Heading towards Destination #6 meant that we were going in the direction of home.  We were ready.  We missed Daddy.  We missed our dogs.  I missed my bed.  I missed our schedule.

Even though we couldn’t wait to get home, the drive from Destination #5 was too far for us to complete in one day.  In an odd twist of fate, my hometown – the place that I left when I went to college and had only been back to once since then – happened to be the halfway point.  I lived there for about 14 years, but my parents had moved from that town just a few months after I went to college.  Most of my high school friends were in Austin with me, so I didn’t ever have much of a reason to go back.

Driving into town was a surreal experience.  When I was growing up there, it was a small place.  There wasn’t much in the way of typical chain restaurants and there certainly wasn’t a Gap in the mall.  Times have changed, and there are new roads, new bridges, and tons of new shopping – including a Gap, Gap Kids and Baby Gap.

One thing that hasn’t changed was that my favorite local restaurant still has the world’s best piece of peach pie.  It’s the type of thing dreams are made of, and I have been craving it for about 17 years.  It was totally worth the wait.

After dinner, we spent the evening driving around town with me pointing out various locations to my kids.  We saw my childhood home.  My elementary school.  My high school, which has grown from one building to about 45.  My middle school.

I can’t look at that school without thinking back to those days.  As with every other 1990s kid, those preteen years were rough.  Looking back, my matching denim and braided belt situation didn’t help.  Neither did my hair.

Whew! Luckily for little curly headed Emma, her mama knows how to properly take care of and style curls these days.  I can only hope we are able to better manage her crazy head of hair.

When the tour of my hometown wrapped up, I asked Zack what he thought.  His reply?  “You know what, Mom?  We don’t really care.”  Hmmm…I guess it was a little much for a 6 and not yet 2 year old.  Oh, well.  I enjoyed it.  🙂

Any guesses as to where we were?  This one might be kind of hard, too.  As a little hint, I’ll say that you should name the city AND the state.

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!