Fall Vacation 2016 Day 1 - Leaving Alabama (for just a bit)

Back when we thought we'd be moving to Utah at the end of September, I started planned our route home.  We decided to really take our time and explore as much of the country as we could during that trip.  I'll post a detailed description of our plan on my travel blog, but basically we were going to try to stay off the interstate as much as possible.  At first our route would take us north to Nashville and then to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.  Later I decided  that since we were so close to the Appalachian Mountains we might as well go east to see them before turning west.

When we found out that we weren't moving away from Alabama in the immediate future I was a little sad that we would have to postpone the awesome road trip that was starting to shape up. But then I realized that the kids had a five day weekend coming up in October for Columbus Day/Parent Teacher Conferences.  

At first I wanted to take that time to visit my sister Lindsey in Houston.  However, she and I decided that her life is just a little too busy for that right now. She's teaching school now and so she would still have to work during some of the days we'd be in town.  

So then I turned my attention back to that road trip I'd been working on.  What if we did the Tennessee and Kentucky parts of that road trip during fall break?  

I had another reason I wanted to visit these states.  Last April I drove through Tennessee and Kentucky on my way to Indiana to help Lindsey move our Grandma to Texas. I was amazed at how pretty those two states were.  As I drove through Nashville I had a small impression that maybe we'd end up living there.  At the time I thought it was because maybe Brandon would end up stationed at the Army post near there.  But after he decided to get out of the Army I started to think that maybe he should look for a civilian job in Tennessee or Kentucky.

Brandon and I made a list of all the states we'd want to live in.  Most of them are out west, but  I wanted Tennessee and Kentucky on the list too.  Brandon added them, but he didn't understand why I would want to live in those states. I decided that he needed to visit the states for himself and see what I was talking about.  

So not only was this a sight seeing trip.  It was also serving as a bit of a reconnaissance mission. 

We made the decision to go on this trip about a week and a half before Fall Break would start.  That meant that most of the campsites were almost booked up by the time I got around to making the reservations.  To make things worse this was when our internet was only barely working. I had to book all the reservations on Brandon's little computer with slow internet.  I felt like I was doing it all half blind.  Some how I managed to piece together a five day four night road trip through Chattanooga Tennessee, The Great Smoky Mountain's National Park, the Cumberland Gap, and Mammoth Cave Kentucky.   

Brandon couldn't sign out until 1:00 on Friday afternoon so we decided that we'd let the kids go to school that day, but we'd check the girls out early.  Brandon and I spent the morning doing last minute packing and getting the car loaded up. Then Brandon went to sign out, and Derrick and Veronica went with me to pick up Charlotte and Lydia.  They were so excited that they got to leave school at 1:00 instead of 3:00.  

Brandon had a bit of a snafu with his paperwork (as usual) so we didn't get on the road until 2:00.  But after that it was smooth sailing. We were all pretty happy to be in the car speeding away from Fort Rucker.  I love this place, but we all were excited for a break in the routine.  

Our goal for the day was a motel in Chatanooga Tennessee.  At first I'd planned on camping this night, but I realized we wouldn't want to put up a tent in the dark.  It made more sense to drive farther on this day and just stay in a motel than to stop earlier to camp.  

Charlotte had brought Antler and had fun with her.

Lydia had Rose and played with her.

We stopped for dinner at a rest stop south of Birmingham.  Brandon had packed rolls, lunch meat, and cheese.  The kids just at the separate ingredients, but Brandon and I made sandwiches.

Then the kids ran around and played on the grass.

Charlotte kept doing tricks with her bear Honey.

The kids all made a nest out of pine needles.

Lydia got up on a table and kept doing elaborate dance moves.

Then it was back into the car for more driving.

We stopped for gas at a Loves Travel Stop.  We all love Loves because they have the cleanest restrooms.

Finally we made it to Chattanooga as we drove into the city we could see the lights from the houses on top of Lookout Mountain.  It was almost like they were floating in the air. When we made it into the main part of the city we could see all the city lights all over the valley. It reminded me a little of the lights in the Salt Lake Valley.  Charlotte kept saying, "Those lights are all so pretty!"

We drove to our motel.  We were staying at a Super 8 because they had a great price and still provided a continental breakfast in the morning.  Not many inexpensive places do that. It wasn't the fanciest place in the world, but compared to a tent it was great.  This was the first time we've stayed in a hotel since last September.  (If you don't count the resort my extended family stayed in on Christmas Day last year.)

All the kids love playing with the phone in the hotel.  We always make sure to unplug the phone right when we get into any hotel room. 

 Derrick was really cute with the phone.  He'd pick it up and say, "Hello, how are you?" and then hand the phone to me.

Derrick also found a Chattanooga relocation guide in the desk.  He called it a "Story Book" and wanted to look at it with me.  I liked looking at the houses.  I kept hinting to Brandon that we should move there.  (Actually if you look up Chattanooga in zillow there are some insanely inexpensive houses.  Some of them aren't in great neighborhoods, but others are perfect.  With a good job Chattanooga would be an awesome place to live.)

We'd got there around 8:30 so soon it was bed time. We let the kids fall asleep in both beds and then we moved them all onto one bed.  There will come a day when we can't get away with this anymore, but until then I'm doing this as long as possible.

Brandon and I stayed up for a little bit, but we were pretty tired too, so soon we settled in and fell asleep. It felt good to be out of Alabama and ready for a weekend of adventure.