**LOTs of pictures this time**
We started out Tuesday VERY tired (it was early!). The weekend & frenzy of activity was catching up with us, and we had our biggest driving day ahead of us- 600+ miles, over 10 hours.
Our goal was to get across Tennesee, head as far as we could in Virginia and see where we landed.
We decided not to drug Buddy- he looked too wierd. His eyes sagged down & he lost depth perception- it was pretty funny, but also sad! We felt too sorry for him (big suckers). Lucky for us, the dogs turned out not to need any help sleeping - they were zonked the entire time. At one point, Sie double checked if I had given Tink anything because she literally didnt move for the entire 600 miles!
chillin in their "dog hammock", a real lifesaver for people with shedding dogs!
During the LONG drive, we encountered what Sie & I (ok, mostly me) referred to as "Tree People." I made sure to call out "TREE PEOPLE!" really loudly to ensure Sie didn't miss them. HA! Here were some interesting ones:
We also encountered some great signage too, although Sie had to stay pretty focused on the road. One thing neither of us realized was that our route to DC was LITERALLY trucker madness. We have never in our lives seen so many semis, truck stops, shops for truck sales, truck parts, truck cleaning, etc etc.
It must be that Tennesee is central to many large cities, but regardless we were often the only "car" on the road in the middle of lines of enormous trucks. Once again, I was SOO grateful Sie drove! Here are some signs we liked; Mom, the squirrel is for you:
Both Tennesee & Virginia were beautiful; so green- very rural "Americana" with farms and churches everywhere.
Throughout the trip we were mostly thankful for one thing: Howard Stern! Sie remembered to bring along his Sirius, and about an hour before we arrived in DC, we realized we had not listened to music ONCE, which is very unlike us. As trashy it may be- it made the time FLY & was extremely entertaining! (thanks to the release of Pineapple Express, Seth Rogen was on one day & might have been one of the best guests ever- it was HILARIOUS)
As an added bonus, whenever boredom set in for me in the passenger seat, I took it upon myself to mess with Buddy. He enjoys any and all attention- so we both win.
Here is what happens when mom gets bored.
"oh, no- what does she want"
"chicklet teeth"
"this is humiliating"
"if I can eat these, maybe she'll let me be"
"giving up"
Meanwhile in the driver's seat, Sie was focused elsewhere. He kept mumbling things like "damnit" or "almost got it"; finally, I realized he was making a game for himself out of keeping up our miles per gallon. He was determined to make 40 mpg but couldn't quite get there- it was VERY hilly. Gotta love him.
We made it through Tennesee, and headed into Virginia, not really knowing where we'd end up.
I have to disclose: We had to do a huge loop around to get this picture because I missed it the first time!! We (Sie!) discovered that I am almost incapable of taking a good picture from the passenger seat. Any that actually came out well were based on sheer luck, not skill.
Without fail, every time i snapped, there would be an enormous sign in the shot, a big truck would drive by, or I would miss the target entirely. Sie of course loved this & made HILARIOUS (not!) jokes regarding my keen abilities! haha. :)I could make an entire blog posting my crooked/obscurred/blurry masterpieces, but there's just not enough time. ;)
After over 650 miles on the road, we passed what we thought would be our stopping point (Roanoke) because we were on a roll & really not minding the drive too much. We went all the way to Lexington, VA- home of Washington & Lee and frankly... not much else!
We stayed at a HOJO (haha, the ridiculous nickname for Howard Johnson) for 29 bucks a night thanks to the "coupon" the nice lady at the front desk offered me.
It wasn't terrible, had free breakfast and frankly after such a long drive we were so grateful to relax and FINALLY get to enjoy some Olympics!
Next up- OUR NEW HOME!
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