Our family took a little week-long vacation last week.  We left Wednesday afternoon and headed south towards Atlanta, Georgia.  We took our time and drove along the Blue Ridge Highway which runs along the Appalachian Mountains.  We made it to Georgia by Friday and spent the holiday weekend with our good friends Roger and Gina.  There is nothing quite as wonderful as spending time in the company of wonderful people.  While there, Juan (with his dad and Gina’s dad) went to a NASCAR race and rooted for his favorite driver, Juan Pablo Montoya.

After enjoying a relaxing labor day, it was time to head back north towards home.  On our way we stopped off for the night in Charlotte, NC to visit with a missionary that HSCC supports.  Close to Charlotte, in Concord, NC is the Earnhardt Ganassi Shop.  Earnhardt Ganassi is the owner of the team that Juan Pablo Montoya drives for.  The most exciting part of our visit to see official winning race cars, a merchandise shop and an enormously huge mechanic shop was when Juan Pablo Montoya himself walked into the building!!  So my Juan Pablo got to meet his favorite Juan Pablo!  It made his little heart extremely happy!

From there we continued north, made it to Washington D.C and spent the night just north of the city.  We got out and spent some time walking around the National Mall and over to the White House.  It was a beautiful evening and felt great for all of us to stretch our legs.  Finally, HOME!!  There is nothing like the feeling of home.  However short-lived that feeling was for us.

We were home less than an hour when we found out that we won tickets to Saturday’s race in Richmond, Virginia.  Well, you can’t pass up free tickets can you?  So, with the availability of Gram and Doodad that weekend, we packed our bags, dropped V off at the grandparents house and headed for Richmond, Virginia.  We spent the night outside of Washington D.C. (once again) and got to the race Saturday afternoon.  It was my very first race, therefore I was exposed to the whole race day culture off walking around to all the shops, trucks and tents.  We saw several drivers and got to meet the pit crew for our very own Juan Pablo Montoya.  What can I say, I am my husband’s wife and by the end of the first lap of the race, I was hooked.  As my cousin said to me today, I am a NASCAR girl!!  GO MONTOYA!!!

You’d think our adventure ended there however we still had to make it back in time for church Sunday since Juan was preaching.  So after the race, we jumped in the car and drove straight through the night, arriving home about 5:30 in the morning.  Whew!!  I had a wonderful week and a half but I admit, I’m thankful it’s over.  Really just the riding in the car bit.  I’m ready to get back into the swing of our family routine and see what this fall holds for us!

You might be wondering, possibly finding it odd that I have no pictures posted?  If you know me, you would be wondering where the abundance of pictures from our trip are.  Fear not, I have more than plenty.  However, I really haven’t had the time to go through them yet.  Returning home from our first road trip, I unloaded them on the computer so I was ready for part two of our trip.  I hope to get to them this coming week and will be more than happy to share them!!

Till then, I hope you have a wonderful week.  That September brings you special, unexpected adventures full of joy, laughter and good times!!