Southern Charm freestyling 

David, the baby, and I packed up our bags and started heading east.  Why?  To "Barn It Up," of course.  Destination?  I wasn't given one except for that David thought Tennessee had some buried treasures. 

We soon left Texas and began to wind our way through Louisiana.  We hit the dirt roads, not finding much except tornado aftermaths.  Come supper time; we were lucky enough to be in Monroe, LA, where we found the Waterfront Grill.   Their signature dish Catfish Desiard was featured in Southern Living Magazine, a grilled catfish dish with baked cheese on top.  It was good but, the best part of the restaurant was feeding the turtles on the large Bayou DeSiard. 

We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast in the antique alley, Hamilton House Inn.  It was cute, like staying at your friend's house. 

The next morning we grabbed some boudin kolaches at a drive-thru donut shop before heading out.  Delicious. 

Skipping through Mississippi, we made our way to Decatur, AL.  We strolled the baby to downtown and were able to find our way to Moe's Restaurant.  A perfect little joint to eat Alabama BBQ at that is baby-friendly.  When we were there, we just so happened to run into other Fort Worthian!  Crazy.  He was traveling to, and only by chance at the same place at the same time. 

Freestyling onward, we stopped in Huntsville, AL, to grab a cup of joe at Old Towne Coffee Shoppe.  The coffee fueled us for our tour through the beautiful hilly neighborhoods and mountainous woods.  The weather was perfect.  Canada requested that her "doo-doo" (window) unbeknownst to me why she calls it this, but she wanted it down the entire time. We didn't mind since the weather was perfect, and we were barning it up!     

We made it to Chattanooga, TN, for lunch.  We landed at a Ping Pong recreational restaurant, HiFi Clyde's.

After lunch, we decided to cut through the smoky mountains and stay in Franklin, NC.  That led us to meander along the beautiful wooded river.  We stayed at another Bed and Breakfast, the Franklin Inn.  The house was built in 1887, and it was the perfect southern spot to sit on the porch and view the mountains. 

We walked to Caffe Rel, a fancy French restaurant in a gas station.  We enjoyed heavy, creamed pasta dishes and homemade desserts.  Good thing we had to walk back to the hotel to and from dinner!  We relaxed for a bit under the hotel gazebo before trying to find a spot to watch the Dallas Stars playoffs.  We made it to the Lazy Hiker Brewery. An excellent place to take a baby since they had chalk, chalkboards, coloring tables, and books.  A bad spot to watch sports since they don't have a tv. 

We awoke in the morning to the owner's mom, cooking us the most amazing southern breakfast with peach cobbler and homemade whip cream.  After our bellies were full, we were heading to Georgia to try to land the 40 car barn find deal.

The owner of the barn cars agreed to let us mark the vehicles with the price we would buy them for, and he would get with his brother and sister to see what they were willing to sell.  We spent the afternoon doing just that. 

We left intending on making it to Montgomery but, we only made it to Auburn, AL, with the baby.  She got restless, but we were able to tour the beautiful campus.  It happened to be graduation weekend and totally packed, so we stayed across the highway at the Hilton Tru. That's about all the touring of Auburn that we did before leaving for our next stop, Pensacola Beach. 

With barning it up still on our mind on the way to the beach, we found a VW bus and a couple of old trucks we still need to get.  

But we had a room booked on the beach, and we needed to get swimming!  We ate at Crabs—A perfect restaurant for kids.  You can eat in the sand by the playground, and they serve sugar donuts out first!

With our bellies yet full again, we managed to put on our swimsuits and make it to the beach.  It was a perfect afternoon, followed by a perfect sunset dinner on the beach at Red Fish Blue Fish. 

It was time to start making our way back west, and we hoped to see some friends along the way.  I booked as a night at The Saint in New Orleans on Canal St. 

When we made it to Biloxi, MS, we cruised the coastline until a rainstorm hit, and we went back to the highway to hurry our check-in.  After walking bourbon St with the baby in search of voodoo daiquiris that I failed to get because of the long wait, David took me to a restaurant that I had wanted to try for five years.  We were first in line to dine at Jaques Imos. 

Boy, was it a treat.  The reason for wanting to go the alligator cheesecake! Little did I know to start my meal, I would be served cornbread muffins that I'm still dreaming. 

The next day we headed north to the Toledo reservoir. Along the way, we made some awesome car finds—the big-ticket items we have to wait until July to make deals.  We stayed on the lake at the Cypress Resort.

They served us steak with views for dinner as we dined outside while the baby ran around.  We swam and, hot tubed our last night of the trip before heading home.  

California here we come

We were off at 4 pm heading to El Paso for the night, and by night I mean morning because it wasn’t until 1 am that we checked into our hotel, the Howard Johnson.  By the next night, we were in Scottsdale, AZ, for some much-needed rest and relaxation!

We hit the outdoor pool and soaked up some sun before dinner at RA Sushi.

Being that resting and relaxing are not our style, we hit the road again in the morning to make it to LA in the afternoon for our car delivery.

The car delivery was a success but, we were hungry and becoming hangry, so when the U-Haul dealership that we were delivering the trailer to had a taco joint next door, we were back to happy. 

The fish and shrimp tacos at Balam were so delicious and hit the spot. 

Fueled up, we hit the highway to get out of LA.  Getting out of LA, we took the scenic path. 

David drove up and down the most beautiful mountain, all the while we had no internet signal and Canada, was crying IPad!  It might have taken us a tremendous amount of hours, but we just barely got out of the downtown LA area for the night to rest at our cabin in the LA Mountains.

Grand Pine Cabins was a breath of fresh air! When we walked in, the humidifier and essential oils hit our noses and put us at peace in our cozy little cabin. 

After grabbing some coffee and hot chocolate on our morning walk, we headed to Flagstaff, AZ, to start our slipped in ski trip.  After renting our skis from Peace Surplus and resting, we headed up to Snowbowl AZ.  Taking our 2-year-old daughter on a ski slope was a new and crazy experience. 

Somehow David and I managed to get in 3 runs apiece down the mountain, what a beautiful day making memories together! 

That night we filled our bellies at the Horsemen Lodge.  

I ordered their famous prime rib, and David had elk ribs.  The restaurant is a truly unique experience from the moment you drive in. Cowgirls riding horseback direct you where to park. Once parked, they then greet you to the door.

We had a long road home ahead of us, and we split the miles by staying in Santa Fe, NM, for the night, and what a delight! 

Our stay for the night, Inn of the Governs, was filled with so much charm and hospitality. 

We loved the cookie and brandy hour, which involved us buying three pieces of art from the Artomatic, an old cigarette machine turned into an art dispenser.   

After shopping our way through the downtown, we left to try and make it home. 

We ended up detouring to Ruidoso, NM, to stay at some more charming cabins with deer pets.  The Ruidoso Lodge Cabins.

Not only did C get to get close and personal to some deer, but she also got to ride a horse finally.  A dream she had wanted to make happen. 

David and I also fulfilled a little dream by sipping some of the most delicious craft beer from a local brewery, Rio Grande Grill.  One strong pecan flavored beer and one whiskey barrel brewed beer.  Needless to say, we bought a couple of six-packs to smuggle back to Texas. 

All in all, I will say that mixing business and pleasure was a success!

Maryland 40 Ford Coupe Find

Hey honey let’s go to Memphis, Indiana, and Michigan and after that Pittsburg, Maryland, D.C., North Carolina, Georgia, and lastly Shreveport. This is where a trip for one car, which ended up in being a rust bucket turned into a potential 40 car purchase, a 40 coupe, a Vespa, and a stolen gas pump begins. The plan started out with a mission to buy a car in Three Rivers, Michigan. I had never been so; we packed our bags and took off. Everyone warned us that there was a snow vortex coming in later that week. David said we would beat it and I believed him.

We took off and made it to Memphis, TN for the night. We booked a room at the Bass Pro Shop Pyramid Hotel. This might be one of my most favorite hotels I’ve ever stayed at.

Each room has a balcony overlooking the sporting goods store. No detail went unnoticed from the tree light that shined down on the Jacuzzi bathtub to the stained glass light up armoire doors.

You receive a ticket upon checking in for the tallest free standing elevator in America. We used it to take ourselves to a romantic rooftop dinner with our baby.

My husband always gets the most exotic wild game on the menu so, he ordered the elk chops which, he loved, I the steak which was amazing.

After a good night’s rest in our lodge room we made it to Champaign, IL before signs of heavy snow fall began. It was lunch time and C needed a break. Lucky for us there was a mall, Market Place Mall, perfect for C because it had a Ferris wheel and playground also, perfect for us because it had a Giordano’s Restaurant in the same mall that serves a famous deep dish pizza. The blizzard had already begun by the time we left the mall and circled the freeway a couple of times to find our way towards Indiana.

We made it to Michigan City, IN come night fall to our destination, The Blue Chip Casino and Hotel. I was so glad to be in a room safe away from the cold, cold, icy winds and slick roads. The temperature in the morning was 10 degrees! We warmed up the car, scraped off the ice, and took off towards Michigan. It was a beautiful drive past the Indiana sand dunes. This beach looking town was pretty rad to see all the way in Northern Indiana! I would love to check it out in the summer.

Out of Indiana and into Michigan we drove in a winter wonderland of snow falling hard passing Kalamazoo and making it to Three Rivers, MI. We then arrived and pulled up to the most beautiful snow covered property of the Father Son team Chip and Chip.

Only problem was their car was too rusty for us. Devastated we searched for other plan.
Backup plan B – Head to Maryland, try and beat the snow vortex that would be following us, look at, and hopefully pickup a 40 coupe.

We needed to recuperate and take a lunch break. We found Tony Pocho’s hot dog joint along the highway in Toledo, OH. We got their Hungarian hot dog, stuff cabbage, dumplings, and strudel for dessert, YUM what a treat.

After refueling we pushed ourselves to Pittsburg, PA for the night. We posted up at the Distrikt Hotel Downtown. It was an old hotel that was previously a woman’s shelter and Salvation Army before that. The staff led us to believe it was haunted. The guest elevators broke down on us at the 11th floor forcing us to take the service elevators. The housekeeper was even too scared to ride down with us as she had experienced multiple problems riding it. 911 was called to the scene to rescue the innocent victims stranded in the elevator. Finally we made it out alive and where able to tour the city. It was a sight to see. The mountains and snow set a beautiful landscape for the impressive bridges and architecture.

We drove to Maryland jamming out to Hank III radio the whole way. We check out the 40 coupe at a towing company’s parking lot.

It was good to go but, we had to wait until the morning to load it on the trailer because of all the other cars in its way. This meant we were able to tour D.C. for the rest of the day. So, we thought. We tried driving our truck and trailer along to narrow roads to find a spot to park but, that turned out to be impossible! After no food or fun we parked at a mall within close proximity to the coupe. We ate in the busy food court and did a little shopping before checking into our hotel room.

We didn’t have far to drive that morning to get to the tow company. Then we did it. We picked up a car finally!

I would like to say this is where it ends and we went home but, this is just half of the trip.

The second half begins with a failed attempt to buy two awesome 69’ corvettes. Followed by us accidently buying stolen property, “you see what had happened was” we went to meet a guy off of Facebook to buy what we thought was his antique gas pump in Spring Lake, NC. Little did we realize until we were backing out of the driveway that the house was not his. All the signs came together after he fled the scene before we even managed to escape the busy exit. The house had no electricity and his excuse of just moving in seemed suspect as he was smoking pot telling us he had a gun with him. Yikes. Not sure what to do we drove to Fayetteville, NC to find a place that might welcome us outlaws for the night. The next day we managed to pick up a really cool 1961 Vespa from an honest working man. He is a leather crafter and did the cow hide seat on the baby blue Vespa. I would love to get it running so I can take it down to our lake on a mommy cruise to catch some fish or read book.

On ward and out ward we made it to Augusta, GA. We were excited to pass the Augusta Country Club that hosts the masters annually. We then checked into The Partridge Inn, a colonial style hotel nearby. By this time in the excursion I was looking and feeling a little gross. My hair needed washed and my grays were starting to show. Still a good distance from home I booked a hair appointment because, “when in Augusta” get a southern doo so I thought… David watched C at the hotel and I began to get pampered. The only problem was it took longer than the two hours I had promised my crew. My stylist first attempt didn’t cover the grays and the second attempt landed me with blue hair yes, BLUE hair. The stylist did manage to fix it before I left the salon. I strutted out looking like a newscaster ready to chow down some supper at The Partridge’s upstairs restaurant like planned before I had derailed the poor prisoners waiting on me in our room. They have a lovely restaurant and I am sure it’s great but, it was too expensive for us and we order the most amazing stuff crust pizza from Pizza Hut!

The next morning we were able to reach a man that we had tried to speak to about some cars so, instead of driving straight to Atlanta we made a pit stop in Athens, GA.

Athens, GA home of the Bulldogs and the undisclosed site we are still working on with the owners to buy a barn full of cars.

Wanting to make the most of our stay in this college town we booked The Graduate Hotel, a boutique college themed hotel, within walking distance of the restaurants and shopping near campus.

We walked to a BBQ joint for dinner that was kid friendly and hit the spot but, we needed to head towards Texas so we took off to Atlanta.

Reader beware there is no more car talk after this point.

Atlanta, GA just so happened to be the home of Super Bowl 2019 at the time we arrived. The game was of course on Sunday and we were in Atlanta on that Friday. We stayed at a Wyndham off highway 20, home of the wedge bootie shoe thieves! (RIP my good companions). The hotel just so happened to have a fashion show going on that night. I did not attend but what I saw at the bar was a little shocking. It wasn’t a Big D fashion show it was a Hot-Lanta show and oh gurrrrl. The models were dressed like Rocky Horror Picture Show. I failed miserably to get any food at the hotel. I went back to the room with my report of failure and David then attempted to wrestle up some food. He had quite some problems with it being so busy in the city but, managed to bring back some Hooter’s for his girls. Our night ended morning came we were ready to see a new state.

Louisiana never does us wrong. The roads however do need a little fixing. I drove in hot pulling into Shreveport at the Margaritaville Hotel and Casino like I owned the joint. I had big plans of taking Jimmy Buffett’s money. We had been revving up the whole hour before arriving playing Nikki Lanes, “Jackpot” song and The Killers, “The Man” and anything else we could think of to get us hyped. Sadly I am a notorious over hyper when it comes to trips and I seem to pre party a little too early. I did this and after dinner at the river front restaurant of Margaritaville never made it back out of our room and into the casino floor.

We made it home the next morning to unload, unpack, and clean.

San Jose or bust

San Jose or bust, that was our family motto heading west from Fort Worth, TX with a baby in the back car seat.  First stop, Amarillo, TX the lonely city in the panhandle of Texas.    Everybody that's ever driven through the great plains of Texas has seen the billboards for The Big Texan Restaurant and Hotel but, do you know it actually serves good food?!  Well, they do.  I love watching people coral and gnaw a 72oz steak on stage.  It's pure greatest.  Pro-tip buy a cute little cowboy hat and toy pistol to really set the mood for your table while you listen to music from the cowboy band moseying around and eat. 

The next pro-tip is to stay in West Amarillo the fancier hospital district.  We did not take that tip and stayed next to the local strip club where we checked into our room with a prostitute checking in next to us.  Sure makes you look at your bed a little differently after that. 

With the San Jose or bust motto in our heads we headed to New Mexico the next morning.  My mind took off in imagination as to where all the Native Americans were hiding.  We stopped at the tourist shop to find out.  Still not sure we bought the baby some authentic moccasins and an orange Flintstone pushup pop. 

It kept her chill until we made it to our Grand Canyon hotel.  It was a neat New Mexican themed hotel.  It happened to have a bowling alley to keep us entertained for the night before we woke up to hike the canyon.  The next morning we did just that.  Took some beautiful family photos to remember forever because who goes to the Grand Canyon and doesn't take a picture? 

We came, we saw, we may not have conquered much with a toddler, but we were off again. 

Next stop Las Vegas to the Red Rock Casino.  This hotel is not anywhere near or close to the strip.  It does however have a kids club which means mom and dad get a sitter for the night!  We loved the pool during the day and Canada loved her pineapple whip! 

We could have stayed longer if we were able to.  The hotel was so fancy it even had a flat screen TV on the wall to watch when taking a bath.  It was perfect for our little bathtub cartoon loving baby.  (I think this may have been Canada's favorite part of the trip).

I had pictured San Jose the whole way there, and then we finally arrived.  There weren't robots running the town no, in fact, it wasn't futuristic at all it was shabby, sort of country for California I thought and dry.   The whole state had been in a drought for quite some time.  We winded up the hillside to our destination to a house where a man had passed away.  He left his home to his family to keep as their permanent gathering spot.  It was loaded with lots of cool things like hotrods, signs, posters, grills, surfboards, you name it.  We loaded the 32 on the trailer while the baby played on her new pick, a little tricycle scooter she had gotten for free.  What a gift it was.  It was autographed by old salt flat drivers and had their quotes.

We had already purchased and shipped a roadster from the same location and were making sure we got everything we could pick up before leaving and heading to Santa Monica for the night. 

Beverly Hills that’s where I don’t want to be with a truck and trailer on the street of Rodeo Dr!  “Honk, Honk the Cassel’s are here” we shouted as we got chewed up and spit out.  At least got spit out at the beach and that is if you enjoy an overcrowded pier. 

We did our best to enjoy our time finding the restaurant at the end of the pier.  We drank coconut margaritas and listened to the eccentric singer on the boardwalk while people were watching. 

Is this what California is all about I asked myself being the newbie to the scene.  I most indeed answered with a yes after being pretty woman’d at the outdoor mall.  At last, we parked our truck and trailer in a small parking garage at the hotel and went up to our cute but very tiny hotel room.  You see when you're from Fort Worth your just used to big.  At least I can say it was a big trip for a little one-year-old. 

San Jose or bust it’s a must!