Veni, Vidi, Vici...Or...They Came, They Saw, They Took the Scenic Route

image from RachaelRay.com

I arrived home very late last night from the girls' trip to Nashville. I have so much to share with you, but I almost didn't get to share it.

A fateful merge into the wrong exit lane took the three of us moms on a very long detour. I could be in Florida right now if not for a kindly road sign that showed us our navigational error.

Erin was busy looking over some information for MOPS, Kelly was driving in an area she'd never been before, and I thought that if I spoke up they'd think I was stupid.

I wondered why we veered off towards Asheville, North Carolina when I knew we were specifically travelling towards Knoxville, Tennessee, which is sort of the gateway to Bristol, which is sort of the gateway to good old Virginnie.

But no one said anything (except the woman on the GPS system, and we were ignoring her because at one point she took us to a Nashville Taco Bell that was really a liquor store) and before long I noticed that the road was suspiciously more mountainous than I remembered on the trip to Nashville.

That could be because we were in the Cherokee National Forrest. Which runs into North Carolina.

The sign that read "Welcome to North Carolina" was our final clue that we had veered horribly off-course. Erin did some quick work on the map and plotted a course that would get us to Bristol without having to backtrack the way we'd just come.

We definitely took the scenic route.

Kelly steered the car around corners so tight that they were covered in black tire marks from previous road trippers who were perhaps a bit too ambitious in their cornering speeds.

We traveled through tiny towns perched on mountainsides, we passed more goats than I think I've ever seen, and saw so many postcard scenic views...I wanted to just stop the car and take some photos.

But we couldn't do that because three husbands and eight children were sitting at home in the 'Burg, waiting for us to return.

A man would have completely flipped out at our turn of events. We decided to see the situation as a "glass half full" sort of situation. We added an extra state to our itinerary and got to stop at a very nice Starbucks.

It's not a road trip without Starbucks, y'all.

I'll be spending some time this week trying (!!) to catch up with all the comments you've left while I was away. I want to catch up with your blogs too...please be patient with me. I think Mimi *helped* me by moving some things around while I was gone, so I have some hunting to do.

I can't wait to share more with you about our Nashville trip and the MOPS convention. Please drop back in!

Have a wonderful day!