There’s nothing like spending 8 hours in a car driving to and from the Florida pan handle to pick up your kid. Especially when it’s your birthday. Also? Every single one of these photos was taken from inside a moving vehicle because someone only asked once if he needed to stop.
Clock
Clouds
Rusty
Hot Peanuts
Gas Station Signs
I’m just really glad it was such a pretty day for a long-ass drive.
Yesterday, I transported two of the most adorable Rottweiler puppies to the Atlanta airport so they could get on a plane to go meet their new daddies in Guatemala. And because school is out, I ended up with two helpers who were less thrilled about the getting up at 6 am part of driving to Atlanta, but excited about the prospect of visiting the Georgia Aquarium. It was an incredibly educational trip. Here are some of the things we learned yesterday.
Him: Yes. If they’re not from the same litter then they can’t travel in the crate together.
Me: Then they’re from the same litter.
What’s up with you guys?
My life consists traveling a lot for work, but every now and then I get to travel for fun. When I’m really lucky, it’s with my honey. This past Saturday, we took a road trip to Cumming, GA to visit the Lakewood Antiques 400. It used to be in downtown Atlanta at one of the amphitheatre grounds. I forget which one. Anyway, B and I decided to drive out and give it a whirl. It’s been about 8 or 9 years since the last time I was out there. B had never been. It was… well, the important thing is that we had a good time. Which we did.
We saw some interesting things.
Some dead things.
All that's missing is a full moon?
Some really poorly taxidermied dead things.
And something we would have taken home if it hadn’t cost an arm and a leg.
It’s a kick ass boomerang coffee table.
That’s top swings out.
And reveals a bar! It was in terrific shape, still had the key that locked the cabinet to store the liquor and cost about $1600. We kept our hands to ourselves and moved along. ::sigh::
We saw some cool stuff and some weird stuff and had a good time walking around. But overall, we were underwhelmed with Lakewood. However, the day and the trip itself? It was great just getting to spend time together.
I took a few more pictures. You can see the rest of them here.
SAFF was a blast as always. And I am too tired to do much more than show pictures.
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And then on the way home, we finally stopped at GOATS ON THE ROOF! You know, because we didn’t see enough livestock at SAFF.
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In a nutshell? Awesome weekend of awesomeness was awesome.
So, if you were following my tweets, you would have noticed that we passed through quite a few states on Saturday. And then reversed the order on Sunday. Because who doesn’t love an 800 mile round trip in two days?! We made the haul to celebrate my sister D and her husband’s 25th wedding anniversary. Let that sink in for just a minute. TWENTY FIVE YEARS OF MARRIAGE. Is that not awesome? That is the equivalent of a Hollywood couple becoming immortal, continuing to love one another AND STAYING TOGETHER UNTIL THE END OF TIME (for you youngsters). Totally awesome.
OK. Before I get all sappy, weepy, mushy, blech. Let’s leave it at that and move on to the pictures! None of which are of my hugely extended family.
We headed out Saturday morning, relatively early (for us) and began what turned out to be a 7 hour drive. It was something of a rocky start with BAD Boy when he asked barely an hour into the trip if we’d left the state yet. We live about 2.5 hours from the Alabama/Tennessee border. We explained to him that it would approximately 4946742384723908573223456.3 hours to get there and he should just enjoy all the techmology in the back seat with him and before he knew it, we would be there. And it went fairly smoothly from there. Also, can I just go off on a related tangent for just a minute? [TANGENT]How lucky are these kids (and us parents) that kids can be distracted on long road trips with portable dvd player, ipods and video games? SO LUCKY. So what is it that BAD Boy wanted to do more than play with any of his “toys” in the back seat? Play a Galaga rip off on B’s phone.
Seriously.
I guess that just goes to show that it really IS the simpler things that make us happy. [END TANGENT]
So, anyway, eventually we made it here:
It was shortly after we crossed the Tennessee state line that I realized that I had left my anniversary present for my sister and BIL on the couch. Back in the house. In Alabama. What can I say? I was too busy making sure everyone else had everything they needed to remember their gift. This was even AFTER I was looking for a proper gift bag and making plans to stop and get one on the way. *sigh* I’ll get it to them eventually. Hopefully before their 50th.
And then after a few (hundred) more hours (and 40 bazillion bathroom stops because SOMEONE WOULDN’T LAY OFF THE DIET MOUNTAIN DEW), we made it here:
Stay Classy, Kentucky
Yes, that would be an abandoned SUV on the side of the interstate just inside the KY state line. To be fair, I don’t think that’s a KY license plate.
We drove a relatively short distance through the western most tip of Kentucky (unlike the trek through what seemed like the entire state of Tennessee) and finally saw this sign and Lo! we rejoiced.
Until we realized we still had at least another hour to go. We finally made it up to my sister’s house and met in-laws, friends, reunited with family, swam, ate and played the most awesomely fun game ever. Apples to Apples. Especially if you play with my sisters and nephews. It’s quite interesting and daunting to remember who plays straight and who plays…well, let me put it this way. For one of my nephews, the more opposite the noun card is to the adjective card, well, you’ll probably win that round. And if you have the Helen Keller card? AUTOMATIC WIN. It makes for some interesting rounds.
My sisters and I stayed up late into the night talking. Much to the chagrin of ALL our husbands. It was nice to get to do that. I don’t remember the last time we were able to. It’s been awhile.
We got up WAY too early for my liking and headed back home so I could make my 6 o’clock softball practice. But we did make a a few detours on our way home. One of them being Metropolis. (click to embiggen)
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After that we got back on the road and headed for Nashville to have lunch with a friend of B’s that he hadn’t seen in longer than I think either of them would care for me to mention. It was a quick meal, but a good catch up for B and his friend.
We knew we were back in our home state when we saw this:
Not Phallic AT ALL
This rocket is at the rest stop that is right as you come into the state from Tennessee. After that, it was kind of anticlamactic. Oh, well, except for the part where as soon as we got home, I ran in the house, changed and immediately left again to go to softball practice. I am hardcore. I think next time, we’ll try and plan for more than 48 hours to travel that far. But it was definitely oh so worth it.
