Checking In

Hey, cool, there's a computer in the lobby. I am currently at the Best Western Suites Opryland/Nashville. Nowhere near where that McNair guy got shot, by the way.

Anyhoo, we left at 10am and got here at like 6. It rained buckets for the first few hours of the trip, slowing us down considerably. We stopped in Mt. Vernon for lunch at Arby's where Tessa ran around making new friends and playing bongos on empty seats. At that point we thought the rain had stopped, but it caught up with us again shortly after we left. It kept up until we were well past the Rend Lake area.

Next stop, rain free, was at a rest area just outside of Paducha, KY. We let Tessa run around for about 30 minutes or so, chasing a ball and whatnot. This nice little diversion let her spend some energy and helped make the car ride more bearable for her. She did fairly well in the car today, a little fussy from time to time but well behaved all things considered.

By the way, does anybody else find it funny that Kentucky still uses the abbreviation on all their signs? I mean, KY Lake? C'mon.

Once we'd checked in, it was decided to go get dinner at the Cracker Barrel just down the way. A full meal and fairly inexpensive, always a good idea on a road trip. Literally 3 seconds after we got under the awning guess what happened? Torrential downpour. Hopefully this is not an indicator of the rest of our trip. It's been raining on and off all night.

Tomorrow, we're going to go visit Valerie's friend Karen the nun (also known as Sister Marie Terese), attend a mass at the nun house (that's the term, right?) and have a short visit. Then we check out and it's on to Gatlinburg. I'm not sure whether there'll be a computer at our condo or not (we didn't bring our own as we didn't want the hassle). If so, I'll keep checking in. If not, you can read about it next weekend.

Okay, gotta go. Tessa's still a little restless, and I've been in the lobby a little too long. see you all soon.