Road trippin: cross country style

I began this blog with our move to Kentucky...and those 4 years have too quickly ended. Don't get me wrong, I am ready to be done with school, earn an income, move on with life, but I don't think I could have even imagined the joy that was ahead when we moved to Kentucky.

Here I am, 319 posts later, now posting about the trip that will start the next chapter of our lives! 

We left Kentucky on Friday morning after a delicious Panera breakfast with Jenny. The Hill's were so generous to let us stay with them for the last 2 weeks of our time in Lexington. 

See ya later (hopefully we'll be back to say hi again someday) Kentucky!

 Next state, Tennessee...definitely driven through here a few times on various trips. It felt weird to continue past the junction in Knoxville and stay going south instead of heading east to the Schiebels (sorry Karrie, Grant was driving, I'm blaming it on him :)

We took the "scenic" route across the country, because we wanted to visit Bryce and Cecily (Grant's sister) in Atlanta before we moved to California. We had not seen their house and we also wanted the chance to get to see her cute pregnant belly (unfortunately not photographed).

 Georgia was a new state for me to add to my list (as I have only ever been in the airport there). We thought the World of Coke would be a fun little adventure as we made our way to their house.

 The tasting room was what we really looked forward to throughout the whole process :) There 60+ different drinks, divided by the continents they are served on. Some were pretty good, some were definitely gross (tasted like cough syrup).

 Grant found a favorite...

 But MY true favorites lied in the Coke room...tried and true deliciousness. I was sad they didn't have my favorite, Cherry Coke Zero, in the fountains though.

 We watched the Coke be bottled, and then at the end, you get to take your own little bottle off the conveyor belt.

 Thought the Happy Graduation bottle was fitting for the events of the weekend we had just enjoyed!

 For dinner and to see a bit more of the city, we headed to Virginia Highland, a REALLY cute little area with houses I loved, shops and restaurants. We ate at Yeah Burger on the patio and enjoyed a delicious hamburger and turkey burger with fries and onion strings.

 

And that evening we made it to Bryce and Cecily's and spent the weekend with them. Ron and Tammy had gone down earlier in the week to help with some projects for their nursery, so we had a fun weekend together, and Grant's mom got to enjoy Mother's Day with 2 of her children :) 

Grant's parents were kind enough to drive one of our cars back (they flew out for graduation and then drove our car back to their house) so we got to drive together. Early Monday morning we got on the road about 5am and were planning to stop in Shreveport, LA.

 Because we are moving some of our "household goods" in our cars, we had to weigh them so we can get reimbursed for the things that we moved. Pulled up to a truck weigh station and could barely reach the button to push to get weighed! (This is Grant standing in the car and still barely reaching) We had to yell to the lady on the intercom.

 Mississippi was my favorite state to drive through. Trees lined the road and the median throughout the whole thing...it was beautiful!!

 The mighty Mississippi River!

 Then came Louisiana, another state I had never been to. It was also very pretty and green. This was a good time of year to make the drive.

 Part way into the day, we decided that Shreveport seemed too soon to stop. We had wanted to stay at the hotel we had booked there because the lady on the phone was the nicest southern belle we had ever heard and they had a fun looking River walk, but decided we could put in 3.5 more hours and make it to Dallas...

Texas, my first failure of a sign photo. Hit a bump right as I took it :(

 Those extra 3 hours were totally worth it because I got to enjoy a delicious Texas BBQ dinner at Rudy's, and the best part was that Andrea (a roommate and awesome friend from BYU) met us there. Thank you Andrea for meeting us, it was SO fun to catch up.

That night we stayed in a nice hotel, enjoyed a delicious breakfast the next morning and got back on the road, headed to Las Cruces, NM.

 Well we got to New Mexico (finally! Texas is way too long!) and again felt like it was too soon to stop....

 So we continued on to Arizona and spent the night in Gilbert with Grant's parents. Sleeping in a real bed was worth the extra several hours of driving.

Day 1: 15 hours
Day 2: 16 hours

We are just hanging out here today (in the 106 degree heat), and tomorrow the excitement continues as we are making our final 6.5 hour drive to San Diego! Can't believe it's all really happening now. It's always a weird realization when things you've been looking forward to for so long finally start happening.