Crossing the Mississippi River. I gave up on taking pictures while driving after this
Vivian and I survived our road trip to pick up Dots at camp in North Carolina (though as you can see, it's taken me a week to recover enough to blog about it!). On the way there we traveled with a big thunderstorm, which made for some stretches of slow and tedious driving, but other than that, the trip was uneventful. No trips to the ER for me like last year, thank goodness!
First stop: Birmingham to see my friend Anne-Murray and her family (shown here: Vivian, Anne-Murray and A-M's daughter Lauren)
Me and Anne-Murray
Vivian largely did very well, though there were frequent pleas from the back seat to "take the big girl home." I kept reminding her, "But, Vivian, remember we have to pick up Dorothy at camp?" To which she finally replied, "Let's take the big girl home instead."
Stop two: dinner in Knoxville with my roommate from SMU, Mary, and her family
This was Vivian's birthday. Anne-Murray had a cake and balloons for Vivian at her house and Mary and her daughter Lizzy had made Paula Deen's S'mores Cake, which Vivian LOVED
I listened to two books on tape during the trip that really helped the time to pass quickly. The first was In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin
, which I would highly recommend. The second was State of Wonder
, which I thought was good but not great.
Thursday morning: waiting in line (in more rain, of course) to pick up Dots from camp in North Carolina
Mission accomplished! Dots and her friend Cleary Gray, whom we dropped off at her house in Birmingham on our way home
Third night: Jackson, Mississippi, where we stayed with my friend Cynthia (pictured her with her daughter Katie and me)
Vivian loved Cynthia's pets, especially her cat Alpine
Cynthia's dog Isabelle is our Tucker's mother!
Apart from reuniting with Dots, the best part of the trip was seeing three of my all-time favorite friends. I wish I had had more time to spend with each of them. Maybe I'll make the journey again next year and stay longer!
4 comments:
What a wonderful trip! Yay, Miss Vivian for being such a trooper! Yay, to your great friends....Southern homes are always decorated so beautifully!:)
-linda,ny
WOW, that was quite a trip. How fortunate that your good friends live along your route to N.C.
That's a lot of driving! What fun to see friends along the way.
We used to make that drive when DS was in college. There is beautiful scenery, and it is even better when there are friends along the way!
Even though Vivian looks pretty happy, I am sure she is even happier to be home with her own sweet pets!
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