To Birmingham and Beyond

0700 - Wake up

0810 - Ah... back to the humidity. Yuck! Load up the car. My hair has gone flat so it will be in my face all day. Grrr...

0815 - Homeless kitty at McD's. The playground is closed for some reason. Is it because the cat is out there? The kids hang out at the window the whole time playing with the cat. As we leave, Ryan spots a dead frog in the drive-thru lane. Looks like he forgot to look both ways before crossing!

0855 - Gas up then on the road. 200 miles to Alabama.

0905 - Raccoon roadkill

0907 - Passing a rest area, I start to think of ways to make future road trips more economical. Camp rather than hotel rooms every night, pack food and stop at rest areas or playgrounds instead of going to McD's every time.

0939 - Mississippi River and Mississippi!!!

0940 - Snack box is open... The kids have been asking for snacks since we got on the highway but I made them wait. They were apparently too busy playing with the cat to eat breakfast.

1009 - Pass a billboard for Scrapbook Sisters near Clinton, MS. I've never seen a billboard for a scrapbook store before!

1020 - Allie calls. I pass 5 cops while talking on the phone and driving.

1036 - Lose the call. No service.

1038 - Call back. The phone call is a nice diversion from the monotony of the road.

1116 - Total miles so far - 4384; 166 miles today

1137 - Ryan's Restaurant - a steak restaurant, of course. How fitting!

1145 - Mom called. Another nice diversion

1151 - Alabama!!!

12:03 pm - Jerk in a white car is riding my a** as I'm passing a semi. Where is the courtesy? Where are the road manners?

12:05 pm - A cop pulled someone over. Unfortunately it wasn't the jerk in the white car.

12:14 pm- 3 more cops pass me. Two others passed a couple minutes ago. Emilio says it must be shift change time!

1:42 pm - Birmingham, AL - Go to Arby's for lunch. There was a Schlotsky's in the same shopping center but it was closed for some reason. Bummer since this was probably my last chance for Schlotsky's!

1:55 pm - Call Kim for directions to her house. What time is it?!? My watch says it is 1:00 but I don't think we lost an hour today and I'm pretty sure I changed my watch when we crossed into Texas. One thing is for sure - I am losing my mind!

2:20 pm - Leave Arby's.

2:30 pm - Arrive at Kim's.

3:30 pm - The kids ask, what should we do now? It only took an hour for them to play with all of Dalton's toys? I suggest getting back in the car to drive for awhile. They say no.

4:41 pm - Head out to dinner at Chuck E Cheese. Since Kim and I are both planning to drive, with kids, after dinner, we thought this would be a nice treat for the kids and would help to tire them out. After about an hour I ask her who we are tiring out - the moms or the kids?!? On the plus side I was able to play skeeball - one of my all-time favorite games (even though I'm not especially good at it). Unfortunately, the skeeball candid camera kept turning on to me, no matter which lane I was in. And it wasn't a very flattering picture. One because the camera adds 10 pounds to my already 25 too many and because I'm taller than the average kid customer so it was getting me at chest height. My white shirt made me appear as a big white blob filling the screen. Felisa played a round with me so I tried to get her on the camera instead but she was too short. Oh well. I'll never see any of those people again except Kim and family.

6:50 pm - Blessed silence as we head over to the book store. Kim is driving to SC tonight with Dalton for a wedding tomorrow so we'll head for Chattanooga before we call it a day.

7:46 pm - Gas, $2.81/gallon. Miles so far today, 346.7

8:15 pm - Why are these kids never happy? I gave them snacks and drinks and turned on a movie before we pulled out. I give them whatever they want before we leave each stop yet they always want something else 5 minutes later. Very frustrating. (Can you tell I'm getting tired? The closer I get to home, the more I just want to be there!)

It is dark now and the lights from the other cars shining in my mirrors are very bright tonight, giving me a headache and making me cranky. Then again, maybe it is the almost 5000 miles I have driven this month that are making me cranky...

8:45 pm - Dad called. Call was dropped - no service! - so I call him back and it was dropped again. It is very dark out here now - all the other cars have disappeared. I have no idea where I am or what the landscape is outside the window. It's like driving through a tunnel.

9:30 pm - now 10:30 pm - Georgia and Eastern Time Zone!

10:51 pm - Tennessee!

11:13 pm - Made it through Chattanooga. It is hard to drive through a strange city in the dark.

11:20 pm - Checking the room. Is it too smoky? (All they have left is a smoking room). Man, this place is packed. What's going on in northeastern Chattanooga this weekend? Miles driven from Birmingham = 170.

(As I sit here typing this, after being home for two days... man, I was cranky!!!)