And what am I doing still up? Catching up on e-mails and revising DougMorris.net a smidge.
As for the original query reference in the above title of this entry, I planned to blog last Sunday, June 27th, during a coffee break on RockTrax. However, the coffee breaks came few and far between as I had to cover severe weather.
Anyhoo, I planned to note the start of another Cindy and Doug World Tour on June 28th. Also hoped to note day-by-day the highlights of the tour.
However, I didn’t have access to any internet connection every day of the tour.
Sooooo….
In capsulized form — and please be sure to consult your doctor before taking these capsules as directed — here’s how the tour looked…
Day 1: June 28. Head for Chattanooga. Meet up with Cindy’s mom, stepdad and two of her nieces — Brooke and Ashley (ages 10 and 7, respectively, if memory serves) at a local hotel. Have dinner at Sticky Fingers Ribs. Take a dip in the hotel’s indoor heated pool. Play cards. Call it a night.
Day 2: Stay in Chattanooga. Check out the aquarium and the NASCAR 3-D IMAX movie. Well worth it — even if you’re not a NASCAR fan. (My opinion … also that of an aquarium employee.) Take another dip in the indoor heated pool. Play more cards with the kids (Uno and such).
Day 3: Say bye to Cindy’s relatives in Chattanooga — knowing we’ll see them again in Tupelo. Leave Chattanooga for Huntsville. Arrive in hotel — where the Mobile Bay Bears minor league baseball team had just arrived for a series against the hometown Stars. We call Geof, my brother, let him know we arrived safely. Geof says he has connections for getting tickets to the ballgame for free. We decline since the skies were gray, cloudy and looked like rain (as it had for most of the World Tour). So, we have more ribs (Geof’s treat…whatta guy!) and sit and talk and catch up on stuff. Geof agreed recently to be the best man at the wedding.
Day 4: Check out of hotel. Check into the botanical garden and water park. Well, OK, there are some “water works” locations throughout the garden for kids to cool off. Leave Huntsvegas, as the locals call it, and rejoin Cindy’s relatives at her mom’s home in Tupelo. (Well, OK, Baldwyn…close enough!)
Day 5: Nothing really. We pretty much chilled out, played Scrabble with Ashley and Brooke and watched TV. The fatigue was starting to set in a smidge.
Day 6: Head for Brice’s Crossing — a Civil War battle site not terribly far from Cindy’s mom’s home. Watch movie narrated by Shelby Foote on the Confederacy’s Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest — for whom Forrest County, where Cindy and I live, is named. After that, some shopping at the mall and back home for a few hands of cards before watching the nearly-two-hour-long-delayed Pepsi 400 which… ugh… Jeff Gordon won.
Day 7: Today. Had already taken the day off from RockTrax in conjunction with a work week’s worth of vacation plus holiday from WDAM. Head for home and… ugh… should I note more? Well… OK… tire blows out on Cindy’s car as we’re about 30 miles north of Meridian (read: middle of nowhere). We try to change it with a spare tire. Spare tire doesn’t last long. Thanks to roadside assistance, we get a tow to the nearest Wal-Mart. Wait a couple of hours. Get new tires (one for the driver’s side front; another for a decent spare). Reach home.
Day 8: Tomorrow. And boy are we thankful we still have the day off. For each of us, technically, we’re taking our 4th of July holiday on the 5th since the 4th fell on a Sunday. Have lunch with Cindy and call it a vacation. Back to work Tuesday.