4 states down!

Well, we've made it as far as Gulf Shores, Alabama. We didn't get out of Mooresville until about 2:30 on Tuesday. Ashley had to pick her car up at the Chevy dealer, take it to have it weighed (empty and full) for the Army to reimburse her; then she wanted to take her grandmother for lunch before leaving town. We ended up driving about 10 hours yesterday (going through NC, SC, Georgia and Alabama) and stopping at Greenville, Alabama for the night around 11 pm. We got up early this a.m., ate breakfast and hit the road for the beach. We were about 2 hours from Gulf Shores and were laying on the beach by 2 pm!! So nice! I have only been to Gulf Shores once before - about 20 years ago. We brought the family here camping with my Texas sister and her family. We were here a week and I think the sun shined 1-2 days that whole week! Today was a beautiful sunny (hot) day! We hope to get up early in the morning and have a few hours on the beach before we hit the road again en route to New Orleans.

While driving through South Carolina, I wanted to stop and try to find the first house Sonny and I had bought when we first married. We were married in 1973 and lived in Greenville, SC. We bought a house in the fall of '73 in Taylors, SC. At that time, Taylors was merely a wide spot in the road! It has grown considerably since then. I was very proud of myself that I was able to find our house although it didn't look anything like the house we had lived in. As I was out on the street taking pictures, the lady who lived there came out to see who we were. When I explained the reason I was there, she invited us in and I got a tour of my old house! How nice! It turns out that they had a fire 3 years ago in the garage that destroyed the garage, kitchen and utility room. When they began to rebuild, the city made them lift the house up because of the creek that runs in the back. So, they added a nice front porch, screened in back porch and knocked down some walls within the house to redo the kitchen and bathrooms. (Plus, it was air conditioned! We only had 2 window units which my daughter thought was crazy!!) It was so much fun to take that little trip down memory lane. The sad part was that the house next door was not in very good shape. When we lived in our house, the sweetest older couple lived next door. They were a god-send to me when I had Ashley - acting just like our grandparents. They ended up being Ashley's god-parents and we were all sad when we moved away (when Ashley was only 2 months old.) They have since died and the family sold their home. Unfortunately, whoever is living there now does not keep the house up like he should.