I was feeling pretty ambitious so I drove for the first four or five hours. After that, my eyes started getting heavy so I let Ben have at it. Our original plan was to stop in Memphis, but due to us being OVERLY ambitious, we kept going. We got across the Arkansas state line and stopped at the Welcome Center to devise a plan for the evening.
Okay so anyway, we're getting ready to make a quick trip to downtown [[United-States/Black-Mountain]] this morning for the doggie park (Kosmo's gotta run it out before eight hours in the car today). We also learned that there's a doggie bakery, Bone-A-Fide Bakery and Pet Boutique, that we're going to take him to so he can get some yummy treats for the road. It was so cute-they had complimentary doggie biscuits with coupons for the place here. They gave us one last night and then again this morning (I think the lady forgot she had already given us one, but shhhhhh!) Speaking of Kosmo, Ben had to run back up to the room this morning to get his wallet while we were downstairs at breakfast. He came back downstairs with this huge grin on his face and when I asked what was going on, he told me that when he unlocked the door and walked into our room he found Kosmo just chilling on the bed. He said he looked soooo guilty! (P.s. Ben only thought it was funny because it wasn't OUR bed. Usually he would have been furious).
Alright guys, next stop: Memphis! We've heard amazing things about Beale Street (http://www.bealestreet.com/wordpress/) and of course, I can't stop thinking/talking about the ducks at the Peabody Hotel (http://animal.discovery.com/videos/most-outrageous-Peabody-hotel-ducks.html). My main mission is to see them tomorrow morning at 11 AM sharp!
I'll try for an update later today. Have a great one!
We picked up Kosmo and finally hit the road about 2:30 PM. I drove for the first two and a half hours because I find road trips more durable if I'm doing the driving. And since the worst part (for me at least) is getting out of Virginia and through Emporia and South Hill, I volunteered to drive first. We switched off after that and Ben took over for the rest of the way. We passed a lot of the time by listening to the audio book we rented last night, George W. Bush's "Decision Points." It's pretty good so far and I'm looking forward to about seven more hours of it tomorrow!
Because we were so tired and got a late start, we didn't reach Asheville until 9 PM and decided to just find a place to stay versus camping like we had originally planned. I was just too tired and the thought of setting up a tent wasn't too appealing to me. On a whim I looked up some bed and breakfasts in the area and found The Madison Inn (http://www.madisoninn-nc.com/). It's really cute and there are a lot of hydrangea bushes outside that I'm dying to get pictures of in the morning!
Tomorrow's plans include an early morning trip to the Biltmore Estate. We're not actually buying tickets and touring since it's so expensive, but I thought we could at least see it from a distance. We'll see what we can do. Then we'll be off to Waverly, TN (although we're going to see if we can make it to Memphis instead). We'll be going through Nashville as well, so hopefully we'll have some good pictures to post!
We spent the night at Granny and Pa's, got up this morning, and headed over to Williamsburg where we spent the day with Ben's brother, his wife, and our little niece from South Carolina, as well as Ben's sister and her husband. Tomorrow we will actually start our trek to Arizona, hopefully getting on the road around 11 AM. First stop: Asheville, NC. As long as it's not raining we will be camping. We'll update you all when we get there!