An "Easy" Day of Traveling

T and I planned for a short day of driving today. We had hoped that we would arrive at Pop's house in SC by early afternoon. Uh, no.

We left Lenoir City at the planned time -- 10 am. Taking the advice of a co-worker (thanks #4), we planned on avoiding the towns of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge by driving through Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We heard that the aforementioned cities would be jam-packed with fun-for-the-whole-family-style tourists. For Mid-MOers, it was described to us as Branson times ten.

Well, GSMNP was pretty great... a bit smoky looking... very crowded. It took us four hours to make it from our motel to Asheville, NC. Over three hours in the park. So our short day of traveling was not so short.

Long story short, we're in SC, just a few hours later than we thought we'd be. The visit with Pop has just begun. Tomorrow we'll hit the course while T sleeps in and catches up on some reading. I haven't picked up a club in several years, so I'm a little nervous about embarrassing myself. (Side note: PC, we need to hit the course a few times this summer. Zero is not enough golf.)

I'm keeping this post short -- I'll fill in details when I can, including a picture of me and T standing in front of the worst view in GSMNP (long story).

And So Begins Another Journey

For the next two weeks, T and I will be driving from CoMo to South Carolina, DC, Cape May, Philly, Pike County, NYC, Columbus, then back to CoMo. It's a whirlwind tour that will include individual visits with Dad, Pop, Tank, Blossom, Pippi, Sister and Big Daddy. It also includes a wedding in STL and a family reunion in PHL.

The trip officially began yesterday, when we packed up the Hyundai Elantra and pointed it east. (We're still trying to decide on a name for the Elantra. She is definitely a girl, according to T. Post your suggestions and we'll take them into consideration -- or at least laugh at them.)

The first day's travels were relatively short, as our first stop was a wedding outside St. Louis. We hit a little traffic, but arrived in North County in time to get changed and head out to St. Charles for the ceremony. The ceremony itself was nice -- simple, quick, violinist. A little to Jesus-y for my taste, but not too bad. T and I agreed that the reverend was way too Matthew McConaughey for his own good.

The craziest part about the ceremony was the location: New Town, MO. I don't know if it is an actual town -- with a mayor and city council and police and such. This place is a mix of Pleasantville, Children of the Corn, The Firm, Twilight Zone, and Charleston SC. Some developers bought property surrounded by farmland. They built their own little town with houses, townhomes, shops, cafés, fountains, parks, churches -- all brand new and painted matching colors. It was beautiful despite being a bit creepy. There were lots of perfect people walking their perfect, pre-approved pets. T was seriously getting sucked in. (I was too, but I would have ended up being the "bad element" of the town.) We later heard a rumor that you have to go through an interview process before you're allowed to buy a home there. It was all a bit bizzare.

The reception was fun -- the usual reception scene. T and her high school pals gossiping and catching up, while the husbands and I enjoy the open bar and discuss the phenomenon of the 10% hottness increase that occurs when a woman puts on a bridesmaid's dress.

After the reception, it was back to Dad's house. We got some sleep and headed out this morning for SC.

T got behind the wheel first, and put in quite a few miles, driving for almost 6 hours. We made it from North County, through IL, KY, and most of TN. We're spending the night in Lenoir. Tomorrow, we head through Great Smoky Mountains National Park, through NC, and to Pop's house in SC. We'll be posting as often as wireless allows, so check back in and feel free to comment.

We stop pretty regularly, since T has the bladder capacity of an empty walnut shell, so we will be continuing a tradition started by ATR and Monkeypants -- reporting on the quality of rest areas.

Rest Area Report #1: After day one, Kentucky has the lead. The welcome center/rest area on I-24 in Paducah was quite nice -- well air-conditioned, clean, manicured, with a very nice shady picnic area. The Illinois rest areas were mediocre at best, slightly below those in Missouri. At one IL stop, T almost stepped in something that might have at one point been the contents of somebody's stomach. Enough said.

Unfortunately, Nina had to stay home on this trip. (Read about my last road trip with Nina at www.me-and-nina.blogspot.com.)