We left the Ark Encounter (previous post) in Kentucky and drove south on Highway 75.
We noticed that the Cumberland Falls was not too far off the highway so we decided it was worth visiting it. Oh, the roads were so curvy!!
I was driving at the time and a couple of locals were behind me on my tail, probably pretty upset they were behind a Kansas license plate. They were probably muttering "that old lady from Kansas doesn't know how to drive!" I am used to straight roads. Almost every mile is straight in Kansas. From the sky, Kansas looks like a lot of squares.
We do have hills, of course, but a lot of flat too. If someone says to go 4 miles, you just count off the intersections. You can't do that on curvy roads.
We got to the bow-shaped Cumberlnd Falls, 68 feet tall by 125 feet wide.
It is also known for making a moon-bow (rain-bow at night) during a full moon. That would be so cool to see! I found a photo of that on-line.
We got back on 75 and continued south. As we got close to Knoxville, I recalled some college friends we were in the Navigators with at KU that had at one time moved there. I had lost track but found her on Facebook. Were they still there? So I messaged her. Unfortunately, she didn't see the message until the next day. Oh, if only I had thought of it earlier! Rod has passed away, but we could have had a wonderful visit with Gloria! We ended up catching up via messaging.
We had, however, got in touch with Al's sister's son, our nephew James, so when we got to Chattanooga, we pulled off to see him!
He helped us find a place to stay the night. We were having trouble finding something that wasn't in a bad area of town, or was too pricey.
He directed us to a place further south, just into Alabama. The highway clipped the corner of Georgia for about 23 miles before we got to Fort Payne.
The next morning, off we went toward the final destination! We drove through Birmingham and Montgomery.
We were keeping track of where everyone was.
Jill's family was flying from Milwaukee to Destin, via Atlanta.
Mindy's family had a direct flight from Denver.
The girls did great!
We saw lots of Mimosa trees along the highway.
Emeri requested Olive Garden for lunch.
Josh's got there right before we did. We checked out the house and claimed rooms. We took the room on the main floor. Old people privilege - because of creeky knees.
Look how they decorated the toilet paper!
Special touch.
Mindy's family arrived (no, Tenley was not driving). Look at the Dodge Ram truck they were given to rent. It only had 5 miles on it when he picked it up.
Josh went to pick up Jill's at the airport.
All here, except Hannah, who would fly in later that evening. At first, she didn't think she would be able to come so we were thrilled she was able to do so!
While we were in Florida, a Florida couple was staying at our home. We traded states!
And Benjamin and his mom, Lisa, from our church were caring for our lawn and flowers.
Appreciated their care!
