(Ed. note: this series is what really started me thinking about writing a blog. I wrote a series of updates for friends and family about the Hutton family's driving trip to Asheville in July 2008. I'm posting them and back dating them to the original dates and times I sent the e-mails, so these posts will predate the actual beginning of the blog.)
Well, since Cat wouldn't let me live blog our drive to and from Asheville this summer, I thought I'd let y'all know a few highlights of the trip so far. By the way, it's 10 pm on Saturday night, 7/12/08, and we're safe and sound in Memphis at the La Quinta. There are 5 (I think) sleepers already in the room, so I'm trying to stay quiet.
Today was hot. Not going to lie about that. The car (thanks, Barbara!) is riding great and the AC is nice and cool, but with all of the potty stops, gas fillups, leg stretchings and other assorted stops we have to make, and with my need to tinker with the roof-top luggage carrier each time we stop, I've started and stopped sweating approximately 73 times today. So I've got that going for me.
The drive was relatively uneventful. Nice but hot weather all day. We started around 9 am (maybe a few minutes earlier) and didn't have to make our first stop until Greenville. Yep, we went an entire 40 minutes without making our first stop. And guess what? We've trained the kiddos so well to pee or at least try whenever we stop that everyone had to get out of the car that time...and the next time...and the next... At least there weren't any accidents. That I know of, that is. One thing we discovered in Greenville was that our absent minded professor kid Jack FORGOT HIS SHOES AT HOME! Grrr. He was only reminded about 6 times this morning, but went and got in the car without them anyway. So anytime that he wanted to get out of the car, I gave him a piggyback or he had to borrow Annie's shoes.
We had a rest stop picnic lunch just east of Texarkana, then a rest stop/sweet treat at ChikFilA in southeast Little Rock. I ran to the nearby Walmart while the kids played in the CFA playland to get Jack some shoes. He almost got a $1 pair of pink flip flops to help him learn his lesson, but then I found a $2 pair of sandals and had mercy on him. From Little Rock, we headed east to Memphis--only 3 stops along the way, but one was at my request, so I can't be too upset about that--and we headed straight to Beale Street.
Fun, mini Bourbon Street like atmosphere there--we got there about 7 pm, walked a few blocks and then got a table at a good but overpriced burger joint called Dyers. They use the same grease that they've used since 1912 when it opened! Yum. The kids were running on fumes when we finished, so we piled back in the car, drove to the hotel, threw everything in the room and piled in bed (everyone but me, that is).
On the way to the hotel I asked everyone what their favorite part about the day was. Unedited, here are the answers: Sam--the fire we just saw on top of the building (it was venting from a manufacturing plant of some kind that we had literally seen about 5 minutes before), Will--the brown horse I saw this morning (at about 11 am, still in Texas), Jack--the fun day of driving and being nice to my family (which Will then said was his second favorite thing, a little hero worship going on there), and Annie--the Elvis statue we saw on Beale Street.
Tomorrow, we're going to do a driveby at Graceland and then head to Knoxville. A relatively easy day--well, easier than today--and hopefully a long swim at the hotel pool. I'll try to let y'all know about tomorrow, tomorrow night!
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