Four Became Five: A Thursday Drive

I was planning to share these pictures with you yesterday...but, I didn't get around to it, so today it is!!! I was going to tell you all about the Thursday drive I took and it was going to be the prettiest post ever with the perfect balance of beautiful pictures and nostalgia. It's Friday and the drive didn't happen exactly four Thursdays ago anymore. BUT. That doesn't change anything other than one little word.

Today, four became five.

I woke up to RAIN on my first day in South Carolina. To be honest, I was hoping for some good southern storms, so I really wasn't bothered by it at all. We decided to brave the rain (which happened to be coming and going) and head to the mountains. My Dad got off of work early and we were able to head out as soon as we finished lunch. My Dad did the driving, my aunt sat in the front seat, and I was crammed into the back with my Grandparents thinking about how many times we had made this same drive before. I use the word crammed in the fondest of senses, by the way.

Our first stop was the flowering bridge at Lake Lure. My Grandma has been telling me about this bridge for ages. She and my Grandpa sometimes drive up there to walk it one more time and have ice cream when they are done. We got out and enjoyed looking at every plant. I was amazed to see a banana tree and all kinds of things that I had never seen before. We stopped for the longest time to watch a hummingbird and TRY our best to get some shots of him.

After we left the bridge, we headed into the village where they planned to poke through the gift shops and get ice cream. Unfortunately, I thought we were there to hike, so I was trying to hurry along because I knew it was getting late. I turned up the ice cream and then realized that we wouldn't have time to do the hiking that day after all because we had to be at a car dealership to pick something up before it closed. Have the ice cream and take your time to enjoy it! 

After we loaded ourselves back into the car, we made it the dealership in plenty of time and that's when the day started to get interesting. We ran into an accident on 26, so my Dad immediately got off and took a different road. That road ended up backing up because of a million people having the same thought that my Dad had and the city also had a crew out doing some surveying.

Our day wasn't over yet! My Dad wanted to make sure we got in some sort of hiking, so road block after road block aside, we had a destination in mind. At that point, we stopped in at a McDonald's because everyone was ready for something besides the snacks that my Grandpa packed. Fun note: It was there that I discovered they would begin rolling out the all day breakfast menu. We loaded back into the car one more time and thanks to the food in our bellies, we felt unstoppable. At least, I did.  I decided that it was time to make the most of this day. Things weren't going as planned, so it was time to enjoy plan b! And that's exactly what I did...

That was part one of our Thursday drive (there will only be one more part to this post, I promise)!

I'd love to hear all about your idea of a perfect drive.