It’s stuck to a wall.
It looks like it might be something.
It looks like something a big bug might make.
I get closer and closer.
And I still can’t tell. What is it?
A three-state day. Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina. 2017 summer trip map Stopped for the night at the I-77/Statesville KOA.
The campsite is not nearly as good as last night’s, but the rest of the park is pretty enough.
He was happy to see us and get back in his own car.
Now that we’re through with Gymnastics, we’ve begun a northern trek, not to find cooler weather, but to make it to Great Barrington, Massachusetts in time for grandson Tony’s college graduation on Saturday. It seems like we were just there as he was checking in, but here it is four years later and he’s getting his bachelor’s degree! 2017 summer trip map We’ve stopped for the night at the Savannah South KOA, in Richmond Hill, Georgia.
This is a very nice KOA in a forest.
With a big lake. Those white dots in the water…. …they’re swans!
Overall, a very nice place.
Every rotation, they switch flights until every gymnast has done every apparatus. The championship is a combination of last Friday’s scores and today’s scores. Alex did really well. Based on today’s scores he moved up from yesterday to 23rd in the entire country, for all-around at his Level. Nicely done. He scored 13th on the Parallel Bars, 8th on the Rings, and 4th on the High Bar! 
The season is over, but the athletes all go right back into practice, building new strength and skills for the next season that begins mid-December. I took these pictures of Alex in the pool at the resort we’re staying at. You can see the effect of all that hard work on his thirteen year-old build.
Oh yeah, and Alex definitely made finals for the All-around. Sunday at 1pm Eastern.
The Friday competition done, Level 9 gymnasts separated into two sessions, the first session scores in, we spent the afternoon waiting for second session scores. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday competitions are all to determine who goes to the finals on Sunday. All of the level 9s competed today. We’ll know by tonight or tomorrow morning if Alex is going through, but by our calculations it sure looks like it. J We might need another collective GO Alex on Sunday! We, me and Alex, each had our ups and downs today. He started off the day well on the high bar, and I did pretty well with the video. High bar The coach simplified all his routines somewhat for the Nationals; we’re not seeing all the moves we usually see. Better to do a simpler routine well than to fumble a more difficult one. Coach knows what he’s doing. Next up, the floor. Alex did well. I totally fumbled it. I didn’t get the camera rolling until about halfway through. Floor Alex was awesome on the pommel, an event he has been strong on lately, until he suddenly fell near the end. Me, I stuck it. Pommel Rings. Rings caught me napping again, I got started a little late and fought the focus, but Alex was awesome all the way through, finishing 1st in the morning session. (He was outscored on the Rings in the afternoon session, but still finished 5th overall.) Rings Vault looked good until that part where he had to land. He overcooked it and kept right on going after his feet hit, into an involuntary backwards somersault. That was his lowest score of the day. Vault Parallel bars to finish. A clean routine. Parallel bars Fifteen thousand young men, in total, in the US Gymnastics Program. Alex (it appears) just made it through to the last level. We’re so proud of him!
