Last night was a terrible night. The beds were hard. They definitely were NOT queen beds, despite what the clerk said. And to top it all off? At about 11pm, I woke up with the worst charley horse I've ever experienced in my life. Pulling my toes back had no effect on lessening the pain. I ended up sitting up in bed (I don't know why... it didn't help at all), just miserable. It felt like an electric ball of snakes in my leg. Pain ran from the cramp all the way up to my butt. I think this personal hell lasted about 10 minutes before my leg stopped cramping enough that I could lay down again.
To add insult to injury, I woke up at 6am and couldn't fall back asleep. Already, the cold, dry weather was wreaking havoc with my sinuses, so decided to take a hot bubble bath to get some humidity into my face. Afterward, I crawled back in bed to read for a while, while we both charged our phones and tablets.
We packed up and left around 9:30, getting gas at the Shell across from the hotel, and picking up a sausage biscuit for me at McDonald's. Hubby was feeling a little better after getting some sleep, but he chose to skip breakfast so as to not irritate his tummy again.
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| We're starting to see mountains! |
Our first planned stop today was a little town called Leeds, in Alabama. I don't know much about Leeds, but I do know that they just got a new gas station... a quaint little shop called Buc-ees. Oh, yes. Buc-ees. Home of Bucky the Beaver, Beaver Nuggets, and the cleanest bathrooms known to man.
What I didn't realize is that it only opened a few months ago, so it was still crazy busy.
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| I'm coming, Bucky, I'm coming! |
It. Was. HUGE. According to Bham Now, it is 53,250 square feet. New Braunfels, TX, holds the world record as the biggest Buc-ees at 66,335 square feet. To put that into perspective, a typical "large" RaceTrac convenience store is about 4,000 square feet. This Buc-ees also has 120 gas fueling positions, spread over three pavilions.
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| It's HUGE |
I drove the truck around the whole parking lot first, to get an idea of the size of it, and just had to stop at the selfie wall before finding an unobtrusive place to park the Penske.
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| Road Trip Hair, Don't Care |
Once inside, I was completely overwhelmed... It was crowded like the mall on Black Friday. While I could have picked up a shopping cart (yes, this place seriously has shopping carts), I went with a basket instead. My senses were assaulted with so much to see! There's an entire wing of the store that is random sundries like camping gear, outdoor gear, health & body treats (lotions, candles, etc), toys, souvenirs, and, of course, all manner of Buc-ees branded stuff (shirts, towels, plushies, even a Bucky onesie for adults with a hood and tail). The other wing of the store was your typical convenience store, with chips, snacks, etc. In the middle of the store were multiple kiosks with fresh food, including BBQ, fudge, pastries, and jerky. There were coolers that had sandwiches, salads, meats, cheeses, puddings and desserts. Then there was a wall of soda fountains and Icee fountains, and an entire coffee island with a myriad of syrups and creamers. I was blown away by the offerings in this store - even after being prepared for it! We ended up picking up Buc-ees cheese curls, cheese puffs, white cheddar popcorn, sea salt caramels, and beaver nuggets to try (I'll link to our Snack Review post when I finish it).
For lunch, we tried a regional franchise called Jack's. I'd heard of them from a YouTube series called Bless Your Rank and, for the most part, I agree with Matt about his choices, so it seemed like a no-brainer to check them out. Hubby and I each got a 3-piece chicken tender meal with fries and a drink. The chicken was nice and fresh, and the crinkle fries were amazing! I don't know what seasoning they use, but they were so freakin' good. Both Hubby and I were impressed and would definitely eat there again.
After lunch, we got back on the road, headed north to Tennessee. Alabama seemed to go on forever (it took another two hours to get from Leeds to the state line). Once in Tennessee, we hit up the Tennessean Truck Stop for some ice (I still had soda left from our last pit stop), a Tennessee magnet, and some ice cream.
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| Crossing the Tennessee River |
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| Any kid from the 80s knows about Space Camp! |
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| Welcome to Tennessee |
In my world - a world in which I worked at an ice cream restaurant - these are called Cake cones. When I ordered ice cream at the truck stop, I requested vanilla ice cream in either a Sugar cone or Waffle cone. She gave me my scoop on a Cake cone. I wasn't mad at it, but when I mentioned it to Hubby, he said that this was a Sugar cone. No, darling... this is a Sugar cone:
It's the best type of cone for ice cream. It's solid, it's sturdy, and it tastes the best!
Anyway, I ate all that ice cream because it was really freakin' good (but it would have been freakin' amazing in a Sugar cone...).
Once we got into Kentucky, we turned onto Interstate 24, and wow... what a crappy road! Full of patched potholes, plenty of bumps, it was terrible. I stopped at a Pilot Travel Center to pick up a Kentucky magnet, but I couldn't find any, so we got back on the road.
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| The mountains are getting bigger! |
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| Welcome to Kentucky |
Ten minutes after we got back on the road, I felt some burbling in my tummy... uh oh. I need to find a bathroom.
And of course, none of the exits we had coming up looked to be heavily populated. But soon, my body said it didn't matter, and I pulled off into this extremely sketchy BP gas station outside of Grand River, Kentucky. I hauled ass into the store, speed-walking to the rear of the place, passing a random old guy just munching on some gas station pizza, who had no idea what my problem was! I did bad things to that poor toilet. Once done, I picked up a bag of local chips (I don't remember which ones, though) and a Kentucky magnet, then got back into the truck to continue the trip. I popped some ice in my mouth and immediately my stomach burbled again, so I think it was the ice from the Tennessean Truck Stop that gave me the issue.
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| South Kentucky Sunset |
Much better than last night, we stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in - get this - Metropolis, Illinois. The beds were super comfy with great pillows. Ice was hard to find, but once I filled up my bucked, I chilled in bed with Twitter and Redneck Charcuterie (Slim Jims and Cheetos) before passing out by 10pm.
It weighs on my heart a little bit that tomorrow is the day. It's the day that my baby is officially gone. At some point tomorrow, we'll make it to Wisconsin and we'll unpack the truck and it will be all done.
I'm not ready.
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