It is late, I am tired, and I am glad to be off the road. We are back from spring break vacation. We spent the past week in Alabama visiting Judy and Neill and had a very good trip altogether. I wasn't sure we were going to make the trip at all for a while because Missy was so sick. She missed almost the entire week of school (she made it on Monday, then went downhill) to the point that on Thursday the 31st she was at MedStat getting a scrip for suppositories to stop the vomiting because she can't keep anything down, and we left town on Friday the 1st. I truly had no intention of leaving on schedule, but Beth seemed to think there was no reason not to go on time, so we did. Alex hadn't been sick at all, bless his heart, nor had I, but I was like "you're not seriously thinking we should go, are you?" but she was. Anyway, Missy seemed fine almost right away when she could finally stop throwing up. Friday I took a half day off and we picked up Alex after school and headed out. We had Katie staying at the house and taking care of the kitties. The plan was to get to the other side of Louisville the first night and find a hotel, but being the first day of spring break everyone in the world was on the same road we were. Traffic on I-65 southbound was reeeeeally heavy. By the time we we ready to stop for the night, there were no vacancies, anywhere. We pulled into 3 or 4 hotels before someone at one told us that there were no rooms anywhere and we should try Elizabethtown. There, they told us to try Cave City. There, they told us Bowling Green. There, we drove a few miles off the highway to see if we could find a place, and we finally did. At 12:30 am, over 100 miles after we first started looking for a place. Beth had taken over driving by then and I was trying to get some rest because I had resigned myself to driving all night already. But we found a good place a few miles off the interstate, for a lot cheaper than most places on the interstate had been getting. So anyway, we made it to Birmingham at a reasonable time the next day without being too tired to do anything. We had a very nice time seeing the Vulcan, the Birmingham Zoo (Lorakeets...really cool!), the McWane Science Center, the Peanut Depot (twice), playing mini golf, and hanging out at Judy and Neill's beach. The last couple of days, it got hot enough that we agreed to let the kids swim (to us, the water was barely above freezing, but kids don't care). We also played tennis with the kids, did some shopping, and visited the cafe that inspired the movie 'Fried Green Tomatoes' which turned out to be anticlimactic, then Missy got most of her lunch spilled in her lap (not her fault) so we had to do some more shopping. Alex got sick and threw up one afternoon but felt fine right after, and I felt kind of worn-out-sick for a day and a half or so, but otherwise our overall health was good all week. Saturday there was a little festival of sorts going on at Mt Laurel, with booths and sidewalk sales and all right there, and it got to about 90 degrees. We stayed until early afternoon before hitting the road, then drove as far as Bowling Green to stay at the same hotel we were in on the way down (this time, however, we got a room on Hotwire.com for cheaper than before and the knowledge of where we were going to stay that night). And since we were in the area, we took the kids to visit Mammoth Cave on the way north. We spent a few hours taking a cave tour, during which time Alex met a boy he really hit it off with and they talked about Pokemon most of the tour. The kids really seemed to like the cave, and have already asked if we can go back there someday. We told them sure, but I'm not ready to do any more driving yet.