It’s Day 1 of our buying road trip. I am with Robin Morris of The Shade Above.

We are ready to leave Searcy to start our journey with sub-freezing temps and a “snow dirty” car! Carwashes are not open when temps are not above 32. Rule #1 when leaving on a road trip: Always leave with a clean car — not happening.

Matters not, we are headed into promises of more ice and snow. This is not especially exciting to us, as you will notice in our departure picture that we are driving a Suburban and pulling a 12’ trailer. This is the trailer we hope to fill with wonderful things to bring back. We are just hoping we can get back. The forecast promises ice-covered roads and inches of snow. We are on an adventure!

Our first stop was in Birmingham, Ala., where my daughter Ellen attends Samford University. We stopped for a late lunch/early dinner with her and two of her friends.  They took us to a wonderful locally owned restaurant called “Oscars.” Fabulous grilled tilapia topped with a spicy sweet sauce and asparagus on the side. The dessert was the best homemade banana pudding I’ve ever had outside my own mother’s recipe.

While we waited on the girls to meet us there, we shopped at wonderful little store in Cahaba Heights called “The Lambs Ear, Ltd.” Lots of personality and a mélange of items to enjoy. We asked if the owner was there and alas, she had left that morning for market! We just might meet up with her there.

Cahaba Heights is a quaint older area of Birmingham with lots of personality and charm. It is located very near the Summit Shopping area and tucked into the Birmingham hills.

We stopped at the Apple Store in Birmingham to tweak my new iPhone I purchased the night before this big trip so we could use it to enhance our blogging.

Rule #2: Never buy a new iPhone the night before you leave on a big trip thinking you will have it all figured out and ready to use for the next day’s journey. The Apple Store was not much help because believe it or not, they did not know the password to my e-mail account! After self-hypnosis and checking my notes in my file for the 30^th time, I remembered my password, and I set up my e-mail at 8 p.m.

Now that the iPhone is working, we promise more pictures of our fun journey… and we are having fun.  And by the way, if anyone out there has great iPhone tips, feel free to send them our way!