The end of the summer meant that it was time to move Whit out to Utah. Super excited for her! It also meant saying good-bye to Caroline and Andrew who couldn't come with us. Caroline is starting at a charter school for high school, the North Carolina Leadership Academy. We're excited for that opportunity, but they start school TWO WEEKS before Guilford County, so that meant it didn't work for her to drive across the country with me. Super sad.
This right here was the hardest part of moving Whit to college.
Watching her say good-bye to Caroline and Andrew. And the piggies.
It was heart-wrenching, even for this mom who doesn't cry much.
We both started the trip in tears. :(
Also, notice that we are driving Whitney's car out!
It is a 2001 Toyota Corolla that we bought from Grandma Cuca
a couple of years ago. It has been a perfect car for Whit.
I had my mechanic check it out before we left and
he gave it the green light for us to drive it across the country!
After drying our tears, we enjoyed our drive.
We had to get to Louisville on our first night.
We took a slightly different drive than usual
and it was gorgeous!
I loved the scenery.
We looked up a cute little diner in Gate City, VA
called Campus Drive-In.
We liked the food.
Pretty scenery
Fun tunnel
And then...one of our favorite road trip sights:
Bucees!!!
So excited to unexpectedly find a Bucees on our way!
We made it to Aunt Stephanie's and Uncle Alex's home.
Whit was excited to see Trixie.
We had a yummy dinner and a great visit with Alex,
Stephanie, and Jonathan.
The next day we were off to St. Louis.
Beautiful, blue skies and open roads.
We stopped at Grant's Farm,
where Care Bear and I had been before,
but was new to Whit.
You get to see some cool animals on the tram in.
We fed the baby goats.
They are crazy.
And so cute!
And really pushy.
We also fed the birds.
That bird house is so hilarious.
It cracks me up and creeps me out
a little at the same time. Ha!
We didn't stay long, but had a great time there.
Then we were off to Kansas City to stay with Jessica
and Tyler and their family. We had dinner with everyone,
then we took Jessica and headed to Starlight Theatre to
watch Anastasia. It was SOOO good.
We didn't realize it was an outdoor theater when we
bought the tickets. It was warm, but not terrible.
When we bought the tickets, we thought Care Bear would be coming
with us. Since that didn't work out, we had an extra and were
happy to share with Jessica.
We ran into her in-laws while we were there.
Loved the show.
Tyler and three of the crazy kiddos. :)
Our drive that morning didn't go as planned.
The car started driving rough and sounding bad.
I could tell it was a problem with the tires.
We stopped at a gas station and made sure they
all had the right amount of air,
but it didn't help.
By the time I decided we had to stop for help,
we were in the middle of nowhere Iowa.
Hamburg, to be exact.
We stopped at a small garage and waited to
see what the damage would be.
I was right.
It was the tires!
Look at them!
Even though they have plenty of tread,
because they are old, they started
falling apart down at the bottom.
Can you see the steel down there?
Ron saved the day!
And he only charged me ten bucks!
He put on my spare and sent us on our way.
The Corolla uses small 14" tires that are uncommon,
so there were non available in Hamburg.
The spare got us to Lincoln, NE where we
stopped at a Walmart to get four new tires.
It was kind of a long wait.
We walked across the parking lot to a local
fast food place called Runzas.
They have a side called Frings--
half fries, half onion rings.
LOVED that.
More places should do that!
Yay for new tires!
Back on the road.
Lots of corn fields,
as you would expect.
Coyote statue
Tee pee
Big American flag
Wind turbines
Abraham Lincoln statue.
This is the peak of excitement on the drive through NE. :)
Our fun stop the next day was in Laramie, WY.
Whit and I loved it!
They had some GREAT little shops in their downtown.
We loved looking around.
We missed Care Bear when we saw
the "Plant Lady" section.
Had lunch at a delicious vegetarian cafe,
Sweet Melissa. Loved it.
I'm an amazing photographer. Ha!
We ordered two yummy dishes and
shared them both.
Pretty clouds.
Stopped at Little America for 99 cent ice cream cones.
They also sell Pink Cookies there.
I didn't get one this time. :)
And after four days of driving,
we made it to Utah!
Looking forward to some quality time with our
extended family. And a few days not spent in the car.
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