So day 1 we head out of my house in Apex around 7am, or at least that was the plan, we probably ended up heading out around 7:30-8. Anyway, pretty uneventful drive up until the smoky mountains, thats where we hit a thunder storm. It was of course, my turn to drive during said thunder storm. But even more of an adventure than that was Joel who was in the back seat at the time, he realized that since we had our straps from the car top carrier wrapped around the inside of the car that they were starting to become drenched and leaking in the back of the car, so he was going to work with a roll of paper towels and water coming in from the straps on both the right and left sides of the car. So then we get through that and end up in Knoxville, where I met a few good friends for lunch. A.J. Pawel and John Barr. This was ironic because I had one friend from high school who was going to college in Knoxville, and one friend from college who was back at home in Knoxville, both UT fans and both rather hilarious and southern, they got along great. Becky, if you are reading this picture the Peyton Manning guy from the super bowl party and John Barr having lunch, you will laugh. Anyway it was great to see both of them and moving on we didn't really stop again until Nashville, where I got to see my friend Michael Scott from work crew last summer. For those of you who don't know, which is most of you, Michael was one of my roommates, and worked with me in the pits (doing dishes) and he was a special needs guy. He is 21 but has the heart and mind of a child, he loves everyone around him no matter what and is completely innocent, I love Michael, and so did Joel and Kyle (the guys who are road tripping with me). So next stop Franklin, TN where Kyle's Aunt and Uncle lived, where we'd be staying that night. They lived on a farm, surrounded by a ton of other farms, and it was just really peaceful and beautiful out there and lots of fresh air, great relaxing start to the trip. Kyle's Aunt made us all a great home cooked country meal to cap off a great first day.
Day 2:
Wow, I know you've all read a lot now and that was just day one, now picture actually experiencing all that haha and that was only the beginning. So day 2 I wake up and go on a tour of Franklin with Kyle's Uncle. On this tour I found out that that was the richest county in America, everyone owned acre upon acre of beautiful lush farm land, and most of it was owned by country stars. He took me to see Kicks Brooks house, from Brooks and Dunn. He took me to see Alan Jackson's house. He took me to see Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's house. He took me to see Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman's house. It was amazing, especially for someone who loves country music. I even have pictures of the Texas Longhorns on Kicks Brooks farm. Then we went back for breakfast, again a great home cooked meal. We proceeded to hit the road for Memphis to hangout, and then Oklahoma City to see the city and sleep, all in the same day. Memphis however, never happened. Right before we got to Jackson, TN. which is like 1/3 of the way between Franklin and Memphis, I-40 came to a stop, traffic jam. Then closed down to one lane. I guess they were doing some work we got briefly detoured and sent back on 40. However, this traffic jam was probably just as good as Memphis, why you might ask? Because we made the most of it. When traffic stopped, we got out and did a chinese fire drill, on 1-40. Yeah, we did a chinese fire drill on the giant highway that spans across America. When we did it the mini van behind us was laughing and gave us the thumbs up. A few minutes later we're chatting it up and all of a sudden the older couple, parents, from the mini van behind us comes running around our car. We had to do a double take. Not to be outdone, these parents had followed our lead and done their own chinese fire drill on 1-40 right around our car. We burst out in applause and hysterical laughter. But thats not the end of our traffic jam adventures. When they condensed traffic to one lane, we got out of the car and used the now empty right lane to take a picture laying down in the middle of I-40, which is an epic picture. Anyway then when we stopped for Wendy's at dinner that night I prayed over our food and the manager came and brought us 3 large fries, one for each of us, for free, and said it was because not many people pray in public and she likes to see that and thought it was admirable. So God provided us large french fries, it was pretty sweet. Then we stayed in an extended stay in Oklahoma City, which Kyle got a free ticket to through his work. Worth noting was that when we got there there was a fire drill going on, and a fire truck outside, which was a little scary. Just a drill though, then we went to sleep.
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