Carson, Ayzie and I decided to drive across the United States! It was long but we had fun. Carson's Aunt Shelly and Uncle Bill live in Wilmington North Carolina, and Carson's mom bought a car from them, so Carson decided that he wanted to drive it home across the US and he wanted me to go with him. Sam and Brandi kept Cole and Ellie for us and his mom took them for a couple of days too (Thank you guys for keeping my kids safe and happy while we were gone!) I had only one day to prepare and pack so I only got an hour and a half of sleep before we had to leave to catch our flight, and of course you can't sleep on an airplane. It took us 9 hours to fly from St. George to Wilmington NC and 4 days to drive back home! We stayed at Carson's Aunt and Uncles house, and they were so sweet. Aunt Shelly had made us a wonderful dinner when we got there and Uncle Bill took us for a quick tour of downtown Wilmington. It was so cool to see all the old colonial style houses and extremely old churches. We also saw the Cape Fear River which had this old battleship. I had never seen a battleship in person and it was huge! I was so mad that my camera was in the trunk of the car. The next morning they took us to the Atlantic Ocean and to a restaurant overlooking the ocean called the Oceanic. We walked out on the Pier but only for a picture because the wind was blowing like crazy on the beach. Then it was time to hit the road for our long ride home. I was so sad to leave already, it was so different there with tons of trees everywhere so you couldn't even see the city. I really wanted to stay for another day just to look around but we had our kids to get home to.
We went through 12 states in 4 days and drove almost 2400 miles. The states we went through were North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and the back into Utah. We saw some very cool and very interesting things along the way. There were so many rivers that were enormous, nothing like the Virgin River! :) We got to cross over the Mississippi River but we could not find a place to stop so that we could really see it so our pictures are just from out the window of the car. We saw the world's biggest cross! (that was one of the interesting things!) We also saw the Talladega Speedway, (we didn't see Ricky Bobby but we saw his smokin hot wife! :) that was Carson's little input! I seriously have never seen anything so huge, it was neat to see. The sad part was that we never stopped one time to get out of the car and take a picture until we were almost home going over the Colorado River that Carson and I have been over a million times. I guess we were just in such a hurry to get home that we would just pass everything up, so all of our pictures are out of the window. Lame I know! Ayzie did amazing and she honestly only cried one time and we were almost to our hotel room. So 4 days and 2400 miles later we made it home and we were so happy to see our kids and sleep in our own beds.
It was so much fun but extremely long.... Carson is already planning a trip back for 2010 with all 3 kids!! Crazy I know, especially if we end up driving!
Uncle Bill, Carson, Aunt Shelly, & Me
Aunt Shelly with Ayzie
Uncle Bill with Ayzie
