We're only halfway through our trip at this point. We woke up in St. Louis, Missouri and drove to Atlanta, Georgia. The highlights of that day were literally the two restaurants where we ate lunch and dinner.
Glen's choice for lunch--Chick-fil-A. He loves that restaurant. It brought back memories of him eating Chick-fil-A sandwiches for lunch when he was in the MBA program at Georgia State. Shockingly, he broke down and bought lemonade (which made me feel like I could get some of the yummy stuff as well).
It was dark as we were passing by Woodstock, Georgia where we used to live, so we
opted out of going to look at The Arbors--our old neighborhood. Despite the darkness, we were able to find O'Charley's--my choice of restaurant for dinner.
This place holds many wonderful memories for me. I spent many hours in this particular restaurant and ate many delicious rolls while there. It was the preferred spot anytime I had lunch out with my friends.
We stayed at a hotel in Atlanta so we would be near the temple the following morning. The Atlanta Temple has gone through a renovation since we lived there and we were trying to remember how it used to be and compare it to how it is now.
LeeAnn Mitchell was in the same session we were and I was able to visit with her for a while before the session. After the session I saw Jean Eide who was there as a temple worker and got to visit with her for a few minutes.
Looks like Glen couldn't get enough of his Chick-fil-A/lemonade lunches. He sprang for another one after the temple making it two days in a row.
From Atlanta we headed to South Carolina where Larry and Debbie Isaksen have a home on the lake. They lived in our same neighborhood in Georgia. We planned to go see their new house some time and Glen figured if he threw that stop into the trip itinerary, along with the grandchildren stop and the Dahlquist stop, it would make going on the vacation even more appealing to me.
He was right! It was so wonderful to see our good friends once again and enjoy their hospitality for a couple of days. Debbie is the queen of holiday decorating. She didn't disappoint with all the Halloween decor she had around--not even caring that their house is at the end of the street where hardly anyone would drive by and see her decorations.
Look at me all happy to get out of the car for a few days. What joy that fact brought me.
The Isaksens literally live right on lake-front property.
I could hardly wait to take a tour of the new home they built. Here is the room where we slept.
I love Debbie's office with her computer desk, a craft desk, lots of storage space, a big window to look outside and a saying on her wall that is so Debbie.
"I'd give up chocolate...but I'm not a quitter!"
Larry works from home. His office is at the back of the house and his view is the lake. He can walk around out on the deck that spans the length of their home when he's on a long phone call.
The view from Larry's window.
Upstairs is a huge room with dormer windows and a bathroom.
Their basement is nearly finished. It has four bedrooms, two bathrooms (I think... I was so interested in the tour I didn't take pictures down there), a family room and a huge mud room area for hanging up life jackets and getting cleaned up after playing in the lake. Also some great storage areas.
Back to the main floor--here's the master bedroom.
The laundry room.
The living room.
And the kitchen where Debbie got busy preparing dinner for us.
It was a nice bit of visiting we did that evening. Next morning Glen was up and at 'em bright and early turning Debbie's craft desk into his own work space for the day.
Breakfast was served! Felt like a regular bed and breakfast with us being the pampered guests. Loved it!
Debbie and I lounged around all morning visiting while the men were in the respective offices working.
Some views from down by the lake.
Later in the afternoon, their very nice neighbor Wayne picked us up in his boat and took us for a ride around the lake.
Ahhhhhhhh! This is my way of enjoying the lake. Just sitting in a boat enjoying the beautiful scenery go by with no swimming suits or getting wet required.
When we heard it was snowing in Utah, we were even more ecstatic to be riding around on the lake in perfect weather.
That evening the Isaksens had planned to show us the night life in the little town of Iva. They were going to take us to a Mexican restaurant which is the nicest place in town. That is until we started talking about the bigger city of Anderson that was farther away.
When Debbie started listing off the restaurants they have there and one of them is O'Charley's, I started thinking about something. I thought about how I had humored Glen by going with him to Chick-fil-A twice and how maybe it was time for a payback.
That's how we ended up driving a longer distance to go to dinner that evening ending up once again at my most favorite restaurant in Georgia--O'Charley's.
Larry paid homage to Chick-fil-A to honor Glen (who would rather have eaten there a third time over eating at O'Charley's a second time) by getting the company logo right above our heads in the picture. I kept wondering why Larry wasn't paying more attention to the O'Charley's sign and building and this is the reason why.
Next day was ball game day. That meant packing up our stuff and loading up the car because we wouldn't be going back to the Isaksen's house. We would be hitting the road leading back to Utah as soon as the game was over.
Glen decided to park at the Varsity parking lot and we decided to join the massive crowd of people waiting in line to get some Varsity food. It was a joke! We hardly ever moved up in line. It took FOREVER!!!!
Finally we got our food and moved to a room where we sat at desks to eat our meal. See that clean, white shirt? It now has a massive ketchup stain down the front of it. Luckily I had a jacket to put on to disguise my oops.
There were a lot of BYU fans at the game.
By the last few minutes of the game, the majority of the opposing team's fans had given up and gone home. Another victory for BYU! Glen says I'm the team's lucky charm because they win the games I go to.
I was just glad I had Debbie to sit by and talk to all through the game. She enjoys watching the games, but at least she doesn't hook herself up to the radio and ignore me like other people have a tendency to do.
It was a fun game, a fun time being back in Georgia, a fun time hooking up with friends, a fun time all around. With a hug and a good-bye, we found ourselves on the road again...
Glen insisted on driving until very late that night so he could listen to all the rehash of the rehash of the rehash on the radio of the ball game he'd just watched. After hours of that, he tuned into another ball game of random teams I'm pretty sure he probably didn't care all that much about and listened to that for an interminably long time until he finally conceded, gave in to my strong wish and desire to find a hotel and sleep for a while.
We stopped in Clarksville, Tennessee. The following morning we went to a 9 a.m. church before driving on down the road once again. Westward ho! Let's just say that the Sabbath was not a day of rest from driving. It was a very long day that went late into the night before stopping in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The next day was more of the same. Driving, driving, driving, driving, driving, driving. Until we reached our destination--HOME, SWEET HOME!!!!!
It was insanity spending that many hours in the car. It was just as I had suspected. We'd have a nice drive out with some fun stops along the way and no insane days of nothing but 12 to 15 hours of driving. Then on our way home we'd do it just like we did it. Drove all the way in as little time as possible. SHEESH!!
All in all--it was a very fabulous and fun trip. The weather was awesome and the scenery was spectacular. We appreciated all the hospitality along the way. We love our family and the wonderful friends we have made in every place we have lived. Thank goodness for special people. It's what makes the world a better place.
This is the end of the story of us going
to infinity and beyond...!!!!
