Found the Beach

We decided to take a little detour, and head south from Tennessee and go to the gulf coast. We ended up in Destin Florida in the panhadle, on one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen. Next stop... Austin Texas... By way of New Orleans for a beignet and some coffee.

Greetings from Alabama

Stopped outside of Montgomery to visit a fruit stand selling peaches and BBQ. Discovered that if you asked why they sell bags of wet peanuts, they look at you with a pained expression and ask, "where y'all from?" Boiled peanuts... Who knew?

So after Nebraska, things were pretty smooth sailing down through Missouri... Oh, except that the Missouri River was so high that most of the bridges were closed. Which prevented us from leaving Nebraska and getting to Missouri in the first place. We ended up having to drive down two lane farm roads down into Kansas, so we could enter MS through Kansas city. Once we got over the river.... THEN it was smooth sailing. 

 We came up and over the bridge into St. Louis and had a great view of the Arch. We thought about stopping, but we've already done the arch thing, so we pushed on.

 After an overnight with our niece in Southern Illinois, we headed south into Kentucky... where we found the great little town of Metropolis Illinois. We saw a sign for a giant superman statue, so naturally we had to go find it.  Well worth it.

 They had this great collectables store, that had some really questionable items.

 We had to try these... Roxanne was very proud of her new .. ahem... assets.

 Wyatt was barely tall enough to get his head in there. I think it accentuates the size of his new muscles.

 This is the real superman's alter ego... a bag boy at the local Big John's grocery.

 At a gas station somewhere in Tennessee. Just glad to be out of the car. This was followed by Reeces cups in the back seat, and the 5th viewing of Cars on the DVD player.

 Finally reached the lake and started having fun immediately. After being dropped off on the far side of the lake to pick up the borrowed paddle boat, a race back to Dad's house followed... Roxanne, Jackson and the paddle boat beating Sharon and Wyatt in the Pick-up. But in all fairness... it was close.

 Ginormous woodpeckers around here... about the size of a legal sized football. Really gorgeous, especially with it's wings out.

 A view of the lake.

Just before the tornado

Nebraska was awesome... If not a little freaky. Click the link to see all excitement. Filmed from my iPhone about 1/4 mile away.

http://gallery.me.com/nowdesign/100170

Wyoming

Made Wyoming on day 1... Better than expected. Beautiful weather, great roads and two wonderful and ridiculous children.

Started Late

Sure, only 18 minutes late, but when your going 6000 miles it adds up!

Almost Ready

Departing soon on a six thousand mile road trip. Wish us luck. More posts to come.