Road Trip 2024 – Day One

November 10, 2024

 

Today is the beginning of a road trip to fulfill a bucket list item for me, my sister (Terry), and my mother (Mum). The bucket list is to finish visiting all 50 US states. Years ago when I was a wee little bugger, my family took two cross-country trips over two summers and we visited an estimated 40 states. In the intervening years, we’ve all picked up additional states, together and individually so that we have just a handful of states left to visit. I have Mississippi and Alabama, Terry has Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana, and Mum has Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Hawaii (which obviously won’t be covered on this trip, but Terry and I have promised to take one for the team and go with Mum to Hawaii sometime soon-it’s a hardship but someone must do it, right?!).

 

Mum flew from Maine yesterday and Terry picked her up in D.C. and they drove to my house in Virginia for the night. There was lots of talking, catching up, and giddiness about our upcoming road trips. We even have road trip names thanks to my brother Scott and sister-in-law, Elizabeth. Terry is Thelma Lou, Mum is Honey Boo, and I’m Cora Sue. We decided the car should have a road trip name too and dubbed her Daisy Doo (sorry Bill!).

 

We departed Virginia this morning nice and early and took a photo to commemorate the road trip. 

Notice all the luggage? It’s only half of what we brought. Obviously, we wanted to be prepared for famines, zombies, and Armageddon. It was a 6-hour drive today to our first stop in Knoxville, Tennessee made longer by lollygagging and tarrying, and occasional fun things to witness along the way.

If we wanted to stop, then we stopped with no guilt – it was wonderful and something I need to institute for myself for future road trips.

 

We stopped at a rest area in Adkins, VA for lunch and discovered they had precisely one picnic table that was smack dab in front of God and truckers. It was a delightful meal with a lovely tablecloth all provided by Thelma Lou (Terry) who is a provisioner extraordinaire! Honey Boo (Mum) was captivated by the location of the solitary table and took a picture of us to commemorate the occasion.

 

Back on the road, we all settled into our assigned rolls. Terry is the driver, Mum is the keeper of the list of license plates we spot, and I am in the backseat working on a sarcastic cross-stitch for a friend. Sarcastic cross-stitch is basically rude sayings with fancy flowers and vines to decorate it. The one I’m working on right now says, “Well, Shit!” with lots of pretty flowers. I’ve found my calling in life.

 

About ½ hour from our destination of Knoxville, Tennessee, Terry spotted a huge sign for Buc-ees which, if you’ve never experienced one, is a huge convenience store/gas station on steroids. 

https://buc-ees.com

It had 20+ gas pump islands and the store was the size of freaking Manhattan. It was loud, overwhelming, and wonderful. I think I had a seizure from being over stimulated in there. We lasted for about 20 minutes before making a beeline back to the exit excitedly clutching our Buc-ee the Beaver treasures.

We finally arrived at our hotel in Knoxville around 4:30 and quickly settled in. The hotel offers a free buffet at 5:30 so we had an hour to kill and played a round of three-hand cribbage with each other. Don’t let Mum’s kind demeanor fool you – she’s a cribbage shark and took great delight in beating her beloved daughters. Honey Boo is a meany pants!

 

After dinner, it was back in the hotel suite for a quiet evening of reading and getting ready for our foray into Alabama. Stay tuned!