Well, we woke up in lovely Bowling Green, Kentucky this morning ready to drive to Orlando. We packed our bags and checked out of the hotel. On our way to place our bags in the van, we realized that in the middle of the night, we had parked the van under a tree. This must have upset some of the birds because our windshield was plastered with white spots, which are kind of hard to see in this photo.

In contrast to our first leg of the trip, our drive started out sunny and clear.

We were surprised to see how green Kentucky is right now. The landscape was beautiful, especially the farms. So, through Kentucky and Tennessee we listened to a lot of music. We’d say the between Aaron and Justine, the music collection is pretty diverse. It ranged from Sting (If I ever lose my faith…) to Coolio (Gangsta’s Paradise) to Fergie (Glamorous).

We then decided that if we want to make this a real road trip, we need to stop at some of the random places that are advertised on the freeway. We stopped at a Starbucks and saw a perfect little place to get our feet wet. It was the Arrowheads Aerospace Museum, right next to the Starbucks.

We walked on over and stepped inside. We were first greeted by an old bank teller window and a binder with loose-leaf paper. This was the sign-in sheet. Then this older woman yells from down the hall “Hello! Please sign in. You are now in the Museum’s gift shop. The actual exhibits are down the hall and will cost six dollars.” Well, before she even finished, we had already decided that we wouldn’t be here long. The “gift shop” was more like a consignment store. We’re serious about that, folks. This old woman was selling old, cheap, used stuff and telling us it was about the history of trains, planes and automobiles. The other part that turned us off was that this woman was sitting on a chair eating McDonald’s with her little Pomeranian dog eating her scraps. The whole place smelled like a McDonald’s hamburger. The smell of McD’s and the presence of that little, tiny, weird furball of a dog was not a good combo for us. We quickly looked around (since we’re nice people), said thank you and walked out the door.

We were back on the road and still determined to see sights if they turned up. Luckily, we knew that a particular sight was coming. Justine’s many trips to St. Simons Island has brought her through Chattanooga so many times that she knows each and every sign for Ruby Falls almost personally. We decided to make the stop. It didn’t hurt that a billboard said that it was on National Geographic’s 101 places to see in the U.S. So, stop we did.

We’ve always thought that Ruby Falls was a waterfall in Chattanooga on Lookout Mountain. Nothing crazy. I mean we’ve been to Yosemite, so what’s another waterfall to us, right (Justine has also seen gorgeous falls in Africa)? We drive up and find that we have to enter this stone building to see the falls. Thoroughly confused, we enter the building only to find out that we would have to take an hour and a half tour through caves to see Ruby Falls. These falls were inside a cave. That threw us off completely. Couple our surprise with a price tag of 33.50 each, we walked out after looking at the post cards. We drove to the top of Lookout Mountain and saw beautiful homes and some historic monuments. That was good enough for us. We then got back on the freeway for Florida.

We decided to finish the book on tape that we started the day before. It was Marley and Me. For a six hour reading, it seemed like the greatest idea for the first 5 hours. The last hour was terrible. Aaron was the first to grab the kleenex. Justine was trying to keep her composure since she was driving.

When Marley and Me ended, we were past Atlanta and on our longest stretch of road, yet. We went back to our music, then we started a new book on tape, Beach Road, a mystery thriller set in Long Island, NY.

We made it to Orlando and are greatly anticipating see the Florida Keys for the first time in our lives!!