Eric came home from a work trip to Houston and said, "I heard the wind is blowing from the north... I assume your plans have changed?" I laughed and wondered if the girls had been talking to him... nope... he just knows me.
Scrapping the midwest for now, and onto a new goal. Stay out of freezing temps and all that comes with it. This meant heading south and driving until we made it to the Florida panhandle... with one driver, the sun setting at 4:45pm (bleh), and some stops along the way, it took us four days.
South!! As quickly as possible.
Papa, Nana, and Eric came home to see us off... the tears didn't last nearly as long this time, and our overnight stop was with my cousin Heather, and her family, which helped ease the homesickness. :) There were second cousins AND kittens to play with, and we awoke to a lovely snowy landscape.
Thank you to Heather, Billy, and the kids for their hospitality!
Goat feeding chores...
Our route took us through Hannibal, MO, so we checked out Mark Twain's hometown. It's a quaint place with cute shops and storefronts, and a little area museum with the cutest Tom Sawyer diorama. Lily was smitten. If she could make dioramas for a living, she would.
Hannibal, MO
Tom and Huck
The fence!
Mark Twain lived in Hannibal, MO from age 4-17.
So creative!
The man behind the dioramas.
The girls also found some painted rocks around town, which led to an idea... stay tuned.
Hannibal Rocks!
This is the part where RoadSchool isn't very romantic... we are NOT above staying the night in a Walmart parking lot. ;) On fact, as I write this, it's our 10th night out on this #DeepSouth leg, and we've stayed at four different Walmarts. Hey, it's free, we're en route, and our dog doesn't like strangers. It's all good. ;)
Walmart in Paducah, KY
Tacos for dinner at Walmart in Prattville, AL.
We're very thankful for him.
The Journey Church, just outside of Montgomery, AL, was kind enough to let us leave the trailer in their lot so we could go downtown to tour the Capitol, AL State Museum, and Jefferson Davis White House. So much Civil War and Civil Rights history in this area... it is mind blowing to think about what segregation looked like. The museum had a series of short videos that led you through all of the events that the city is known for... so many changes, and yet again, not really.
Alabama State Capitol
Gorgeous doors!
On this site, Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the President of the Confederacy.
A lot of the items on display actually belonged to the Davis family, and before she died, Ms. Davis carefully drew the layout of each room in the house.
Pieces of history.
Alabama History Museum
We found it sadly intriguing that a good number of those that fought for the confederacy didn't consider themselves Confederates. They were only there because they were loyal to their state, such as General Robert E. Lee and Virginia. What a difference it might have made if they'd stood up against it instead?
