One More Night in a Who-Tel

We actually got up and moving pretty early this morning, and since we had done the majority of the packing last night, it was easy to finish up and get loaded relatively early. So once we were woken up early-ish by the toddler, we were in the car and rolling by 7:40am!

We got some breakfast croissan-whiches for the road, and Emerson watched Uncle Bo on their kids’ church service online this morning.

She was playing with some glow sticks, but she couldn’t see them very well, so I put her in a little half-tent for a while, and she really enjoyed that.

As we crossed over the Mississippi River again, we talked to her about it, and she pronounced that she wanted to go on a boat on a river one day, with Aunt Meggie and Uncle Bo and the babies, and and her new baby doll, Lucy.

If you missed it yesterday, we had planned to spend one night tonight, at a super cute Airbnb in Laurel, Mississippi, where they film HGTV’s Home Town. I love Erin & Ben, and was super excited about it, but due to Coronavirus issues, it got cancelled at the last minute. But today, we listened to their book on our way from Missouri to Alabama (on our way to Florida tomorrow). I had previously bought & read the hardcover book back when it first came out, but I requested my library purchase the audio version, so I could hear them read it to me out loud.

We made a quick stop in Selmer, Tennessee (which I said sounded like a British person trying to say “Selma,” you know, like how they say “Amander” instead of “Amanda”), for a potty break, and a drive-thru lunch, eaten in the car, of course. It was kind of sad driving through all these adorable small towns, and not being able to pick a cute little local restaurant to enjoy a nice meal, due to all the Coronavirus closures. It would have been the perfect day for that otherwise, since we didn’t have to rush for time, or to a specific destination.

After she got a tummy full of cheeseburger slider, puffy Cheetos, and chocolate milk (what a combo, huh?!), I sang her lullabies in the car, and she fell right to sleep! She was sleeping so hard, the paci fell out of her mouth pretty quickly, and she ended up sleeping about 1 hour 20 minutes, which was pretty great for a car nap!

We decided to stop driving around 4pm, in Pelham, Alabama, just south of Birmingham. We got a room at a Best Western, and checked in for just one night. After doing my Lysol & Clorox routine, we hung out for just a few minutes (I wrote half of today’s blog post), and Emerson found and got into the one lipstick I had in my little purse. I was laughing SO HARD at this little mustache line of lipstick, and this super serious face!!

Our room is on the first floor, and the window actually opens. The weather was lovely, and so was this tree right outside! (Don’t worry everyone, the window is already closed and locked for the night.)

Then we found a local park nearby, which was really nice! They had a great playground area, which would have been good for Emmie, but we avoided it and just ran around in this open grassy area, which was surrounded by a small paved walking path. She also got to meet three different dogs at the park, so she was thrilled about that!

She also found her first dandelion tonight, and I showed her how to blow on it. She couldn’t quite get the hang of it though, so I always had to finish them for her. She loved finding them though!

Earlier in the day, we had already decided we wanted to find a local restaurant to order take-out for dinner. So after the park, we both hopped on Google to do some research. We were in the mood for tacos, so we checked out a few menus, and even drove to two places, but one was expensive, & the other was closed. But then on our way to the third place, we just happened to spot this taco truck, so we whipped in to check it out. Jeff got three chicken tacos and I got three pastor (pork) tacos, and got it to-go. We stopped at KFC to get Emerson her requested chicken and cheese noodles, and took it all back to the “who-tel” room.

And YALL. These tacos were amazing!!! I know just last week I said the TacoMora tacos were delicious and amazing, but so were these tacos! I could have easily eaten three more of those bad boys. They were so delicious and so authentic, and I was soooo glad we decided to check out this random food truck!

OK, and speaking of Laurel things… They have previously done two of these recipe books full of recipes from their Laurel Mercantile team of friends and family. Then for this third one, they asked for recipe & story submissions from around the country. Well my mama secretly submitted a recipe, and they actually selected it for their book! And then they sent her five free copies, so she’s going to share them with the family! I’m so excited and so proud of her!

Oooh wait, one more Laurel thing! We don’t currently have cable, so we haven’t seen Home Town since last season, even though the newest season is currently airing every week. But we just happened to come across the last 20-ish minutes of an episode in the hotel room, and it was perfect! So even though we didn’t actually get to go to Laurel today, we still got little tastes of Laurel here & there throughout the day.

Back in Alabama, Emerson loved playing on the giant king-sized bed, with all her blankets and animals and the pillows. She also loved jumping around on it, so we let her get a little silly before bedtime.

We did a video call with Nana and PopPop for a bit, and even got to see Pretzel with them too! Then we called Grandmommie to tell her goodnight as well, because we all missed her not being with us today. (She stayed in Missouri for one more day, and will ride home tomorrow with my aunt & uncle. That was the original plan since we were going to Laurel, and so she just stuck with it, even after our plans changed.)

Emerson insisted she wasn’t tired, even though it was 8:45pm, so she wiggled and flopped through the first three lullabies, but then once I told her I was singing the last one, she finally settled down and fell asleep while I sang.

It’s now only 9:05pm, and I don’t have a book to read, and I can’t turn on the tv (it’s not worth the risk of waking Tater Tot), so I guess I scroll social media and my news sites until I feel ready to fall asleep.

I’m very glad we broke the trip back to Florida into two days, as the trip today felt easy and leisurely, and it was nice to have a chill night tonight. But I’m super glad this is our last night in a who-tel because I’m super ready to finally get back to our own home and our own bed tomorrow!