Get Ready...Get Set...Let's Drive....

Drive and drive and drive. This is how we started our vacation on Friday May 28th.  I decided that I was going to plan everything out and work hard two week before getting everything ready so that we could leave on vacation no later than Noon on the 28th.  HAHAHAH! Not going to happen.  I had to be at the doctor's office at 730am. I was hoping that I would be done and on my way home by 830 at the latest and well that just was not in the cards as I did not get home until almost 11am.  Then Heather, Alex and I loaded up the dogs to take them to the kennel for their vacation.  Back to the house and we have to put the seats back in the van and finish the last little bit of packing that we could not due until the day we are leaving.  Finally we had to clean up the house. And those were just the errands for the house.

Next, after loading the van up we had to run and take care of a few things. We had to get strings for Heather's guitar because she wanted so badly to have it fixed and for Grandpa Pullen to teach her to play while we are home on vacation.  Then Alex decided that he did not like his haircut from the week before and that the lady did not cut it short enough so he thought he would try and save me some money and do it himself. Well that did not work so well so we had to stop at Super Cuts to have Alex's mistakes corrected.  Oh well! At least he likes his hair cut this time and I have to say it looks better now than the first time. Next we had to stop at FX games because Alex was getting new games for his PSP to help entertain him on our 21 hour drive. Finally, on our way out of Harker Heights we had to stop and get gas.  Wow! We did not get on the road til 530pm.

Okay so we are 5.5 hours later than the time I had planned to be leaving...bummer but it just seemed like more and more things kept coming up so that being the case I have learned that some where along the way there must be a good reason for us not leaving on time and I just let it go.

830pm arrives and we are pulling into Lone Oak, TX to check out some Rottie pups to see if they have any for Heather that meets the requirements that we have and made a list on.  We have been looking for a Rottie that first is not to dark or too light in her markings. Has a nice size head, perfect bite, has a good ball drive, alert to her surroundings, and has a personality that we can mold into being a protective lover, yet still be mentally stable.  These are big shoes to fill!  We think we may have found her! Heather and I will be co-owning her and we have chosen the name Justice Von Nighter.  So 1030 comes and after meeting the puppies we think we have gotten the best one,  We also got to mingle and play with the other Rotties there, Justice's father, mother, grandparents and other rotties the kennel had.  We really had a nice time with them, but then again any place that there are Corgis or Rotties and Heather and I will have some fun.  This time Alex seemed to enjoy it as well.

Time to move on.  We get back in the car and are on the road again. Our next scheduled stop was planned to be Nashville, TN other than for gas, I thought that this would be a good half way point to stop, well at about 3 am I was really starting to feel tired with all the driving so at 422am about 40 miles outside Memphis, TN I called it a night for about 2.5 hours.  I got some much needed rest as well as the kids.

After a very good nap I headed on down the road and decided to try and make up some time.  I was so hoping to be able to make it in time for my sister Tori's Graduation and if not for that at least an early evening arrival so that we all could get a good night's sleep.  We made up great time through Memphis and actually had made up the 2.5 hours of nap time that we had by the time we got to Nashville.  These are pictures of Memphis, TN.

The distance between Memphis and Nashville is a few hundred miles so the kids slept on the way since we only slept for a few hours.

However, once we made it there I took a wrong turn and we ended up in downtown Nashville.  Oh well, guess this was Gods' way of saying get a good meal because we ended up taking an exit to turn around with a Cracker Barrel so we stopped there for lunch.  So much for making up that time.  LOL!

As we were driving we found many interesting things. I found out that we had an extra passenger that I did not know about. He seemed to have slipped in at the house and had been so quite that I didn't even know he was there until I came back to the car at one of our stops.  His name is Nike.

I think the most interesting thing that I saw as a driver was Ty Pennington's tour bus!  Yes we even got pictures of it as we passed it and they passed us several times on the trip. Alex and I are avid Extreme Home Makeover watchers and Alex and I have memorized the two buses license plates they use and this was one of them.  It was great!

We finally arrived safe, and sound at my father's house also known to the kids as Grandpaw Pullen's at 140am.  Word to the wise.  When you are about 80 miles out from your final stop it is not a good idea to take No Doze and drink a large cup of coffee, you'll be so wired that you can't sleep and talk non stop.  I'll remember this on my way back to Texas.

Heather, Alex and I took several pictures while on our drive and I will share them all enjoy!