Day 2

July 21, 2008 – Monday – Day 2

0615 Wake up – first time using my cell phone alarm.

0650 Mike made bacon and eggs for breakfast. Mmm…

0746 All packed and ready… leaving Lana’s house.

0751 See two chickens alongside the road, outside the auction barn. How random is that?!

0757 Segment on the radio about travel mooching… where you call a friend and crash at their place on your way through town on vacation. Hey – that’s me! I’m a travel moocher!

0954 Georgia! Cross the Savannah River.

1020 Gas $3.91/gallon
1111 Leaving McD’s after a breakfast/lunch/playground stop.

12:40 p.m. Atlanta has bad air – yuck! L

2:00 – time change – 1:00 p.m. Stop at Alabama Welcome Center. Text from Ron to check on our progress.

1:26 p.m. Pass the snack box – snacks for all of us!

1:37 p.m. Alabama radio seems to have a pattern – every other station is Christian Rock alternating with Country

2:40 p.m. Leaving Talladega Raceway. Had extra time to kill (we called Kim from Atlanta and she seemed a bit surprised that we were coming so soon) so we visited the International Motor Sports Hall of Fame. I would’ve loved to take a track tour also but we didn’t have that much extra time. Maybe next time we pass by…

2:43 – 2:43.5 p.m. Rain. Like 10 whole drops.

2:50 p.m. Crossing Coosa River – it’s a crazy mixed up river that goes back and forth. Felisa says “It’s following us!”

2:57 p.m. Passing Chula Vista … Wait, isn’t that a city in CA?! Wow- we made good time. Blew right past all our stops in AL and TX!!!

2:58 p.m. Possible armadillo sighting… or was it a rhinoceros? Lana says it’s a rhino. It’s her game and that’s the way it’s going to be. She’s been giving me a hard time about my license plate game and how I supposedly keep changing the rules. Sadly, it was roadkill. Just once I would like to see a LIVE armadillo. Oh and speaking of the license plate game… here’s what I saw today: Ontario, MS, WA, KY (though this one only counts as half a point since it was a commercial van – not a semi but not a car either), KS, MD, CA, LA. And double points for Rhode Island!!!

3:10 p.m. Stuck in a traffic jam. See a billboard for Birmingham Race Track. The animal on the billboard looks like a camel. So they have camel racing in Birmingham?!? Okay, maybe it was a really a dog… Oh and the billboard across the road says it’s 105 degrees outside. Yikes!

3:23 p.m. Make it to the construction zone that was causing all the traffic.

4:00 p.m. Arrive at Kim’s house. She’s still at work but her parents came over to let us in. We visit with them and get some good stories about Kim. Leave it to the parents to tell embarrassing stories about us…

5:15 p.m. Kim’s home from work.

5:30 p.m. Off we go to Chili’s for dinner – yum!

7:00 p.m. Thunder and lightning and pouring down rain outside. We all get completely soaked on the way to the car. And I do mean COMPLETELY soaked! On the way back to the house, there are trees down and we have to go around the back way. Once we get home, there is a very close, very loud crack of lightning. Yikes! Do a quick unload of the suitcases and sleeping bags during a brief let-up in the rain.

The kids play until 8:30 then we clean the playroom, and get the beds ready. All are asleep by 9:30.