Journal Entry for Saturday, May 28, 2016

Today was getaway day.  My family and I begin to take our biggest trip yet as a family of four.  Kelly, Ben, Blake, and I talk our longest trip from our home in Acworth to see our cousin in Suburban Memphis.  The bags got packed, the Rogue got loaded to the gills, and we have our bellies full of snacks, breakfast, and drinks.  We are ready to go.

We begin our journey on I-75 Northbound and we are headed towards Chattanooga, Tennessee.  We have a smooth ride up the road.  We eat some candy, kettle cooked chips, and some sodas all before we hit our first major transition of the day, the I-24/I-75 split.

We made the trek toward Nashville in the Rogue.  We were feeling very good, happy, and the boys were well behaved.  Before you know it, I had to dig deep and find a place for all of us to eat and play.  I really wanted to get some Chick-Fil-A, and I wanted to taste that delicious chicken sandwich (or a chicken biscuit).  We crossed into the Central Time Zone, and because of that, it was not officially lunchtime wherever we would end up going.  We settled into going to a McDonald's in Manchester, Tennessee.  On to breakfast and playtime.

We engaged in sausage yumminess at the table and Ben played around in the playground a lot.  I helped Ben get up and through some of the equipment so that he could enjoy it more.  I wanted him to run around a lot so that he would be ready to be a good rider on our way to Memphis.  He certainly was after this fun time at Mickey D's.  I have fun chasing him around and keeping him within the perimeter of the play place.  I got rewarded with some Mello Yello in my to go cup.

We're tracing more of hour journey from Manchester, Tennessee en route to Bartlett, Tennessee.  We got back on I-24, then took TN840 for a long 50 mile stretch, and then we hopped onto I-40 Westbound to get to our final destination today.  We had to make one more big stop for the guys before we got to April's for the weekend.

See pictures below after this paragraph.  We went to Chick-Fil-A in Jackson, Tennessee.  We took the guys out for lunch and some more play time on the playground.  I failed in my job where Blake had a little piece of stick/mulch in his mouth.  I dropped the ball big time there.  Thankfully he didn't choke or swallow that thing.  That was in his mouth even as he was taking a bottle.  Now, see the pictures of our play time and lunch.

In this set of pictures, we are on the road to Memphis heading West on I-40.  We arrive at April's house when it's still daylight.  We all have a great dinner.  Ben got to play with the lights, and Blake was getting used to his new friend Barry.  Sunday will be a fun day.