January 1, 2019
We packed up to leave the Everglades on New Year's Day, destined for Atlanta. Our tent was still damp when we had to pack it, so that sucked. And would you believe it if I told you it rained the whole rest of our trip so we couldn't even set it up to dry? True story.
Driving in Florida takes longer than anywhere else I've driven. There's so much traffic that you just can't drive faster. So it took us longer than I wanted it to to get up to Orlando and meet up with Lori for lunch at a park. But we got there and that's all that matters. That one hour was not enough time for Thora, though. Orlando will have to be on the list for another time. Thora even planned her shirt for that day because Lori has the Thing 1 shirt and Thora has Thing 2. I just forgot to tell Lori.
{Katie, Tommy, Dancy, Lori, Thora, Samson}
I swear, this was every 2 miles. We've learned our lesson. To quote Mike Plautz, "Next time SunPass that shit!"
We stayed with Pam and Kent Smith in Atlanta...didn't arrive til after 10 pm. Loooooong day! We left at 8 am!
January 2, 2019
We were exhausted from our Florida drive and let everyone just sleep naturally. We hadn't replanned anything for Atlanta since the government was still shutdown and that ruled out seeing the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park. We decided to take the day off. We caught up on sleep, laundry, and food that wasn't straight from a can. We thought about hiking around Stone Mountain, but it started to pour rain again. So we didn't. Liz came over to visit for a little bit. She's Pam's daughter and we were good friends in middle school and high school. I didn't get a picture.
January 3, 2019
We said goodbye to Pam and Kent to head to Birmingham, Alabama to stay with Albert and O'Rachel Weeks (okay, her real name is Rachel, but you have to specify Rachels and that's her specification).
{Pam, Katie, Tommy, Thora, Chip (Liz's son), Dancy, Samson}
I think everyone has that friend who's mom becomes a second mom. Pam has definitely been a second Mom to me.
We left on the misty morning and drove 3 hours to Birmingham, Alabama.
I contacted O'Rachel on our way to Birmingham, but didn't hear back from her for a while. When I did, it was that she and her family were still sick. I told her that we wouldn't come because she was in no condition to be hosting. I love hosting people and I know that would be miserable. She felt bad, but I told her not to. Sick happens.
While trying to figure out an alternate plan, we went to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (which is now a National Monument). Big mistake. We bought our tickets, no problem. Then we went in and the greeters were like, "Ohhhh! You brought KIDS here? That's...interesting." The whole institute looking and reading and absolutely no touching. That's fine for some people. I had already done a couple of those this trip and wasn't about to do another one. We just walked through quickly and left. And then I called Mallory and asked if we could come spend the night 2 days earlier than planned. We ended up driving straight through to McAlester, Oklahoma. Okay, now get this: We drove from Atlanta, Georgia to McAlester, Oklahoma and had mayyyyyybe an hour without rain. That's a lot of distance!
So, hello, Arkansas!
And that's where I stopped taking border pictures.
January 4, 2019
We spent the night at Paul and Mallory's, arriving late and leaving the next morning. We were just burned out from all the everything chaotic at the end of our trip. We just wanted to get home.
Heading west toward Oklahoma City.
At a park in Pampa, Texas. Shad and I walked around the path while the kids played on the playground. These geese would flare up into honking wildly every time we approached their ice pond. They did not appreciate us being there.
One of my favorite things living in Kansas was seeing the golden hay rolls in the field against the blue sky. Leave it to Texas to ruin that by wrapping the bales in unnatural neon yellows and pinks.
But at least the panhandle was pretty when they weren't busy ruining it with neons.
See! Pink! 😡
(I literally just discovered I can use emojis in here. I've only been using Blogger for...9 years.)
I don't know what small town this was that we drove through in the northeast corner of New Mexico. Des Moines, maybe? I really can't remember. But I like how there are just little mountains in the middle of these flatlands, separate, distinct, their own personalities.
Approaching Capulin and I thought this was the volcano. Wrong, but still another cool solitary mountain.
THAT'S Capulin Volcano! We were tempted to stop and hike it, but hesitated due to daylight and not knowing if we'd be able to get in because it's a National Monument and the government was still in shutdown mode. We'll catch you April 27, Capulin.
And we ended the night with beautiful, thin sunset layers.
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