Day One-Rockwall to Springfield, Illinois

On the road again.....  Well this is it, the summer we check off states 48, 49 and 50.  That's right.  All we have left are Wisconsin, Michigan and Alaska.  We have a Disney Alaskan cruise scheduled for the 20-27 of this month, so we decided to road trip up here first so that Alaska could be our #50.  This one is quick by Milder standards.  Just a mere 10 days! 

Our Itinerary:

7/7: Rockwall-Springfield, IL

7/8: Springfield-Green Bay, WI

7/9:  Green Bay-St. Joseph, MI

7/10: St. Joseph-Lansing, MI

7/11: Lansing-Louisville, KY

7/12: Louisville-Nashville

We will be in Nashville until 7/15 for some sightseeing and for the NSPRA conference.  The Braddocks are meeting us here so that Jane and I can present and have some fun with our TSPRA peeps!!

7/15: Nashville- Memphis, TN

7/16: Memphis to Rockwall

We headed out this morning right at 7 a.m. which made Scott happy.  We stopped for donuts and kolaches in Denison and then everyone slept/ate/stared at their electronics until Checotah, OK.  Where I felt the need to sing "I Ain't in Checotah Anymore" very loudly for the kids.  You hardcore Carrie Underwood fans know what I'm talking about.  Note that there is a picture of this cute railroad stop to prove we were there, but I could not convince a single one of my people to be in it.  

 Then we drove under the McDonalds....somewhere in OK.

 We stopped at the Missouri welcome center where I was finally allowed to take a picture with a person in it....

 The best stop of the day was at Lamberts in Ozark for a late lunch.  Home of the throwed rolls!!  We had to wait for 30 minutes for a table and while waiting we sat across from these old post office boxes.  The 12 year old kid waiting next to us asked his mom what they were and she replied, "I don't know...I think they are safety deposit boxes."  This is one of those moments where I have to smack down the history teacher inside me and remind her that perhaps the "teachable moments" should be saved for my children only.

 This was Scott trying to look skinny after sampling every single pass around and 3 very large hot  rolls.

 Just a few miles down the road was a very large "candy factory" which really wasn't a factory at all just a really big candy store.

However, they did have some interesting taffy flavors that I haven't ever seen before....

Chicken and waffles, hot chocolate, smores, red velvet, frosted cupcake...so of course we had to try them all!!

They also had sodas of every strange flavor and color...of course we had to try those too. And, Scott tried to impress the kids by popping off the tops with his wedding ring...*eyeroll*

Today's drive mostly looked like this...

Rainy and foggy.  That's the St. Louis arch that you can barely make out because of the rain and fog.  We made it to Illinois and then our hotel around 8:00.

We stopped at the welcome center again to get a pic with the sign.  They really are barely tolerating me at this point!  The restroom had a hand dryer that was above my head that Mandy and I found hilarious.  

Tomorrow morning we are planning to leave the hotel by 9 so that we can see Abe Lincoln's house and pay our respects at his gravesite.

Illinois Blessings,
Leslie