1 overloaded car
2 people who successfully did NOT drive each other crazy (at least not worse than we started)
3 planned "random" detours
4 nights on the road
5 days of driving
6 plugged in electronic devices in the car
8 states traversed
100s of photos taken
over 2800 miles driven
countless good conversations, loads of music played on the stereo, many additional random stops, and lots of laughs...
As planned, I spent Friday packing and cleaning and running a couple of errands. Judy arrived a little bit late, which worked out perfectly since I got stuck in traffic on the way to the airport - she got to the curb a few seconds after I did! We fought traffic back to my place where I started the pizza dough, then took off for Stone Mountain. We did NOT get to check out the sunset - traffic ensured that it was completely dark by the time we got to Stone Mountain, but we did enjoy the walk up it.
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| judy, dan k, me, marius at the top of stone mountain |
The view was beautiful with all the city lights and the Christmas tree of lights at the top of the mountain. We headed back down and stopped by the grocery store to get some last-minute pizza toppings, then went back to my place and had pizza and good conversation. Judy enjoyed meeting my random group of friends, and I was glad for a chance to say goodbye!
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| after-dinner picture with sarah, dan k, me, dan c, judy, and marius |
The next morning, I woke up pretty early while Judy slept till 11, making up for burning the midnight oil for the previous week back at home before coming to Atlanta. I gradually packed the car and continued packing the stuff in the house, and began a final cleaning job on the house to prepare for the tenant. Once Judy got up, she was EXTREMELY helpful in getting the rest of the cleaning done as well as a tiny bit of the last packing. Finally, just after 2 pm we got on the road, only 4 hours later than I'd hoped. I wasn't worried about it as that night's goal was Nashville - the shortest drive of the trip.
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| overstuffed car - it was better than it looks here, we actually COULD see out the rearview a bit! |
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| ready to take off! |
We had a fairly uneventful drive with a few rain showers, only raining hard a couple of times. We arrived at Tiffany's place in Nashville and went out to dinner with friends of hers who happened to be visiting from Kentucky. Before and after dinner, it was a lot of fun to catch up with Tiffany - I hadn't seen her since living in Tahoe, and even then only when she was home visiting her family.
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| judy, me, and tiffany after dinner at j alexander's |
After dinner we went next door to the Commodore and experienced a bit of a writer's round, something common in Nashville, where several artists will be on stage together and perform in rounds for a certain amount of time - each one presenting one song before moving on to the next. We then took a drive with windows open down Honky Tonk Row, where every bar had a live band playing, and there were street acts as well.
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| three women performing at the commodore |
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| honky tonk row, behind a horse and carriage, no less! |
We did a drive-by of my old house in Nashville on Sweetbriar Avenue. It was fun to see that it looks just like I remembered, even though I was 6 years old the last time I had seen it.
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| sweetbriar avenue house, with a "new" addition on the back |
That day, we checked a box on Judy's bucket list by eating lunch at a Cracker Barrel in Little Rock, AR. Shortly after Little Rock we made our first planned "random" detour to a place called "Toad Suck" - Judy had friends who had told her of its existence, so we stopped by for some photos.
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| judy posing with a chocolate frog at toad suck ferry lock and dam |
After that we pushed on to Sand Springs. That day's drive we saw wet pavement every time we stopped, but only had a very brief and light rain shower while driving. When we arrived, Aunt Kathy provided us with a delicious home-cooked dinner. It was great to catch up with her, David, and Jeff once again. We didn't get to see Jeff's boys as he decided it would be nice to have a dinner without constantly attending to their needs, so he left them with their mother.
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| me, jeff, aunt kathy, david |
After a wonderful night's sleep, we hopped back in the car and headed off for the next stage of our adventure, but first the chocolate frog had to be dissected - it was a large shape of solid milk chocolate, too thick to break into pieces, so I borrowed a knife and cutting board from Aunt Kathy to chop it into manageable chunks.
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| chocolate frog a la harry potter, courtesy of debbie |
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