On the road again

We dropped Matt off at the Nashville airport around noon. We had packed sandwich wraps so we all ate in the car and headed south from Nashville. 

When we planned our Tennessee trip I decided to check how far we’d be from Lu and crews new home in Pensacola, and we were only 6 hours! Dropping Matt off added 2 hours, but still. I had found a few fun stops for our trip. 1st up - Giant chicken with chef hat. This was Adi’s fav! She loved this guy. 

I just think the US is beautiful. And I love traveling with my crew!

We found another Buc-cee’s on our way. We stopped at every one we could, but around the 4th one, some of the shine had worn off. They are so much alike that I had to double check we hadn’t been to the same one. Even the shirts were the same just with a different state on them. 🤣 We *love* their candied nuts - we always get almonds and cashews, so we definitely still recommend them, but you know. 

Iron man ancient billboard. This guy was a few miles off the freeway, but then we were able to backroads it and it didn’t add but a few minutes. 

I’m not exactly sure what “Ironman” is, but I do love a roadtrip stop. 

Adi drove us on some backroads to the Clarkson covered bridge

It smelled like an old covered bridge too. 

Her picture stance lately kills me. 

There was a short bus there field tripping but as we arrived they were loading up, and then it was just us. 

Models. 

We walked the bridge and then were on our way. 

Our late start threw me off a little, so when we arrived at the Ave Maria Grotto at Saint Bernard Abbey, it was already closed. Whomp whomp, we had to drive all the way through town to get to this one too, so that was a big bummer. 

It looked pretty neat, but was all fenced and locked up. 

We drove into Birmingham to see Miss Fancy the Elephant. She lived at their zoo for 20+ years and became a mascot for the city. She’s everywhere!

Avondale Park was extra cute, but we had to make tracks, so we didn’t linger long. 

We tried to see the Heaviest corner on earth, but it was right downtown and no easy place to park. Adi took a turn driving through the rest of Birmingham and got her first taste of freeway driving. There was only one hairy moment when she switched lanes without looking because she was nervous of the merging traffic coming onto the freeway, but thankfully alls well that ends well. 

She drove for an hour and got us to the Big Lighthouse Fountain. 

There were several things we wanted to see here in Clanton, Alabama, but one thing lead to another and they were hard to find. I actually think one of our sites - a giant peach statue was located right next to this here lighthouse and we missed it, but oh well. 

I really wanted to see the Lighthouse statue, and then the Fake Town of Spectre from the movie Big Fish, but that closed at dusk and we would have arrived about 30 minutes too late. So that was a bummer and I wish I would have planned better.

We got Jack in the Box for dinner, a first for the little Rays, and powered on to Lu’s new home where we arrived at 11. It was big boy Emmett’s first day of kindergarten, so we were all excited to see our best 5-year-old before school the next day!