Day 17

Day 17 – Saturday – June 23, 2012

0615 Get up.  Get the laundry from the dryer.  Merryn let the dogs come downstairs but didn’t put them out.  They wanted into Fritz and D’Arcy’s room so I let them in.  Sorry about the wake-up call, guys!

0645 Shower time.

0730 Wake up the kids and Ron.

0835 Leaving the Ruthlings.

0842 Starbucks drive-thru for coffee.  Ron is complaining about my dirty windows and trying to clean the inside of the windshield with a napkin.

What was the best part of the visit in Memphis?

Bella – playing card games

Ryan – seeing Logan and Merryn

Felisa – swimming

I love seeing our friends and how welcome they always make us feel.  Logan and Merryn are awesome examples to our kids of how to be a terrific host.

0858 Mississippi

0902 Construction.  On Saturday?

0922 Airplane outlines are painted on the road.  Does that mean this highway is also a runway?!  Uh oh!

0923 Ryan comments that he can tell we’re in the south again because there is ivy growing like crazy on everything.

0925 Smoke.  Burning trash maybe?

0959 Gas, $2.99/gallon.  Happy birthday to me!  Wow!  I haven’t seen a two in front of a gas price in a couple years.  Also, the gas station had a Happy Birthday message on the sign out front.  It really is my birthday.

1005 News story about I’ll Have Another’s horse racing career.  His record was 5 wins out of 7 starts, including the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.  That’s a pretty short and pretty amazing career.  Now he is a stud horse on a Japanese horse farm.

1007 Pass the Vietnam Traveling Memorial.  Decide to get out and take a look.

1020 Tennessee

1027 Goats

1035 Shiloh National Military Park

1041 Shiloh visitor center.  Current temperature, 87 degrees.  After the visitors center, we drove through part of the park.  We took a picture at the Confederate memorial.

1119 Drive past the Shiloh church and cemetery

1126 Open my birthday cards.  I found the one from James and Betty Lou but now I can’t find the one from Dad.  Bummer!

1134 Tennessee River and Savannah, TN which is apparently the Catfish Capitol of the World

1139 Sonic for lunch.  This Sonic is very busy – almost every slot is taken.   While we’re waiting Felisa gives me a present.

12:20 p.m. Open my present from Ron – an iPad.

12:55 p.m. Lawrenceburg, TN – the home of David Crockett.  Who is this David Crockett guy?  Do they mean Davy Crockett?  Because I know who Davy Crockett is.  In my opinion, if you are associated with a famous person, you should use the more commonly known name.

12:56 p.m. See an Amish buggy driving down the road.

12:59 p.m. North South Military Street… guess you’d better be careful which side of the street you live on!

1:02 p.m. A field of white horses.  Cool.

1:05 p.m. A tractor dump lining both sides of the highway.  I guess this is where the tractors go to die.

1:18 p.m. Chicken Creek Road

1:25 p.m. It’s getting hillier.

1:32 p.m. Crossing I-65.

1:52 p.m. McDs for iced coffee

2:46 p.m. Cowan, TN. Stopped by a train.  And then the train stops.  Right in front of the tracks.  Hmm…  We could go to the train museum right next to us while we wait.  Ron takes off and… passes the museum!  Where is he going?  Back to the highway?  No.  Just going around.  Except that there is no way around.  Maybe we’ll go back and wait.  Nope.  Off we go again looking for another way around.  Ron wants it to be known that he refused to be stopped by this train!

2:56 p.m.  We made it!  Take that, train!

3:00 p.m. What is that up on the hilltop? A house?  A hotel?

3:12 p.m. I-24 – made it to the highway!

3:35 p.m. Tennessee River

3:41 p.m. Eastern Time Zone and Georgia – now 4:41 p.m.

4:44 p.m. Traffic jam

4:46 p.m. Tennessee

4:47 p.m. There is a group of kids walking down the side of the highway.  Not sure why.

4:56 p.m. Across the Tennessee River and back again.  I guess Ron should’ve listened to the GPS, not to his wife!

5:01 p.m. Made it to Julie’s place.  We let ourselves in and relaxed while we waited for Julie, Jim, and Kim and her kids to get back from Rock City.

Dinner at Mellow Mushroom then we walked around a bit.  We stopped at the moon pie shop then walked across the bridge to the carousel.  Unfortunately we were too late again this year and it was already closed.  No one really wanted to play in the fountain so we walked back across the bridge and got ice cream.  The kids watched Cars and got ready for bed.  Our kids spent the night at Julie’s house while Ron and I got in one last date night at the hotel before he leaves on his long work trip.  I forgot that I hadn’t changed the time on my watch so we ended staying up later than I realized.  Oops!