Our vacation began on Saturday.  As with all major trips, it began with a walk up the road to drop the dogs off at Granny Grandma Roberts.  Just like most parents, we were sadder to see them go, than they were.  They hardly looked back as they took off looking for treats.

We decided to take our time up on the way up to "Nashvegas" as most people call it.  That meant a trip to the other in-laws. 

We wound up, somehow, missing lunch and were pretty starved when we showed up on their doorsteps.  We quickly unloaded the car, and piled my mom's old car, that became my car, that reverted back to my mom's car.  It's a 1996 Toyota Avalon.  If that doesn't impress you, the 295,000 miles on the odometer should. 


We wound up at an Oyster bar off of Lake Guntersville.   It had only been open a few weeks, so they were covered up. 

My parents, much like myself, hate to wait for anything.  With it being a Sunday afternoon, they were covered up.  We decided to get on the list, and have my parents go run some errands. 

This actually backfired in a way.  An hour-long wait, suddenly turned in to 10 minutes.  The girls running the pager system, accidentally hit our pager, and we found ourselves being sat early, to avoid us being upset with them for the false-start. 

We eventually got in touch with everyone, and ended up having a great meal of oysters, shrimp, and other creatures of the lake and sea. 


So we got back after running their errands, and crashed out in the basement of their house.

I awoke early in the morning.  It was so early it was dark.  Not a soul would dare arise so early...except Cassie.  I have to blame the excitement of the trip, but she was out of the bed and no where to be found.  I managed to get dressed and work my way upstairs, only to discover it was in fact 10:30 and the lack of natural light in the basement had thrown my sense of time off.

My dad has this strange ability...maybe it's a need, to work on my car whenever I'm up there.  He prefers to wait until I'm minutes from leaving on a big trip.  While the work is always appreciated, it often causes us to be late on our timeliness and introduces a little stress on the way out. 

This time, we mitigated that stress by having him get started two hours before we needed to go. 

He thinks he's being sneaky, "Pull your car up and I'll wash the wheels with my pressure-wash".  I knew good and well he was up to something.

We finished packing and loading up only to find the entire car washed and cleaned. 

We manage to finally hit the trail.  It took us a while, but before long we were in Tennessee. 

We pulled over at a truck stop diner, to grab some food and lottery tickets.  That's what you do when you live in Alabama.  You go across state lines for food, fuel, and lottery tickets .  As soon as we walk up, Cas tries to enter the door in front of the car.  I almost let her, but figured that would just be mean..and disturbing.

It was so bright, she didn't notice but the door was to a "Truckers Shower".  After a laugh, and a bruised rib, we finally sat to eat and had a delightful meal while scratching off little $1 scratchers.  We won about $25 or so and finally wrapped things up. 

The only eventful part was when a local sat down next to us while we ate.  We shouldn't be judgmental, but it reminded me that we were still in the south.


An hour later, we're pulling in to our beautiful hotel. 

They had a nice flat-screen tv, corner couch with rolling foot-prop (sorry I'm a guy), and a nice King size bed we got promoted to, thanks to some social engineering on the phone earlier that week.

So ends Day 1.  I think it was a success.  No tickets, no wrong interstates...of course that's another story...