2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 4

Blacksburg, VA

The Rundown: Even though we planned to get up pretty early and start out day, that didn't happen... I tried to go to bed early, but was somehow still awake at 3:30am. David woke up around 7am, but since he knew I hadn't slept he let me sleep until 10am. I love him for that! We went downstairs to have breakfast here at the hotel then got ready and headed out to Natural Bridge, Virginia, to visit the Virginia Safari Park. We ran into a lot of rain on the way, but finally made it. The girls loved feeding the animals and had a great time at the park.

After leaving the Safari Park we went to downtown Roanoke to see our friends, the Schwartz family, and to see a concert by '1964-The Tribute', a Beatles cover band. They were amazing! Reese took a bad fall down the hill at the amphitheater and managed to scrape up her legs, arms and head. I couldn't believe she fell so hard! Poor baby! She recovered pretty quickly and ended up having a good time. By the end of the night all of the kids (Schwartz kids AND Cooan kids) were down in front of the stage dancing. I loved it!


High Point of the Day: Visiting the Safari Park and getting to see old friends.

Low Point of the Day: The rain really slowed down our trip to Natural Bridge. Reese falling down the hill & getting hurt.

Photos of the Day:





Miles: 173

Total trip miles: 941


Expenses

•Hotel: $0

•Admission: $77 ($57 Safari Park, $20 concert tickets)

•Breakfast: $0 (hotel breakfast)

•Lunch: $0 (snacks)

•Dinner: $20.00(Festival food at the concert!)

•Snacks: $13.00 (Taco Bell & Wendy's)

•Gas: $40 (free gas card)

•Miscellaneous: $0

Total for the day: $110.00

Total for the trip: $288.19

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 3

Blacksburg, VA

The Rundown: We were all obviously worn out from the driving and all the fun yesterday because all four of us slept until 10:30am! It was crazy! We missed the hotel breakfast so we had to be happy with Lucky Charms and oatmeal bars in the hotel room for our morning meal. We lazed around the room, then David took the girls swimming for a while. He decided that the floaty suit I had for Reese was too small, so we took a trip to Wal-Mart to get another suit. We ended up just buying her a little life jacket, and she was totally happy with that.

After visitingWal Mart (and buying two loaves of bread in addition to Reese's new life jacket) we headed over to the Virginia Tech duck pond. The girls had a ball feeding the ducks and just running around in the park. After dinner we went back to the hotel and took the girls swimming again. That's their favorite thing to do!

High Point of the Day: Feeding the ducks at the Virginia Tech duck pond.

Low Point of the Day: David woke up REALLY grumpy! :)

Photos of the Day:




Miles: 27

Total trip miles: 768

Hours in the car (including stops): 5:30

Total hours in the car for this trip: 19:43


Expenses

•Hotel: $0

•Admission: $0

•Breakfast: $0 (Lucky Charms in the room)

•Lunch: $0 (snacks in the room)

•Dinner: $69.14(Bull & Bones Brewhaus & Grill - YUMMY!!!)

•Snacks: $1.50 (Twizzlers candy)

•Gas: $0

•Miscellaneous: $61.39 (life jacket, bread, books & pool toys)

Total for the day: $132.03

Total for the trip: $178.19

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 2

Nashville, TN to Blacksburg, VA

The Rundown: We actually got out of bed by 8:30am so we could make it down to the hotel breakfast. We all filled up on toast, bagels and jelly, then we packed up and headed out. We got on the road a little later than we anticipated, but it was before noon! Believe me, for our family, that's pretty good!

We drove for a couple of hours and stopped at The Minister's Treehouse in Crossville, TN. It was amazing! Here is a link that tells all about the treehouse and the man behind the building: http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-07-29-treehouse-church_N.htm

After the treehouse the big part of our travel day began. We got gas and headed out for Blacksburg, VA. We expected the trip to take us about five hours, but we ended up stopping several times for potty breaks.

Low Point of the Day: Reese REALLY wanted to sit in the porch swing at The Minister's Treehouse. There were three people sitting in the swing, and even though they heard her ask several times they didn't let us take a turn on the swing. Instead, they stayed there over half an hour smoking their cigarettes. I never worked up the nerve to ask them to just move so we could take a quick photo on the cool swing, but I wish I had. These were the same people who were in the crow's nest when we went up. They saw that we wanted to look out the windows and take a picture or two, but never moved so we could. They just sat in the windows and smoked. You gotta love people like that...

High Point of the Day: Getting to check out The Minister's Treehouse!

Photos of the Day:




Miles: 414

Total trip miles: 741

Hours in the car (including stops): 9:15

Total hours in the car for this trip: 14:13


Expenses

•Hotel: $0

•Admission: $0

•Breakfast: $0 (ate at hotel)

•Lunch: $0 (hot dogs in the car)

•Dinner: $0(ate snacks in the hotel room)

•Snacks: $2.83 (gum)

•Gas: $0 (used free gas card for $35)

Total for the day: $2.83

Total for the trip: $46.16

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 1

Searcy to Nashville, TN

The Rundown: We had a hard time getting on the road, but once we got going things went pretty well. We stopped a couple times for potty breaks but managed to keep from spending tons of money on snacks by fully stocking the car with snacks from home!

When we got to our hotel, the Hyatt Place Nashville Airport, they didn't have our reservation on file. Ugh! We had originally booked the hotel for May 31st, but decided to leave earlier. David called the Gold Passport line two months ago to change our reservation but they booked it wrong when they changed it. I called Hyatt and fortunately they changed the reservation to the correct date with no problems. The girls were VERY disappointed that we couldn't go swimming as soon as we got to the hotel. A big thunderstorm blew in just as we arrived in Nashville. The rain didn't last long, but there was thunder and lightning until well after dark. We decided to go eat dinner instead of sitting in the hotel room and waiting for David to arrive. Dinner took a little longer than we expected because the storm knocked out their computer system about the time we asked for our check. It took almost 30 minutes for us to pay, but we finally made it out of there. David's plane was delayed so he got in a little later than planned, but at least it wasn't midnight!

Low Point of the Day: Having to sit in the car...

High Point of the Day: Seeing Spongebob strapped to the back of a U-Haul truck.

Photo of the Day:



Miles: 327

Total miles: 327

Hours in the car: 5:58

Total hours in the car for this trip: 5:58


Expenses

•Hotel: $0

•Admission: $0

•Breakfast: $0 (ate at home)

•Lunch: $0 (Lunchables in the car)

•Dinner: $40.51(Ruby Tuesday)

•Snacks: $2.82

•Gas: $0 (used free gas card for $35)

Total for the day: $43.33

Total for the trip: $43.33