Almost Home...

Well, we are almost home. And by almost, I mean we're still a good 6 1/2 hours away. We stayed in Gulfport last night, got up and went to the beach for a few minutes, and got back on the road. I can't wait to get home and look through all of our pictures from the trip. I think I'll sit down and actually get some ordered. I'm horrible about doing that. It took me over a year to order pics of our Vegas trip in '09 and I still don't have pics of Sydney from 7 years ago printed. I'm even worse about getting things framed!

Here is one or two of them for your viewing pleasure.

Ok...it's just one. For some reason I can't get another to upload. This was just a couple of hours after we arrived at Disney World. The girls (and mommy) were amazed at how pretty the castle was! I know we're ready to be home, but I'm also ready to start planning our next visit. It'll be 2 or 3 years, but that gives me plenty of time to plan, right? Besides, that'll give them time to finish the overhaul of fantasyland! (see below)

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/attractions/orl-bk-new-fantasyland-disney-world-magic-kingdom,0,7274675.story

I must be delusional...

I realize now that I had delusions of grandeur when I thought I'd be able to blog a little about our day every evening while here. Any free time I had I just wanted to spend it relaxing. Even if you aren't going at break-neck speeds, this place will wear you out with a quickness!!

Hopefully on the way home I can go through pictures and put our days in order. Maybe I'll be able to come up with a decent blog post. I'm so disappointed that I didn't blog more while we were here, but I was either too tired or too tired. :-)

I was going to post some pics of our first few days here, but for some reason it keeps telling me that the server rejected it. :-( Right now I'm too tired to figure out what that means. We're off to Epcot again here later. We went last night for dinner with the girls and the night before to try and progressively eat and drink our way through the World Showcase. You need way more than three and a half hours for that though.

Ok...I'm off to get an IV drip for highly caffeinated coffee.

Florida or Bust

This morning while waiting for the van to warm up, I laid my head back on the cold headrest, shut my eyes, felt a shiver and was instantly transported to my dad's truck in Boston, MA. Suddenly I was 8 years old again, in the sleeper of the truck, trying desperately to warm up under the cold covers. For me, that is one of the best memories ever. I always loved traveling with my parents and it's little things like that, that I remember best. There was just something about stepping out of a warm hotel room in to the cold morning air, knowing I could run to the truck and snuggle back in for more sleep. I hope that when my girls get older, they look back on all of our travels and have just as many fond memories as I do.

This morning we are on our way to what most people call the Happiest Place On Earth. Walt Disney World! (some have argued with me that Vegas is the happiest place) This is a trip that I've (we've) been waiting almost 8 years for. I remember thinking not too long after finally getting to bring Sydney home from the hospital that one day we would be able to take our sweet little miracle baby to Disney World. Little did I (we) know at the time that we'd end up with three girls. Three princess dress wearing girls!

We're on I-20, headed east right now and there's so much fog we can only see about 100 yards in front of us. I feel like I'm coming down off a mountain in Tennessee. It's really kind of crazy. We're talking about stopping for Starbucks in Terrell...if we can see the exit before we pass it. :-)

We're hoping to make it to Tallahassee tonight. We don't want a huge drive ahead of us tomorrow and since we're old pros at these long drives, I'm hoping that it won't be a big deal! Graci told me before we left that she hoped our hotel tonight wasn't a "crappy" one. Note to self...Graci is a sponge.

That's about it for now. If anything exciting happens, I'll update. That's likely to happen since we're traveling with three of the biggest drama queens this side of the Mighty Mississippi!

And we're home!

Eric came up with "Hansen's on Asphalt". We were sitting around trying to think of names and he said, "How about 'Hansens on Asphalt, like Alton Brown's Feasting on Asphalt.' Worked for me. We even took our Feasting On Asphalt book along with us in case we came across anywhere Alton had visited on his Mississippi River Run. (we didn't come across any of them though) Truth be told though, we could have named this blog "Hansen's on Asphalt, Concrete, Dirt, Mud, Gravel or Grass." We covered all of those different roads and paths along the way. Oh...I forgot "Creek Bed". That was actually one of my favorite means to an end. Below are a couple of pictures...

Here we have Two Hansens On Grass

While there aren't any Hansen's in this picture, I'm sure one took it...Here you have Asphalt.

Here we see two of them on gravel (this is walking down the North Bend Rail Trail)

Here you see Audrey squatting down in the dirt/mud

And now running from it on gravel once again

Here is a fine example of concrete in Kentucky

And here...Creek Bed. We took a four wheeler ride up an old road that isn't used much, I'm guessing partially because the road is the creek bed in a couple of different places

We made it home about a day and a half ago. We were exhausted, but we had a wonderful trip. We went through a lot of country that Eric had never been through and a lot of country that if I'd been through it with dad once upon a time in the truck, I'd forgotten about it. I have lots more pictures and after this week of wedding cake is over, I'll get to those. Thanks to those of you that read this. While it may bore some to tears, I hope that it inspires others to get out there and take a road trip. There is so much pretty country to be seen. I think life is too short to take a plane everywhere. We think getting there is half of the fun!

On the road again...AGAIN...

We are now on the final two days of our two week vacation. We left Pittsburgh this morning (me for the second time) and we're on our way home. By the end of this trip, we will have gone through nine states! Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas! I feel very blessed, considering that a lot of people in Texas have never ventured north of the Red River. I hope by dragging our kids all over the country they grow up appreciating a good road trip. I'm sure that's why I love them so much. My parents had me all over the US by the time I was 5. I've only missed three states and I fully intend to visit them in the future. Hawaii would make for a better plane trip though, don't you think?

~~~~~

We had a great time with our family. The weather, while it was a little warm, never got unbearable (at least not to us) until the last couple of days. Most of the time, while a little humid, the weather was quite nice...but we were the only ones that thought so. I guess I'm more used to the Texas heat than I thought.

While on our trip Eric hit three of the restaurants featured on Diner's, Drive-In's and Dives show. I hit two of them, and they were really good! Especially last nights. We ate at a place called "Big Jim's In The Run". It was probably the best "dine-out" meal that we had on the trip. I had their steak hoagie and Eric had their parmesan meatballs with spaghetti. Eric's plate could have fed the whole family and the stromboli that one of the guys that was with us could have fed the whole table. This place isn't called "Big Jim's" for nothing!
After dinner we went to the top of one of the surrounding hills and walked out on a scenic overlook. We got to take a couple of pictures of the night-time skyline, but ended up back at the car rather quickly because it started to pour on us. Pittsburgh is a beautiful city at night and not anything what I imagined it would be like during the day. Eric and I both thought it would be this ugly, dirty city with a perpetual dark, smoggy cloud hanging over it all the time. We were both pleasantly surprised. It was very picturesque and we could would have enjoyed an extra few days there. Graci even told me she'd like to move in to the hotel that we were staying in. I think she's seen too much of "The Suite Life Of Zach And Cody", but that's just me.

Going through Columbus, OH, just a few minutes ago, we were able to stop and see some family that we didn't think we'd get a chance to see. (and some that we had just spent the week with) It was a nice, unexpected little side stop!

Now, we are on the way to Cincinnati. I've been humming the theme to WKRP in Cincinnati all morning. I think I'll try and pull up the show on Netflix and maybe watch an episode before we go through town.

On the road again..

Well, our trip is quickly coming to an end. Eric and I are in the car, on the way to Pittsburgh. I'll stay the night tonight and then head back to WV in the morning to finish up my visit with the family. We've been having such a good time, but like they say...All good things must come to an end. (well, in a couple of days they will)

No matter how many times I say I'm going to do nothing but relax when we get to WV, it never really happens. I told myself, "Self, this time you're going to relax." Didn't happen. That's ok though. We've been going to bed late and getting up even later. We've been visiting, cooking, fishing, four wheeling, skeet shooting and rail trailing and it's all been worth every tiring minute.

Monday we were 'down at the river'. When you're talking with my family and someone says, "Where's Norman?" A lot of the time the answer will be, "Down at the river". My uncle's family has a farm that has been in his family since 1866 and the Hughes River (the south fork of it, I believe) runs right along the property. *side note* The north and south forks of the Hughes River come together to form the Little Kanawha river which runs in to the Ohio River, which, as you well know, runs in to the Mighty Mississippi. So...if you were to put a note in a bottle and throw it in to the Hughes River, it could quite possibly wind up in New Orleans, LA. (providing it didn't get caught on anything) Just a little bit of useless info for ya there.
Ok, back on track. While down at the river Eric went four wheeling and skeet shootin' while the women folk (mostly my sweet Aunt Rob) did the cookin'. Eric and Norman tired to go up to my dad's place "up on the hill", (which is the answer to "Where is Tony?" when my dad is back for a visit) but a tree had fallen over the road and they couldn't make it up. After lunch we fished some and then headed back in to town.

Tuesday we hung out most of the day at my Grandma's farm. We did a little more four wheeler riding, this time with the girls, and fished some more where the girls caught quite a few. It seemed like ever time they put their line in the water, they had a bite. Too bad the biggest fish caught was only about 6 inches long. They didn't care though. They had a great time. From there we went for a little walk on the North Bend Rail Trail. The Rail Trail is part of the American Discovery Trail that goes from coast to coast. We try to make it to the trail every time we're in WV. The trail is an old rail road line and you can walk, bike or ride a horse on it. Our favorite part of the trail is the old RR tunnels. The girls get excited and run right in them...even the ones you can't see to the end of.

We ended the evening at my Aunt Judy's again. We cooked out and visited while the kids ran themselves ragged. Audrey even fell asleep before we left. She's pretty much been going from the time she wakes up in the mornings until she just passes out at the end of the day.

Well...that pretty much gets us up to today. I know we're still missing a couple of days, and I'll try to catch up on the drive back to Texas!

Saturday in West Union and Cairo

On Saturday we went to a family reunion at Dodridge County Park outside West Union. There were a lot of people we didn't know and had never seen before but there was a lot of food! Comfort food mostly, and all of it very good home-made fare. The food was worth the trip! Later that afternoon we went to Cairo where Nic's aunt owns a store/bike shop catering to locals and tourists who are using the North Bend Rail Trail, a former rail line with lots of 19th Century tunnels that has been converted to a hike and bike trail.

While in Cairo we stopped at an ice cream parlor, with a real soda fountain. We had awesome milk shakes where they pour it into a tall shake glass and give you the metal mixing cup for a refill. Like having two shakes for the price of one! Later we went to the restaurant at the state park for our anniversary dinner. Our dinner guests were all three kids, the first time we included them in our celebratory outing. They were mostly good and enjoyed watching deer grazing across the street as we were leaving.

We know we've missed a few days, but later on we'll catch up and post some pictures!

My Old Kentucky Home...

Well, not really. We've never owned any real estate in KY, but we sure wouldn't be opposed to doing so. We greet you today from the beautiful Blue Grass State! If you've never been to KY, we strongly encourage you to do so. It's Beautiful!

We bedded down for the night in Elizabethtown, KY after a long and (mostly) lovely drive. The kids were well behaved for the most part during our travel time and we enjoyed our alternate route that we tried out. Eric and I both agree that the coolest part of the drive yesterday was the drive in to Kentucky. By going the way we did, we were able to see where the Ohio flows in to the Mighty Mississippi. It was at dusk, and it was beautiful. We crossed the Mississippi from Missouri in to Illinois via Cairo, the southernmost tip of the state. Once we crossed, we took a right hand turn on to another picturesque, two lane bridge and crossed the Ohio River in to Wickliffe, KY. In the span of three minutes we had traveled in three different states and saw where to beautiful rivers merge together.

Ahhhh...I just love rivers. In fact, I'd love for you to be able to read a weeks worth of blog posts from Eric and I traveling down the Mississippi via paddle boat cruise. :-)

We are moving right along this afternoon. After breakfast, we got on the Blue Grass Parkway and took that in to Lexington...one of the prettiest places that you travel through on the way to West Virginia. It's home to Keeneland Race Course and there are horse farms everywhere. While stopped at a light we even saw a "First Class Equine Air" plane fly in. We took several pictures around town and as soon as I can go through them and figure out how to post them to a blog from my phone, I will.

Right now we are on I-64, headed to the West Virginia border, which is about 100 miles away. We only have one stop planned (aside from a potty or gas stop) before we get to my Grandma's house. That's "Hillbilly Hotdogs" in Lesage, WV, a small town just outside of Huntington. It was featured on Diner's, Drive-In's and Dives, and since it's pretty much on the way...we just gotta stop!

After that it's just about 3 hrs to our destination. We'll be happy to get there,that's for sure. I've not seen most of my family in almost a year and a half and I'm ready to be out on the farm, fishing, catching lightning bugs and looking at stars. Lots and lots of stars.

An Alternate Route

Eric and I were sitting talking with my in laws the other day about our upcoming trip to West Virginia. During our discussion, one of us came up with "brilliant" idea of making a travel blog. Since we are so blessed to be able to go on a couple of vacations a year, why not document it? It's a great way for us to keep up with places we've gone and a great way to share our travels with our friends and family! (well..if they want to share in it that is. I do realize that some people think it's torture to sit through family vacation stories and pictures, but at least the blog is a better alternative to the obligatory post-vacation slide show) :-)

Right now, we're on our way out of Dallas, headed to Texarkana. I looked Texarkana up on roadsideamerica.com, and the most interesting thing it has to offer is a "muffler man". I'll probably sleep through Texarkana. In fact, I may just sleep right through Arkansas. (yeah right) When we get to West Memphis, AR, I'd like to be wide awake for a while. We're taking an alternate route this time. Why, you ask? Because the drive between Memphis, TN, and Nashville, TN, is enough to make you want to throw yourself in front of an 18 wheeler going down a hill with no brakes. There is nothing between the two cities and it is the most boring...drive...ever. Instead, we're going up through part of Missouri and, I believe, straight in to Kentucky! Kinda reminds me of Thelma and Louise wanting to bypass Texas to get to Mexico. We're making a little stop in Sikeston, MO, to eat at Lamberts...that alone is worth the 30 extra miles this alternate route is adding to our trip.

Even though the next state we come to is Arkansas, we're looking forward to getting there. Not only will there be a photo opp with the "Welcome to Arkansas" sign and a potty break at the welcome center, but we may also have a chance to capture the beauty of the "Bill Clinton Presidential Library/Mobile Home", while going over the Arkansas River in Little Rock.

That's it for now! More to follow on our 1197 mile trip to "Wild, Wonderful, West Virginia"!