Sweet (Someone Else's) Home Alabama

Alabama.

When I crossed the border into Alabama and entered the visitor information center, I knew that I was going to love Alabama. The people were so delightfully friendly that we decided we'd better make Alabama an actual stop on our road trip.

Spending the night in Birmingham, we found an amazing restaurant downtown called Twenty Six. For some reason, I was really hungry by the time we rolled in and the food was splendidly delicious.

This morning, we headed to our tourist destination of choice: DeSoto Caverns Family Fun Park. Everything about this visit screamed "Alabama" to me. From the y'alls in the gift shop to the ghetto fabulous "rides" (see below) to the evangelistic light show.

The cavern tour, which was really quite neat, featured a Christmas themed water and light show.

Not only did the Caverns feature pedal go-karts, a bouldering wall, a bunch of cool rock formations, and the fudge from the "100 things to eat in Alabama before you die", but the lady in the gift shop was insanely friendly and offered to email me the photo they had taken of me and AB in the cave.

She recommended a BBQ restaurant on the way back to the highway, so we set off for Sylacauga for lunch. We were greeted by the friendliest people I've ever met... but the highlight was the waitress, who I'm fairly certain must have been close to nine months pregnant. Not only was the pork BBQ I had DELICIOUS, but I also got to try the southern treats my friends have raved about: fried green tomatoes, fried okra, and hush puppies. Needless to say, I've had enough deep fried whatever to last quite a while, but I'm glad I tried it!

The rest of the drive was beautiful, and all the ranch country reminded me of home. There was something so charming about the accents, the friendliness and the scenery. I love Alabama!

Snow-Covered Appalachians and Tennessee Sunsets

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

That is the sound of all the stress being let out of me.

The last few months have been filled with stressors, challenges and unknowns. I don't think I realized quite how tightly wound I was until I found myself VERY anxious to leave Charlottesville this morning.

But I got away safely and am now in Nashville, TN, staying at a hotel which my road trip companion, AB, describes as "the type of place people come after committing a crime." I guess it really isn't that bad, but after staying in hotels that companies have paid for every weekend for the past two months, it definitely seems ghetto!

It's been a really, really great day. I haven't been on a road trip in a year and a half, so this was well overdue. The first stop of the day brought us to the Pink Cadillac Diner, a restaurant suggested by AB who was there on a road trip over Thanksgiving. It was not to be missed - just picture a completely pink building in the middle of nowhere with a large statue of King Kong out front. The inside was equally entertaining.

During the afternoon, we drove through snow-covered Appalachian mountains. The scenery was amazing, and seeing all the cows on the hills actually reminded me of home. I have to admit that as much as I'll regret saying this in two weeks (when I'm home with snow and -30C), I do miss the snow.

We finished off the day with this:

Need I say more?

Home Sweet Home

After five days of travelling, my sisters and I have arrived in C'ville. As I am about 10 minutes away from getting kicked out of the pool area where I am using the free Internet, I'll make this short and promise to write more thoughts in the next few days.

It's very surreal getting used to a new home! I've been here only 5 hours and have already gone grocery shopping and gotten a few things I need for my home. I still don't have a phone, which is driving me crazy, but hopefully that will be on the agenda for tomorrow.

One thing that is quite exciting is that there are raccoons here. We don't have those in Edmonton. Anyway, lots more thoughts and stories from the drive. Looking forward to meeting everyone from the blogosphere in the next few weeks!

South of the 49th Parallel

Delayed.

That's the word of the day.

There were no big adventures, but I think it took us almost 2 hours to get across the border between waiting in line and then waiting to get "processed." The really nice thing, though, was that they did NOT ask to open the trunk, despite opening most of the trunks in the line before ours.

And then, once across the border, it seemed that the road was under construction about half the time. Fortunately, it was a relatively short driving day. Once we got into Sioux City (about an hour and a half later than planned!), my friends had barbecued corn (awesome since we'd been looking at corn all afternoon!) and veggies and burgers AND salmon. We've spent the evening having a great visit and looking at pictures from their wedding last week.

Tomorrow, I meet my roommate for the first time when we stay with her in Louisville and then Wednesday is the big day of arriving in Charlottesville!

Drive to Winnipeg

This was the plan for yesterday:

8 a.m. - Leave Edmonton
~ 1 p.m. - Arrive in Saskatoon for a quick visit with my sister's best friend
11 p.m. - Arrive in Winnipeg

Here's what actually happened:

8 a.m. - My dad cooked pancakes for us for breakfast
8:41 a.m. - Pull out of the driveway
8:44 a.m. - I ask my sisters "Everyone has their passports, right?" My youngest sister replies, "oops." We turn around.
8:51 a.m. - Back on the road
10 a.m. - I text my cousin in Lloydminster to see if she's around. She texts back asking if we have time for a quick (half-hour!) visit. We agree to meet her at Tim Hortons.
11:01 a.m. - Pull into Tim Hortons at Lloyd.
11:51 a.m. - Back on the road
2:21 p.m. - Arrive in Saskatoon, meet up with Becky's friends for lunch
3:43 p.m. - Leave Saskatoon.
8:23 p.m. - Time change. It is now 9:23 p.m.
10:01 p.m. - Arrive in Brandon for a very late, very quick (as in pick-up-and-eat-in-car) supper and gas. The good news is that we finally found premium fuel!
12:51 a.m. - Arrive in Winnipeg.

So we got in a little later than planned. I find it ironic that on our longest driving day, we had the most people to stop and visit with, but I don't regret the visits! Today we spend time hanging out with family (Mom's family for lunch as soon as we are all ready to go, then Dad's family for dinner!), then tomorrow the dreaded border crossing and on to Sioux City, Iowa.

On a completely separate note, I am finding that I am very, very relaxed now. Two weeks of no work can do that to you, I suppose! Now everything is packed and in place, and there's nothing to do but act out the plan. I also have no clue what is happening in the business world. Microsoft could have bought Apple (or vice versa) and I would have no idea. I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things, but can probably put that off until I get to Charlottesville on Wednesday.

Scent-Induced Memories

This morning, before going for a run, I put on sunscreen for the first time this season. (Despite being blonde and fair-skinned, I don't wear sunscreen anywhere near the frequency that I should.) As I squeezed the sunscreen into my hand, the smell aroused some powerful memories. Immediately I was transported to my suite in Cuba, a fun day at Sylvan Lake, my summer camp counselling days and sitting by the pool in Phoenix working on my leadership presentation over Reading Week.

It's amazing how our memory filter works. I love that when looking back on life, it's the good memories that stick. Every adventure has its ups and downs. But looking back in time, it's only the ups that we really remember. We might, if prompted, remember the challenges, but the weight of those challenges, however insurmountable they have have seemed at the time, is diminished by the fun memories and victories we achieved. I suppose the lesson in that is to endure the challenges and the hard times if they lead to good things. It's so cliche to say that "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger," but I think it's even more important to realize that anything good is going to come with challenges, and if the "good thing" is worthwhile, putting up with the challenges is, too.

This was crossing my mind as I thought about my upcoming road trip with my sisters. We've been on a few road trips together. Since our family drove for almost all our family vacations, the three of us are well-conditioned to travelling together. I know that in our travels, we have absolutely fought and argued and gotten mad at each other. But I don't remember any of those specific incidents. What sticks in my mind is the fun adventures that we've had, being silly together ("I noticed you're not wearing any galoshes"), talking about whatever meaningful conversation comes up, playing stupid car games, pulling over to the side of the road to take completely random pictures and doing "chinese fire drills"* to switch drivers when one of us would get tired.

Well, this post has really migrated away from what I originally intended it to be. All this to say I'm so excited about driving down to C'ville with my sisters in August!

*Chinese Fire Drills: When the light turns red, everyone gets out of the car, runs around it, and hops back in. In this case, we changed seats when hopping back in.
As a further note, the irony of the term struck me as I wrote it. I recently came across the term "Canadian Tuxedo" and had the most perplexing time trying to figure out why a wardrobe combination of all denim would be somehow associated with Canadians. While I still don't have an answer, I wonder if any Chinese people will read my blog and wonder why running around the car and calling it a "fire drill" is associated with the Chinese. Sorry... I don't know!