Southeast Trip: Day One

Day One: Monday, October 29

 As we got in the van this morning and the Jedi was inputting the address of our first stop, he commented, “Leg one is a mere 226 miles.” I have to confess, it does feel like picking up the “little” corner of the southeast on our map feels like a much smaller excursion than some of our previous road trips. You’d think that would mean we’d get out the door smoothly, but our 9:30 departure was very different than our 6:15 departure for our first big road trip to California seven years ago.

Lunch wasn’t going to happen till close to 2 our time, so after a bank stop for quarters, we stopped at Chick-Fil-A for second breakfasts. Saw a meme, “Treat everyone the way Chick-Fil-A treats you.” Amen, friends. I also found myself counting my family was we walked out the restaurant door. They are not Navigators that need to be counted before, during, and after each transition.

According to tradition, as soon as we were on the highway and outside the city, I read aloud the van travel log. I only have 10 pages left in our log book for a 12 day trip, so I'm going to have to write front and back and not tape in all the brochures and ticket stubs and menus I usually do. I'll just collect the paper memorabalia from this trip and keep it in a bag in the back of the book. 

The Jedi and I got new phones for this trip, just to upgrade our cameras. I tested my phone camera's ability to take pictures from the window of a vehicle flying down the highway. It's not a road trip unless I'm snapping photos from the van. Also really hopeful that there is still plenty of fall colors when we drive back up through the mountains on the return. 

Our first stop was Blaze Fired Pizza in Bowling Green, Kentcuky. 

When you walk in, you head up to the counter and pick put the toppings you want on your pizza.

Then the pizza goes in a super hot oven and cooks in three minutes. And because I'm a homeschooling mom, I had to ask what the temperature of the oven was. Five hundred near the front. Six to seven hundred near the back, and up to a thousand up in the dome. 

The Jedi and Sweetling split a pizza, with bacon and sausage on the Jedi's half. Sweetling stepped outside of her plain cheese pizza comfort zone to add mushrooms on her half. Toa of Boy and I went all out on ours.

Toa of Boa has really outgrown his handle of Toa of Boy.  Perhaps I shall call him the Teen Chef. or the Young Chef. Hmmmmm. Regardless, the Chef at my crusts, because I didn't like the slight charring on the edges of the pizza. The Chef asked what I was talking about and said that the charring was a perfect compliment to the sweet sauce. 

In other news, all it took was one friendly server bringing me napkins and saying, "I got you, hon," for me to slip back into a southern accent. Whatever. My family is just gonna have to deal, cause its just inescapable on this trip.

Our first new state of the trip was Alabama, which welcomes visitors the proper way.....with giant rockets!

Alabama was where the Saturn rockets for the moon trips were built. Sweetling had found a cool US Space and Rocket Center during our trip planning process, but for time constraints, we had decided to skip that, since it would have added a day and we were going to Kennedy in Florida. A future visit maybe.  

We were also welcomed by this cool little guy.

Our first stop in Alabama was to the Autobahn Speedway.

 That was super fun. We only did one race, but it was physically demanding to control the cars on the turns and handle the vibrations of the cars. Cars on the track could reach speeds of 55mph, so this was no joke. I started off last in line, and spent the first few laps just learning to control my vehicle. When I got a little more confident, I poured on a little more speed, and nearly slammed into the side of Sweetling on a hairpin turn. I screamed, yanked my wheel, and floored the acceleration....and passed her! The terror of the near miss evaporated with the thrill of the race, so I chased down the Chef and passed him as well. Delusions of grandeur filled my mind. I could see myself joining their racing league, if we lived in the area. But then, reality hit. I couldnt find a safe place to pass the Jedi, and I was a little reluctant to display any reckless driving for him to witness. I turned my head to check on the Chef, certain he was on my tail...and suddenly Sweetling was beside me and passing! Crap! Before I could over take her again, she had passed the Jedi and was in a clear lead. A lap or two later, and the checkered flag and the end of our race. 

We four had had the track completely to ourselves for our race. The race after us had 10 men on the track. Sweetling said, "This is going to be like Baby Speedway." (Mario kart race track on the Nintendo switch.) I would have liked to stay and see their race, but it was 7pm, and closed at 8, Saw's BBQ closed at 8, so off we went.

Because of time restraints, we didn't drive to the restaurant's main location, but to a closer branch. The atmosphere was fun, with client graphetti on the walls, and the pulled pork was good. We had picked this restaurant in order to try some Alabama white sauce, which I bought a bottle of. It wasn't bad, but we weren't huge fans.

Next door to the restaurant, or in the same cute strip of shops, was Edgewood Creamery. That was some delicious, rich ice cream. 

They had an entire case of chocolate options. I think this photo of our ice cream selections sums up the differences between myself and the Jedi. 

And finally, because we can't do a road trip without multiple Wal-mart visits, we stopped for batteries for a reading lamp for the Chef and new headphones for Sweetling. And there was a big inflated elephant at the entrance wearing an Alabama shirt. Because.