Prairie Adventures: at the beginning

You know every trip actually begins before you get in the car, right?

This trip had a rocky start Friday night at the car rental location.

It wasn’t pretty. It started with Hertz and ended with Budget. It started with a way I thought things should go and ended with Kevin and I standing in the car rental parking lot, me on the receiving end of a well-spoken and true pep talk of how our attitudes as parents absolutely affect the attitudes of our children. It started with a plan to drive off in a Suburban and ended with us driving off in a Tahoe.

But Saturday morning arrived regardless and drive off we did – only an hour (or two) past our pre-planned departure time. (Which, for us, equals right on schedule.)

It was a full day of car riding and state line passing. North Carolina. Tennessee. Kentucky. And Ohio.

We’ve got stellar travelers.

We made pretty good time. Played your usual round of travel games. (I think I’ll save up all of our travel game ideas and share them in an extended post when we get home.)

When we reached Williamsburg, Kentucky we stopped to get gas.

And we couldn’t resist a quick tour around our old college campus – Cumberland College. Which is now the University of the Cumberlands.

We stopped at the exact location where the decision was made to change our lives forever. We stood where Kevin proposed to me. Yep. The background looks just about as charming now as it did then.

We kept telling the kids – “This is an important place. Without this place, there wouldn’t be any of you guys.” They didn’t seem that impressed.

We drove over the Ohio River.

And then we finally arrived at our destination – Papaw and Grandma’s house. The first stop of our journey.

Where we received a warm welcome and great meals and an afternoon of World Cup soccer – as well as a family fishing outing where Mosely skunked every other single person.

It was a lovely starting point.

It was also a great night for Kevin to snag a photo at his home town’s water tower.

See where we got the inspiration for London’s name?

And. While I’m sharing – he also took this impossibly sweet picture of two sisters.

It’s good – right?

And while you’re enjoying these cute pictures we are probably trekking across a few more state lines.

I’ll see you there. Sort of.