Time warp

This whole trip has felt like a bit of a time warp but it really hit home today. It's been a time warp in several ways: 1. We're driving East - so our days keep getting shorter and shorter until we cross into the next time zone. Then we lose an hour on one hand but it stays light out later on the other - confusing? Yeah, us too. 2. Seasons: We've driven out of the Fall in BC, into Spring on the rainy/lush West Coast, into the summer of the American South and now it's looking like fall but feeling like summer. 3. Racism: We've already talked about this, but there have been several times that it has felt like we went back 50 or so years. 4. Christmas: Is it really almost Christmas? There's something really wrong about listening to Christmas music in 20 degree weather. They were putting up Christmas wreaths and lights in the desert ghost town that we were visiting last week. Meanwhile, it feels like we are on summer vacation.

Alas, with the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend (yes, another time warp) we are trying to get in the spirit of things. We went to a Christian bookstore today and bought some Christmas music. We suspect it will get more and more air time as we move North.

Our drive today was relatively short (four and a half hours) but we still passed through three different states. We started in Alabama, and then we really just nicked the corner of Georgia on our way to Tennessee. Our time in Georgia was so short, in fact, that we were nearly out of it by the time we figured out that we arrived. Sadly, we missed their welcome sign - which almost prompted us to swing back but we wanted to keep it a short day.

Beautiful scenery which we didn't see today but which is

a necessary feature of a travel blog.

We took a nice sidetrip up Lookout Mountain and played in a park at the top. We were going to go down to see Ruby falls, an impressive waterfall, 1000 ft. underground, but they were charging a ton to see it and we figured that three caverns in one trip would be a bit much - we want to see the one in Virginia! It was nice for Livi to stretch her legs and practice her new "boogie woogie" dance moves.

The dance and the park tuckered her out and she fell asleep before Grandma Tildy could even buy a canary. She slept until we reached the hotel. Aside: if you are a late comer to our blog, go back and read the first few entries - we were much cooler and more exciting then.

We checked into our hotel, with Livia's help as always. The hotel routine is getting a bit old and we are very much looking forward to staying with friends for a few days. We had dinner, visited a Christian bookstore (which had an autographed picture of Andrew Peterson in it) and went to bed. Our highlights of the last few days have been our daughter, who we are thoroughly enjoying playing and laughing with. She has been a patient and pleasant travel companion. We're pretty sure she thinks that driving is what she will always do during the day, hotels are where people live and bathrooms are where children sleep - she's resigned to that existence - I think she will be happy to learn that there is more to life than this. Alas, tomorrow - Charlottesville!

Livi's doing all the work

At the restaurant