Surviving the Outer Banks: Day One

     Okay, where to start?

     Well, let's start with the fact that this is my second attempt at this post. Also, this is Val.

     I was typing away while Matthew was driving, then something went wrong and here I am back to a blank page. I apologize in advance ... my quick wit was in that first entry, so there may not be as much left for this one. Le sigh.

     Since I'm a lover of all things roadtrips, I volunteered to write this first entry. If Matthew would've written it, it would've consisted of, "We drove. The end." Such poetry.
     So I volunteered him for the second entry, which now that I think about it, doesn't seem like a great idea since it'll consist of 10 hours on the road. Oh well, that's a heads up to tomorrow's readers ...

     Anyway, our day yesterday began with leaving the house at 11 a.m. with Mom and Dad not far in front of us. We met up with them in Kingdom City for some lunch.

     Now, we normally don't eat at fast food places while on vacation, but there's not much to choose around Kingdom City. So Burger King it was. However, Matthew was happy to have some chicken fries.

     After lunch we headed across the street to see a firefighter memorial Dad had told us about a few weeks ago. It was an interesting memorial. We didn't snap any photos while there, but if you're ever in the area, it's something to see.:)

     We then hit the road again to drive ... and drive ... and drive.

     We then drove some more.



     I'm going to just jump ahead to our stop in Santa Claus, Indiana. As anyone who knows me can probably assume, I was excited to see a 22-foot-tall statue of Santa.
     However, after looking for the statue and not finding it, we asked Santa himself at the Christmas Store. He happily obliged.
     He showed us on a map how to get there and mentioned since it closes at 5 p.m., we may have to climb the gate to get to the statue. I'd like to note Santa didn't bat an eye when suggesting criminal activity.
     He sent us off with, "After you go trespassing, head down to the Candy Castle and get yourself a frozen hot chocolate."







With Mom, Dad and Santa in Santa Claus, Indiana

     After seeing the statue and getting some very sweet frozen hot chocolate, we hit the road again.

In front of Santa's Candy Castle

     It wasn't too long until we hit Louisville, then Shelbyville, Kentucky.
     We planned to meet Mom and Dad and the Hiltons at the hotel. We were just a few minutes behind Mom and Dad, but arrived about 20 minutes after them. There's a much too infuriating story about a Garmin navigation system making us miss an exit, but we won't go into that here. Let's just say the Garmin was a few seconds from being thrown out the window.

     Once we were at the hotel and checked in, we noticed how late it was and knew we needed to get to Hometown Pizza before they closed.
     I had researched this place and saw it had 4.9 stars and great reviews. Well, it definitely didn't disappoint. It earned that rating.

Matthew's Chicken Artichoke and White Chicken pizza

     Matthew had a small pizza (half Chicken Artichoke and half White Chicken) and I had an individual pepperoni pizza. Mom and Dad also had the White Chicken.
     It was delicious. Their crust was so crisp ... I'm still dreaming about it.



     After dinner we headed back for some much needed shut eye, which is why I'm writing this blog while we drive through a very hilly Kentucky countryside. More about that in the second blog post though ... if you're lucky. Like I said, Matthew will be writing it.

"At the beach, life is different ... time doesn't move hour to hour,

but mood to moment."

-Anonymous

     More photos can be found by clicking the photostream icon here.