Day 1 of the Road Trip: Drive from Anderson to Dallas. Check!

States Driven Through And To: South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas

Jess and I left early early yesterday morning (We woke up at 4:30 am!!! I'm getting tired just thinking about that...) from my house in Anderson and were on the interstate by 6:03 AM. I must say I am quite proud of our departure time.

After a full day of driving pretty much non-stop (we only stopped to fill up with gas, which, btw, is only getting more expensive by the second, and to fill up our rumbling tummies), we made it to Dallas at about 7:30 PM (8:30 PM eastern time; Dallas is an hour behind us). It was a crazy day on the road, but, praise God, we made it safely! Here are some highlights from the first day:

-Singing Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" at the top of our lungs, twice
-Seeing the Talladega Speedway in Alabama! Go Ricky Bobby!
-OK, not exactly a highlight, but we did see at least 5 armadillo... armadillos... whatever the plural form of that word is, by the side of the road (may they rest in peace) once we entered Louisiana. They look like little dinosaurs!
-Playing the If-You-Could-Marry-Any-Celebrity-Who-Would-You-Pick Game (Jess' answer: Ryan Gosling. My answer: James Marsden.)
-Becoming so delirious from lack of sleep and staring at the open road that we would both be talking but neither of us were really listening to what the other had to say... We would just keep saying "Yea, uh-huh, oh, OK..." and keep staring blankly ahead.
-Seeing a town called Yazoo and a town called Chunky
-Picking up a hitchhiker and dropping him off at his drug deal... OK, just kidding about that one :)

One of the best parts of the day was meeting up with Holly and Danielle, because it was so cool how we found each other: the two of them were driving to Dallas from Tyler, the town where they both live, and before they left Holly called and asked where we were on the road. I told her we were on I-20 a couple hours outside of Dallas, and she said that they would be merging with I-20 at a town called Terrell. She told me to call her when we got to the Terrell exit to see if by chance they were there at the same time so we could maybe grab some coffee together at Starbucks. Anyway, long story short, Jess and I ended up taking the wrong exit at first and had to make like 10 u-turns (OK, really only 1, but it felt like 10) and when we finally got to the Terrell exit, who pulls up behind us but our very own Holly and Danielle! We didn't even call -- God worked the timing out perfectly!

We all drove over to Scott's apartment in Dallas and had an awesome night hanging out with Scott, Logan (Scott's roommate), and David (a friend of Scott's). Scott cooked us some delicious chicken on the grill and we all played volleyball (I forgot how bad I am at that sport! Haha). We played Taboo later and I regret to inform you that the boys' team won. Boo.

Anyway, the first day of the trip was so awesome! It is such a blessing to be able to get away for a while and explore some new territory with some old friends! I fully expect today to be another awesome day, and will keep ya'll updated on all the road trip goodness! Love you guys!