Chucktown 2011: Travel and Day 1

We're back! Thanks to Dave and Sarah for educating us on the ingredients we should always have on hand and Tommy and Missy for talking about how to do service with a smile. If you missed their posts, be sure to check them out. Over the next three days we will recap our vacation. It will be more of a photo journal than a blog post. We hope you enjoy!

Friday

Kels and I went to pick up our rental van after work and we found an empty Enterprise lot. So, we headed to the airport location across the street. They had our reservation, but only accepted credit cards unless you had a returning flight. Uncle Dave would not be impressed with this. So, I went to their competitor and booked a sweet 2011 Dodge Caravan, fully loaded with only 5,500 miles on it! Take that, Enterprise. Thrifty came through in a big way.

At the Stoffas', we packed up the "blue steel" swagger wagon.

We held hands and prayed before we left. We couldn't leave out Kinnick in prayer, so Justin and Brenna held his paws. How cute is that?

It didn't take long before we were taking photostrip photos. We are easily entertained.

We knew we were going to stop in Davenport, Iowa, for a late supper, so we looked up some local favorites and found Antonella's Pizzeria, a nice little pizza joint downtown. We didn't leave Davenport until around 10 Friday night and made a hard push through the night.

Saturday

Late night stops for fuel and to switch drivers.

Sunrise somewhere in Kentucky.

We stopped at the Waffle House in Corbin, Ky., to get a good breakfast in our bellies. This little gem had a juke box, so we enjoyed some selections with our food before hitting the road again.

Garrett and Lauren had to work until 7 p.m. on Saturday, so we had a few hours to kill. We decided to take a hike in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We pulled into the visitor center to get our bearings and make a plan.

We winded our way up the mountain pass, through a 30-minute drive of switchback narrow road to get to this majestic scene. We used the timer on our camera to capture the moment.

Of course, we had to take some outfit photos along the way.

It was a 2.6 mile round-trip walk to the Grotto Falls.

We were hot and sweaty when we arrived, but it sure was worth it. Such a beautiful place.

We took some great family photos while we were there, too.

Back in the van and onward toward Chucktown. Justin and Brenna were already great friends of ours, but we had a lot of bonding time through the trip and our friendships are even greater now.

Finally!! A bridge heading into Chucktown. We were pumping the music through the last 30 miles to get us to our destination. So much fun. We arrived around 8:30 p.m. and were welcomed into Garrett and Lauren's home with some Domino's Pizza. A perfect way to relax. Then we went to bed. In a real bed! Yes!!

Sunday We slept in a little, but were up in time to make it to 11:15 a.m. worship service. Garrett gave us the choice of having him take the day of and worship with us, or put him to work. We chose the latter. He is so good at what he does, and it was awesome to see him lead Worship. God's gifts are definitely being put to good use here.