On to See THE BOYS!

So, I've been SEVERELY busy with ... life.  But I still want to blog my travels... even though I won't be traveling TOO much for fun the next few years.  I recently was admitted to the University of Texas at Austin to study Education Policy and Programing along with an internship at the Texas Capitol.  I've also recently started my own business and have become GUNG HO on all the arrangements it takes to leave the classroom.  But, I still have a job to do with my kiddos this year so I haven't been able to blog lately...

Having said that, I still love to keep a record of my travels and I hope to offer some good tips for those traveling where I've been.  Hope to see you on the road!

Christmas 2011

Christmas 2011 was a big deal.  We were invited to go to North Carolina to see my nephews, even though my brother was deployed.  Since it was the first Christmas since my dad's health issues it was important to me to have the family together, as much as possible.  So when we were invited I made sure we all went!  My parents both flew out...but I decided to drive.  I wanted to spend the Christmas break somewhere traveling around the South and figured my best bet was somewhere along the NC-Houston route.  But Christmas break started late so as soon as school got out I was booking it to NC! 

 I made it to Gulfport, Mississippi the first night.  I found a Holiday Inn Express for cheaper since there didn't seem to be any Hampton Inn's around the exit I got off on.  I usually just use my GPS.  Unfortunately it was like 3am so I didn't get a LOT of sleep for what I paid for ....

 The room was really nice, though, and the beds were super comfy.  I even slept kind of late, until check-out.

One of the reasons I wanted to stop around Mobile was to try The Brick Pit again.  The last time I came here (years ago) with my dad we tried to beef ribs.  That was back when I didn't know a lot about BBQ and my preferences.  They only serve ribs or pulled pork so I came for the pulled pork!  And to make sure I had my pictures updated for scrapbooking purposes and Travel Channel info.

It was pretty festive...and just like I remembered!

The pulled pork was AMAZING!  The sides were great too.  I think when you travel without the negative comments of others it makes you really tune into what YOU think about your experience.  Last time my dad hated it so I think I kind of fed off that.  But the pulled pork was great and it gave me the fuel I needed to do the next leg of my journey.

Interesting things I encountered on the way....

*Getting to North Carolina at 4am because there are no hotels past South Carolina

**Getting pulled over at 3:30am because I took a wide turn and got yelled at for not pulling over in the pitch black by a cop with a major attitude (no ticket though, whew)

***Starting off on the wrong foot with my sister-in-law because when I walked in the house the alarm went off