Days 1 and 2 – Asheville and Watumpka, Alabama

Y’all. We made it to Alabama.

So we decided to leave a day early and make a stop in Asheville to see my folks and break up the drive a bit more. I took the first driving shift…and made it as far as Hickory before ceding control to Eric. I suppose it doesn’t bode well that I started to get tired of driving after 3 hours. Hmm.

Before we left Raleigh, we borrowed a soft-sided rooftop case thing for the car from some friends. I asked Eric within the first hour or so if the bag was waterproof. “Yep!” he said, then followed up with a “well, I think they call it water resistant.” Now I remember from my days with my first little Timex watch that water resistant and waterproof are NOT the same thing, but I kept my mouth shut b/c there was nothing we could do about it right then. Sure enough, it started to rain just outside of Asheville.

You see where this is going, I’m sure. The bag and some of the things in it were soaked…but no harm done. Eric was sweet enough to get everything out of it in the pouring rain, and after taking my dad up on his offer of a beer and laying down with his puppies for a bit, he determined that our first stop this morning would be to REI to invest in a hardcover cargo box.

So this was us this morning:

Nothing like a nice walk by the Chick-fil-A

Eric drove the five or so hours to Auburn, making stops along the way for the dogs. Neither of us had been to Alabama prior to today, so it was kinda cool to experience a new state together…the first of many to come. We first drove by the house my mom lived in during high school and where my parents had their wedding reception. Kinda cool to see after seeing all those OLD pictures.

My parents were driving down to Florida today to see my sister’s family, so we texted back and forth throughout the day, updating each other on our locations. It was cool to hear her stories from her days in Auburn.

Just one hour further down the road, we made our stop for the night in…not Montgomery…but Watumpka, Alabama. Where? Exactly. We got here just after sunset, so I’ll have to wait until tomorrow for better pictures. It’s a cool place though a tad…rustic. I mean, I can’t say much – it has a Keurig for goodness sakes – but it’s pretty chilly while we wait for the wood stove to heat this giant open room enclosed on 3 sides with windows. But beautiful! The one thing that I’m not too keen on is the fact that the bathroom is OUTSIDE. I mean, it’s sorta attached-ish to the house, but we’ll definitely have to venture outside in the cold to get to the facilities. Luckily, there’s a space heater in there, but gosh, those things make me nervous, especially when I’m staying inside a large wooden structure.

So sorry for the sideways pics, but gosh – I’ve been fighting with WordPress for 30 minutes on them and finally decided that y’all can manage turning your head or phone or whatever.