We started driving away from Fort Rucker at 1:00 am on Wednesday November 16th. Brandon had got up around midnight and signed out from Fort Rucker for the last time. Then he came back to Becca's house, and picked up me and the kids. We went to our old house where the moving van was waiting for us. Brandon drove the moving van that was pulling a trailer with the jeep on it. I drove the Honda. Derrick and Veronica rode with me while Charlotte and Lydia got to ride in the cab of the moving van with Brandon.
We drove to Ozark, Alabama so that Brandon could fill the truck up at the diesel pumps at the Loves Travel Stop. Derrick and Veronica were not too happy with this whole being awake at 1:00 am thing.
Charlotte and Lydia were pretty exited to be riding in the truck with Brandon. Brandon said that they never really fell asleep that morning.
After our stop in Ozark we got on the road and drove and drove and drove and drove. We went through Montgomery and Birmingham and then drove into Mississippi. Not only was it dark for most of the way, but it was also FOGGY. The fog was really thick in some places. Derrick and Veronica slept and I listened to the radio.
I stopped at a rest stop just over the boarder in Mississippi on I-22. Derrick and Veronica were awake by then. I hurried to help them put on their shoes and then we went into the building to use the rest room.
Then I took a little nap while Derrick and Veronica played around in the front seat.
Veronica likes to look at the pictures on my phone so she did that.
Brandon and the twins showed up after about 30 minutes. When they came over to our car Derrick and Veronica yelled, :"Daddy's home!" The girls climbed in the car and had snacks with us.
We walked over to the restroom again and I helped everyone change their clothes. Then we got back on the road and kept driving. My gas tank was almost empty so I had to stop for gas right away. But after that short detour I was back on the road. We caught up to Brandon fairly quickly.
Brandon and I stayed together until we got to Memphis, Tennessee. We had to make a lot of crazy merges and turns. We both made it through okay though.
After making it through Memphis and across the Mississippi we headed north through Arkansas and into Missouri. We had another stop for gas. You can see that by this point I'd separated Derrick and Veronica's seats.
About 30 miles over the boarder of Missouri we stopped at the greatest rest stop ever. It had a playground. Seriously, every rest stop needs one of these.
Brandon caught up to us and all the kids had a lot of fun on the play ground.
We got food out of the car and had a little lunch. We'd bought root beer several days earlier and Derrick had been (not so) patently waiting for a chance to drink the root beer.
Veronica was pretty happy to get to drink it too.
And Brandon said I looked cute so he wanted to take my picture. I think he just really likes this shirt because cute is not the word I would use to describe me here.
We kept driving north and stopped at truck stop right outside of a town called New Madrid.
Brandon and the twins hopped into the Honda with us and we drove into New Madrid. If you look at a map of where Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee meet at the Mississippi River you will see the river make a big sweeping goose-neck curve. A little piece of Kentucky is located inside that curve. This geography anomaly has always intrigued me. So when I found out about an observation deck overlooking the curve I wanted to see it in person. That's why we went to New Madrid.
The river was really pretty.
We all enjoyed looking at the river.
There was a river walk along the edge of the river. After all that time in the car we were excited for a chance to stretch our legs.
Here's a view of the observation deck. I'd assumed that it jutted over the water, and I guess it does that when the water level is high. But this time of year is was high and dry.
There were nice benches along the path way. You can see Kentucky Island 10 in the back ground. That was a point of some strategic importance during the Civil War.
There were lots of old dandelions lining the path. The kids all had fun picking and blowing the seed tops.
More pictures of how "good" I looked. At least I'm skinnier these days.
The kids liked this little pretend stone house.
There was a boat ramp that led down to the water. So we went down that.
Charlotte had found a big stick earlier and was determined to throw it into the water.
The kids walking down the steps to the Mississippi River.
Finding rocks to throw in the water.
Another shot of island 10.
A barge was floating down the river. It was cool to see it come around the bend and then turn to go passed us. I'm sure I'm wrong, but being a captain of a river barge seems like a pretty stress free job. All you have to do is lazily float down a river.
New Madrid was the site of three large earthquakes that occurred in 1811 and 1812. Seismographs didn't exist in North America back then, but based on eye witness accounts these were some of the worst earthquakes to ever happen in the United States. Some experts estimate that if these types of earthquakes were to happen again there would be widespread damage as far away as Boston. (Just a friendly reminder to stock up on food storage.) Here's a sign indicating the location of the New Madrid Fault Line.
We got back into the car and drove back to the truck stop where the moving van was parked. Brandon and the twins jumped back into the cab of the truck and we all started driving west. Our goal for the night was a Days Inn in a little mountain town deep in the Ozark Mountains.
I'm sure the Ozarks are beautiful, but it was dark by the time we were driving through them. I'd been awake for about 18 hours and so those last few hours of driving were pretty rough. I was pretty happy when we finally pulled into Mountain Grove and I could get us checked into our motel.
Derrick and Veronica ate hot dogs while we waited for Brandon and the twins to show up. They were about 20 minutes behind us.
Once everyone was there I made all the kids take baths. Derrick and Veronica laid down in one bed and quickly fell asleep. I laid down with Charlotte and Lydia to help them settle down, but I think I was asleep before they were. Brandon moved them into the bed with Derrick and Veronica, and came to lay down next to me.
Both of us were pretty happy to have made it so far on our first day of driving. Because we'd pushed so hard on this day we were going to have a lot of time for sight seeing during the rest of our drive.
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