Three Surprisingly Enjoyable Things About the Drive from Atlanta to NC

We are up in North Carolina spending a couple of days at Mom and Dad's mountain house. But you betcha I'll be home tomorrow night in time to watch the election returns with two of my favorite dudes, Matt and Anderson Cooper. For now, a list of things I have to admit I enjoy about the two-and-a-half hour drive up here from Atlanta:

1) As you go north on 441, almost to Clayton, there's a place by the road called Goats on the Roof. It is a few buildings with earthen roofs, with goats on top. Real live goats, enjoying little footbridges, shelters, windmills, and other goat-sized follies. I don't know what it is, maybe a store? Some kind of attraction. But when we pass Goats on the Roof, we are exactly one hour, to the minute, from pulling up in front of the mountain house. This timing calibration has been tested and normed over many trips. I like that our most reliable way of marking time to our destination is some goats. Goats that are inexplicably on a roof. The kids don't read mile markers, but they know some goats when they see them.

2) All the touristy "gem mining" places, with bushel baskets filled with giant hunks of colored glass out front. I like to look at them, and I like to think of one day pulling in there to mine for gems, though this will probably not happen. Also, ticky-tacky shops and antique stores along the highway. I have never visited one of these places, but I would somehow be disappointed if they all went away.

3) As we drive, Hank eats little snacks in his seat. I don't know what becomes of most of these--whether he eats them or drops them. So when we pull up in front of Mom and Dad's house, and they're waiting on the front porch, they open the car doors to see the kids. For some reason, I really enjoy the moment when they greet the kids and marvel at what a mess Hank is. Usually he's covered in crumbs or a juice-crumb-banana paste. I enjoy knowing that his grandparents will clean him up so they can hug on him better.

And finally, not a surprisingly enjoyable thing, but just a straight-up awesomely enjoyable thing: this morning, I heard Hank start to wake up in his crib, and then I heard my dad go and get him up, while I got to sleep in. Totally worth the drive!

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Have a great Monday, y'all, and I will see you tomorrow, when, as Mr. Rogers says, you'll find things you want to talk about, and I will too. Happy Election Eve!