Day 2 - Driving, Driving, and more Driving

On Wednesday we spent most of the day driving. There wasn’t anything in particular to see and the highlight of the day was the next stop on our mini “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives” tour. We stopped for lunch in Knoxville, TN at a drive-in pizza place called The Pizza Palace. When we pulled up Scott was sure I had driven us to the wrong location. First of all, even though I had researched it, I was expecting it to be a drive-in. Second, it wasn’t in the greatest part of town and the building was far from new. Nonetheless, we piled out of the car and went in to sit at a small bar they had for dine-in customers. It turned out to be great! The pizza was really good and onion rings were even better! Nowhere near as good as our BBQ experience, but a success nonetheless.

The kids were so great. Even though Liberty is just dying to be in Washington D.C., she is being as patient as a 5-year-old can possibly be. Scott and I decided to stop early and stay at a hotel with a pool. One of Liberty’s favorite things in the world is swimming. We ended up staying in a Hampton Inn in Roanoke, VA. It’s the cutest little town. We ate at a Mexican Restaurant next door to the hotel. Scott was extremely skeptical of what Virginian Mexican food would taste like, but I didn’t want to waste Liberty’s swimming time driving all over town. So, off we went. As it turns out , it was amazing. The only complaint we had was the salsa.

After dinner we headed to the pool. Liberty had a blast and we discovered that she virtually forgot everything she had learned about swimming last summer. Definitely time for swim lessons. She swallowed a lot of water, but still had fun. She was proud of herself when learned to float on her back—an achievement that al alluded her in the past.

Emory didn't care for the water so she got out and watched.

Liberty practiced floating =)

Driving thorough Tennessee and Virginia has been so interesting to me. I am in awe of the mountains. Despite the fact that I have spent half the trip sick from all the up and down and round and round, I have really enjoyed the landscape. Every house seems to be sitting on top of a hill. They don’t seem to yards because both the front and back yards slop so dramatically. Not really an ideal place for swing sets and trampolines. We also noticed that there aren’t many brick homes and many more mobile homes than we are used to seeing. Scott and I suppose it because we are very far from where bricks are actually made and that mobile homes are more practical here because they don’t have extreme weather like tornadoes. It’s all so interesting and different.