Our First Weekend Outing

Dustin and I have decided that we were going to go somewhere fun every weekend while we are here. Since we had already traveled a lot this week we stayed close to our house in Durham. We drove about an hour away to Greensboro which is one of the areas that Dustin served in on his mission. We went on a tour of Guilford Courthouse, which was a Revolutionary War battleground. While we drove around the park we thought of how hard it would have been to fight a war in the thick woods all around the battlegrounds. It was a great place to be around Memorial Day and to be able to remember what people had sacrificed for our freedom. 

On Sunday we drove back to Greensboro and went to church in the Lakefield Ward that Dustin had served in during his mission. There were a few people who remembered him and were very glad to see him. It was great to go to church and have something that was familiar and a little piece of home. I love that I know that no matter where I go, the gospel I know is true is the same and I have people that I know I can count on.

Update from the Road

Day 1 Saturday

We somehow got the house clean (a big thanks to Dustin's sister Jen for all the help!) the car packed and headed out from Logan. I was glad that we had the GPS that my mom and dad got me for my b-day, it has helped a lot. We were going to try and make it past Cheyenne but when we were getting close to Cheyenne it was raining hard and foggy so we stopped for the night there. Too bad we hadn't planned on stopping there ahead of time, it ended up being the most expensive hotel room of our whole trip, just because we didn't book it online. I was excited to get out of Wyoming- nothing but sagebrush as far as you can see!

Day 2 Sunday

This was our big driving day! We drove from Cheyenne to St. Lois, Missouri and once again I was very grateful for the GPS. I was glad to arrive at our hotel finally. It awesome to see the Arch at night. It was really close to our hotel. It was good to know that the longest day of driving was over!

Day 3 Monday, Memorial Day

We started out today with a trip to the Arch. The rain had followed us from Wyoming and there was poor visibility so we didn't go up to the top of the Arch. It was still awesome to see! It was much bigger than I thought it would be.

The rest of the day was a bit of a disappointment. We had looked up two restaurants that were on the show Dinners Drive-Ins and Drives and tried to go to both of them, but they were closed. We went to a old train station that had a lot of restaurants and stores in it, kind of like Trolly Square, only bigger. It was pretty cool, but I picked out a Barbeque Restaurant that was definitely a dive but not in a good way, yuck! Our dinner of St. Louis style pizza with yummy toppings and a super thin crust made up for the awful lunch.

View of the rainy city of St. Louis from our hotel

The Train Station

Later we drove around Forest Park, because it was pouring again, and saw the World's Fair Pavilion which was beautiful. I would have loved to walked around that park when it was a nice day. So that was our day off of driving in St. Louis

Day 4 Tuesday

We drove from St. Louis to Nashville Tennessee today. It was really a beautiful drive with trees all along the road just about the whole way there. Once we got the Nashville we went to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and then headed out for the highlight of our trip, to see Montgomery Gentry at the Grand Ole Opry House. It was amazing! There was a whole two hour show with a bunch of different performers. Most of them were ones I had never heard of but they were still awesome. Little Jimmy Dickens, who is 83 years old an a country legend performed some old country songs and told some really funny jokes such as "You know your 83 when you bend over to get something and think 'What else can I get while I'm down here?'"

Little Jimmy Dickens

Finally, Montgomery Gentry came on to perform. They were awesome! When they finished there second song, someone from the Grand Ole Opry came on stage and invited them to join the Opry. I couldn't believe I got to be there to see that! Both of them were crying and they had to take a break before they could start singing again! I think that will be the moment I remember most about this trip!

Montgomery Gentry

Montgomery Gentry being invited to join the Grand Ole Opry

Day 5 Wednesday- Happy Birthday to Me!

One of the nicest things I got to do today was to sleep in!!! It felt so good to not have to get out of bed for anything. Once I finally did get up we had a busy and fun day. First we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. It was fun to walk around and see all the costumes and cars and watch the videos they had in there. They had a huge wall covered with Gold and Platinum albums. The actual Hall of Fame itself was pretty small but it was neat to walk around and read all the plaques telling about people like Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, and Elvis.

After that we went on a short bus tour of the city and saw the amazing Bicentennial and Centennial parks. I was glad that we went on the tour so I felt like we saw the whole city and not just what was right around our hotel. We finished up the night with a GIANT hot fudge brownie sunday and seeing Night at the Museum 2 at an IMAX theater. Overall, I would say 22 was a pretty fun birthday.

Tomorrow we will arrive in Durham, North Carolina where we will be staying for the next two months. I think once we get there it will sink in that I'm not just on vacation and we are actually going to be living there for the next little while. At least I got to have a nice break before I started again.