Our last day on the road for this trip.  My usual earlier rise than Cindy this morning, so I headed off to get some breakfast for us before our drive.  Another Yelp find for a cafe with organic, locally grown edibles.  Had a nice breakfast in the room, then got ready, packed up the truck and headed back out on I-55.

Stopped for lunch along the way by hitting up an Aldi grocery store to get a random assortment of snacks which we consumed over the new couple hours.  Also stopped for gas nearby and came across the Russell Stover outlet store for $1.47 in some excellent chocolate treats.  Rest of the drive was uneventful, basically corn fields and windmills for the next few hours until Chicago.

 

Pulled into my sister and brother-in-law’s place in Grayslake, IL about 6pm.  My parents came over and we had a great BBQ for the evening.

Jalapeño and Tripp meeting for the first time!

Started off from Memphis around 4pm on Monday.  Crossed over the Mississippi river into Arkansas.  Due our later start, we ended up stayin on interstate 55, though we had been successful so far of staying off the interstates.  Much more stressful driving on the interstates: more trucks, speeding cars, etc.  Don’t get much love doing 60mph..

Started getting close to our destination, so cindy started looking up good neighborhoods in saint louis and pet-friendly hotels.  Came across an area called “the hill” with a red roof inn nearby.  Checked into the hotel around 9pm and got jalapeno situated, then scoped out some local eateries on yelp since i was starving.  Only had breakfast, a snowcone, pbj and trail mix that day for food so far.

Came across a late night grub ‘n pub named Sandrina’s with good reviews so headed off in the truck to check it out.  The bar turned out the be excellent, good local beer (Schlafly’s wheat) and some delicious sliders on homemade rolls.  Cindy had the fallafel slider and i had the seared tuna and smoked trout.  Both came with an excellent cucumber salad.
Had some good conversation with a couple locals, then headed back to the hotel.

An interesting cartoon in the pub's menu

Our final day on the road tomorrow…sweet home Chicago!

Had a great day in Memphis today and the temperature finally came down a bit.  Ate a tasty breakfast at the “eclectic cafe”, then came back to the house for a run along the Mississippi.  Cindy and I ran while Laura chose to break out her 1992 roller blades to join us.

Got back from the run, then off to pick up Matt to head over for a treat at Jerry’s snowcones.  Prolly the best snowcones we ever had!

Blazing hot today, so a snow cone lunch for everyone.  Especially tasty after our run earlier in the day!

cindy jumping for snowcone joy!

Left columbus on sunday morning after a nice 4 mile run in the morning to start the day.  Loaded up the truck and headed towards birmingham.
Got to birmingham around lunchtime, so we yelped a place to grab some food.  Ended up calling in a to-go order at a place named bottletree cafe which featured some nice vegetarian selections.  The food was very tasty!

Brunch selection named “Andre the Giant”

Two eggs over chees grit cake w/ avocado

Cindy and i have been on a flexitarian diet the last couple months.  Eating mostly veggies and fish with minimal red meat, chicken or pork.
Eating in the car for lunch has been the operation so far on this trip, since we have our cat with us and the outside temperatures have been 100+.

My ladies relaxing on the ride

Continued on our way thru Alabama and Mississippi towards Memphis.  We tried getting off the highway near the Mississippi border to snap a pic of the each state sign, but found no such signs on this road.  Rolled into memphis around 7pm to spend the night at laura and matt’s place (cindy’s sister and husband).

We grabbed some tasty sushi for a late dinner in downtown Memphis with laura and matt.

Packed up the Tacoma this morning, cleaned out the remaining stuff at the Riverside house and got on the road about 12:30pm today.

Stayed off the interstate, so the trip took a bit longer, but definitely less stressful driving due to much less traffic.  It was a great drive after a minor correction to the tie-down straps on the kayaks.  Our cat, Jalapeño has done much better than we expected with a leash and riding in a car.

Stopped for lunch at a mexican place in Waycross, GA.  I grabbed a vegetarian to-go selection for us, while Cindy took Jalapeño for a walk nearby.  This record heat is not a place for a cat being outside much more than a few minutes.  We continued on our way and made it into Columbus, GA around 6:30pm.  Located a hotel near the airport which was reasonably priced and allowed pets without a fee.

Planning to get up to Memphis on Sunday to spend some time with Cindy’s sister and brother-in-law.

Cindy got her wish fulfilled on Friday for a final fun in the sun day before our road trip.  The weather was awesome and the offshore wind and decent size waves cooperated as well.  Went out with Cindy’s brothers to surf near Matanzas Inlet.

Behind us is the new setup for our truck, got an ARE bed topper installed on Thursday along with a Yakima rack for hauling surfboards, kayaks, etc..

And yes, for all your mustache fans, mine has returned along with a couple of chops.

Thanks to some heavy rains the last few days and a complete downpour around 6pm today, we got to experience one more flood in Riverside. Luckily the tide was outgoing, so it drained quickly after the rain let up. Been some crazy weather the last month or so. Never seen extended rains like this before in my 15 years in florida. Its been raining 3 days straight this time… As usual, the houses in this part of town were built high enough to withstand any damage. Put on our water shoes and rain gear to help push out a few stranded cars who tried to drive thru riverside ave, including the community officer 🙂

Our moving sale went well yesterday. People started showing up bright and early around 7am. Cindy’s efforts the prior day to hang signs around the area really helped, with some folks commenting how they found our sale. The action stayed consistent til around 2pm, but we were quite tired by that point anyways. The rain held off as well which was nice. Only major items that remain are the pool table and washer/dryer, so keep trying craigslist this week to sell those. We’ll make a donation to goodwill later this week with our remaining clothes and smaller items.

Had been recently looking at a flight deal thru Air Tahiti Nui, which was the airline we took to Tahiti back in 2006.  Deal is for a roundtrip flight from Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand along with a 3-night stopover in Tahiti on the return trip.  Cindy and I had been talking about the possibility, but had not booked anything.

Guess today’s thoughts about Tahiti from looking thru our 2006 trip notes got me motivated!

Looking forward to this New Zealand trip from November 6th – December 6th. Will be the first time spending a holiday overseas…  Currently plan on renting an RV to explore NZ.  More details to work out in the coming months 🙂

Also updated our destination and trip list recently with the latest plans thru the end of the year and into early 2013..

While organizing and consolidating our stuff this week, I came across our Tahiti memorabilia from the 2006 honeymoon trip.  Took some time today to type up our handwritten notes and add in some pictures.  Hope to keep up this type of writing during this career break to various destinations.  This is great stuff to read years later and bring back fantastic memories.

Click the link at the top of the page or here:  “Travel Notes from 2006 Honeymoon trip in Tahiti“