this is life. the journey is the reward, right?

well, we signed up to do some campaigning in sparta this weekend @ their annual bluegrass festival. we took my mom along with us... just to make things a little more interesting (which she always does) & because she is a fierce Lankford for Congress campaigner. it was a nice little event & the day went well. of course, livi totally refused to sleep on the 2+ hour trip there so was exhausted by the time we were ready to hit the festival. but, we took turns passing her around & she did fine. then, by 3:30 pm we were ready for a break & livi was desperately in need of a nap. (note: i had called around the week before and booked us a room @ the only bed & breakfast in town. the lady @ the sparta chamber of commerce said it was a "darling little place" so i called and booked the "cottage" for saturday night.) we thought we would check-in, drop off our stuff, let livi get a 30 minute nap or so, & hit the festival again. little did we know that the b&b was 7 miles out of town down a winding country road. the main house was only a little scary but after paying our $$ the man said "now, just hop in the car & follow me down the road a bit & i'll take you to the cottage." so after going about a mile down the road & passed several graveyards we came to.......

the "cozy cottage".... a total dump.... it actually looks a little better in pictures than in real life. the man actually bragged it was "built in the early 1930s" which i have no trouble believing since it looked like all the furnishings were still the originals...ahhhhhh. anyway, we were just so exhausted, livi was crying, so i just went into the little bedroom to lay her down. i pulled back the sheets to find this guy waiting....

hard to tell in the picture but this spider was the size of a quarter. now, i'm not especially scared of spiders & may have just had drae kill him & go on about my business had it not been for the other 3 spiders that came out from under the pillow when i moved it. needless to say, we checked out... immediately... without a nap (which is why livi required a passie for the photo below).
so, we headed back downtown sparta where drae pulled the car behind someone's home & beside a patch of grass. we spread out this blanket- said forget the nap- and livi had a snack of puffs & water in a strangers backyard. this is where she & i waited while drason & peggy jean handed out flyers till they closed down the festival :)

needless to say, we were all very happy & relieved to check into the holiday inn express in cookeville later that night.... below is our bed... spider-free. however, we did spend the rest of the night attempting to locate my mother's Bible which she lost at some point on this trip... the fun never ends!

overall, it was a wonderful weekend. we made it home safe & sound & still all in a reasonably good mood and posed for one last campaign photo.... we are so blessed to be close to family & friends as we travel this crazy journey together!