To the Deep South and Back

Now that I'm back from South Carolina, I see the world just a little bit differently. Every time I travel, I gain just a little bit more of myself. I suppose I'm broke from gas and hotel now, but the experience in both a personal sense and professional is definitely worth it. My job hunt has led me all the way to South Carolina in my Jetta and in an ice storm that even The Weather Channel was calling "catastrophic". I was not at all pleased to hear that.

Thankfully, my roomie and good friend decided it would be great to go with me. Along the way, we kept track of many random things, such as billboards for Jesus (12), Waffle Houses (35, while we were thinking of it) and convoys of electricians (10 convoys of about 10-12 each).

Why did I drive all the way there with the intention of doing it in 4 days? Because I had a job interview as an education coordinator (yay!), and because it was the only time that worked for everyone (sort of).

Before all that happened though, we were getting to know our own state of Wisconsin a little better through tired eyes. Here are some things you may find:















On the left, you see a smiley face. Ironically, this happened to be while we were listening to The Frown Song by Ben Folds. He makes for some really good road trip music.

The entire first day was filled with tired minds (we left at 6:30 a.m.) and spiked with a little drama. Thanks Garmon. Garmon was our location device, otherwise known as a GPS unit. We ultimately feel as though he saved our lives in at least two major instances. We love Garmon. Oh, and we can't forget TomTom, who also helped at times. After driving for 15 hours that first day and getting lost in the ghetto of Cincinnati (thanks again, Garmon), we decided it was time to stop in Lexington, KY and sleep it all off.

The second day gave us more sleep and a large increase in interest and energy. This is when we started keeping track of very random things, like birds of prey, shredded roadside tires, signs of Jesus/God, etc. The quotes also began this day, and rightfully so. Another thing we did was begin to look for those wonderful roadside attractions. The best one we found that day (Emily and I both started screaming when we discovered it) was the birthplace of KFC at the Colonel Sanders Museum. If I were ever going to break out an OMG, this would be the time.


After stopping to see the man who has clearly done so much for our country, we pressed on, and on, and on... We made a pit stop for food and some leisure time in Knoxville, where I desperately wanted to see Dollywood, but realized we just didn't have enough time or money to do so. The delightful and lovely girls at Buddy's BBQ were gracious enough to fill us in on all the details we were looking for on any local attractions. I truly think they were more interested in the fact that we are from so far north. Each time we turned our backs I could hear them talking about our accent and how we had driven "all the way from Wisconsin!". And that day, I was introduced to hush puppies. Embarrasingly enough, we had to ask the sweet girl what they were... It's okay, they seemed to think we were darling, and I thought the same of them. All is well.

We then moved on to North Carolina, stopping to see the welcome center as we were heading through the Smokies for the first time ever. Pictures were hard to come by that day, and we were in a real hurry as well. At this stop, I made some phone calls to the nice folks in Columbia, SC to see if we could get an oil change, and not only did they agree to give me the Wednesday "lady's night special" on a Monday, but they agreed to stay late for us to get there. Talk about southern hospitality. The truth is, we didn't know about them staying late until Emily said, "call them, Jolen, and ask". So I did, much to her surprise, and it even worked out. We did make time for some pics though. Who could resist this one?


Ice, really? It was rougly 55 degrees. Our cockiness would soon catch up with us...