2015 Road Trip......Day 12 to the End

Ok, last post on our trip to Louisiana in 2015.
rah.

So Day 12, our last full day in Louisiana started off rolling out of bed late.
Too much drinking after dinner the night before?
Could be......

So the Daughter had a day off from work this day so we picked her up and headed back over the river East of Shreveport to Bossier City around lunch time.

We just had to eat here.........

A brand spanking new Tom + Chee Restaurant.
They serve gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup(as well as other soups).

I had a basic sandwich with the addition of bbq potato chips and bacon inside....

Yum!

Hubs and Daughter did the "build your own" sandwich and got spicy sausage on theirs(among other things).

Daughter wouldn't let me take a picture of her eating so I got this one between bites....I think she was still chewing though. lolz

Then we just had to get one of these, their "specialty"........

Yep, a grilled cheese donut.
We got a "Blueberry Blue" which had blueberry compote, blue cheese, mozzarella cheese and lemon mascarpone on it and shared amongst the three of us for dessert.
Sorry I didn't get a picture of it as I was trying to get my share before the other two hogs at the table devoured it.

Here's a photo off the internet of someone else's........

It is "different" but it was OMG good.

I "heart" Tom + Chee!

Then we let Hubs hit up a local used bookstore and he found some of his highly unusual books for cheap.

After that Daughter wanted to take us here..........

The biggest pawn shop I've ever seen.

It's located right next to an Air Force Base(which figures).
There was a lot of this going on overhead, reminding me of home, staying at my brother's house near the oceanfront in Virginia Beach with the flyovers from Oceana Naval Air Station.

This place was waaaay over priced and sometimes more of a glorified junk store but we had fun goofing around.

Slapping five the the gorilla out front........

Hubs shooting off his "big gun"....hehehehe......

I found a lawn ornament to take home to PA but would have needed a trailer on the car to get it home.

Some naughty wine glasses.....I wonder who I thought would enjoy these, Hmmm??

A fiberglass shark for your den?  Well at least it's purple!

"Say hello to my little friend!"

We walked off most of lunch in here where were in the place so long.  The back part was NOT air conditioned so we sweated off part of lunch too.
Yes, late May in Louisiana can get beastly hot and humid.

A cool mural I saw from the highway while going through downtown Shreveport on the way back to Daughter's house.

So we spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at Daughter's house with her and her weird dog(the granddog)......

Cinnamon showing us her vicious face........she is such a wimp!

Either Daughter had something to do that evening or we just wore her out because by dinner time we said our goodbyes and Hubs and I hit this place for dinner before going back to the hotel.........

They had recently opened up(they were still painting parking lines in front of the restaurant!)and I found a Groupon for it so why not try some more barbecue?

Brisket is "King" around these parts(we were about 5 miles from the Texas line)........

The good stuff....burnt ends..........Mmmmmm......

It was a tiny place with only 3 tables(I guess they do more take-out business)but the prices were decent(even w/out the Groupon)and it was good "cue".
We'll be back when in the area again.

Day 13, we got a good breakfast at the hotel, loaded the car and started the long slog home.
But I did take these gratuitous photos of casinos on our way out of town...........

Just a few we passed leaving Shreveport.....

There are more there and no Sonya, I didn't set foot in any of them.......yes, I know it's killing you! ;-)

Heck, you can even stop off along the interstate at various truck stops and play the slots here.
It's nuts.
No wonder nobody down here has any money between the drive-thru daquiri stores and the gambling places.........

We headed into Mississippi.....

Stopped at a Mickey D's for a quick sack of burgers to eat on the road and then into Alabama soon after that.........

There was one stop Hubs wanted to make this day in Alabama.

Moundville Archaelogical Park.
Yes, Hubs wanted to see large piles of dirt.
So that's what we did, in temperatures closing in on 100F. ugh.

 We drove around the place and took pictures of big mounds of grass covered dirt.

Are we having fun yet???

They had this really tall mound with a replica building on it(was the chief's abode)with a crazy number of tiny steps up too it.
I stayed in the car with the a/c going while Hubs tried to break his neck going up there.
Guess who had a better time? ;-)

Finally we got to an actual museum building.......

I might have been a great little set-up but I'll never know.  The place was so dimly lit inside and I still had 1 good eye and 1 bad eye so I couldn't see anything very well or read anything.
Pity.
But they had these lifesized dioramas of scenes I could enjoy....

Hubs read me some of the information so I wasn't totally in the dark about what it all meant.

So I spent some time in the gift shop and sitting in the cafe drinking a bottled water while Hubs took it all in.
Cranky as I was, I even climbed the stairs behind the gift shop and went out onto the viewing area in that heat and I didn't complain at all.
Shocking, I know!

Not soon enough for me we were off again.  I asked Hubs to make a stop outside of Birmingham so I could walk around a World Market store........and he blew his top because he didn't want to make anymore stops and make some time on the road.
He grumbled but acquiesced.

They have lots of interesting food and drink in these stores and each one is different depending on where in the country you are.

Not only is this Spotted Dick but it's "Premium Quality" Spotted Dick.
Ooooo!

I liked the name of this craft beer out of Georgia.  Hubs bought some.

It was a quick-ish stop and we were back on the road soon.

I bet you didn't know that Alabama has their own Statue of Liberty?
Granted she is much smaller than the one in NY's harbor but her torch is lit up and she is visible from the interstate.
Now you do.
You are welcomed.

We stopped for the night in Trussville, AL.....great name for a town, right?

If you had any doubt where you were, the Hooters we stopped in to to buy College Boy shirt clued you in........

"Roll Tide" spelled out in the front windows of the Hooter's.
*Sluggy rolls her eyes.

We got a hotel room nearby at a Hampton Inn(tiny room, huge price for it's location!) and grabbed some dinner.......

Zaxby's make a really good Salad with Chicken by the way.........

We spent the evening laying in bed and binge watching House Hunters(since we no longer have cable)and yelling at the idiots on the show.

On the way down the next morning to breakfast we saw this sign in the elevator.
Who says people in the South have no sense of humor and aren't "hip"? lol

We set out right after breakfast and made Chattanooga before 11am.

So we hit a liquor store just to see what was worth buying.
$125 later we left Chattanooga.
Hit some bad interstate traffic until we got past that big town.

Then near Gatlinburg Hubs blew up at me when I asked him if we could stop and walk around a Russell Stover Factory Outlet for a bit.
He wouldn't stop yelling how it was slowing us down.

So I reminded him that I just dropped 30 pounds of sweat while he stopped for HOURS to look at piles of dirt yesterday and where was his "he can't stop" speech then and unless he wanted me to grow a blood clot in my leg because I can't sit in a car for hours and not move he'd better get over himself and stop for a break.

Well I never got to the chocolate factory(sniff, sniff)but he finally let us stop at a truck stop for a drink and something to eat(a crappy Subway in a truck stop).
I stayed pissed for the rest of the day.

We hit Virginia finally....

Breezed through Wytheville........

And stopped at dusk for the night somewhere outside of Christiansburg, VA at a Comfort Inn filled with teenagers on some sports trip.
Oh goody.
Just the perfect end to a craptastic day.

An overpriced noisy motel and the pool was closed.
Not much comfort at this place.

We hit the road next morning and Hubs wanted to get home before the day ended which was fine by me as I was tired of being in a car with him at this point. ;-)

Back in PA after 5 hours on the road(with a lunch break).
We got home right before dark that evening.

Here is what greeted me when I opened the front door and looked down the hallway into my kitchen.
Keep in mind that College Boy had been home alone and unsupervised for 2 weeks....

Yes that my living room wingback chair IN the kitchen.

Here's what I found in my living room......

Yes my living room was being used as a music studio/rehearsal space.

And all this was now living in my dining room.....

College Boy got it all put back into place quickly and he enjoyed his new shirt......

So that's the end of this adventure.
I hope it was worth the wait. lolz

Sluggy