Lose the Guidebook: The Volunteer State

On the road again. This time to the Volunteer State of good ol Tennessee. Why is it called the volunteer state? Dunno.

So on the first day we made it to Nevada. Somehow it came up during conversation that in Nevada prostitution is legal. Not only that... but there was a brothel right off the interstate. Found it! In true Jessica and Shawna fashion, we took a little tour. We had quite the conversation with one of the ladies, but when she looked us up and down and asked if we were 'looking for a job' we headed straight for the door!

This snapshot from a moving vehicle did this sunset absolutely no justice. It should be a sin to not have viewed a full moon from the desert floor.

When we finally stopped for the night in some nasty little town, this is what greeted us at our hotel. I haven't laughed so hard in quite a while. If only I could've witnessed that show.

This what we found when we went looking for the Starbucks the next morning. Gambling at 8 o'clock in the morning? Nevada really can't get it together.

Seriously... if you have to have this sign you have a serious problem.

How come the only cute pictures of Molly are when she's sleeping?

At least they're energy effecient. Might as well use all that wind and nothingness...

*cough* I mean prime real estate and open space.

Since there was nothing left to take pictures of the rest of the trip, we jump now to when I made it back home.

Duke!

Jeremy brought Jayda over for dinner the first night I was there. We shared a little funny face time.

It was SO COLD there! It had been way too long since I had been in this kind of extreme weather and I was completely unprepared.

When trying to figure out what route to take to Tennessee, TJ and Trish spoke up and offered what turned out to be an excellent tip. Anthony Bourdain has a list of 13 Places You Must Eat Before You Die. Oklahoma Joe's Barbecue was one of them. When you roll up in the parking lot you're scared... really scared. I'm talking "I'm gonna get Hepatitis and/or food poisoning" kinda scared.

There was a rule that you couldn't grab a seat until you had your food. No seat saving allowed, that's how busy they were.

This is why I was scared. It is inside of a gas station! Ya know how gas stations have a section devoted to potato chips and trail mix?

This one had one of the best barbecue joints in the world and an aisle of hot sauce.

Their special. And this was their small!

Shawna didn't waste any time diggin' in.

I was pretty excited myself. Of course you can't tell if I'm excited or getting ready for

my peg leg to be put on.

I am defeated. In this case of Woman vs Food... Food wins.

We had been driving all day, it started blizzarding like crazy, there was a bunch of nuts on the road and we almost got stuck in the really bad part of St Louis. I mean REALLY. The one and only motel we could find was across the street from the gnarly looking strip club, some guy was creepin on us at the gas station, and I swear we heard gunshots. Ok... maybe not but still. We plugged onto the next town until we could find a place where there wasn't bars on windows and found a pretty nice hotel. This picture was because we were so glad to still be alive.