Road Trip Day 2: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas

What a better way to begin another day in the car than by stopping at Cracker Barrel? Ha ha...let's try again. How about the breakfast buffet in St. Louis at Whole Foods (a favorite organic and natural food store)? Yeah, now that is more our style! Organic scrambled eggs, french toast, tofu scramble, fresh baked bread, fresh fruit, and home potatoes joyfully slid down our throats to join the digestive juices in our bellies. Some may think that road trips are all about gas station food (Snickers, Coke, and Doritos), but we prefer to be a little more selective with our road trip cuisine. In fact, Charlie even suggested we do a Google search for the best vegetarian restaurants and build a route around our findings (too bad the best veg eats are located in New York, San Francisco...a little out of our way). After a good and healthy Sunday brunch, we pushed through Missouri and then the long haul through Kansas (with a sweet picnic lunch in the late afternoon).

Road trips are fun because you have an ample amount of time to relax, converse, and listen. On day two, we finished listening to the audio-book, “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson, a great story of two men hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT). Very apropos since we lived in a place (Athens) that was only 40 miles away from the AT. Bill Bryson is a great writer with a nice balance of intellectual and factual information about the trail as well as a splattering of very funny moments on the trail. It was a good six hours of entertainment. The rest of the time, we talked...it's not hard for Charlie and I to stumble upon an intellectual (or not so intellectual) conversation and be entertained for hours on end.

Amidst all of the “Jesus loves you” billboards, Charlie spotted another winery, Les Bourgeois, in Missouri and that is where we met the pink pig. According to the wine pourer this pig is the most photographed pig in Missouri. Oh yeah and there is a special grape in Missouri, the Norton grape, and now we can say we have tasted it in all of its splendor (or not). Even though we did purchase a bottle of the semi-dry red wine, I am not sure I would recommend you stop only to taste the wine, the pig was much more interesting.

Finally, we arrived at our overnight destination, Manhattan, Kansas (another university town, home of the oldest institution of higher learning in the State, Kansas State University). Do you see a pattern here? We ate at Coco Bolo's, drank some margaritas, and drove through campus to gawk at the beautiful castle-like architecture.

Road Trip Day 1: Athens, GA to Carbondale, IL (499 miles)

Wake up at 6 a.m. Pack up the last few items and attempt to squeeze them into any little space that we might find, in between boxes, bags, and furniture. Nope…two items do not fit (two large picture frames). Argh…I begin to wallow in a growing monster of anguish (Come on Leasa, Keep Calm & Carry On!) I am simply drained, tired of organizing, packing, and moving stuff, and I am simply ready to be home in Colorado. The heat and humidity has tested my nerves the last few weeks and I am ready to move onto the next life adventure. We stop at Ike and Jane’s for our last red velvet cake doughnut, stop for gas (the most expensive gas purchased the entire road trip--U.S. $3.74/gallon), oil, and air for the tires. Ah, this day has been a LONG time coming. Once we leave the city limits of Athens, a wave of solace rolls over me. Ah!

We drive approximately 500 miles on day one (of three days) with an overnight stopover in Carbondale, Illinois—home of Southern Illinois University. The drive goes very well with several stops to change drivers, stretch, and fill up with gas. As we drive through Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois, the pesky little “check engine” light on the car dash remains bright yellow. Yes, we have been dealing with some car issues for the past few weeks, but the auto mechanic swears that little “Lexi” (the hard core 1999 silver Lexus 300RX approaching 200,000 miles) will be okay and will not implode during our 1,500 mile road trip.

In Tennessee, Charlie spots a billboard for wine tastings at the highly acclaimed (snicker) Beachhaven Winery. We decide that forgoing this wine experience would be a sin, so we stop and sip on some surprisingly good Syrah, Chardonnay, and Cabernet Sauvignon. With a bottle of Cab in hand, we pushed on. We arrived at our hotel and immediately got back into the car for dinner. Charlie did some internet searching before our trip and he stumbled on a veggie café in Carbondale, Longbranch Coffeehouse, and when our friend (who used to live in Carbondale) confirmed the delicious fare, it became a destination. Charlie had veggie Thai curry and I devoured the veggie harvest with ginger sauce. Thumbs up for Longbranch! After a night swim we were ready for some shut eye.