By the time we set off towards Destination #5, I was getting pretty tired of driving.  We still had quite a few miles to log before we could head home, though.  I bucked in and buckled down and pointed my car to the northwest.

Over the course of my trip, I created the most perfect Pandora station ever.  I started with the Jimmy Buffett station, and through a two-week series of driving, gave the “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” to enough songs that the end result is now one of my most coveted possessions.    Jimmy Buffett, the Zac Brown Band, the Eagles and Alan Jackson kept me company while the kids listened to their DVDs.  I didn’t even know that I liked the Zac Brown Band and Alan Jackson before I set off on the trip (I’m not traditionally a country music lover), so I learned something new about myself on the open road.

About 30 minutes from our destination, I had a terrifying experience.  We were on some back country roads somewhere in Alabama, and the sky opened up.  It went from sunny to stormy in about 2 minutes, and I have never driven in such a bad storm in my life.  This was the exact area that a few tornadoes ravaged earlier this year, and I just knew one was going to drop down on top of us.  Lightening quite literally struck a few telephone poles right next to us, but there was no where for us to pull off and seek shelter.  I was on the verge of tears, Zack was yelling that he needed a bathroom, and had to rely on my TomTom GPS to not only know where to turn but to “see” where to turn.  The whole time, I was thanking my lucky stars that I had Janice by my side.  She even rerouted me a few times during the monsoon when she found a shorter route.

Janice and I on a sunnier day

The storm lasted only 20 minutes, and the end result was a beautiful, full rainbow.  I was still shaking when I got to our destination, and believe it or not, it didn’t rain a drop once we got there.  Figures!

We stayed there for a few days and got to relax and visit with family.  The kids enjoyed vegging on the sofa instead of being strapped into their car seats, and I enjoyed being connected to WiFi for the first time in about a week.  I also got to go and have lunch with two of my blog friends, Gina and Angie.

At lunch, Emma was again quite the handful, and afterwards she fell asleep in the car before I even pulled out of the parking lot.  We were all wore out at this point!

Where was I?  This one is going to be a little more difficult to guess, but y’all are doing so well that I thought I should kick it up a notch.  Your hint is: An Amish community and this guy are from the same place.

What’s your guess?  Get your brain in gear, because the huge giveaway centered around the answers to my hints comes at the end of this week!

Our few days at the beach sure came and went quickly!  I was pretty tempted to just ditch the rest of our destinations and stay there for another week, but my conscience got the best of me since there were still more people and places to visit.

So we loaded up the car (again) and hit the road (again).  By then, I was feeling pretty old hat about driving for hours and hours alone with two kids.

This time, we headed up the Interstate and into a large city.  I was so thankful that we were going on a Sunday, because you’d have to be seriously committed to BRAVE that traffic on a weekday!

My grandfather and aunt live in a nearby town, so we spent Sunday evening/Monday morning with them.  My grandfather drove us around some wooded areas at dusk so that we could see if any deer were out (we saw 12, including 2 babies), and all Emma could do was scream, “TREES!  TREES!”  I had never really thought about it, but trees where we live don’t grow as big and tall as they do there.  She had never seen such large trees in her little life.   Note to self:  Take her to Redwood National Park to really blow her mind.

The next morning, we headed out of town, but stopped to visit one of my dear blogging buddies for lunch.  You may know this gorgeous lady.

I got to see the house that she’s remodeling (OMG, it is AMAZING!  She’s really talented, y’all!) and we went to a cute little sandwich shop for a bite to eat.

While we were there, Emma managed to empty an entire shaker of salt (Salt! Salt! Salt! If you get that reference, you and I are kindred spirits) on the floor while we were visiting.  Awesome.  I did my best to clean it up and the employees were dolls about it – another reason why I love the South.

Any guesses as to where we were?  The largest nearby city is a good enough guess for me.  😀