Well I’m in Florida. As the next few days are the relaxing part of my trip let’s see if I can bring this back up to date!
So IC is over for another year and I’m off to Kentucky. I’m pretty sure that takes me up to 4 states, if we go with the US acronyms that’s CA, IL, IN and now KY. I’m not 100% sure that CA counts as it was only a layover – I didn’t actually leave the airport. But I’ll run with it, on my way back I’ll leave the airport.
The drive to Louisville was uneventful, although I did time it fairly well. I arrived just after check-in time so no need to divert to a Starbucks beforehand this time. The hotel was pretty nice it was only for one night. I had a bit of a nap (still recovering from IC) and then tried another American fast food chain – Chipotle. The food itself was pretty good, but they forgot to add my sour cream and tomato salsa and I only got my rice which didn’t make me super happy. Then it was time for bed.
The next morning I had a nice relaxing start (in fact I probably slept in too long) but I got out of there by check out at 11am and headed south-east to Irvine. After a stop for Gas and McDonalds for lunch I made it to the Smith’s at a bit before 2, fairly close to my anticipated ETA of about 1pm. It was great to see Dianne again, unfortunately Jerry had to leave that morning for a work trip, so I didn’t get to catch up with him. I settle in an caught up on a bit of admin while Dianne took her grandson James, who I met for the first time, back to his parents.
Once she got back we headed off so we could go the scenic route before we went and met Phillip, Julie & James as well as Matthew for dinner at Texas Roadhouse. It’s been 19 years since I’ve seen them, so they’ve all grown up a lot and of course I hadn’t met Julie or James before. It was great to catch up and see what people are doing. Despite it being a steak house I chose to go for the salmon, which was very yummy. (In fact, of the 5 of us only 2 had steak!) After that we went down to the park so James could play and on the way Matthew stopped and picked up some Ale8 for us, so the boys could have a cold one! It was a nice gesture and we had a good time, even if it was cold – glad I brought my jacket! After that, it was back to Dianne’s house and pretty quickly to bed!
The next day I had a nice long sleep in, I didn’t get up until about 10.30. One of the things I wanted to do was to pick up some Ale8 (as this can only be bought in Kentucky and a few other surround states near the border.) I have very fond memories of this drink, both my introduction to it and the taste as well as the many fun nights we shared at IC drinking Ale8 with others from all around the world. On the way, Dianne showed me some more sights and we picked her friend nicknames ‘Bestie’ to come with us. Sadly, the factory usually runs tours, but they’re currently paused. However, we did visit the shops and bought some merch. As the story goes, there is a vault at the headquarters with the Ale8 recipe in it, and only two people have access. We also asked at the factory about shipping some to Australia and she said you could it online. Turns out, international shipping is only available to active US military serving overseas.
We went to lunch at a family run pizza bar, very much like the old Pizza Hut’s in Australia. They had Ale8 on tap. so I got to have even more! It’s feeling like I might be over it at this point. After that we went to the shops to buy Ale8 and got a good buy 2 get 2 free (thanks to Jennifers store membership). Then it was to UPS – they quotes about $800 to ship the 4 cartons of cans to Australia. That wasn’t happening. They did say the post office would be cheaper so we tried that, it was cheaper but only down to $400. I mean I like Ale8 and all, but not that much! In the end I worked out that there’s no liquid limit on checked baggage, so I decided I’d probably have to buy another suitcase (to replace my small bag). I get two free checked bags, so that should work OK. After that adventure it was off to the park with James & Bestie. The park had water, so James had lots of fun with that. Then we dropped off Bestie, dropped off James and haded home.
A few hours later, Philip, Julie & James came over and we decided to get take out for dinner, so Dianne went and picked up Mexican. It was nice to have a meal together and I thoroughly enjoyed my Chimichanga. It was really great to catch up with the Smiths and especially to share the encouragement with them about my journey towards knowing Christ. It really was a God thing, because Dianne was sharing that she didn’t even know how they ended up hosting homestay for FPS! Then it was bedtime. I got up, got organised, hung out for a little while and then headed off, down to Nashville. On my way I stopped at Walmart and found a new large suitcase as well as some strepsil equivalent for my throat which was starting to tickle. Then I made it to my Nashville hotel – but that’s a new post…