Travelogue: LR to DC

Guest blogger and older brother Justin details our two-day trip back to Washington. His words -- and my photos and a few notes in italics:

Sam and I arrived in DC yesterday after a mostly pleasant and incident-free journey.

Clyde, the traveling bichon

We got a late start on Friday due to some last-minute compulsive housecleaning, and only made it to Jackson, Tennessee, to spend the first night. We were so tired that we went right to bed. Saturday, we drove on to Nashville, which was a nice place to take a break. We ended up downtown and turned into tourists, so it was probably more of an indulgence than we should have allowed.

However, Jack's BBQ was well worth standing in line for a half hour.

Later that day, we passed through Knoxville as the game was starting, and the place was a circus. (Probably about the same as Fayetteville.)

An observation about I-40: Based upon a non-scientific tally of billboards, the Cracker Barrels are outnumbered only by the adult book stores, theaters, "adult superstores" and other such emporiums. ("Jesus Saves," etc. comes in a distant third.)

We made it to Bristol, Virginia, in time for a late sushi dinner at Osaka, one of the "Top 100 Asian Restaurants in America" (nominated). It was pretty good; try the Vietnamese spring roll with tuna, salmon, avocado and fresh mango, served cold in a rice flour wrapper.

We spent the night at a Rodeway Inn in Roanoke. (We do not recommend this establishment. Shell out the extra 20 bucks to upgrade to Econo Lodge so you won't be afraid to walk around barefoot.)

The last leg of the trip was a beautiful drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains, taking us to Northern Virginia. As we arrived in DC on Sunday afternoon, Sam made me take her through Georgetown for old time's sake.

Clyde kept quiet and behaved himself throughout the trip. He was ignoring his dog food though, so we saved him a little BBQ on Saturday and some scrambled eggs from breakfast on Sunday. The funniest part was when he climbed way up on top of the bags we had stacked on one side of the back seat so that he could get a better view of the road.

Once we got home, Clyde met the newest member of the family, our parents' seven-week old boxer puppy, Ellie Mae.

Neither was quite sure what to think of the other.

But in the end, everyone just really needed a nap.

It was a long and tiring trip home, and a physically and emotionally draining past couple of weeks for all involved, including my dearest Little Rock friends whom I already miss tremendously. After a couple days to process, I'll post some additional thoughts in life in Little Rock and the path ahead.