Thanksgiving Journey Day 2

Today was a rather long day of boring driving.  We took 60W all the way from Paducah, KY to Springfield, MO.  It is flat, deserted, and long. 

Of course I had several fun photo opportunities planned for the day:  We were going to see a tiny tiny church in Bardswell, KY, go to Lambert's Cafe is Sikeston, MO, go see the largest ball of hair at some barber shop in Charleston, MO, and then end with the world's largest fork in Springfield, MO. 

Well the day was very overcast and it rained sporadically.  I figured it wouldn't be a very good picture to go stand out in the rain next to a tiny church, so I took that off the list of activities.  Then we were supposed to go to Lambert's Cafe.  This place is hailed as a restaurant where they throw rolls at you.  Well we passed it about an hour after we left Paducah, after we had eaten breakfast, so we weren't hungry, so we took that off the list also.  

Finally, one destination that didn't involve us eating while full, nor standing in the rain:  the World's Largest Ball of Hair.   According to the website that I use to find all these fun locations, this ball of hair was featured on CNN in 2007 and was 167 lbs at that time.  We pulled up to the barber shop, and were severely disappointed.  The place was so small, run down, paint chipping, and not open.  I did get my picture taken outside of the place, but I don't really believe that huge ball of hair is in there somewhere...

So far, three out of three photo ops have gone bust.  So we got back on the road, in the overcast and rainy weather, and continue driving amongst the barren land.  Then all of a sudden, I saw the most coca-cola vending machines I've ever seen in one location.  We pulled over, and took some pictures. 

 Then we got REALLY desperate, and saw up the road some weird horses in front of a bank.  We were desperate for pictures, so we took some there too. 

 Upon finally arriving in Springfield, we easily found the World's Largest Fork.

**********************************************

We ended up arriving at my dad's girlfriend's house, Teri.  My dad was not home, so Teri entertained us for about 2 hours. 

I had explained to Ryan that my dad has hair halfway down his back, that he wears self-made dangley earrings, and some other pertinent information he needed to know about King Tom.  When my dad came through the door though, he had cut off all his hair, and there were no earrings in sight!  Made me look like a liar!!!

So the four of us drank and were merry for the evening.  Dad was on his best behavior, and only said a couple inappropriate things (such as, to Ryan, "I'm an adrenaline junky - that's why I love sex!").

Thanksgiving Journey Day 1

Ryan and I left this morning from GA, headed into TN, and ended up in KY for the night.  Upon crossing the TN border we went to Ruby Falls in Chattanooga.  Ruby Falls is a waterfall INSIDE a cave!  We got out of the car and paid to enter, not realizing it was a 1.5 hour tour! 

It was really  neat though.  Along the way to get to the waterfall, there are a couple "formations" to keep you entertained.  Just like when you look up at clouds and you can see shapes in them, someone saw certain formations made out of the rock:

Of course the grand finale is so tall that I couldn't fit it all in one picture:

We went to the Cracker Barrel for lunch.  Then I drove while Ryan slept, and then Ryan drove while I slept.

We knew we would be staying the night somewhere around Paducah, KY since it is the halfway point to where we're going.  There is an outdoor ice skating rink in downtown Paducah so we went ice skating in 50 degree weather!  Ryan is definitely not so comfortable on ice skates, but I appreciated the effort while I skated laps around him =)  Since we were already downtown we wandered around until we found a place we wanted to eat.  We ended up eating at the Whaler's Catch.  They had this huge upstairs outside deck kind of similar to Matey's in Michigan City, but we ate in the warmth of the heat inside.  The food was phenomenal! 

Now we are situated at the Country Inn and Suites for the night.  Overall, the day was AWESOME and one of the most fun I've had in a LONG time!