Though we got a late start out of St. Louis, my parents and I were in the van, on our way to AL by 9:30 on Wednesday morning. Things were going great until we got to Marion, IL where road work was taking place leaving us to slowly creep along the highway. We made it through Marion after 20 minutes and were back to full speed. We generally stop for lunch at Ft. Campbell and fill up there as well (gas tends to be less expensive there) but my dad had heard that troops had come in from deployment and more were heading in. That is, by no means, a bad thing--in fact, it's wonderful and we praise God for bringing these men and women home safely. However, last year we wound up staying in Ft. Campbell for a rather lengthy amount of time because there were so many troops in that we could not budge our way out of the parking lot. Needless to say, we filled up and drove down to Clarksville to grab a bite to eat. After lunch at Arby's, we piled back into the vehicle only to have to put on the brakes again further down the road when we got closer to Nashville. We spent over a hour getting through country music's capital. We finally arrived at my Mema and Uncle Roger's house at 7:00 p.m. I could hardly wait for dinner to be done so that I could fill my plate up with chicken and dumplings and green beans. I had not had homemade dumplings in a while so they were quite delicious! We all visited a while and then set up camp for bed. I arose at 10 till 7 a.m. (or so I thought) having to use the bathroom. Before I got up to go, I grabbed my cell phone to see what time it was. My phone read: 7:50. I decided that I probably would have difficulties going back to sleep so I might as well just stay up. I grabbed the sales ads, posted myself on the sofa and then noticed the clock-it was now 7:00, not 8:00. So, for some reason, my cell phone was stuck back on Georgia time! Even still, I remained on the couch-even took a brief snooze before everyone else woke up. My uncle and I watched some of the Macy's Parade and it was then time for us to load the van up with goodies and head to the mountain. We pulled up to find a garage full of tasteful yummies. Sadly, I never even made it to the desserts (that's surprising too). I was so taken by the sweet potato casserole, the grape salad my cousin made, etc. that my Red Velvet Cake didn't even get my visit for the afternoon. I enjoyed spending the afternoon with family and giving thanks for the many, many things I have to be thankful for in my life.
