Giant Road Trip of 2013 -- Part Three (**Revised**)

**Somehow this posted with just pictures 
and not all the content I wrote. 

Grr...... 

Let's see if I can recreate what I wrote.**

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When the end of a vacation approaches I tend to have mixed feelings. Part of me is looking forward to getting home and sleeping in my own bed, the other part hates the thought of getting home and facing a mountain of laundry and Hubby back at work and I don't get to see my friends and family any more.

But then there's this blog where I get to drag out my posts about the trip and re-live the whole thing.

You're welcome

We left the beach house on Friday morning. I was glad all the Little Ones were awake so I could give them all kisses good-bye.

We took a different route on our trip back home so we could squeeze in a few more visits.

Our stop on Friday was to visit my cousins who live in Eastern Tennessee. (Loudon.) I hadn't been there to see them for 34 years (I've seen them at family events over the years). Hubby never had been to that part of Tennessee.

My aunt and uncle farmed there on an old farm.  My uncle passed away 24 years ago. (My aunt remarried a few years ago at age 82 (!) and lives in Florida.) My cousins live in this house.

The house was built in 1845. There are a couple of chunks out of the bricks around the front porch that happened during a Civil War battle.

My relatives have lived here since 1957. But just think that before they lived there, there had been over 100 years of history there already! Mind boggling.

The views from the house are breathtaking. (It was beginning to get dark and had been raining, so the pictures are a little dull.)

A very, very long time ago, this building was slave quarters.

A cherished photo of my sweet cousins and me. These two have an older sister who is the oldest cousin on my dad's side of the family. I am the youngest. I am so blessed to be related to these two Southern Ladies.

We enjoyed a few hours of talking, looking at a few pictures, and laughing.  We shared memories, family stories and had fun talking about our grandparents.



(As we were planning our vacation, this stop was all Hubby's idea. He gets a Gold Star for that!)

The next day we stopped in Nashville for a long lunch with some friends. We know them from the previous Minnesota town we lived in. It was good to spend time with them at catch up on each others lives. We miss our friends.

We were delayed getting into Nashville because of slow traffic. (You know -- one of those traffic jams that when it finally breaks up, there is no obvious reason for the slow down.) So, because of that delay, we were just a smidge too late for a stop later in the day at The National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky. (I was wanting to look around in the gift shop some.) It closed at 5pm and we got there at 5:05pm. Phooey. I was sad.

Saturday night was in St. Louis, then Sunday morning, we drove through northeast Missouri on up into Iowa. Sunday afternoon was a quick stop at my in-law's house. They are getting ready to sell their house and move into an apartment. (More on that later.) We picked up a few things, had a nice visit, then finished our last leg home.

It was a wonderful vacation. I was worried I would be stressed with having to get up early to get on the road so many mornings, but I really wasn't. (Maybe it helped that we were seeing friends or family at the end of most days?) We passed the time in the car listening to a couple of audio books. One book I really liked (a John Grishan novel) the other not so much (about WW2 battles). We also took notice of the license plates on the cars around us and wrote down all the different states. We found 43 states and The District of Columbia and 2 Canadian provinces. (Remember doing that as a kid?)

Ten days. 3,301 miles. Thirteen States. Five hotels. Good memories.

Giant Road Trip of 2013 -- Part Two

For Part One of our Giant Road Trip of 2013 click here.

Before we left the Raleigh area, we strategically spent the night near a mall I wanted to shop at on Monday morning. You know me, living in a small town, I take advantage of shopping whenever I can!

We needed to pick up a gift for a sweet little girl (my niece's little girl) who was turning three in a few days. We picked her up some LEGOS. She smiled when she opened it and said "thank you!" very sweetly. 

Hubby captured a great series of pictures of the new three year old trying to blow out her birthday candle. I made a little collage of the series. You can see the flame flickering and her little cousin trying to help.

I just love her face in the last picture when she realized there was victory! 

The next several days we hung out at the beach with the majority of my family in this house::

With views on the outside like this:

And views on the inside like this:

It was very difficult to get a good picture of these three great-nieces of mine when we were playing together. They were wiggly and being tickled by their great-uncle and therefore -- blurry photos! :)

There were three babies in addition to these three. After we left somehow they managed to get all Six of The Littles on a couch for a photo:

(The two babies on either side of the girl in the purple shirt are twins.) (Photo credit: my niece. She graciously let me "borrow" this photo and the next.)

While I think the photo of The Six Littles is adorable, this photo is hilarious:

 (My niece calls this one, The Paparazzi.) (It looks like a twin is getting her diaper changed on the left there.) (The quilt on the floor is one of two I made for my sister.)

We had really good food while we were at the beach house: grilled tuna steaks, roasted broccoli, a shrimp boil., went out for shrimp burgers and my brother made these amazing wings on the 4th of July:

One more post to warp up our trip.....

Giant Road Trip of 2013 -- Part One

Sunday night Hubby and I returned from what I dubbed Giant Road Trip of 2013.

3,301 miles and thirteen states to be exact. I think that qualifies as Giant, don't you?

Our destination was the beach in North Carolina. My sister and brother-in-law own a house on the beach and my extended family was gathering there for parts of the first two weeks of July. We debated about flying out there, but decided on driving and stopping to see friends along the way.

As I look through my list of Facebook friends, sometimes I have to stop and think about which "life" do I know that person from. Was it College? Childhood? Family? When we lived in Iowa? Kansas? Missouri? Singapore? Minnesota? Needless to say, we have friends and family spread out all over the country.

Hubby mapped out a few possible routes, we thought about who we knew where and sent out emails to college friends, family and old friends. Only one visit didn't work out because of a special family outing they had planned for their special needs son. (We thought it was best to let the family have their time with him.)

So the last Friday in June, we hit the road and drove until quite late that night. We "waved" at our parents as we drove through their towns (we'd see them later), and made a stop at my (other) sister's house to use the clean non-public bathroom. ;)

Saturday we were up at at 'em and on the road to our destination to western Pennsylvania to visit our best friends from college whom we hadn't seen for 10 years. He was Hubby's roommate and a groomsman in our wedding and she was a very close friend and my personal attendant for our wedding. We were all four very good friends in college.

I can't even describe how good it was to see these people! So encouraging to see how God has built our marriages, how our faith has grown and what our kids are up to.

After a delicious dinner, we said goodbye way too soon and headed on down the road for our second night in a hotel.

The next day took us through Pennsylvania, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia and North Carolina. This mid-westerner finds it a little crazy to drive through so many states in one day. And can I say that the traffic through the DC area is more than a bit nuts? We were thankful to have GPS that kept us up to date on the traffic patterns. We also spent time listening to one of our favorite CDs that is full of hymns. Selah - Greatest Hymns. So appropriate for a Sunday on the road.

In order to maximize our time on the road and to avoid fast food, we packed a cooler full of sandwich fixings and snacks. That worked out very well. I must say, Hubby is a master at driving and munching on a sandwich.

That evening we ended up in the Raleigh, NC area to see some friends from the town we lived in before here. These friends moved away seven years ago and five years ago their beloved daughter was killed in a car accident. We have longed to see them for such a long time. They treated us to yummy North Carolina barbecue. We were so encouraged to be with them and to hear about the journey they have been on. 

Sadly, we forgot all about getting a picture of all of us. 

Trip story to be continued....