Trip to Texas

The trip started on a fast pace. We made great time, as the roads were not crowded and made it in one day. No one was really expecting us that early but we were happy to be there.

We made several trips to the swimming pool, which made the kids happy. My sister Kay came up from Houston, and we got to play with baby Kealan for a couple of days. Miss Ariana would get extremely jealous if she caught me holding him. Cousin Kasey stayed awhile, and she and Travis acted just like siblings. Oh boy, was that fun! (A sign of things to come, perhaps?)

Brian and I took the three kids to Six Flags over Texas and managed to survive the experience. I was highly put out that the Sombrero--one of my favorite rides--was out of commission at that time. Ariana and I rode most of the tame, "kiddie" rides and left Brian, Travis and Kasey to the wild ones, especially the new roller coaster, the Titan. Ariana did ride the little roller coaster in Looney Toons Land, and kept making me go back on it. At least I didn't have to (couldn't because I'm too tall!) ride the Texas Tea Cups! She went on that 4 times in a row!

We visited friends who had a garden in the country. Dad picked over a bushel of sweet corn, and we were also given plums, tomatoes, squash, potatoes, peaches, okra, and broccoli. Ariana helped us shuck and silk the corn for about 15 minutes (about 14 minutes longer than her big brother managed!).

Ariana was so thrilled to visit Laurie's dairy, as she was looking forward to feeding the "baby cows." However, as soon as the calf pushed on the bottle, she had enough.

We spent a couple of days in Killeen and had a nice visit with Dawn (a former co-worker) and her family. We also drove by the place we used to live. The trees that I planted when they were just twigs have grown huge, plus there were plants that are descendants of what I planted! We also visited the Fort Worth Zoo and the Dr. Pepper Museum on this trip.

The kids and I drove home to Georgia the long way. We started off with a visit to the Tulsa grandparents. Then we headed out of Oklahoma and across Arkansas. We stopped in Memphis for a visit to Mud Island, which is a ½ mile long scale model of the Mississippi River, with towns, bridges and depths. In the "Gulf of Mexico" we took a paddleboat out and chased the ducks. We discovered that none of us were very good at steering. The Memphis Belle WW2 airplane is also on display there.

We spent the night in Jackson, Tennessee and visited the Casey Jones museum and village before continuing across the state. We made a brief detour in Nashville for me to see the Parthenon, as I recall the original fondly from my art history class. Due to my simplified explanation of the building, now Ariana thinks that Hercules lives there. Then we made it to Chattanooga, and saw Ruby Falls Cave, Rock City and the Incline Railroad to the top of Lookout Mountain. The kids were a little disappointed in the last, I think. Ariana wanted the train to go "fast." It went plenty fast enough for Mom, believe me.

Then we grabbed a bite to eat on the way out of town, and came straight home. Luckily Ariana slept over half the way.