Drive, Drive, Drivey Drive Drive

A few months ago, my brother Steve called me and we talked about his upcoming move to South Korea.  He has been spending years and years in school for Dentistry, and then to be an Endodontist.  He did it all through the Army, and now it's time to pay back his time.  He has been in Georgia and knew that this move was coming up, so his wife had to move to LA with their little boys.  She's pregnant and had to leave Georgia before she was too far along in her pregnancy to safely fly.  

Steve has a boat and he wanted to keep it through the moves, so he had to make his way from Georgia to Utah to store it.  Then, after dropping off the boat, he could go on to California to spend time with his family before the baby came and his time to go to Korea came.  He asked if he could fly me out to Georgia so that I could help him and keep him company on his drive to Utah.  I couldn't think of anything cooler than that, so I jumped at the chance.  

I took my kids to my mom's house to stay for a few days and she drove me to the airport when I flew to Atlanta.  It was so nice to fly all by myself!  I thought I'd be scared because I am not a huge fan of flying, but I was brave.

I listened to books and caught up in my journal.

Steve picked me up under this super cool canopy thing...

It was so fun to see him pull up with our old family boat in tow.

I hopped in and we drove a few hours that first night.

We stayed at a hotel in Georgia somewhere and as I called Mike to check in, I couldn't believe how loud the bugs were.  Mike could hear them through the phone and it reminded him of his mission.  As I talked, I watched a spider in the parking lot wrap up a beetle to save for later.  My boys would have liked seeing that.  Allie, not so much.

The next day, we drove through the Smoky Mountains.  They really are smokey!  I kept singing the few lines that I knew of Smoky Mountain Rain  by Ronnie Milsap.  Steve is 8 years younger than me, so his memories of road trips when my dad was alive are completely different than mine.  He remembers my dad singing all those old country songs, but doesn't know the songs as well as me.  We did listen to a little Rhinestone Cowboy in honor of my dad.

That first real driving day we drove through the rest of Georgia to Tennesee, then Kentucky, and on to Illinois and stopped in Missouri for the night.

I loved seeing the sights of each State.

Steve's wife comes from a foodie family.  They like to look up the best places to eat and they plan their vacation stops around food.  So, Steve called his wife and asked him to find us a place to eat.  Smokin Chikin was the place.  It was really good...

I am a sucker for bridges.  I really do love them.  We were able to see a lot of beautiful bridges on this trip and I tried to photograph them as we drove.

We pulled into St. Louis and drove to see the arch.  Getting in to ride the elevator up the arch was all sold out, so we toured the visitor's center and went to find food.

Steve was cracking me up with all this theories about where missile launching pads are hidden.  He said this was a perfect place for one.  :)

We didn't expect the crowds in the city.  It was a game night and we were right by the stadium.  The game was for the Cardinals and the Cubs, so people were everywhere.  The restaurant that had great reviews, was totally packed, so we went to a sandwich shop.  The guy outside the shop was asking for money to buy food.  I told him I didn't have cash, so he told me I could just buy him a sandwich with my card.  He said he likes turkey.  As we were ordering our sandwiches, Steve ordered the guy a turkey sandwich and the employees started to laugh because I guess that guy gets someone to buy him a sandwich several times a day.  Steve's a good kid.

After dinner, we walked back to the car to head out. Steve and I joked about just launching the boat right there on the Mississippi.  It would have been fun!
It was full of all of Jenny's stuff when she cleared out her storage unit in Florida, so no room for us to get in and sit down.  We passed many places to go boating as we traveled...missed opportunities for sure.

I took this picture of the stadium as we were heading out because it has my cute Nate boy's name on it.

The traffic was super annoying for the game, but we were soon on our way again.

Like I said before, Steve's wife is pregnant and due any day, so we felt a sense of urgency to get home.  We didn't stop much, and I took most of my pictures from the window of our moving car.  It was really fun to see Angel Moroni sticking up through the trees as we left St. Louis.

We logged a lot of hours driving, filled up with tanks and tanks of gas, and went through some beautiful countryside.  Great day for sure.