Sandy is a Proud Grandma

Sandy is a very proud grandmother of all five of her wonderful grandchildren. Each of them contribute to the family by bringing their own unique talents and gifts to add to the family in a perfect way. More than anything, they’re all great people who contribute positively to their communities, schools, and families.

Today, though, we will specifically recognize one of her grandchildren for a highly anticipated achievement and for accomplishing something that will benefit her future and impact the lives of others. Before we do that, however, let’s get caught up on the last few travel days.

On Friday, May 10, we left Chattanooga, Tennessee, and headed east. Neither of us had ever been to Chattanooga and we decided that we should have that new experience. We stayed at a brand new Hampton Inn in the East Ridge portion of Chattanooga; in fact, the whole area is new. There are several new businesses being built all around the hotel, but, fortunately, the Chick-Fil-A next door was already built and open for business so we went there for dinner. We keep our meals pretty simple on the road.

Our drive that day took us into North Carolina, which was really the point of this whole trip. 

Sandy’s only granddaughter has lived in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina since she was about ten years old. Four years ago, Savannah (Sandy’s granddaughter), graduated from high school and we took a similar road trip then to go to the high school graduation. We traveled north and then east through North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin (Edie’s mission area), Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Washington DC (where we stayed for a week), Virginia, and into North Carolina for the graduation.

But we’ll write more about Savannah in a moment. We spent two nights (Friday and Saturday) in Morrisville, NC, which is by Raleigh/Durham. We met Sandy’s son and daughter-in-law and a few other friends and family for a luncheon on Saturday, May 11. Prior to the luncheon, we had some spare time to see sites; an online search provided us with a great place to visit just 15 minutes from our luncheon location.

Neither of us were familiar with this piece of history so we learned something new. Located in Alamance, NC, right next to the town of Burlington, NC (the location of our luncheon), is a pre-revolutionary war battlefield that we were able to tour. Instead of trying to repeat all the information from the tour guide, we’ll just share the following information found at https://historicsites.nc.gov/all-sites/alamance-battleground

In 1771, an armed group of backcountry farmers calling themselves Regulators battled with royal governor William Tryon's militia on land now preserved at Alamance Battleground State Historic Site. Growing anger over expensive land, embezzlement of tax money, and collusion between creditors and public officials led small farmers in piedmont North Carolina to form associations, write petitions, and seek peaceful redress of their grievances. A lack of response from the royal government only deepened the Regulators' resolve, and rising frustration later gave way to violence. The Regulator movement ended with their defeat at Alamance, but their struggle sent shockwaves through North Carolina and Colonial America, creating tensions that would reignite during the American War for Independence.

Located on the grounds of the site is the Allen House, a log dwelling characteristic of those lived in by backcountry farmers on the western fringes of the colony in this period.  

The two buildings on the land along with their furnishings are authentic to the time. We were able to take the following pictures of the two structures and the battlefield around them.

There are STEEP stairs (no hand rails) to an upper bedroom behind that door.

The stairs lead to this bedroom.

This is a smoke house for their meats.

One of our favorite things to do is visit historic sites.👍

After that tour, we had a wonderful luncheon at a family-owned Italian restaurant where the two of us managed to find a healthy chicken salad. Most importantly, it was nice to spend time with family and friends.👪

Then it was time to go to the first of the two events that are the main reasons for this entire road trip. Four years have passed since Savannah graduate from high school and, once again, we are road tripping to see Savannah graduate – this time from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. The May 11^th evening commencement was for her specific department’s graduation; she’s a Biology major who will be teaching school in the fall. This graduation was held indoors at the Carmichael Arena, which was a major bonus since it was raining outside during the entire ceremony. After the ceremony, they had refreshments, covered by tents, thankfully, outside on the grounds. Never underestimate the power of a good umbrella or tent.

Savannah 😊

The continued forecast of rain threatened to cancel the school-wide graduation on the morning of May 12^th (yes, that was Mother’s Day – UNC’s spring commencement is always held on Mother’s Day) as it is held outdoors at Kenan Stadium. If the ceremony is canceled, it doesn’t get rescheduled. But the rains cooperated and allowed the graduation to proceed.

At the conclusion of the graduation ceremony, we left North Carolina and headed to our next stop. Stay tuned for our next installment and find out where we are now. There may be more historical site pics in future blogs. 👌👍😀

Hi Ya'll

If the rain doesn’t stop soon, we’re going to have to double our daily Vitamin D dosage. We haven’t seen the sun since we left New Mexico. We left Elk City, OK, on the morning of Wednesday, May 8, to continue our journey east on I-40. We started Wednesday and Thursday with flash flood alerts/warnings. Not really sure why we’re bothering to curl our hair each day – probably just to make our curlers and curling irons feel needed, as if they actually matter on this trip.

Oklahoma City

Just as a tip:  Welcome Centers are the best places to stop to use the restrooms. The bathrooms are very clean. We stopped at the Arkansas Welcome Center pictured below.

It rained all day on Wednesday as we traveled from Elk City, OK, to Searcy, Arkansas. Why Searcy, you ask? Because I-40 passes through Little Rock and we spent a few days in Little Rock on our last journey. We wanted to shake up our route a little bit and see something different and Searcy is located just outside of Little Rock, so Searcy was it. It’s a small community and, again, we stayed at a Hampton Inn. The Searcy Hampton Inn was renovated two years ago and it was very nice. We really appreciated the fact that our room had extra plugs and connections to charge our electronic devices.

We can’t give you a lot of details about Searcy because it was raining so hard we couldn’t see much of it. And it was still raining this morning when we left our hotel. But while we were packing the car this morning under the shelter of the hotel’s front portico, a nice young man who was staying at the hotel with his high school track team offered to help us load our luggage into our car. That southern hospitality seems to be typical of our travels through the southern part of the United States.

We’d also like to report that we after three days of traveling, we are still accident free. None of our body parts have been damaged or broken; OSHA would be proud.

We left Searcy, AR, this morning… in the rain. But, eventually, it stopped raining!!! It was still cloudy, but at least we could get out of the car without getting drenched. We drove from Searcy to Memphis, Tennessee, (and it wasn’t raining in Memphis) where Mrs. Garmin wanted us to catch I-40 and head east through Nashville. But we have traveled I-40 through Tennessee several times and we wanted to see something new. So we completely flummoxed Mrs. Garmin and headed out of Memphis towards Mississippi. She finally recalculated and got on board with our new plans. The different route added about an hour to our trip, but it was worth it as we passed through Corinth, Mississippi, and the entire top part of Alabama. We even were in Georgia for about five minutes.

Crossing the Mississippi as we enter Memphis, TN

The scenery is gorgeous through these areas. Lots of hills covered with trees. We can’t imagine that people even need to water their lawns, there is so much natural greenery everywhere. We passed through Huntsville, Alabama, which was a first for both us. It’s the first time for either of us to be in Mississippi and Alabama.

So we are in our hotel for the night and tomorrow we actually reach the destination for which this whole trip was created. Thanks for checking in with us and come back and see where we end up next.

And We're Back.....

It has been four years since our last road trip, but after listening to the non-stop whining, crying, begging, and pleading of our adoring fans to PLEASE go on another road trip and blog about it (okay, so we don’t have any fans and Sandy and Edie were the only people who were whining, crying, begging and pleading), we have decided to sacrifice ourselves and go out on the road again (insert Willie Nelson song here).🚗

Most anyone who has talked with us recently knows about our road trip and planned itinerary so there won’t be many surprises for those of you who fall in this category; we’ll try to post many captivating pictures to hold your attention. If you aren’t one of those people and have no idea what we’re doing, that means you haven’t spoken with us for a while, and, well… that’s on you. Hopefully, you will regularly check our blog to see where we are and what we’re doing. At the very least, you can stop by and see if we’ve had any disfiguring accidents, broken any more bones (that would be Sandy), or lost any more teeth (and that would be Edie).🚑

We will also be posting videos to our YouTube channel for those of you who follow us on YouTube. If you don’t follow us on YouTube… why? But don’t be sad, there’s still time to repent and receive forgiveness for neglecting us. Just go to YouTube and search for Back Row Rebels. (Yes, our YouTube name is Back Row Rebels). You can even try clicking on or pasting this link into your browser to take you to our channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnTTtinm_ZMErisfMfjfd1Q?view_as=subscriber. There’s a really good chance that the link may or may not work.

With all that behind us, let’s get to the good stuff.

Our journey began on Monday, May 6, when we spent most of the day traveling the back highways of Arizona through Hopi and Navajo land. Most of the journey is two-lane highways but it’s a fairly easy drive that has little congestion. Believe it or not, there’s even some beautiful desert scenery. (Apparently, some desert is quite beautiful and scenic. Who knew?!)

One of the best parts of the drive is along Arizona Highway 89A driving past Jacob’s Lake. Jacob’s Lake is almost 8,000 feet high and is a forest of evergreens not far from the north rim of the Grand Canyon. It’s a beautiful area and there’s even a decent place to stop and use the facilities and load up on some supplies.

Another great place to stop is in Tuba City, Arizona. There is a travel center at a main intersection in town that has eating establishments, clean restrooms, and a little store. So if you find yourself in Tuba City, Arizona, stop by the Tuuvi Travel Center and tell them that Sandy and Edie sent you (they will have no idea who Sandy and Edie are, but the blank and confused looks on their faces should be worth the price of admission).

It was a great day for traveling as the weather was perfect. Little did we know that great traveling weather would not be the norm, but we digress. We’ll share more about the weather a little later.

Our first day’s journey ended in Gallup, NM, where we stayed at the Hampton Inn on Maloney Avenue. It’s our second time for staying at this hotel and we can highly recommend it. It is perfectly located right off of Interstate 40 and is surrounded by restaurants and stores. The staff was very friendly and helpful.

Our second day of travel had us leaving Gallup, NM, with clear skies. We drove through Albuquerque and enjoyed the changing scenery from desert to green and said good-bye to the last of the west coast mountains. We stopped at Russell’s Travel and Truck Center which is right on the New Mexico/Texas border. This is another place where we stopped four years ago and it is the perfect place to shop, use the restrooms, and eat if you want to. It’s totally up to you – we’re not bossing you, but it is a great rest place.

And as we drove away from New Mexico and Russell’s Travel Center, we also drove away from any decent weather in our first few days of traveling. By the time we reached Amarillo, Texas, we were in torrential rainstorms and a tornado warning where all our electronics were screaming at us with alerts to pull over and seek shelter. So we did what any smart, rational, and sane person would do… we drove faster to try to get out of the way.

But, seriously, where do people find shelter in a city where they know no one and have no safe place to go. We didn’t see any funnels hurling towards us so we kept driving. And we drove right out of Texas and into Oklahoma where there were more rainstorms and tornado warnings. In fact, we stayed in the Hampton Inn in Elk City, OK, on the night of our second day of driving and we slept while a tornado watch was in effect. The building was still standing when we woke up the next morning so everything worked out.

When Edie served her mission in Wisconsin, there were a couple of times that she and her fellow missionaries had to seek shelter in the basements of church members’ homes while warning alarms were screaming throughout the city. Our hotel in Elk City was right next door to a Wal-Mart. In fact, it was so close that we wouldn’t have been any closer to the entrance of Wal-Mart if we had driven into their parking lot. The only two times that the rain wasn’t pouring during the evening is when we walked from the hotel to the Wal-Mart, and from the Wal-Mart to the hotel. The entire time we were in Wal-Mart we could hear the rain pounding on the roof and we wondered how we were going to walk back to the hotel without getting drenched, even with the umbrellas we had with us. As soon as we paid for our items and walked to the front of the store, the rain stopped. So we are extremely grateful for whatever divine intervention was in place on our behalf.

As we were paying for our items in Wal-Mart, the two teen-age girls who were running the check-out lanes were talking back and forth about the storm. One of the girls said that her mom wanted to come and get her from work and take her home, but the girl wasn’t worried about the storm because the alarms weren’t going off. Tornadoes are to the Midwest what earthquakes and wildfires are to the west coast and hurricanes are to the east coast. Apparently, no one can completely escape the threat of some kind of natural disaster.

So, we leave you with the first two days of Sandy and Edie’s wild adventures and hope we’ve left you intrigued enough to return for the next installment.

Oh, and if you feel like adding our safe travels to your prayers, we’d certainly appreciate the support.