And so the adventure begins...

January 7th - Car was loaded with all that I could fit into a Honda Accord. So, not much. As long as I had my two sisters, Nicole and Deirdre, I was good to go. And our bag of snacks for the ride, obviously. We left D.C. at 6 am blaring Lonestar's "What About Now?", which was appropriate considering Deirdre and I used to scream this at the top of our lungs on the way to school. Only this time, we were on our way to Austin, Texas.

The ride through Virginia was long, but the mountains were beautiful. I will miss good ole' VA, and am already planning to sing "Take me home, country roads... to the place I belong" every time I return home (which by the way is about Western VA and not the state of West VA, contrary to popular belief... I have now shared this tidbit of info with Nic and Dee at least 6 times).

We finally crossed the border into the Volunteer State... I risked my life for Travis Irvin to get this shot.


Despite the snowfall, we made it to Nashville to stay the night as planned. What a city! I wish we had gotten the chance to spend more time there, but we definitely made the most of our one night. We ate delicious BBQ, brisket, and fried pickles at the Wild Horse Saloon and followed it up with a trip to Coyote Ugly. With much encouragement from Nicole and the girls working the early evening shift, Deirdre and I braved a dance on the bar. Trust me, if there had been more than 6 customers there, this would not have happened. Cross that one off the Bucket List.


We were on the road early the next morning... the Lauer girls are nothin' to mess with behind the wheel. We made it to the not-so-exciting state of Arkansas (no offense, this is only judging from the interstate), although I will say Little Rock is a very cool city. We ate at what seemed to be a favorite restaurant of the locals. Nicole narrated for us as each person walked in... according to her, we were dining with the town's Mayor, Postman, Judge, Priest, etc. It was quite amusing.


Tennessee and Arkansas, you provided us with many laughs over the duration of our 25 hours in the car... here are a few examples:

Large. Brown. Seriously? Way too much detail, buddy.

That is disgusting. And all three of us broke your rule.

I have no words.

We finally made it to Texas!!! And Kristen Bellamy (my roommate) was anxiously awaiting our arrival with lasagna and homemade cookies! What a gal. My sisters were troopers the entire way, and they helped make my first few days away from home a lot less scary than I was expecting.

So there you have it... the start to my adventure in Austin. Stay tuned... more to come!