Follow the lines going South...

Friday morning we loaded up the car - complete with handy rooftop carrier, a ton of snacks, some DVDs from the library that ended up costing me $50 in late fees, and a full arsenal of toys, books, music and "surprises" for Josie - and hit the road about noon. Our goal: Montgomery, Alabama! And, after 12 not-so-bad hours in the car, we had successfully made a 9 hour drive.
Conversion to toddler time: add about one hour of driving for every three estimated by google maps. Note to google: Add this feature.

Besides the fact that Josie wondered why on earth we were waking her up from her peaceful sleep in the car at midnight to sleep in a strange hotel in downtown Montgomery, Alabama - everything else about our stay there was great. We decided Josie would enjoy the state farmers' market more than the trip to MLK's childhood home that we had originally planned and were SO glad to take the time to visit it.
The rows of fresh produce were unbelievable. And, besides the fact that peanuts were freaking everywhere, it was a blast. (BTW - did you know you can get boiled peanuts, green peanuts, roasted peanuts, spicy peanuts, etc all in one place?)

It was not easy to keep Josie's hands off the produce...
In fact, it was not easy to keep her mouth off of the fresh produce either...

They even had their own hen coop which allowed Josie to work on her chicken impression.

Pose for a quick photo, then back to the car to drive it around to one of the big doors to load it up with some fresh surprises to share with the family in Florida -

One humongous watermelon that actually weighed more than Josie, 30+ ears of corn, enough peaches (picked the night before) to feed 13 people for a full week, some sweet onions and bright red tomatoes. What a nice way to start our vacation! (Although it was not so fun to ride the rest of the way to Florida with a watermelon in the front seat and my feet on top of dozens of ears of corn in the back seat.)


Oh, and I forgot to mention - they were having a VW convention there. As Louie put it, "America is funny." And if you ever want a real slice of America, I highly recommend the Alabama State Farmer's Market in Montgomery. It's the only place I've ever been where you can get proper instruction on how to choose the best melon, freshest peaches, etc. But if you're going to buy corn, I recommend using a fake Southern accent. Otherwise you just might end up with 15 ears filled with worms. (Those of you there for the shucking know what I mean.) Here's one of the VWs.

Florida photos coming soon. There really are over 1000 of them, which will take awhile to sort/edit/etc. What an amazing, relaxing, wonderful week!!!!