Ending Our Journey

the night in memphis was rather uneventful. we went and picked up chick-fil-a for dinner which was yummy. me and my mom stayed up super late watchin this amazing show called ace of cakes on food network. the next morning we woke up and started driving to graceland. the mansion was soooo cool and we also got to tour elvis's airplanes, automobiles, and his collection of jumpsuits. ive got some pics i'll put up later. after graceland we drove to hot springs, arkansas.

after some hotel confusion we got in and put our stuff down. we went to dinner and met with my grandfathers brother, my great uncle joe and his wife, jo. joe and jo are just great, they are real sweet. and the place we went had these amazingly sweet strawberries that i enjoyed :] dinner took sooo long because we ended up talking for 2 hours after eating geez.
that night wasnt so bad, once again me and my mom stayed up super late watching ace of cakes [such a good show] except we did it on purpose so that we'd be tired in the car the next day. this morning my gparents were a bit on edge but we managed to get the car packed and get on the road. i was glad that i slept most of the way. we went to lunch at this place in fort worth called dixie house. it was good. for dessert we got this amazing chocolate cream pie. after lunch we went to my grandparents so me and my mom could load our car and go home.

i can't even begin to tell you how great it feels to be home :]
it was a nice trip, but i'm glad its over

Trying To Catch Up!

OCEAN ISLE BEACH
okay so, the last two days at my aunts were pretty much just hangin out. tuesday we went to the beach, we drove instead of taking the boat so we went to a farther beach. i got to swallow my fair share of salt water YUCK!! :P my grandparents don't understand that me and my mom can just sit in a room and watch tv and be happy. they think we need to actually be doing something. tuesday night we wanted to go out for a nice dinner, sadly my moms cousin [kirsten], her husband [alan], and my two adorable cousins [nolan and landon] didnt come with us that night. before we went to dinner nolan had stayed at my aunts house with me while his parents and landon went a couple houses down to the house they were stayin at. i helped get him to take a bath [which ended up being like an hour and a half because he likes to play with his bath toys] it was sooo sad because when we had to take nolan back to his parents he got upset because he wanted to stay with me *caring eyes*

it was hard to leave my aunts beautiful house but wednesday we had breakfast than said our goodbyes and were on the road to asheville, north carolina.

ASHEVILLE
the road to asheville was wayyyy too long and very boring. me and my mom slept most of the way. we ended up eating lunch at bojangles in south carolina. it was weird because we had to drive into south carolina then back to north carolina to get to asheville. we got to our cute little condo and had sandwiches for dinner. they were good cuz my mom made them and grilled them. our condo was pretty cool because it was circular. we had a kitchen, dining area, and living room all in one space. then our bathroom was kinda in the middle of the condo. me and my moms room had two full beds, a table with chairs, dresser, and tv. my grandparents room had a queen bed and nice bathroom with tv and stuff. the stay was nice. thursday we spent the whole day in asheville and got to go to this AMAZING mansion called the biltmore mansion. it is the largest privately owned residence in america. its 175,000 square feet. we got to take an amazing tour that took up the first half of the day. it was soooooo cooooool. sadly there was no photography allowed in the mansion but we got some great pics of outside and the gardens [which were huge] i got a bunch of pics in the giant greenhouse. after the mansion there was a lot of controversy on where to eat. badddd experience with some very unhappy people. we ended up eating at 4 at fuddruckers after failure at some places. after that much belated lunch we went back to our condo and pretty much chilled for the evening. my grandfather [yes thats what i call him] picked up long john silvers for dinner around 9:45. me and my mom watched a bunch of Charmed on our whole trip. i love that show :] the next day we woke up early to drive to gatlinburg, tennessee.

GATLINBURG
the trip there was amazing because we went through the smoky mountains which were just gorgeous. the bad part is they had all these little places to stop and take a picture, and my grandfather thought we should stop at EVERY ONE. so our trip took like 2 hours longer cuz we stopped at all like 50 stops. this really frustrated me and my mom. it was pretty...but after a while we got sick of stopping. after much confusion of finding a place to eat we ended up stopping at a mcdonalds in a small town called sylva. after more driving, we made it and settled at our hotel that was right along the river [what river idk]. we went to dinner at this place called bubba gumps shrimp company. omgsh it was amazing. its like the restaurant that "forrest gump set up after bubba died" our waiter was really cool. but before we got in we had to wait like 45 minutes so me and my mom went across the street to some of the shops. i got this AMAZING new belt. its a seat belt for a mustang that it black and rainbow checkered. i love it [and i'm wearing it now] they finally called us in to eat. at the beginning we noticed our waiter had an accent then we finally asked about it and apparently hes from russia. his name was alex and hes only been in the states 2 years. he came here through the foreign exchange program. after a great experience there, my grandparents took the car back to hotel and me and my mom stayed to go around and shop. apparently gatlinburg is like the home of everything ripleys. we only went to the ripleys believe it or not museum which was really cool. after that we went into lots of shops but didnt buy much. i bought some candy from this place that makes all of their own candy and it was sooo good. still got some in my bag. we went on this "ride" called EARTHQUAKE; THE RIDE which ended up being reallllllyy lammeeeeeee. the fun part was this guy that sat behind us who was 18 and messed with us the whole time. he was kinda cute too :P he kept trying to scare us more [which the ride was just pathetic] he definitely made the 6 minute ride worth the money we paid. me and my mom had to walk back to our hotel which was a 30 minute walk. but hey we needed the exercise. when we got back i took a shower then CRASHED.

MEMPHIS
we woke up early this morning [in gatlinburg] and got on the road to memphis. as usual me and my mom slept most of the trip. we had lunch at this place called the loveless cafe. the wait took FOREVER but they were smart and had a bunch of little shops around. i got a guitar pick and me and my mom got their own made peach and watermelon twists [like licorice] after the long wait we had some AMAZING food. i just got a side dish of macaroni, fried okra, fruit, and mashed potatoes and everything was great. plus i tried my moms chicken fried steak and it was the best i've ever had. we were stuffed after that great meal.

after more driving we've made it to memphis. right now we are sitting in our hotel room watching the scorpion king on tv. we hope to go eat soon. i'll update later.

ttfn
:]

No Time For Creative Title Now

okay so i know i haven't updated in quite a while, but its NOT MY FAULT. its hard finding an internet connection all the time. the last two days i was at my aunts in ocean isle beach, i couldn't get internet anymore. then we went to asheville, north carolina [horrific never-ending drive there] i'll expand more on our night there later. now we are in gatlinburg, tennessee [pretty cool place] theres alot here and sadly we are leaving tomorrow to go to memphis. we're goin all over. and i'm really sorry i can't say more now but its midnight and we gotta get up early tomorrow. i promise i will expand more on our last days at my aunt and our recent travels. for now this is all i can say.

sorry again
ttfn

Temporarily Settled

i'm gonna make this a bit short for now XD but after a long day of traveling and a few stops and mishaps, we finally made it to my great aunts house in ocean isle beach, north carolina. my aunt sharon and uncle garland were grateful to see us along with my moms cousin kirstin [pronounced key-er-stun] and her husband alan along with 3 year old nolan and 2 1/2 month old landon. it was great seeing them for the first time in about 3 years. nolan is just so spunky and adorable but very mischievous. landon is simply the cutest baby :]

my aunts house is GORGEOUS. they live in a 3 1/2 story house of the water that leads to the ocean. they even have their own dock out back. the 1st story is just garages, like 2 and a storage spot, but they are huge and go all the way through the house and open on the back side so when the water gets really high it just flows right through. the 2nd story is all the bedrooms and such which their are 3 bedrooms and 3 and 2 1/2 baths :O the 3rd floor is a kitchen and living room and dining room and another living room. its like amazing. then there is even a loft upstairs that is like a playroom which is where i am now that has another bed up here.

this house is crazy gorgeous. and to add to its charm they have a energetic adorable golden retriever named izzy and she is so much fun. dinner was great we had delicious steak and twice baked potatoes and other things then for desert we had blackberry wine cake that was soooo good. welpp that sums up where i am now. i am so glad to be staying here a couple days :]

the only downside is they dont have wireless internet so i am using their older computer and dont have aim :/ i dont even think it could handle aim express. welpp later guys

p.s. north carolina is soo nice outside this time of year. its not hot its just pleasant with sea breeze :D

A Day in Peach Paradise?

soo we ACTUALLY spent the WHOLE DAYY in atlanta.

after waking up and totally missing the complementary breakfast by 2 minutes >:[ gahh, mom and me warmed up muffins we had for breakfast. yummy otis smunkmeyer chocolate chocolate chip INCREDIBLEE lol. we spent the first half of the day at the atlanta aquarium which is one of the largest in the world. it was sooo amazingly cool. i took a ton of picss :] they said there are over 10000 species of fish there. including the biggest fish out there, the whale shark that can grow up to be 40 FEET LONG!!! holy cow. but the ones they had there were only around 13-15 feet. they were sooo big and the fish in the tank with them were huge too. i got a pic of this one fish that was bigger than me that came right up to the glass. the crazy thing about the whale shark, is like whales they can only eat things that are like microscopic/really small. we also saww sea otters and sea lions and they were soooo cute! the otters were really playful. and we saw these adorable penguins and me and my mom watched this one crazy one that was playing with a toy. we got to see some beluga whales that were just the sweetest things. they look like they're smiling all the time and just seem so cute

in another part they had a big shallow tank of mana rays and baby sharks that you could stick your hand in and pet XD the rays were all slimey but the sharks were rather rough. my mom grabbed one of the sharks fins. this one ray came up to us and we pet it then all the sudden it like turned around and jerked up which scared me and i splashed my mom and me accidentally. we also got to touch shrimp. there were soo many crazy fish to look at it was awesome.

for lunch we left the aquarium and went to a famous burger place called the varsity. it was HUGEE and its also a drive thru. it can fit 600 cars in the drive thru parts and 800 PEOPLE INSIDE!!! the food was GREAT and although the burgers were small, they filled you up.

after lunch we went to this place called the cyclorama that has the worlds largest painting. the presentation is on a spinning platform that told a story and highlighted spots on the painting. it was all about the civil war. the cool thing was not only was it a painting but it was also a diarama [aka real sculptures of people and land] that like connected into the painting. it was interesting. we also found out at the end that of ALL the people in that painting there was only ONE woman and only ONE african american who was said to be a slave observing the battle.

the rest of the day we didnt do much...kinda hung out at the hotel. for dinner we went to a small diner that turned out to have pretty good food and AMAZING oreo cheesecake.

but before i go i must say we have PLENTLY of irritable times when me and my mom just...roll our eyes and try to ignore it. like driving...its like my grandma vs. our gps [aka chatty cathy, i'll explain later] its crazy. welpp time for me to go now...grandma needs help with something on the computer because shes technologically challenged XP

wish me luck...

MissAbamaGeorge

last night...i dont think me or my mom slept more than an hour. thank goodness we get to sit in the back of the car and sleep all we want. my grandma snores like NO OTHERR. it was like...construction work, in our room. it was really bad.

we woke this morning with plans to visit some interesting places in vicksburg, mississippi then get on the road headed to georgia. i picked the places on interest for vicksburg and liked my choices. we visited the martha vick house which is the refurbished home of the founders of vicksburg, the vick family [figure that]. she was the eldest daughter when her parents died [she was 18] and helped to raise her 12 other brother and sisters. she never married though. the man who gave us the tour was a very nice elderly man who actually rebuilt the house and put everything in it and lives there. he was very very nice and it was a rather educational [but cool] tour.



after the martha vick house we went to the vicksburg national military park. i failed to mention earlier that the city of vicksburg is filled with military remembrance. there are cannons all over. the park was soo cool. they had a bunch of memorials and such for both the confederacy and union along with markers on the ACTUAL BATTLEFIELD!! it was really cool. me and my mom gots picks on some of the gigantic momuments. appearently illinois sent ALOT of people lol. it sounds dorky but alot of history happened there and it was cool to see where it actually happened. the whole thing is a drivethru type tour where you drive yourself and can stop where you want. they also had a soldiers graveyard. over 17000 graves and 13000 were unknown. isnt that sad? they didnt even put them in caskets, they just threw the bodies in the ground and most are marked with blocks of stone with a number on them. its sad to think that ALL those people died and we wont ever know who they were. it was a neat experience.

on the road again!
we stopped for lunch in jackson, mississippi for lunch at cracker barrel yumm. back to driving. it was sooo boring and my mom had taken over my nintendo ds to play yoshi so all i had was my ipod. i slept a bit. we stopped somewhere in alabama for snacks then we back on our way. it was an exhausting drive from vicksburg to atlanta and [not including stops] took about 7 hours maybe? its over 400 miles if that gives you a better picture. it was so boring...so i started to text cameron. our hotel is...okay. king bed with pull out twin bed in the couch and we got a rollaway bed. i get the least comfortable couch :P good news is that tonight me and my mom both took sleeping pills so the chainsaw across the room shouldnt be as bad. :]

grandma has big plans for tomorrow. goodnight from atlanta, georgia

Big Water After Cajun Spice

mom woke me up about 8:30 to get ready to pack up and get on the road. we ended up taking more time than planned and left about 10. we got breakfast at mickey d's and i ate like 2 sandwich biscuits and a hashbrown. i slept most of the first half of the day until about 2 when we made it to shreveport, louisiana. of course, being in louisiana we had to have a great cajun meal. entering the city my mom spotted a billboard on the side of the road for "Becca's Steak & Seafood; 1st Cajun restaurant in Louisiana" [when i read behind mcdonalds it made me laugh] the place was kinda a whole in the wall. it was in a strip mall with a rather plain sign, but once we got in and saw it was a good place. more of a place that locals know. it was decorated like a shack in a swamp, it was cool. me and my mom both got a meal and picked off each others. she got these really good red beans and rice that had a great kick and i got shrimp fettucini that had a great cajun cream sauce. the whole meal had a kick but was really good. it was true louisiana cajun.



after that meal we were back on the road headed to mississippi



i didnt sleep much on the way, i mainly listened to my ipod and eventually dozed off. we arrived at our la quinta with a waffle house right next to it in vicksburg, mississippi and kinda set up our stuff. then we headed to walmart to get film and some other stuff. after that we went on a scenic drive through the city. the whole thing lies right by the mississippi river and its gorgious with the setting sun in the backgroud. we got some great pics at the railroad right by the water. there was even two old cabooses that i got pics on :] sadly we wont get them developed til after the trip, but i might get a few from my grandmas digital camera.



right now its really late and im watching food network even though my stomach has been hurting for the past hour and a half. i honestly feel like i'm gonna puke...gross. i'm going to try to get some rest. tomorrow we check out the martha vick house and maybe the military park then make our way to atlanta, georgia.



for now, goodnight guyss