July 26, 2015

Home At Last!

After over 1800 miles, eight states, 4 bottles of Mountain Dew, 4 sacks of sunflower seeds, one pound bag of Swedish Fish and two audio books, we are finally home! We stopped for lunch and a visit at mom's house in Fort Morgan and arrived home this evening. We saw a lot of beautiful country along the way but seeing the front range mountains was the prettiest scenery of all. It was a long but fun trip and Alex and I tolerated each other pretty well. There was only one time that he threatened to leave me but I wasn't worried. That particular place had a mall and a Starbucks so I was fine with it! 

It will be great having Alex home now and for the next 14 days I will have both of my kids in the house again. I guess I better go to the grocery store tomorrow!

Starbucks was in order for the final leg home

Nice visit with Grandma

July 25, 2015

Mom/Son Road Trip Day 4: Almost Home

Greetings from the island....Grand Island, Nebraska! We made it through Missouri, a tiny bit of Iowa and now we are in Nebraska. It is nice to be back in territory that we are more familiar with and now we can see other things besides trees. 

Our hotel in Grand Island is near a big shopping area so I made Alex walk around. It felt so good to have my legs move. All this sitting in the car is getting old and I'm beginning to regret not bringing my yoga pants since my "horizons" are expanding from days of sitting, peeing, and eating...repeat!

Speaking of eating, Food Network has not visited this part of Nebraska so we settled for a chain restaurant tonight. One more day!

Cold beer at the end of long day..

Sometimes you have to leave something behind to make housekeeping smile!

July 24, 2015

Mom/Son Road Trip: Day 3- Four State Flyby

Greetings from St. Louis! We traveled through four states today - Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois and are currently in Missouri. It was smooth sailing -except for a random mattress I had to swerve around -so I achieved a personal best of driving five hours. 

There was a little mix up with our hotel tonight but the manager went out of his way to make it right so we ended up in this huge room with a pull out couch bed for Alex. I think I will get my steps in by  just walking from the door to the bed! I need to get my steps in because we ate at another great place tonight. Ms. Piggies was featured on the Delicious Destinations Food Network show. It is a no frills BBQ place and it is delicious! Of course we had to have St. Louis style ribs! 

Ribs, collard greens, yams, and cornbread..and sweet tea!

The longest room ever!

July 23, 2015

Mom/Son Road Trip: Day 2 - Just Peachy In Georgia

Greetings from Marrietta Georgia! The drive went well today. Alex navigated out of Tampa and then I got behind the wheel. At first I was nervous because we are towing a small trailer but soon realized that Alex's car handled it well. I achieved a personal record for driving time. Usually I can drive one maybe two hours but I blew through that today and drove three hours! 

Our superb planning skills had us arrive in downtown Atlanta today at 5:30pm but actually the traffic wasn't too bad and we got a great tour of Atlanta. However, Alex did show his super human driving powers by navigating over six lanes of heavy traffic to make an exit. 

Tonight with my handy TVFoodMaps app, we located a restaurant that was featured on the Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives show - the Marrietta Diner. It was a fun place and is known for it's Spinach pie and they kindly bring you a few pieces when you sit down. They have huge delicious looking cheesecakes but we were too full after dinner to try any and the servings are as large as a small child!

Note: Two other apps that were very useful today were iExit which lists all the services at each exit and Hotel Tonight that lists hotel deals at your destination and allows you to book rooms on-line. 

Marrietta Diner

No wide open spaces...just a lot of trees in this part of the country!

I had to get some Georgia peaches!

July 22, 2015

Mom/Son Road Trip Adventure: Day One - No Go

Today we made preparations to leave Tampa but unfortunately our departure was delayed. When Alex took his car in two weeks ago to have maintenance before the 1,800 mile trip, they found a few sensors malfunctioning. Since then, Alex has had the car in and out of two garages to get the problem solved. Luckily, the final part came in and was ready to be installed today. To save time, we picked up the U-Haul trailer this morning so when the car was finished this afternoon, we were ready to load up. However,  Florida summer was in full force today so even though it was late afternoon, the temperature was 90 degrees and the humidity was 60%! Needless to say, we were soaked with sweat by the time we hauled his worldly belongings from the second floor to the trailer. I thought Alex was going to bake while he tied down everything inside that metal trailer! The plus side was that at sea level I am a pretty awesome mover! I think we are ready to roll in the morning!

Sweatin' with the oldie!

Alex getting hitched!

July 21, 2015

Mom/Son Road Trip - The Beginning 

I flew to Tampa today to begin the Mom/Son Road Trip adventure. As of this afternoon, Alex completed his last exam for the Masters in Medical Science program at University of South Florida. It has been a long and all consuming year but he stuck it out and now he is done! What better way to celebrate than to spend four days with your mother, driving back to Colorado! I will be blogging all the way to let you know how it is going and as a written record in case I disappear! 

Special Note: Paige dropped me off at the airport this morning and DIA was busy. While waiting to check in, I noticed there were a great number of women, all carrying bags made by the Thirty-one company. As I looked closer, most of these women were wearing Thirty-one t-shirts. So, not one to mind my own business, I asked some of the ladies what was going on. They informed me that they had been at a Thirty-one conference in Denver for consultants west of the Mississippi. There were so many in attendance that they filled the Pepsi Center! As luck would have it, my carry on bag was a Thirty-one bag so I fit right in. I also got on the plane with a catalog and a promise that I would book a party! 

July 20, 2015

Ice Cream Boy

My nephew is known around his neighborhood in Summit County as The Ice Cream Boy. He is the founder, product manager, and chef of Big Scoop Ice Cream. He is 12 years old. According to his parents, Gray has always had his sights on being an entrepreneur so this summer he is living the dream. He found that he enjoys and is quite good at making homemade ice cream so he decided to sell it. Gray is definitely too young to drive around an ice cream truck and an ice cream stand on the corner is not conducive to this frozen treat- even in the mountains, so the Big Scoop hit the Internet. When Gray has some pints ready, he uses his dad's Facebook account to post the flavors he has available on a Facebook site for Summit County residents who want to sell items. Because he is just starting out and relies on his dad for transportation, Gray only advertises for his neighborhood and this alone is keeping him busy. It seems that there are some pregnant neighbors who appreciate the ice cream delivered to their door! While we visited this weekend, I custom ordered chocolate peanut butter cup ice cream and it was delicious! We also taste tested his chili lime flavor and his first attempt at lemon sorbet...yum and yum! I suspect that my favorite Ice Cream Boy will continue to do great things - I can't wait to see what he comes up with next! You got the scoop here first!

The ice cream maker at work

Big Scoop CEO!