Virginia Beach

Saturday, June 16

We opted to take the traffic-free route from Christiansburg to Virginia Beach, which is to drive east on 460 after Roanoke to route 58 into the Tidewater area. Another benefit of taking this route is that it passes right through Appomattox, Va. where the Confederates surrendered to the Union ending the Civil War in 1865. A quick visit to the Historical Society yielded the birthday and Father's gift that I needed for my dad, and the nearby Subway and Abbitt Park gave us the nourishment and playtime to see us through this 5 hour drive.

We arrived at my sister Kim's house minutes before my other sister Jenny arrived from Washington DC. An hour of watching the US Open later, my parents arrived and we headed to Primo's Pizzeria for a Birthday feast. Carrot cake was served up at Kim's and we were off to the Naval Lodge on the US Navy Little Creek Amphibious Base. While not a true suite, this was the best laid out hotel room we had stayed in on our entire trip.

Blacksburg

Two last things about Mooresville. It is the self-proclaimed (I'm assuming) "Race City, USA!" I was not aware of this, nor did I care too much, but it did explain all of the racing vehicles placed precariously on the roof of virtually ever business. Second, it is only 2:15 away from Blacksburg, VA, so we were excited to have a short day. This was partially ruined by the inability of people to merge properly (3 lanes into 2 no less) at a construction zone, causing an 8 mile back up just across the Virginia border which took 50 minutes to get through. (The previous sentence is the edited version scrubbed clean of extraordinarily specific, but accurate profanity.)

Our first stop in Blacksburg was Macado's, one of my favorite sandwich shops when I was attending Virginia Tech. The place and menu hadn't changed a bit. The food was great, but Gus was nearly traumatized by the T-Rex coming out of the wall above our table.

We then ventured over to the campus for a tour. We spent almost 3 hours walking around and playing in the shade. It was great to see all of the familiar places and all of the additions and changes that have occurred in the past 12 years since I visited.

We made it to our studio suite at the Holiday Inn Express in Christiansburg and decided on Chinese take-out from the Hunan House just down the road. It easily put every place we've been to in Austin to shame.

Between the traffic and the campus tour, Gus never had a sustained nap all day. We took him swimming in the hopes of keeping him up a little longer, but by 7 he was trying to climb into his travel crib.

Long drive

Really not much to report as we traveled from Chattanooga to Mooresville, NC. We drove through the Cherokee National Forest and along the beautiful Ocoee River filled with white water rafters until we hit I-40 near Asheville. Along the way we found another very nice park in Murphy, NC to have lunch and play. I even took out a golf club and some balls to pitch around. Gus wanted to try as well.

From I-40 we went south on I-77 for 20 minutes to reach Mooresville and our true one bedroom suite at the Hampton Inn and Suites. The only problem was that it was back-to-back 5+ hour days in the car. We were worn out when we arrived. We walked over to the restaurant next door, a Texas Steakhouse & Saloon, ordered a couple of salads, and returned to enjoy our room for the evening.

On to Chattanooga

Wednesday dawned beautifully. It was a clear blue day for the entire trip along Rt. 72, which took us through Corinth in northern Mississippi and onto Huntsville, AL before merging with I-25 to take us north back into Tennessee. August slept until we stopped for gas. So far we have been able to avoid doing this, only making stops when he is awake, but the gas was going for $3.06 a gallon.

We drove for another 20 minutes until we saw the Old Rocking Chair Restaurant and pulled in for lunch. This restaurant very well could be the inspiration for the Cracker Barrel chain. It had a little country store and great southern food that Gus stuffed in his face by the handfuls. Before we left we asked the blonde waitress that Gus flirted with throughout lunch if there was a park nearby that we could layout a blanket and play for a while. She kindly directed us to Spring Park in Tuscumbia, AL. This turned out to be the perfect spot.

Spring Park has a duck pond, a waterfall, a carousel, a small roller coaster, a splash and play zone, and a train that winds through the entire park. We set up shop under a large oak-like tree with a full canopy close to the train tracks, just below a hill where a new public library was being built, and within sight of a tank marking the Armory. Gus marveled at the dump trucks, cement mixers and bobcats at the work site and hopped happily on his knees as the train passed. After an hour, Gus began yawning so we strapped him in for the remaining three hours to Chattanooga.

Quality (Suites) also only offers studio style suites. After checking in and setting up, which now includes spreading the bedding of the extra bed on the floor, we ventured out to Acropolis for a Greek dinner. We were rather pleased with our meal and Gus appears to be willing to eat anything we give him.

To Memphis

The morning remained damp despite the weatherman's promise that things would clear up. In fact the cloudy, misty weather followed us to the Tennessee state line. All this meant that August was stuck in his seat until we reached the hotel in east Memphis. Construction on I-40 didn't help matters, adding a solid 45 minutes to our trip.

At 4 pm, we met up with Walter Wieners, the youngest son of August's namesake, in the lobby of our Holiday Inn Express (and Suites). He led the way to his home in Collierville, TN where his wife Becky had prepared a feast. August was shy at first, but warmed up quickly, especially to their young cat Coal. By the end of the evening, Coal could be found laying in ambush as Gus crawled around, and then zooming out of cover to squeals of delight. It was an excellent evening to make up for a duldrum type of day.

Morning in Arkansas

Despite thunderstorms that rolled through the area at 1:30 and 3:30 (with hail I found out), Gus slept great! His parents...not so much.

Two things I forgot to mention about the Holiday Inn Express in Camden. First, I was checked in by Meagon, Leesa, and Coty. Oh Arkansas and your spelling woes. Second, with Tara and I wearing shoes we didn't realize the condition of the carpet until August's arms and legs were black. Parts of the carpet were sticky, so we covered it up.

1st Morning on the Road

August slept through the night like a rock in a new room, we didn't hear him until almost 7! This morning we raided the breakfast bar in the lobby. Gus found a new favorite food...French Toast Sticks!

Despite the 10 - 10 pool hours, we jumped in at 9 for a little dip. After 20 minutes of splashing around, he was getting a little cold and ready for his 2nd breakfast. We are on pace to leave at 10 as planned.

Actually left at 9:57! Today's drive took us through the heart of Dallas and out I-30 toward Texarkana. Gus slept until 12:20 so when he woke up we stopped for a not so pleasant lunch in a park in Mount Pleasant. We found a nice enough tree with a fair amount of grass, but the ants were ferocious. Plus there was some other tiger striped flat bug that was leaving welts on my arms three times the size of itself. After standing it as long as possible, we loaded back up to continue our eastward trek.

It was at this point that our first Wal-Mart item failed us. The Schumacher 12-volt car fan was packed a little too far in the back. Tara was attempting to pull it out to plug it into the cigarette lighter to cool off Gus when the wire leading to the plug broke clean off. We had used the fan a total of one time. 15 minutes later Tara noticed that our 1-3 cigarette lighter adapter, also purchased at Wal-Mart for this trip, was frayed. When she felt the wire near the fray it was hot to the point of melting. We are now afraid to use the iPhone car charger we bought with these other two items.

With things not going quite as well as they had yesterday we stopped at Target to pick up some forgotten items and Starbucks for a little caffeine pick-me up. Gus was ready for his second nap by now, so we were able to listen to the Harry Potter audio books that I can download through the Austin Public Library System for the rest of our trip to Camden, Arkansas. "Where is Camden, AR?" you may ask. Basically it is 50 miles due east of Hope.

But it had a Holiday Inn (& Suites) Express. We attempted to book suites for this trip so the boy could go to sleep at 8 and we could watch tv in the other room to unwind. When I booked the Hampton Inn suite in Ft. Worth, I asked for the definition of a suite and was told that it was a living room separated from the bedroom by a door. I falsely assumed then that this was the standard definition of a hotel suite. HIE's definition is a living room area in a hotel room.

After setting up the room, I headed out to forage for food while Tara fed Gus at the hotel. I found a place called Pizza Pro and took a chance. They had a decent salad bar (which is what Tara wanted) and I ordered a medium pizza. I was encouraged by my choice when a couple of State Patrol Officers came in as I was waiting. The pizza was actually surprisingly good. The crust was a little sweet, but cooked perfectly with just the right amount of grease.

After eating we changed into our swim trunks for another dip. August is getting much more comfortable in the water, kicking and splashing more, and even putting his chin and mouth into the water. We swam for 30 minutes and returned to the room to retire for the night. In an attempt to not disturb him, we've been laying in the bed with the lights and tv off on the other side of our "suite."