Harmon Rolling part Deux

As we left the house to meet the Harmons at their house, I commented, to my family, about how I thought they would be waiting in their car ready to go. It was precisely 4am as we rounded the corner on Chowen Ave. to a dark Harmon house. I quickly said they were not even up yet, that they had overslept. As we got closer though, not only were the Harmons up, but they were packed and waiting in their van ready to go. Prediction number one, CORRECT. Do I know the Harmons or what. We all had a quick chuckle and quickly made our way to 35W southbound. Day one of the Spring Break to Pensacola Beach, FL included a few trips to the bathroom, as well as a few trips to the rumble strips on our drive to Nashville. You see, each family has a rookie driver just learning the ropes of driving. Pre-planning included Andrew and Carsten bragging about getting to drive for a few hours during the trip. After all, they need 50 hours of behind the wheel, before being able to take the drivers test when they turn 16. So what better way to rack in a few hours then to drive a packed minivan 75 miles an hours on a freeway road. Well, after the Dads drove the first four hours until the sun came up, we found a long stretch of straight road, for the boys to continue the trip south. The next fours hours went fairly well except for a little wandering by both boys, to the rumble strips on the road. Susan boasted about Andrew getting the a hang of maneuvering the van back to the center of the lane after venturing a little too far towards the ditch. I was awaken a few times while Carsten made his way too close to the white line and quickly jerking the car back into line. Guess my hopes for a long nap will NOT be happenin' as thought. Oh well, I guess we all have to suffer for the sake of the children. Right? Our lunch hour choice was a trip to the Cherry Street Cafe in Troy, MO. It came highly recommended after a google search by Michael. Apparently after making his pitch in his rendition of "Don Pardo", his family quickly thought it was a good idea. Well, Michael was correct. Not only did the food hit the spot, but the waiter splitting up parents and children, at separate tables, was the best idea of the day. After lunch, the two Dads took the wheel for the rest of the trip to Nashville. Which is the "pit stop" for the first day of the trip. The plan after arriving to Nashville, was to eat in Downtown Nashville at Jack's BBQ. That idea was quickly dashed after seeing the surrounding streets full of people. Thus our wait to get in would be too long. No problemo, plan B was to head to the Loveless Cafe, a mere 25 minutes away. Well, when we arrived there, it too was packed and the wait was and hour and a half. Ugggh! Now we were all hungry, a little cranky and just wanted to go anywhere. Everyone was throwing out fast food choices. I was not going to be swayed. I quickly googled the nearest restaurant to where we were staying. The Longhorn Steakhouse came up and I quickly dialed to find out the wait. I was told thirty minutes. Yes, jackpot. Most everyone agreed and we were back on the road. I thought dinner was about average. But we had good company and nice conversation, except for another feable attempt my the Mrs. to decorate the hidious laundry room. Just add it to the long "honey do" list. Preferably towards the bottom. After dinner and short trip across the parking lot to the hotel, we were camped for the night. The Rolling family finished the night listening the the Wild, on my iphone, defeat the Kings to move past the hated Blackhawks for third place in the division with 6 games to play in the regular season. Keep it going boys, you're a blast to follow this year. Some of the discussuion today also included a plan to visit the Jack Daniels Distillery on our way to Pensacola Beach, tomorrow morning. Three of the four kids are not too happy about it. Hopefully the tour guides will perk them up when we get there. More on that in tomorrow's summary of Harmon Rolling part Deux.........