We're Not In Kansas Anymore...

We left Kansas yesterday after meeting my friend Mandy for lunch in Junction City. Lunch turned into major catching up and we didn't arrive in Denver until after midnight mountain time. Everyone kept saying Kansas was SO flat- well, I was disappointed in how not SO flat most of it was. Once we got out to the really western part it did become very flat and you could see for tens and tens of miles at a time. As the sun went down, you literally could not tell where the earth ended and the sky began. We missed the Colorado sign because it was too dark and apparently western states have not grasped the concept of lighting their signs. So anyway...here are the pictures we took in St. Louis.


In other news...
Apparently, there is a muscle in between the two halves of the rib cage. Apparently, this muscle is important for doing things such as sitting up from laying down. Apparently, this muscle also has a role in coughing and sneezing. Apparently, I pulled this muscle. I noticed it in St. Louis but still have not figured out how I did it since I hadn't been to the gym for several days. At least now it is only mildly annoying. Before, every time i sat up, sneezed, or coughed it felt like a thousand firey knives were stabbing me between the ribs. I don't recommend pulling this particular muscle as it not too fun.

States visited: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado
Work Zones traveled through: 21
Cheapest gas seen: $3.77 in Kansas
Baseball Games attended: 2
Next Stop: Staying in Denver another night

St. Louis and Serial Killers

Last night Kevin was watching CNN and they were discussing the difference between a serial killer and a killing spree. Apparently, they had just caught some guy that had gone on a weekend long killing spree and AC360 didn't quite understand the difference. So I peaked my head up from the computer and asked Kevin where said killing spree occurred.

Him: Right around here.
Me: No, seriously.
Him: Seriously, he was at Busch stadium last night.
Me: Interesting.

And guess where we were last night.....Busch Stadium. Guess it was good that we didn't go for the mile and a half walk through random streets!!! I did see a picture of the guy and I think I could take him. Most of the targets were people over 80 and kids and he was using some sort of blunt force to the head. We probably would have been okay but I guess it is never good to chance it will a killing spree going on. It is probably also good that we were unaware of said killing spree until AFTER they caught the guy!

So, anyway. Today we made our way to the National Transportation Museum. Basically, a little boys dream as they had TONS of trains and a few old cars. We walked around for a while and took a few pictures. There really wasn't that many exciting things occurring but in this installment of things that make Kevin giggle: a sign on the side of a train saying "DO NOT HUMP." He giggled over that one fore some time.

After the museum, we headed out to Kansas to meet up with Kevin's friend and his family. We got a tour of the University of Kansas in the hot plain state heat. I was trying my best to find Coach Mangino, figuring he would be hard to miss but alas our meeting was not meant to be and I had to settle for pictures in the Basketball Lobby/Shrine. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of seeing the wonder that is the KU football coach, let's just say he is large and in charge.

After a lovely dinner, we hung out with Steve and his family and watched his two boys (4 and 5) run around acting crazy. For some reason I think Kevin and I have some effect on crazying up other peoples kids although we were assured that they "are always like this!" Nevertheless, we had a great time. I think we kept Steve and his wife up a little later then they were used to as we did not head to bed until around 2 in the morning.

Most of today was spent in the car. Most of tomorrow will be spent in the car. The stories from in the car are far less interesting.

States visited: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri
Work Zones traveled through: 18
Cheapest gas seen: $3.77 in Kansas
Baseball Games attended: 2
Next Stop: Somewhere between Lawrence and Denver

When I think of Illinois, I think of...oil?

Today was a rather interesting day. We left Knoxville with the intention of driving 2 hours to Nashville and staying the night. Before we had finished breakfast, this plan had changed- leaving us staying in Palucah, KY- home of the fabulous quilting museum. So, we began our trek to Nashville to get in touch with our nonexistent country music sides. Kevin was really looking forward to seeing the full scale model of the Parthenon that was built for the World's Fair. Unfortunately, it was closed. We walked around and took some pictures of the outside but it just wasn't the same. After a very short discussion....very short....we decided to just go ahead and drive the other 5 hours to St. Louis which is more our kind of town.

Along the way we passed many a corn field. Halfway through Illinois we also saw several small oil derricks. Here we are in the middle of an oil crisis and Illinois is pumping the black gold? Go Figure. We made it to St. Louis in time to catch most of the Cardinals games. We then tried to go to a place called Bailey's Chocolate Bar but since it was late and it was more than a mile away from any metro stop we decided against it. Tomorrow we will most likely head to all the touristy thing in St. Louis and then to another Cardinals game. I have a job interview at 3:45 so that should be interesting how it plays into our day. Hopefully, I am at least feeling better. (And hopefully this stomach thing is retaliation for eating a Hardee's burger earlier in the day.)

I have posted the pictures from Charleston and Tennessee. Enjoy! And leave comments so Dr. HokieKev and I know who is reading!!!


PS- I forgot to mention the Fried Green Tomatoes from Knoxville. They were pretty good- surprisingly!

States visited: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri
Work Zones traveled through: 15
Cheapest gas seen: $3.81 in Georgia
Baseball Games attended: 1
Next Stop: Staying in St. Louis

Good Ole Rocky Top...

Yesterday, we made the 6 hour trek from Charleston to Knoxville. The drive was nice- kind of reminded both of us of driving out to Blacksburg- lots of mountains and 18 wheelers. The drive was pretty uneventful. We stopped at one town in South Carolina, that looked like it had JUST been hit by a tornado, which was a bit interesting. The gas station was also the post office and it looked like the only other store around was the trailer outside the gas station selling jerseys and other Nascar memorabilia. We put 2 gallons in and left.

Fast forward to Knoxville. After navigating the broken interstate and several closed surface roads, we made our was to visit Lisa, Tom, Gwyneth, and Owen. We hadn't seen Tom and Lisa in almost four years and we had never met the kids. We had a great time going out to dinner and catching up. Owen slept pretty much the whole time- he is 3 months old so what can you expect. Gwyneth, who is two and a half, let her artistic side show while coloring a placemat and "making dinner" which basically involved putting ketchup on her chicken fingers and stirring it all around. After dinner, we all went back to their house and played with the kids for a while before Owen finally decided he was bored and went to sleep! Gwynnie and Kevin did a puzzle for a while and there was no way she was going to sleep anytime soon.

Overall, we had a great night and need to make a point not to wait four years before visiting with each other. Hopefully, Gwyneth went to bed soon after we left as mom and dad looked tired and she had previously been running around declaring "Gwynnie is nuts!"

Once again, I will post some pictures of Charleston and Knoxville soon.

States visited: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee
Work Zones traveled through: 10
Cheapest gas seen: $3.81 in Georgia
Next Stop: Nashville, TN to get in touch with our country music side

Cannonballs and Confederates

It is funny how the first place we ate when we moved to Gainesville was the last place we ate before we left! After a lovely breakfast, we hit the road around 11:00. Perfect timing for my 11:00 car nap. I sleep in cars- whether I am tired or not. If the drive is more that an hour, I am out like the fat kid in dodgeball. I also managed to get something on my lovely khaki skirt 5 minutes into our voyage, go figure on that one. So me asleep and Dr. HokieKev driving is how we began the first leg or our trip.

I woke up somewhere around Jacksonville, just in time to snap a picture of the WELCOME TO GEORGIA sign as we were passing. I then proceeded to read (skim) the entire Frommers US. Good Times! Fast forward a few hours and we arrived in Charleston. Charleston is your pretty standard antebellum town- well, maybe one of two pretty standard antebellum towns (Savannah, GA being the other) with big houses and lots of Confederate memorabilia. We hit up a couple parks, took some pictures of some dead guys and cannons, looked at some cool old houses that were WAY expensive, hit up the slave market (which has been turned into a flea markety place but with nicer stuff), and ended our jaunt at a Haagen-Dazs for a Mint Chip Dazzler. I swear Dr. HokieKev can sniff them out from a mile away.

The city is pretty cool but it is REALLY humid here. One of the parks we went to had several fountains full of frolicking children. HokieKev would not let me play in the fountain, something about getting the camera wet. This evening we met Kevin's boss for a seafood dinner in an old naval building on the water. I believe it was called Fleet Street. The food was pretty good and the breeze from the water cut right through the humidity which was a nice change of pace from our earlier walk.

I will post some pictures tomorrow since I left the camera in the car. Until then, I leave you with these facts.

States visited: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina
Work Zones traveled through: At least 4- this statistic will be skewed, I sleep in cars!
Cheapest gas seen: $3.81
Next Stop: Knoxville, TN to visit the Lisa, Tom, Gwyneth, and Owen 0=)