Road Trip to Oklahoma

If you come to me and say "Let's go to _________" (fill in the blank with anywhere in the continental USA), I will be ready to jump in my car and start out.  I love to travel and prefer to do it by car so I can see all there is to see between here and there.  My friends call me crazy but I come by it naturally as my family traveled up the East coast numerous times and even took a driving trip to CA and back one summer.  I have a desire and goal to visit at least all 48 of the continental states, all 50 if I have the opportunity.  Right now, not counting Hawaii and Alaska, I have 9 states to make it to so when my Hannah was given the opportunity to compete at Nationals in Oklahoma this year, I said, "Let's drive!" much to the disappoint of Hannah who hoped to make her first plane trip and instead has been proclaiming "17 long hours in the car!"

We, being Hannah, myself, my mom and Gretchen, left Saturday morning with the plan to make it to Memphis, TN by around 5:30-6 p.m.  We had great driving weather but the traffic was a different story.  When we made it to Dothan, AL, the traffic was very stop and go, making it difficult to get through quickly.  We made decent time until we got past Montgomery, AL where we hit about 20 miles of extreme backup just outside Birmingham which probably cost us 30-45 minutes.  The worse thing was we never saw a cause for the backup!  By that time, we were starving and looking for a somewhere to eat but we wanted a decent meal not fast food.  Unfortunately, we could not find anything so we finally settled on Cracker Barrel in Jasper, AL.  It was very busy so we probably lost another 1.5 hours getting our food.  All that to say, we didn't arrive at Memphis until 10 p.m. which was actually 11 p.m. our time.  We were exhausted and pretty much fell into bed.

Sunday morning found us awake early so we got breakfast and then went for a swim in the pool.  

Now you may be wondering why the pool was shaped like a guitar.  Well, the reason we pushed to get to Memphis was to be able to see Graceland, the former home of Elvis Presley.  My mother is a big fan of Elvis and has always desired to see Graceland therefore when I found a hotel right down the street from Graceland that had lots of Elvis memorabilia, I booked it.  Good thing I did as they had a sign on the door saying no more rooms when we arrived.  After breakfast, we took a walk down to see Graceland.  We could see the wall in front from the hotel.

We then got in the car for another 7 hours of driving.  We spent most of the day in Arkansas.  Due to a not very filling or good breakfast, we decided to stop for food.  Again, we had trouble finding anything beyond McDonald's or such so when we saw a sign for a cafe, we decided to give it a try.  It turned out to be a good choice.  They had a buffet with some of the best fried chicken I have ever had.  Their coffee was good and strong too!

Finally, we made it to Oklahoma!!  However, we had a few more hours to go so we pushed through and made it to our hotel by 7:30 p.m.  We look forward to some sight seeing in the morning! Stay tuned for the rest of our road trip.

First Recital

 

Gretchen had her first recital yesterday afternoon.  We signed her up for Baton Twirling at a local dance center.  Mama had enjoyed learning the baton some when she was younger and was happy to see Gretchen enjoy it also.  She did a fantastic job with their routine and only dropped her baton once.  They had a section where they performed in the dark with colored glow sticks on the end of the batons.  It looked really neat!  Next year, they don't have baton so we are going to give tumbling a try.  Gretchen is kind of glad she doesn't have to worry about a recital next year.