Tallahassee

Cracker Barrel holds a special appeal to my kids. We have been stopping at this particular one, in Spanish Fort, Alabama, for many years. When they were little, it was their sign that it was time for lunch and we were almost to the beach for the annual family vacation there. They would get full tummies, buy a souvenir to keep them happy the rest of the way to the condo, and there was always something kid friendly on the menu and stuff to look at while you wait for your food.

Now, it has simply become another family habit, so we stopped, played checkers and looked around and had lunch, and then it was on the road again. Exit 199 my dad said, and he followed us there, with only one more quick pit stop in between.

When we passed over the line that divides Central from Eastern time, our phones reset themselves, and i reset the clock in the Cherry Bomb. It occurred to me that i won't have to set it back on the return trip. It is running an hour ahead of Central time right now, and since we are going to be heading back home the day that Daylight Savings starts, and we spring forward an hour, it will be set for Central already.

Because of that time change, too, suddenly instead of it being arriving in Tallahassee at 3:30 pm, it was 4:30. We got off on the correct exit, but dad, as usual, tried to turn into the wrong hotel. We had to pull a U-turn, not an easy feat in the Cherry Bomb, but we got there, checked in, unloaded our overnight kits, and it was time for dinner.

Most of the family voted for Red Lobster. Sweetie wanted Outback. So my parents took #1 Son, #2 Son, and Little Girl to Red Lobster, which was just up the road from the hotel and had no wait for tables. Sweetie, Bigger Girl, and i got back on the interstate, went up one exit, and found Outback and a 30 minute wait for a table, typical of a Friday night.

After dinner, Sweetie wanted to find a grocery store so he could buy something he had forgotten. Then back to the street that had our hotel, and what do i notice just a bit up the road? Wal-Mart. He had to go there, too, as the grocery store didn't have exactly what he wanted. Then back to the hotel to find #1 Son waiting to ask about a ride to Wal-Mart also, for those headphones he had never gotten. He offered to walk, but after dark in a strange city and across a highway? No chance. Back in the Cherry Bomb for another trip.

After agreeing to eat breakfast at 6am when the hotel started serving, and to leave by 7, we got to bed the earliest i had been to bed all week, 10pm. Alarms set for crack of dawn, i was very glad i had my heating pad, as Sweetie had set the A/C to arctic blast as usual.


Today is:

Be Nasty Day (Who came up with this one? Yuck.)

Carnaval/Carnival (How you spell it depends on where you live.)

Day of No Interest to Fairies -- Fairy Calendar

Fasching -- Austria; Germany

Feast of Sticky Buns

Fun Facts About Names Day

International Pancake Day

International Women's Day or Mother's Day -- Eastern Europe; Russia; former Soviet bloc; UN

Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) a/k/a Scotland, Fasten's E'en or Bannocky Day; Portuguese, Terça-feira Gorda; French, Mardi Gras; Italian, Martedì Grasso; Swedish, Fettisdagen; Danish Fastelavn; Norwegian, Fastelavens; Estonian, Vastlapäev. Other countries called it the Tuesday of Carnival, referring to the popular celebration of Carnival that became associated with the feasting: Spanish, Martes de Carnaval; Portuguese, Terça-feira de Carnaval; and German, Faschingsdienstag). Also Malasada Day in Hawaii, Uzgavenes in Lithuania.


National Peanut Cluster Day

Paczki Day -- Poland

Revolution Day -- Syria

Shrove Tuesday -- Christian, also called Fastnachts Day by the Pennsylvania Dutch

Sprengidagur -- Iceland (bursting day -- feast before Lent on a traditional meat and pea dish until you think you will burst!)

St. John of God's Day (patron of booksellers, hospitals, nurses, printers; against alcoholism, heart disease)

Tar & Feather Day

Town Meeting Day -- Vermont, US


Birthdays Today:

Bob, Clint, and Dave Moffatt, 1984
Kat Von D, 1982
James Van der Beek, 1977
Freddie Prinze, Jr., 1976
Aidan Quinn, 1959
Micky Dolenz, 1945
Lynn Redgrave, 1943
Cyd Charisse, 1923
Alan Hale, Jr., 1921
Claire Trevor, 1909
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., 1841
Carl Philip Emanuel Bach, 1714


Today in History:

John Casor becomes the first legally-recognized slave in what will be the United States, 1655
Anne Stuart, sister of Mary II, becomes Queen regnant of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1702
Thomas Paine's "African Slavery in America," the first article in the U.S. calling for the emancipation of slaves and the abolition of slavery is published, 1775
Gnadenhütten massacre: Ninety-six Native Americans in Gnadenhutten, Ohio, who had converted to Christianity are killed by Pennsylvania militiamen in retaliation for raids carried out by other Indians, 1782
The New York Stock Exchange is founded, 1817
The first train crosses the first US railway suspension bridge at Niagara Falls, 1855
Everett Horton of Connecticut patents a fishing rod of telescoping steel tubes, 1887
International Women's Day is launched in Copenhagen, Denmark, by Clara Zetkin, leader of the Women's Office for the Social Democratic Party in Germany, 1911
Mahatma Gandhi starts civil disobedience in India, 1930
Daytona Beach Road Course holds their first oval stock car race, 1936
Phyllis M Daley is the first black nurse sworn-in as US Navy ensign, 1945
Ghana joins the United Nations, 1957
The first radio episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, is transmitted on BBC Radio 4, 1978
Philips demonstrates the Compact Disc publicly for the first time, 1979