Our Southern Christmas-part two

We all got up Sunday morning and had a nice visit to the breakfast buffet at a near by Shoney’s. It was a nice variety of things. After arriving back at the house, we finished loading the TrailBlazer for the trip home. After lingering good-bye hugs we pulled out of the driveway and headed out of Smyrna. The trip was really quite uneventful until we got near Louisville, Kentucky and snow started. It wasn’t bad, nothing we hadn’t handled in Michigan so we crossed the border into Indiana. There the adventure began in earnest. The snow fell harder and faster and the roads became fairly treacherous the farther north we went . As we progressed toward our planned stop over in Anderson, Indiana we saw more and more cars off the road. Let’s face it, the wreckers were really doing a business. The road trucks simply could not keep up with the pace of the falling snow.
I began to feel the effects of not having eaten since we left Tennessee. It was sugar crash time! I was looking for anything we had in the car to get some sugar in me. I finally remembered some animal crackers I had bought at the hotel on the way south. When we got gas Ter got the crackers out of my suitcase and after having some I was doing better. In a little while we spotted a McDonald’s and pulled over to get some actual food down me, not to mention getting off the road for a little bit. We were at the McDonald’s about half an hour but it turned out to be worth it, both for the food and the break from the stress of the driving conditions. We finally made it to our hotel about eight hours after leaving Smyrna. The trip is normally about four or five hours. We were both very thankful to have made it safely after checking into our room. Luckily one of my favorite movies, “The Sound of Music”, was playing on TV and made for a relaxing end to the day.
We had breakfast the next morning at Cracker Barrel, fueling up for the trip home. While on the road we decided to make a stop in Shipshewana, Indiana, to visit the Amish community there. The meat and cheese store we really wanted to “raid” surprisingly was closed, which was kind of disappointing. We walked around some of the other shops. I saw a tin of herbal tea I would have loved to purchased but I couldn’t justify ten dollars for it. We had lunch at one of the restaurants, my Amish chicken noodle soup was delicious, and then continued our trek north. We got home around four in the afternoon and began to get back into “normal” life again.
Even with the adventure coming home, I really wouldn’t have changed anything. It was a good time, especially with seeing the loved ones in Tennessee, Kentucky, and the Michigan branch of my family before we left. Much has happened in the family the past year but we have all managed to make it through. May 2010 be a blessed and great year for all of us along with you and yours.