My roadies and I are ready to roll.
We'll be up early and heading south down i-75. 623 miles and 11 hours should get us to Chattanooga, but there lots to see along the way. Thanks for joining us on our adventure.
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Our first day post will show us being less adventurous than most days on our journeys. Today was mostly about covering lots of ground. Last year when we are Alabama bound we took 2 days to get there. This year we are doing it in one and a half, so today was about a lot of driving and stopping only when nature called. hehe We were up at 4:30 (because once again the night before a trip and I was sleepless) and on the road by 5:00. The customs guard was great, the construction was plentiful through Ohio, but the traffic was fantastic until we met up with all the Smoky Mountain vacationers in Knoxville. But it still moved quite well, just a lot of vehicles. Here are a few photos I did manage to capture when not at the wheel. Some traditions are hard to break, like bathroom and driving breaks at a Cracker Barrel. It also gave Ethan a chance to continue another tradition he started a few years ago, which is to Purchase a hat from a University team located in the States we visit. Today he finally found a Kentucky one he really liked! He has wanted that blue hat for a while. Here are my two amazing roadies and the i-75 visitor center Tennessee Welcome Sign. Our temperatures through out the day were as high as 36 until we started climbing the Smoky Mountain Range and then it dropped and started to pour rain. But now that we have descended the mountain again, it is back to hot and humid. Just like the south should be in July!!!! It is just after 4pm and we have checked into a brand new gorgeous Hampton Inn. After our long day we are very tired and HUNGRY!!!! So off to dinner these tired roadies will go. Ethan says the Olive Garden across the street is calling his name.
Good night from Chattanooga, Tennessee! So today you will see the reason for this little adventure south. Though I will take any excuse to come to the south as you know. We left Chattanooga around 8 am, quickly crossed the time zone, and gained back an hour. We dipped into Georgia for a mile or two along highway 24 and back out, and then were west bound into ALABAMA! All within 30 minutes. The drive from Chattanooga to Alabama was gorgeous, the mountains and hills to climb were wonderful. I could drive that all day. It was a great drive through the Alabama country side, and Ethan was quiet until we spotted the Saturn Rocket poking up over the tops of the trees and he knew we were there! SPACE CAMP!! His happy place. He has waited a whole year to return to Huntsville, Alabama. Huntsville is home to the US Rocket Center and Redstone Arsonal, where NASA teaches and trains not only students, but the astronauts too. A lovely Research and University town Huntville lies in a valley surrounded by Mountains. Today as we stepped out of the car the heat was oustanding. Almost 100F. But as they say in the South.... ![]() Arriving at Space Camp is pretty grand. You see the rockets right from the highway, and then you pull up to the main gate. This is where you enter for registration and team and room assignments. He is on the LUNA crew this year!!!!!
After checking in and getting your bedding package, room assignment, and your wristband (holds all your info, meal plan and money on a tab), you are free to explore until parent orientation. What is great about this is Em and I get to explore along with him at no charge because he is a registered NASA guest. :) There are lots of exhibits in the Museum, and outside on the grounds. One of the traveling exhibits was all about Robotics, and it was called Robot Zoo. You could control each robot to do different things, and learn the science about how animals have traits that allow them to do things different from any other species, such as bats hanging upside down so long, giraffes and their amazing capabilities to hold up those necks. It was a lot of fun. As we toured around the Space Center we also stepped inside the auditorium (where we will meet up with Ethan on Friday at graduation) and Ethan showed us the Saturn rockets and even climbed in one of the capsules from the Mercury missions. Before I knew it it was already time to say good bye. It was amazing for me to watch him here this year. He is such a different boy. No nerves, just amazing maturity and leadership skills. Two of the other parents whispered to me that their boys were so happy to be with someone who had been here already, and their mom's complimented me on how welcoming Ethan was when they all met, and how he made them feel better by shaking each of their hands and introducing himself. Seriously, it took my own mom nerves right away and left me feeling nothing but pride. (Tearing up thinking about it!) The astronaut trainees were quickly wisked away...and Em and I whisked ourselves across the street to our Hampton Inn / Home 2 Suites to check in. http://hamptoninn3.hilton.com/en/hotels/alabama/hampton-inn-and-suites-huntsville-research-park-area-HSVHRHX/index.html When we arrived those sliding doors opened to HEAVEN.... oh wait thats the air conditioning!!!!!! We love this Hotel, we stayed here last year and fell in love with everything about it. The location (walking distance to shops and restaurants) , the staff, the pool and the ease I have knowing I can see the buildings and Rockets of Space Camp right from our window, where I know Ethan is having a BLAST!!!!! It's just us girls now... And our first thing we did for our mother daughter night was walk to get some dinner. And when in Alabama - You have to eat some BBQ! Tonight we tried Dickies BBQ. https://www.dickeys.com/ It was a big hit with EMMY!
Oh yes, and Free ice cream!!!!!!
So now, we're back at our room. Ready to head down to the pool! Good Night Y'ALL from Huntsville, ALABAMA! Today was a quieter day. No agenda other than finding our hotel for tonight. We were just two girls driving down a country road. Okay so that country road was i-65, but that doesn't mean we didn't enjoy it all the same. We pulled out of Huntsville by 7:30 am... because we are early risers and because we never quite adjust to the hour time change that easily. Leaving Huntsville we waved good bye to our boy, but we will be back to pick him up on Friday. Here is our view of the Space Center from the highway as we leave the city. Picture compliments of my backseat roadie! From Huntsville we headed to i-65 and turned north! Yes north! Without the boys we are about to get all giddy and girly and spend a few days in NASHVILLE! But we take our time rambing up the highway, enjoying the scenery, stopping at visitor centers, and enjoying the rolling hills, all while blaring our country music playlist on my ipod! We would never torture the boys that way, would we? Southern/Middle Tennessee is beautiful. Lots of big farms hiding in these rolling hills, many of them belonging to those famous people who record music just up the road. By early afternoon we had pulled into our destination of Franklin, Tennessee. Tomorrow we plan to sight see in the Historic Part of Franklin, but today it was about taking Em to somewhere on her wish list for this trip. The boys were probably so glad they were not with us for..... American Girl!!! I love that my daughter is still a young lady who wants to play with her dolls, and use her incredible imagination. She has a talent for creating stories and for acting them out. Her doll play often becomes a part of that. I find that so many kids her age are plugged into their electronics all the time. So I want to encourage her to just be herself and keep using her imagination. Our stop at American Girl is part of that. As soon as she found out American Girl had just opened a location in Nashville she asked me if we could go. She even brought along her doll Savannah, for this trip. She had one thing in mind! It was to take Savannah to the doll salon and get her ears pierced. When we purchased her at the Atlanta store 4 years ago we picked a doll that looked like Emmy. At that time Em didn't have her ears pierced. But now that she does, she wanted Savannah to have hers done too. So she had done extra chores and saved up her money to make this happen. At the salon they also styled her hair, and I let her pick out a new outfit for her too. Em really enjoyed this treat. After the store we realized how very hungry we were, So it was time to find some dinner. Heading to our hotel we saw a sign we couldn't ignore. And oh how the BOYS wil be jealous when they find out where we ate!!!!! We discovered Jim n Nick's last year in Alabama, and had a delicious meal there. Let's just say, tonights dinner was just as amazing! http://www.jimnnicks.com/ Delicious cheesy corn bread, sweet lemonade, macaroni and cheese, pulled pork and mouthwatering sweet potatao casserole. You really can eat your way through the south!!!! After dinner we made our way to Hotel #3 . http://hiltongardeninn3.hilton.com/en/hotels/tennessee/hilton-garden-inn-nashville-franklin-cool-springs-BNACSGI/index.html We are in for the night. With the temperatures still near 100F, I think we are headed to the pool to cool off. Though with that dinner in our bellies, I doubt we'll be able to stay aflaot. Love and good night from Franklin, Tennessee. We were excited for today. It was the one day that we had planned something for our morning. We checked out of the hotel around 8 am, and headed just down the street to get some breakfast. It's was Em's choice today for our meal, so Cracker Barrel it was. My kids just love this place. Always something to find on the menu... Today it was Pancakes for Em. Scrambled Eggs and Bacon and some fresh fruit for me. Here is a photo of Em playing with the Golf T game while we wait for our food. Before we left we also picked up a couple treats for ourselves. A couple of bottles of cold lemonade to carry with us for the day to help beat the heat, and a dozen or so of these sweet sticks too. Once we were done breakfast we drove only 10 minutes away into the center of Franklin to meet up with Margie Gould Thessin at the steps of the Old Court House, located on the historic square. Margie was to be our tour guide today. She is the owner of Franklin on Foot, a walking tour company that provides different themed tours of this gorgeous little town. http://franklinonfoot.com/tours/history-tours/ Our tour group was small, just the two of us and one other gentleman from Florida. Margie took us around town for a 90 minue walking tour past beautiful antebellum homes and strore fronts, and told us the stories of the people who resided there. Emily really enjoyed the story of Sally Carter, a widowed woman who was loyal and faithful to the Confederacy, even after the occupation of Franklin by the Union Army. This is not the part of the story that Em loved the most, it was how Mrs. Sally Carter became a Spy. And how she often invited Union soldiers to her home for a meal , and perhaps some whisky, and would overhear them speaking about their plans for battle or other Union Army information that she would then write down, and hide within her hoop skirts and take outside the city to the confederate army. All persons leaving the town of Franklin would need a pass and would have their wagons and possessions searched. But because she was a woman, her body could not, and this is how many woman became spies during the war. Another story we enjoyed was that of Doctor Cliff and his daughter Belle. When the Doctor volunteered for the army it was as a Conferate Soldier with his neighbours in Franklin, Tennessee. But during the war he was captured and convinced the Union that he was no longer a supporter of the Confederacy and was able to change armies and work with them instead of being held prisoner. You can imagine how his neighbours felt about his changing of guard. They considered the Doctor and his family to be traitors. This made it very difficult for his daughter Belle. Before the war it was believed that she had many suitors. But now those suitors were on opposite lines of the war, and they and their families would never consider her to be a suitable bride. That was until one day when a battle occured right within Franklin itself. A Union General was injured, and was rushed to the home of Doctor Cliff to be taken care of. It is here that the General met the lovely Belle Cliff, and they were married shortly afterwards. The General moved to Franklin so Belle could stay close to her family, and became well loved by the entire community as well. So a happy ending for Belle! Here are a few photos that Em and I took around Franklin today. This is the statue of a confederate soldier in the middle of the town Square. It was pretty warm outside, we we were so thankful to have those lemonade bottles we purchased. They were both empty after an hour and a half. At the end of our tour the guide asked Em a couple of questions, and thanked her for behavior and her knowledge, and then pulled a book out of her bag. The book was called Lizzie's War , and was written by our guide. I asked her if I could pay her for it, but she refused. Such a lovely gesture. Emmy and local author/ tour guide Margie Gould Thessin. After Franklin it was time to head into the city. Though it was starting to look like a storm was brewing. We needed to find something to do for the afternoon that was indoors, and since we were learning about history today I though Em should learn a little bit about the history of Country Music itself. So off to the Grand Ol' Opry we went, and I bought tickets to the backstage tour. Let me just say. We LOVED it. My little performer was mesmerized by the place, and the history and the photos and videos they show you along the way. To stand on that stage was pretty great. Catching a glimpse of young country star Hunter Hayes was very cool too. Here are some of our photos from the Grand Ol' Opry. These two photos were taken in the television studio located backstage at the Opry. CMT and ABC's Nashville use it currently, but it also was the studio for HeeHaw. When Minnie Pearl was performing here, often she would sing a song on the stage of the Opry, and then run backstage and film a scene for the show on a Opry commercial break. The red seats are where the live studio audience sits. Opry Post Office. You can actually write to your favourite Opry Member here. The members boxes are listed alphabetically. Except for Little Jimmy Dickens, who had number 144 instead because he wouldn't have been able to reach his box at only 4 foot 11. Each dressing room is numbered, named , themed, and decorated completely differently. The first time you are ever invited to play at the Opry, this is the room you are given. You are invited Into the Circle. ( You will see why it is called that in a minute.) Inside the Green Room backstage is this large mural. If you look closely you can see a brown stain across it. That is because the flood waters from the Cumberland River reached 4 feet high inside and above stage level in the Opry in 2010. This mural was not able to be carried out fast enough, but they have restored it best they could. Now remember that Circle I spoke about. Here it is. A circle of the Ryman floor, where the Grand Ol' Opry once performed was placed here in the Opry Theatre so that Opry Members can remember and be a part of the same stage that history has graced. All that walking made us pretty tired. So we have arrived at hotel #4. http://embassysuites3.hilton.com/en/hotels/tennessee/embassy-suites-nashville-airport-BNANAES/index.html This hotel will be our home for the next few days so we can explore more of what Nashville has to offer us. So much more to explore tomorrow, until then. Good Night from Nashville. Em and I walked to our first stop of the day. The Tennessee State Museum. http://www.tnmuseum.org/ It is a large facility. Many different themed exhibits covering the history of the state from the very begining. What was also nice is that it lets its visitors see and learn all of this information at no charge. Definitely a nice touch for all the visiting families in Nashville. As we walked around the museum we saw exhibits on the pioneers who settled this area. Some of them were very interactive and fun too. Such as this one where Em and I had to decide which supplies would be needed to be packed in our Conestoga wagon for the journey to the new territory of Tennessee. Some items would be too heavy, some we would be able to make when we got there, some were not to be forgotten, like our rifle for hunting food and a bucket for collecting water. ![]() Our morning started with the complimentary breakfast right here at our own hotel, and then taking a quick 10 minute or so drive downtown to the Downtown and Music Row area. We found parking easily in the middle of everything we wanted to see and do today. At 20.00 for the day, believe me it was a steal. Some lots were charging 15.00 for every 2 hours. We planned on spending most of the day here so I felt comfortable with the 20.00. There were also exhibits on some of the famous founders like Davy Crockett, and Nashville Residents and future Presidents like Andrew Jackson and James Polk. There were also exhibits on major events that occured within the state, like famous battles in the Civil War, the Revolutionary war (I wonder if they knew we red coats were in the building), even social wars... where the fighting was about Civil Rights! After the State Museum we walked Right over to the gorgeous State Captal. It was now time to walk down to Music Row. There are restaurants, bars, stores, to walk and see. A quick fueling stop for some smoothies at Mike's Ice Cream http://mikesicecream.com/ and we were ready to take it all in. Here is a view of Broadway or Music Row. We had fun browsing a few stores and checking out all the cowboy boots. Some were 200.00 or 300.00 some were as much as 800.00 and higher. All will be staying on the shelf! That $ spent would cut into my travel budget. But ooohhhh arn't they pretty!!!! We also made our way down the street to the Country Music Hall of Fame. http://countrymusichalloffame.org/ Not only to see what it had to offer,but also a great place to get out of the heat. I wasn't sure Em would like it at first, but it turned out to be great. ![]() Inside Emily was directed to the Taylor Swift Education Center. She was given a scavenger hunt challenge to see if she could find all the items on the sheet. But first she posed with a few of the museums Taylor Swift items. The Hall of Fame had great costume exhibits and, displays of different instruments used by the artists over the years. It aso had some newer interactive exhibits too. But Em really enjoyed the scavenger hunt. Here are some of the items Em had to find. A pair of boots with Humpty Dumpty Valentines on them, an instrument called the big Whomper 2, and a four neck steel guitar! Which must have been very hard to play. Here are some of the costume Exhibits as well. Em took these photos, mostly of the artists that she knows. Trisha Yearwoods wedding attire. Hunter Hayes Miranda Lambert and The Band Perry ... The Dixie Chicks Em was excited to see this one. Maddie and Tae!!! These are the costumes from their - Girl in a Country Song - Video. She really likes these girls, and can't wait for their album to come out in a couple weeks. Their song Fly plays on our Ipod a lot!!! Here is Em answering questions on one of the interactive displays. Such a full and busy morning and afternoon seeing everything that we did. All that walking and discovering can make a girl HUNGRY! Some fried green tomatoes, sweet potato, and fried chicken were on the special... oh and don't forget the Lemonade. We are making the most of this southern comfort food while we can. We chose Puckett's for our late lunch... or linner as Em calls it.
We do a lot of linners while we are on the road. We like to fit in as much as we can as early as we can and then a later lunch lets us get out of the heat and rest our feet once it starts to get to us. It also saves us a few dollars on dinners, since we wont be quite as hungry. Well - it is now about 16 hours after I started to write this blog post... and finally it is done. I hope the next entry doesn't have as many techincal issues with the weebly website. Hope you all enjoy these photos though... Hugs and ....Good Morning from Nashville. Today is our last day in Nashville. We are having a quieter day, before all the driving we will have to do over our next two or three. I gave Em a few choices over what she wanted to do this morning, and she picked the ZOO! So off to The Nashville Zoo at Grassmere we went. https://www.nashvillezoo.org/ It is not a large zoo, but there were still plenty of animals to see. Here are a few of our favourite finds today. We met some two legged friends, some four legged friends, an even one no-legged friend. Some of them we were able to get right up close too as well. The zoo property was gifted by the Croft sisters. Margaret and Elyse. It was their family farm called Grassmere that had belonged to their family since the early 1800's. It had witnessed wars, and slavery, and held so much history in the area. The sisters didn't want to see it lost to Urban sprawl so they willed it to become the property for a zoo. After the zoo, we headed for some lunch and have come back to the hotel.
Time to organize our bags, and pack up the back of the truck. We get to pick Ethan up tomorrow, wheich we are pretty excited about. We will take an afternoon swim, and hang out here, because although she doesn't know it I have a pretty big surprise planned for Emmy tonight. Wait till you see!!! She was totally surprised!!!! ( I posted the video of it on facebook!) Can't wait to surprise Ethan tomorrow too! Jason and I have had this planned since March... we totally pulled it off! So happy we are almost all back together. I just tricked Emmy into going downstairs to see how busy the pool was....
and this guy was waiting when the elevator doors opened!!! Jason, Em and I left Nashville just before 8 am, and headed south down i-65 to arrive at the NASA Space Center in Huntsville, Alabama around 10 am. He headed straight into the Davidson Education Building, and found seats in Graduation Hall. Graduation starts at 11, and the master of ceremonies introduces each crew as they enter. Ethan's Crew - TEAM LUNA , was introduced and proceeded towards the graduation stage, and that's when Ethan caught sight of Em, and myself, and then his dad!!! Who he had no idea would be there today. The smile on his face was fantastic. At todays assembly there were kids from all over the US, a few other international kids especially a large group who had come from China. Ethan as far as we know was the lone Canadian again this week. After the introduction of each crew. (Around 10 groups of 12) . We were addressed by 4 time orbited astronaut Dr. Don Thomas. Sometimes the visisting astronauts rotate weeks. Ethan was excited to see Dr. Thomas again, as he had worked with him last year as well. Dr. Thomas spoke to the graduates and he told them that it takes hard work to get to live your dream. He also told all the kids that they should never give up, and they should always try again. It took 4 interviews with NASA for him to be a part of the team. He himself was just a kid, when he saw Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. At that time, his friends laughed at him when he said he wanted to be an astronaut one day. Dr. Thomas said, never let someone tell you you can't. He is proof that you can. We were also visited by a senior executive from BOEING, who congratulated the new graduates and said that one of them may be that first astronaut to reach Mars. That these kids are the generation that will get there. He also spoke about the possibility for all these kids in the STEM jobs that are going to be needed to help make that happen. Listening to these gentlemen speak, I know Ethan will learn that his time here is special and that it will be just one of the pieces that will guide him to living his dreams. Then it was graduation at last!!! Each crew was introduced up to the stage where the members were introduced by name, and by their crew/shuttle mission position, and then handed their diploma. Ethan Richard - - SHUTTLE PILOT! As Ethan attended space camp this week, they acknowoledged that this week was also the 46th anniversary Apollo 11 mission. Mercury, Gemini, Saturn, Apollo.... missions that changed the way we look at our earth and beyond. Taking pictures at graduation is difficult, it is a large room. But here are some of the photos we captured of Ethan and some of his crew mates, and his Crew Trainer afterwards. Ethan and LUNA Crew Trainer - Chris Wade ( UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA) Ethan and his LUNA Crew mate and Bunk mate - Tim ( Atlanta, Ga) ( Ethan hasn't invested in a flight suit yet. He is scared he will outgrow it too quickly.) He wants to wait to get his, so he can sew all his mission patches on it at one time. Graduation is pretty special. I have a feeling we haven't seen our last one. He has a little sister who seems pretty interested in coming to try it, or perhaps Ethan would like to try something new here, like the robotics course or the aviation challenge next year. Who knows? Around 2:30 we pulled out of the NASA gate and headed up the highway. But we had one quick stop we wanted to make before we hit the interstate though. A tiny little town called Mooresville, AL. When I was here last year there was an article in Southern Living Magazine about this little town. http://www.mooresvilleal.com/ http://www.southernliving.com/travel/south-central/mooresville-alabama I really wanted to stop in and see it. Wow, are we glad we did. We met the most warm and welcoming couple at Lyla's Little House. A sweet and tea shop. http://www.lylaslittlehouseal.com/ Lyla Peebles and her husband told us about their little town, and showed us the true meaning of southern hospitality. We really enjoyed our visit with them. We were very happy to visit her little store and purchase some of her her homemade ice cream, her macaroons, madelaines, and pralines. All delicious southen sweets. My ice cream was a lemon curd custard. Delightful!!!! Here are some pictures from Lyla's Little House There is Miss Lyla making us some ice cream to taste. Served in teal cups with paper straws. Sweet, Elegant, Southern Perfection! She was so excited that we came off the highway to see her, that she gifted us a Mooresville Walking Tour Book and some yummy southern cheese straws. We took our ice cream and treats and took a walk around the town as Miss Lyla instructed. Here are some of the beautiful southern architecture and historical buildings we found along our way. Mooresville, AL!!!!!! An idyllic southern town, and if I ever move south, it will be here.
We have made our way back through Alabama, Tennessee, and are settled into Bowling Green, Kentucky for the night. We will make our way home tomorrow after a few stops to see sights and have some fun. Good night y'all! I am sad to say that our last day didn't leave us with many pictures to share.
We were up and on the road, a quick drive into Mammoth Caves National Park to find out that all the tours were already sold out for the day. :( But perhaps that was for the best this trip. We had a long drive home that was only made longer with long stretches of traffic and construction. In Louisville we were directed north to Indianapolis instead of the planned east to Cincinatti, and got tied up in a bit more traffic. But we finally made it into Michigan and then what seemed like a very long two hour drive home from there to the border. But our thoughts on our drive today were... 1. Apparently the southern heat has followed us home 2. Why on earth do none of these motorcyclists have helmets on ???? !!!!! 3. Passing on the right side seems like a norm here. 4. Just when you think you are going to get moving again.... WRONG!!!! Another 40 mile stretch of construction. 5. Well if we have to sit for long periods of time, then at least we are all doing it together. :) So nice to sleep in our own beds last night. Now to start laundry, and to go and get some groceries this morning. Thanks for joining us on our adventure... the next one is only 12 days away. And we are truly excited about it. Stay tuned. |