Life is Sweet: ROAD TRIP: Aug 15-20, CO to SC.

So I have a whole lot of pics to share from our
EPIC ROAD TRIP.
I have pondered the best way to do this, and have decided, in the interest of my time and ease of keeping it chronological, I would just start at the beginning and post about 5 days at a time. I don't currently have access to most of Mar's pics, so I'm going with what I have, and will, perhaps, add more and better pics at a later date. If I don't get this going now, I'll just fall way behind and give up on the blog thing altogether (I'm almost at the point anyway haha).
Enough ramblin'.

Thursday, August 15
aka Day 1
CO, KS, MO

I drove this first little leg of our epic journey. We took the back road through Elizabeth and Kiowa to I-70. It was beautiful and peaceful, the perfect no-traffic-two-lane conditions, and we only hit road construction once.

We may have taken a good 30 minute detour after I passed this sign the first time without stopping. Mar was determined that we would stop at every sign, and since this one came up unexpectedly, I had inadvertently cruised on past. I took the next exit so we could quickly turn around, only to discover that it was quite literally a 15 mile drive to the next exit going the other way.

I We would do our best not to make that time's-a-wastin' mistake again.

I was determined to try local places to eat, so when it was getting to be dinner time that first day, we googled some places nearby. Bill read a few great reviews about Taco Grande, so we decided to try it out.

I thought their marquee was cute, so my expectations were HIGH.

I am sorry to report that we had the worst Mexican food I have ever had. The salsa and enchilada sauce both tasted like they were predominantly ketchup, and it just was NOT good. (And I'm not opposed to a little ketchup on my taco... that is a Goldsberry family tradition.) Billy-my-hero, in an effort to avoid wasting dinero, ate what he could. Mar and I probably ate about 3 bites each. Ugh. This was NOT a great way to start our food adventure haha. (We discovered on the way out that the reviews we had read were VERY OLD haha.)

Bill drove the rest of evening to our first hotel stop, through a lightening storm and downpour. When we arrive at the hotel in Liberty, MO, we were met with employees placing towels all over the floor of the entrance in an effort to stop the flood of water coming through the front doors. It was super late (I think about 1:30AM) and we were soooooo tired.

This would also be our least favorite hotel of the entire trip. What a way to start our epic 18-day journey.

Friday, August 16
aka Day 2
MO, IL, KY, TN

I was feeling a little discouraged, but we attended the Kansas City Temple the next morning and my discouragement was swept away.

We had the opportunity to participate in sealing ordinances -- Mauri's very first time. It was extra special because it was the first time for all of us to be able to do proxy sealings for family groups (rather than just one child at a time being sealed to parents). So awesome. The temple was beautiful.

You can learn more about the temple sealing here.

After the temple, we changed [in the car], and headed to Liberty Jail.

The senior missionary that gave us the overview and tour was A.MAZ.ING.

He mentioned that he usually doesn't give the tour, the young sisters do, but they had gone to lunch.

He was a WEALTH of knowledge. He had had a career as a police investigator, and since retiring had spent lots of time researching Church History, and had placed special interest on the events surrounding and during the time Joseph Smith was in Liberty Jail. Since our last time visiting there (circa 2006), Bill had discovered that Caleb Baldwin, who spent time in Liberty Jail with the prophet, was his 4th great grandfather.

We had to drive past Independence, hoping to get there on the return trip, because we were on a schedule to meet up with Lex and Jase on Saturday. I didn't realize we would be so close to the St. Louis Temple, so we made the quick 5 minute detour to stop and admire it's beauty.

This was the Missouri/Illinois border [no sign]:

This sign did not have a safe area to pull off to, so we tried snapping a picture out the window at dusk.

I was pretty impressed to get a pic this good haha.

We rolled into Franklin, TN fairly late, and decided to try our fate {again} at googling someplace to eat. We found this pizza place and were pleasantly surprised that it was yummy. Phew.

Saturday, August 17

aka Day 3
TN, AL

We started our day by attending a session at the Nashville Temple.

(I snapped most of these temple pics of Mar and realized long after that I am terrible at not making sure I'm taking them straight. And ain't nobody got time to fix them haha.)

Afterwards, we changed our clothes in the church building next door, and headed to downtown Nashville to meet up with Lex, Jason and Emmett. Jason's mom was visiting them, so she came along, too.

It was SO HOT,

Pert near 100 degrees with some added heat from humidity.

We waited in line {twice} to snap pics with this cool mural.

Emmett had about as much desire to get a pic with the mural as his daddy did, haha.

We walked past this...

...to get here.

We were sweating up a storm, and this taco restaurant was deliciously cool, they had a nice large table that could accommodate all of us, and the food was GOOD. Win, win, win.

After filling our bellies, we braved the heat again to continue our walk to the bridge.

We could not ignore the party buses literally EVERYWHERE.

Taylor tells me that they are all over Denver, too. I guess I don't get out much because I had no idea.

After some true sight-seeing, we headed back to our cars to head to Lex and Jason's place. Since I had heard/seen some amazing things about The Ice Cream Bar, and since one was not TOO far off of our travel path, we decided to make a stop.

It was decorated with some interesting and fun items, and their creations looked quite yummy, however...

...I was underwhelmed for sure. It was okay. Definitely not worth the price tag.

I'd take a Leatherby's stop over The Ice Cream Bar anyday.

Thanks, peeps for humoring me.

**Okay, this post is taking way too much time to complete. I've worked on it here and there for dayz... I'm going to do less commentating, hoping to come back to fill in the gaps at a later date.

We finally made it here:

...and felt compelled to stop at the cool welcome center with this actual-size replica.

Sunday, August 18
aka Day 4
AL

We were excited to check out Jason and Lex's new house. After attending church, we went to help QC it while Mar stayed back at the apartment with M.

It is a beautiful home!

I'm so glad we got to see it, even if Lex and Jason weren't quite living there yet.

Monday, August 19

aka Day 5
AL, GA, SC

We said our goodbyes to the darling Paull family.

Made a stop by the Birmingham Temple.

Watched Gone With the Wind as we drove through Georgia (Mar had never seen it before)

After a long travel day, we arrived at our awesome hotel in Myrtle Beach in the dark.

We went for a late-night walk along the boardwalk to check it out and find some food.

It was very busy considering it was nearly midnight.

We had a great room with a view, and we were so excited to see it all in daylight.

Tuesday, August 20

aka Day 6
SC

Mar's requested BEACH DAY.

We spent most of the day on the beach and in the ocean.

By late afternoon we were all tired, but Bill and I were hoping to convince Mar to go to one of the famous seafood buffets in town (discount for early seating, you know).

It was a no-go.

Instead, being the super nice accommodating parents we are, we walked back down the boardwalk to this place: