Moving along

We are now more than halfway to our destination in New Jersey. For the most part the trip has been pretty easy. The navigation system in the new Toyota is wonderful to have. Not that the drive route is hard to figure out (so far it has just been a couple highways), but it is nice to see the countdown of how many miles and estimated time until we reach the next hotel. And I'm sure the system will be invaluable once we hit the Northeast - no more long, straight highways up there.

The hotels haven't been too bad either. Very clean, but they seem to be shrinking in size as we reach each subsequent one. Could be reality, or could be a cooped-up feeling held over from the previous 6 hours in the car. And if I survive my two bouncing-off-the-walls kids every evening I'm sure I'll be a much better person at the end of this all!

So our first day of driving took us from Texas through Arkansas to Memphis, TN. We stayed at the Days Inn Graceland, which was literally across the street and half a block from Graceland. The hotel had a guitar-shaped pool, free Elvis movies and Elvis music and pictures everywhere (Mom, it wouldn't surprise me if Susan Brown stayed here sometime).

Yesterday we drove across Tennessee, which took an entire day. But we went from Memphis, in the bottom left hand tip, to Kingsport, just about in the top right hand tip. The Great Smoky Mountains are beautiful. In fact, the entire state of Tennessee is beautiful. Gorgeous Fall color all along tree-lined highways. Today we drive to Maryland, then on Saturday just a short half-day drive to Westfield, NJ.

One last note - we resisted in purchasing a DVD player for the kids, but did set up a laptop with two headphones for them. Wow, it's like valium for them back there. And we also haven't made this a sightseeing trip. Our stuff is set to arrive on Monday and we want to give the kids a couple days in their new town before the craziness of unpacking begins. Plus it is hard to sightsee when you have a dog with you. So we stick another Spongebob DVD into the player and barrell on down the road.