun and we have talked about that for all the years since.

Below is a photo we took with them afterwards.

2010 – Indianapolis, IN

We ate ice cream, of course, headed to the Indianapolis Zoo and the Indianapolis Children’s Museum. We pushed it past midnight after watching another movie at the end of the day.

2011 – Local

We decided to invite friends on this Long Day.

Started at IHop in Cookeville with probably around 25-30 friends.

Then we went bowling

Then raced at a race track

Then lazer tag

Then a movie at the church

Whew!

2012 New Orleans, LA

The vast number of activities we were able to do on Long Day 2012 is still amazing to me.

New Orleans Children’s Museum

We went to ANOTHER zoo, the New Orleans Zoo

WE DID AN AMAZING SWAMP TOUR!!!!

We went to the New Orleans Aquarium

We did a tour of the above-ground tombs in New Orleans

We walked downtown New Orleans and stopped at Cafe Du Monde NOT ONCE, BUT TWICE in the same day!

The SINGLE MOST INTERESTING activity of the day – IN A DAY FULL OF INTERESTING ACTIVIITES – was going to the New Orleans Insectarium. It is sorta a museum dedicated to bugs and such.

In this place, they serve, free of charge, bugs to eat. All kinds. Yep, we tried them, laughed, grimaced and one, you can tell by the photo, talked us out of making her eat one…..

2013 – We made an exciting return to redo the exact same trip from 2005. Cookeville – Sykeston, MO – Metropolis, IL – St Louis, MO

DEFINITION – Super Moon

A supermoon is a full moon or a new moon that nearly coincides with perigee—the closest that the Moon comes to the Earth in its elliptic orbit—resulting in a slightly larger-than-usual apparent size of the lunar disk as viewed from Earth. The technical name is a perigee syzygy or a full Moon around perigee.

We sat under the Arch in St Louis and enjoyed what seemed like a moon twice the size of normal. We laid down in the grass at the base of the Arch and just marveled. Incredible.

2014 – Natural Bridge, VA

There is just no real way to describe the unbridled fun that happens when you take a van full of kids and drive slowly through a Drive-Thru Zoo. Its hilarious. It’s another memory maker!

As we traveled home, we stopped at the famous Virginia Creeper Trail in Abington, VA and walked the trail. We spotted a few baby racoons..

2015 – We hiked in 2015. We went to 5 state parks within 20 miles of our house and hiked.

There are stories from each Long Day that we all remember.

On this faithful day, We ALL REMEMBER how Emma was not into the hiking after about 10-15 total miles. She was fighting mad and fighting tired. Audrey was weepy. The boys were pushing all of their buttons.

This was also the day that Levi went ahead of us on the first hike of the day and we lost him for about an hour…..GRRRRR

I am not sure that there has been a Long Day with as many accumulated walking miles as was the case in 2015….

2016 Another repeat trip. Atlanta, GA

For my kids who might read this one day, you need to know that this particular year, I was struggling with what to do and your mom saw it. I almost quit LONG DAY in 2016. I did not feel like it. She pressed me, told me not to struggle too much and for us to just do something we have already done and we know we would love it.

Well, she was right. Even though we had been to the Atlanta Zoo before, this was probably one of the best Long Day’s from a straight up fun from start to finish. I think everyone laughed, got along and enjoyed each other more on this trip than any other.

The big surprise was how fun and interactive the College Football Hall of Fame was. Everyone enjoyed it. From tumbling right into a pass to kicking a 40-yard field goal and everything in between, we had a blast.

We enjoyed re-creating a photo from our last trip. We REALLY enjoyed the World of Coca-Cola, too. The CNN tour was interesting. Georgia aquarium is always a good choice. It was a crazy long day, but so much fun.

GOLDEN BIRTHDAY

The concept of a “Golden Birthday” was shared with us by our friends the Bensons when we were first married. Basically, you celebrate bigger the year that you turn the same age as the day of the month you were born.

So, since I was born on February 20, my “Golden Birthday” was when I was 20-years-old.

We decided to take this philosophy to LONG DAY.

Long Day is on June 21 and 2017 would be the 21st anniversary of our first Long Day!

So, we went were the SUN NEVER SETS!

2017 Anchorage/Fairbanks/Barrow Alaska

There is no real way to describe 2 weeks in Alaska during the time of the year when ALL the days are 24 hours of sunlight.

We saw farmers working a field with a tractor with no headlights at midnight.

We watched a baseball game that started at 10pm and ended after 1am and no stadium or artificial lights were used whatsoever.

We lost track of time during the day because it felt like 2pm all day every day.

2018 – WATERFALLS

In 2018 – The entire year of 2018 – JoAnne and I chased waterfalls. We hiked to and enjoyed around 35 waterfalls all within 100 miles of our home.

For Long Day 2018, we took some of our kids friends and we kayaked, hiked and drove to about 6 waterfalls on that one single day. We had so much fun!

2019 We took a break from travel and spent time with dear friends on the Lake for 2019

2020 – We went whitewater rafting, made our own perfume and lotion and spent time with Grandparents.

2021 San Antionio/Houston/Austin/Waco Texas

What another year of memories!

My favorite part was horseback riding in Waco, TX where we watched the sunset on Long Day over a cliff that looked over the Brazos River. It was magical.

We also stayed the night at a famous house that was remodeled by Chip and JoAnna Gaines in Waco. It is featured on season 3, episode 4 of the TV show Fixer Upper.

Alamo

Murals in Austin

Buc-ee’s in Houston