After living this lifestyle for almost 3 years now, Jeffrey keeps saying "I thought there would be more naps!". Compared to many full-timers, we like to think that we "take it slow" as we are traveling around, but the long list of things we did over the last 3 weeks is making me think we failed miserably at that goal -- and we STILL found ourselves saying "we'll just have to come back" when we didn't see everything each area had to offer. Heck, we barely scratched the surface! When time is limited and feet are sore, you have to prioritize what is important -- in our case, factory tours, presidential and Civil War sites, and family/friends. Okay, museums sometimes squeak in there too... and animals... and anything else that sounds generally cool.
Thinking we needed to give ourselves more time in Nashville, we gave ourselves a whopping 8 days there. We started with a day at The Hermitage, President Andrew Jackson's plantation. It is very well preserved and offers a fascinating history. Downtown we took in the Visitor's Center, Parthenon, Frist Center for Visual Arts, and a local pub crawl tour (which included some great local Nashville history stories). Needless to say, we were the oldest members of the pub crawl group, but thankfully not the only couple. The seven single ladies in our group made for plenty of entertainment over and above the fantastic bands we got to listen to at each pub. One of the pubs specialized in moonshine varieties and I really enjoyed sipping the chocolate one. Who knew?
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| Recreation of the Greek Parthenon; Contains art exhibit (and Athena statue) inside. |
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| Me and my designated driver at the end of the Nashville pub crawl. |
There was lots to do just outside of Nashville too. Thanks to someone else cancelling, we lucked out and got on a tour of the Nissan factory in Smyrna. A new car rolls off the lines every 30 seconds and, with the exception of the paint area, we got to see (and unfortunately hear) the entire process. We also drove to Lynchburg to tour the Jack Daniels Distillery. Talk about "steeped" in history. Every single drop is still bottled only at this location using the natural spring that it was built around. Funny enough, it is located in a "dry" county! When US prohibition ended, Tennessee's was still in place, so they could make Jack Daniels, but had to ship it all out of the state to sell it. We also did the "sampling" portion of the tour -- I must say it tastes much better mixed in a Coke than just straight!
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| Jeffrey at the Jack Daniels Visitor's Center |
We managed to also squeeze in a trip through nearby Franklin, but only had time for lunch and seeing the Carnton Plantation. This site found itself next to a raging civil war battle and was converted overnight into a hospital for thousands of wounded soldiers (and a large graveyard too). A little further down the road was the James K Polk ancestral home in Columbia. Though he only lived there for 6 years a younger man, it was still interesting to see how they lived (e.g. no bathrooms inside the house). Sad to say that he died of cholera just three months after finishing his Presidential term.
I'm embarrassed to say that, other than checking out the gift shop, we pretty much just did walk-bys of the Grand Ole Opry and Ryman Auditorium. I had been watching the musician lineups with the intention of getting tickets if it was someone we knew, but by then they were sold out. Next visit!
We had to use day 8 in Nashville to just rest up.
We moved Max south to Chattanooga for the next week. Our campground was close to the tri-fecta of tourist spots -- Lookout Mountain Incline Railway, Ruby Falls, and Rock City Gardens. Words really can't describe the uniqueness of these attractions, so I've put some pictures below. No trouble getting a Civil War fix in this area either as there is plenty to see about the battle of Chattanooga and at the Chickamauga Battlefield. Chattanooga also has a great aquarium, especially their alligator exhibit (Go Gators!). Our one big mistake was that May is the peak of school field trips and big heaps of kids followed us everywhere. We soon figured out that they were gone by about 2pm, so we started timing our attraction visits better.
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| Ruby Falls -- an amazing underground waterfall |
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| Us standing on one of the best Rock City lookouts |
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| Sitting in the Incline Railway railcar. Steepest grade is 73%! |
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| An adorable stingray begging for treats at the Chattanooga Aquarium |
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| My favorite college mascot! |
Our final day in Chattanooga was spent in the company of some dear RV friends that we met at a state park in Florida in early 2014, Ken and Wendy Zitterich. They are also "full-timers" and we were thrilled to discover we would be overlapping for a day as they head north and we head south to Atlanta on our way to Raleigh. The four of us had a grand time doing the Mayfield Dairy tour (only $4.50 tour price and you get an ice cream cone included too!) and the Lost Sea. Topped the day off with some good local BBQ and life couldn't be more perfect!
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| Us with our friends at the Lost Sea. Sea is in the background -- so big and such a large cavern that it is impossible to photograph well. |
Our final week on this swing was spent in Atlanta. I have flown in an out of this city many times in my life, but to my recollection had never stepped out of the airport. The weather forecast was for lots of rain for most of our visit, so we rushed out to enjoy what we could before our world got soggy. We started with the CDC Museum and were treated to an extensive security check of the car and our persons before they let us in since it is also an active CDC business office. Though it wasn't large, it was an interesting (and sobering) exhibit. I left feeling thankful they exist. We also had time that day to see the Jimmy Carter Museum. He is one of the first Presidents I remember from my childhood, though I had forgotten some of the challenges he faced. It is amazing that, in his early 90s now, he still actively works to help with world peace efforts wherever he can.
Just because we hadn't run into enough school groups yet (NOT), we made a visit to the World of Coca-Cola. It was fun seeing the extensive brand memorabilia, the vault containing the secret formula, decades-old TV commercials, and the tasting room where you can try all 100+ products that they bottle worldwide. The gift shop was probably one of the best we've ever seen too. Thank goodness we live in a motorhome and just can't buy everything we want -- we managed to escape with only purchasing a small pill case. Next door to the World of Coca-Cola is the National Center for Civil & Human Rights. You will no doubt guess that the exhibits here were very emotionally moving. I noticed a box of kleenex carefully placed in just about every room there. What surprised me the most (but shouldn't have) was just how recent so many of the events occurred -- many within my own lifetime. It is so easy to think of them in "the past past", but really they aren't.
Our last few days in town were dedicated to reconnecting with friends that we hadn't seen in decades. This is probably the thing we enjoy the most about our mobility. You can run but we will find you!
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