We drove for 11 hours today. The first 9 went pretty smoothly, but there was a point at the start of the hour ten where I asked Mol half seriously if this was the spot where we should drop the girls off. It was a bit ironic because only about 15 minutes before we hit that point we had actually been talking about how amazingly good they had been for the entire ride. I guess pretty much anyone would hit their limit around that time though. Molly and mine came not long after when we started to discuss plans for dinner.
Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be a ton of great options for 4 people who spent all day in a car. Who looked like they spent a whole day in a car, felt like they had spent the whole day in a car, and almost certainly smelled like they had spent the whole day in a car. I narrowed the options down to a place that was kind of like Chipotle or a place that was kind of like Panera and let the girls decide. After some negotiation they agreed on the Chipotle clone and I discovered that our hotel for the evening had an outdoor pool. So after picking up dinner and checking in we sat around a table poolside and enjoyed our burritos that came complete with an entire bag of chips each.
The other highlight of the day was our stop for lunch. We were able to visit a Cookout restaurant! The In-n-Out of the South. Although the burgers aren’t as good as In-n-Out the options it presents are simply amazing. For a mere $5 you get your choice of a main course and two sides. That may not sound exciting, but consider that sides include choices such as steak quesadillas, chicken nuggets, corn dogs, and much much more. Ellie seriously considered getting chicken tenders with two sides of chicken nuggets. I jokingly suggested ordering two hot dogs with two sides of corn dogs. I ended up going with a burger and sides of hush-puppies and chicken nuggets. E went with a chicken quesadilla and a double side of nuggets. Zoe, chicken tenders with cole-slaw and fries and Molly with tenders, fries and onion rings.
The true magic though is that for your $5 you also get a beverage and for only $1 more you can turn that beverage into one of 40+ different shake options. I went with the caramel fudge – peanut butter cup combo which was fabulous. We’ve eaten a lot of amazing and varied things on the trip, but I think one of our biggest culinary accomplishments has to be both making it far enough west to enjoy In-n-Out AND far enough south to eat at Cookout in a single trip.
The girls swam after dinner, and since we took care of all the chores last night there really isn’t too much else for us to do tonight. Good thing though, we still have about five and a quarter hours to go in the morning before we mercifully arrive at Kimpton’s Tideline. Then we get a week to relax by the beach and pool before making the last big drive home. So there is more excitement ahead, but today was all stickshifts and safetybelts.
