Day 3

Day 3 – Wednesday – July 20, 2011

0615 Wake up. Take Darby out to go potty.

0630 Julie leaves for work. Walk Darby and give him breakfast.

0730 Wake the tired kids up.

0820 Loading the car. A guy is in the parking garage washing his bike which has created a river behind the car. It is so deep, it gets into the top of my sandal.

0827 Leaving.

0828 Crossing the river by accident. Oops! That’s okay – Jo will help us find our way back.

0831 Crossing back over the Tennessee River. Back on track!

0840 Georgia

0844 Tennessee and central time zone

0750 Crossing the Tennessee River – again! This time it was intentional.

0804 Alabama

0812 First dead armadillo on the side of the road.

0840 Hardees for food. The drink machines are all out of order.

0845 Across the street to Sonic for coffee. We are in Scottsboro, Alabama

0857 Piggly Wiggly – such a funny name for a grocery store

0858 Gas, $3.45/gallon. Miles travelled so far, 683.

0923 Second dead armadillo

0945 Passing the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. Ryan wants to stop but we can’t. No dogs allowed. Ryan says, “Man, Darby, you’re really holding us back!”

1005 Rhodes Ferry Park in Decatur, AL. Spur of the moment stop for Darby and Bella, my water girl. So here we are again along the Tennessee River!

1051 A patch of trees all broken on the top half. Would a tornado cause that?

1058 Armadillo #3.

1124 McD’s for lunch. Call Lana. She fell into her grill Tuesday night so she won’t be able to watch Darby this weekend. Uh-oh!

1156 Armadillo #4.

1159 Coon Dog Cemetary. Interesting. Is it really a cemetery for dogs or is it just named for a particular location?

12:14 p.m. Mississippi

12:50 p.m. Corinth City Park. Darby needs a break – again! – and Jo found this awesome park for us. It is very hot today but the playground is great. I am surprised to see a lot of people at the park in the hot weather. I guess maybe this is the usual temperature for where we are.

1:09 p.m. Leaving the park.

1:23 p.m. My toe still hurts. I stubbed it on a big rock at the park just as we were headed back to the car.

1:58 p.m. National Bird Dog Museum. Maybe Darby would like to stop there!

2:15 p.m. Tennessee

2:33 p.m. Arrive at the Ruthlings. We are early (they didn’t get my message!) but they are on the way home from the store so we only have a few minutes to wait.
The dogs meet each other. Bailey is not too happy to see another dog but they all settle in pretty well. The kids swim and have a water balloon/water gun fight while the adults chat. Hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner then we take the dogs for a walk. The kids play more while the adults chat more then it is finally time for bed.