Summary of our trip

Here is a map of our trip. 

States Visited: 

Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, Illinois

Miles traveled was 2, 366 and I drove all the way. 

Weather was perfect!  No rain and the highest temperature was 85 degrees one day.

Food:  We ate a lot of noon meals at Cracker Barrel because the food was consistent, reasonably priced, we could have either breakfast or lunch; clean restrooms and there were always fun things to look at in the gift shops. 

My Favorite Things in Order - 1st being favorite

Jane: Warm Springs Ranch, Clinton Library, National Civil Rights Museum

Nancy: Smoky Mountains, Clinton Library, National Civil Rights Museum

Darlene: Biltmore Estates, Smoky Mountains, National Civil Rights Museum

Major Rivers Crossed

Ohio, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi

Cost of Gas: $240 for the whole trip

Hotels Stayed at: 3 Best Western; 5 Holiday Inn Express, 1 LaQuinta; 1 Hampton Inn

and we are still best friends......

White Springs Ranch

White Springs Ranch is located in Booneville, MO and is the breeding farm for the Budweiser Clydesdale's.. I was there back in April and enjoyed it as much today as I did them. How can you ever get tired of looking at those majestic. gentle, giants and seeing the babies is just icing on the cake.

The entire ranch is beautiful - complete with 14 miles of white iron fence. Everything is immaculate!

The foals are kept on the ranch until they are 2 years old.  At that time they are either sold to other breeders or if they meet the criteria to be a Clydesdale hitch horse (pulling the wagon) then they are taken to St Louis to begin training.  If they are determined to be good mares to breed then they will be kept on the farm.  A mare is bread for about 10 years and is then lives out the rest of her pampered life in a special pasture on the ranch with the other retirees. 

 This handsome guy is Andrew and he is one of 2 "commercial" horses which means they are used in commercials or to interact with people on the tours. Andrew is the model here for the tour guide to talk about how the horses get weekly baths, etc. He is most famous for being the star in the puppy commercials. 

Julio was born on Sept 16th.  The babies are kept in the foaling barn with their mommies. 

Reilly was born on Aug 27th.  

And here is Moose and his mommy. He was born on Sept 12th. Moose is napping after the attention he received from the tour group. The mothers really stand guard over their babies when the strangers are around. 

I'm standing beside Duke. He was a hitch horse for several years and was also a "wheel horse" until he was retired a few months ago due to a heart murmur. The wheel horses are the horses just in front of the wagon and have to be stronger than the front horses. 

Yes, we were glad to get home today but it was a wonderful trip.  Tomorrow I will finish the trip out on the blog with some statistics, top picks, etc. Stay tuned.....

St Louis and Booneville

We stayed at a hotel in St Louis that was downtown and near the Arch and it worked out perfect!  We ere able to be at the Arch at 9 and there were very few people around.  I was concerned about finding some parking near the Arch for Jane since there is so much construction going on and they do not have dedicated Arch parking - you drop off and then go find a parking garage. Nancy checked at the Visitor Center yesterday and they said we could park in the handicap spaces in the parking lot for the Basilica St Louis parking lot which is right next to the Arch. We get there and sure enough, it cost us $10 but parked in the first space by the walk to the Arch - well worth the money.

Nancy and I were taking pictures of the Arch when the parking attendant for the church asked if we would like her to take out picture so this is the result. I was not even remotely interested for a micro-second to go up in the arch!

The Basilica St. Louis was founded in 1770. This is the alter of the original church that was built in 1838. It is really a beautiful building!

Yes, I was glad to see Kansas City pop up on Samantha after I entered the address for Boonville as we were leaving the Arch in St. Louis. 8-)

Jane wanted to see some of the Barn Quilts after I told her about them back in the spring. So, we went looking for them after getting to Boonville and here is one. I think they are so fun to look at.

We visit the Warm Springs Ranch in the morning to see the Clydesdale horses. Then we head home where Samantha can rest for awhile.

Back to Missouri

Another leisurely drive today from Paducah to St. Louis. Our planning has worked out really good. We leave a town, drive 3-3.5 hours to the next town and are usually there by noon.  We have lunch and are then a tourist in the afternoon. Not a bad way to do a road trip.

When we got to St Louis today, we had lunch at the Brew House in the Ballpark Village which is absolutely the biggest sports bar you will ever find since it is just across the street from Busch Stadium. Next was a visit to the Old Courthouse which is the temporary visitors center for the Gateway Arch while remodeling is going on for a new visitor's center at the Arch base.

I didn't even price the tickets to go to the top of the arch because there is no way I would get in this little pod and ride 4 minutes up a cylinder 630 feet.  Jane is about 5'3" so this gives you an idea how small this capsule is.  It seats 5 people shoulder to shoulder and knee to knee. It is 3 1/2 minutes coming down.

Here is a picture of a picture of the view from the top of the arch. I don't care that you can see for 30 miles in all direction. Thanks, but no thanks......

View of the arch at sunset as we were driving back to our hotel that is near the arch after visiting the Union Station and having dinner there. The domed building is the Old Courthouse.

Tomorrow we go visit the Arch and the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis before heading for Boonville, MO.

Paducah, Kentucky

Some tidbits about the trip:
1. The trees are just beginning to change colors but we are too early to see the full colors.  We have seen so many trees on the hills that I just can't imagine them during their fall glory.
2. Our mid-morning pit stop as we are driving from one town to another is at McDonald's where Nancy and I each get a bag of sliced apples as part of the stop for our mid-morning snack.
3.  So far, we have stayed at 3 Best Western hotels and 3 Holiday Inn Express hotels. Holiday Inn is our favorite. The Best Western in Gatlinburg was one of the old motor courts that had not been updated but was clean with a good bed and lots of hot water.

4.  We have packing the car down pat. Here are our suitcases in the truck and how they are tucked in. each have a 22" roller bag and one of these smaller roller bags. 

The National Quilt Museum in Paducah is amazing! They don't allow picture taking in the galleries so I was limited in wheat I could get in the lobby. 

Most of the quilts were for at least a full size bed and were hand pieced and hand quilted. I simply cannot believe the tiny stitches used in the quilting part. The above picture is only a small portion of a quilt. They were rally beautiful. 

The museum also contains some beautiful stained glass windows. 

Paducah is on the river where the Ohio and Tennessee rivers come together. In the below picture, the trees across the river are in Illinois. I was surprised at how many barges there was on the river and below is one of the boats that push the barges. 

There is a Flood Wall (below) on the Paducah side of the river is 14 feet tall and goes on for about 4 city blocks.  

On the town side of the wall are painted murals depicting the history of the town. Each mural is about 20' long. 

Close up of  a mural. 

On to St Louis tomorrow. We all agree that it has been a wonderful trip but are ready to get home. 

Cookeville, TN

We left Asheville this morning and headed back west towards home.

I-40 west of Asheville is a beautiful drive.  It winds around through the Smokey Mountains for quite a few miles before it runs into just low rolling hills. Fortunately for  me, there were not as many trucks on the road today so I could enjoy the drive a little bit more.

Due to the time zone change, we gained an hour, we got to Cookeville around noon and had the afternoon to just wander around town. You are probably thinking "where is Cookeville and why are you stopping there?" Well,,, Cookeville is about 75 miles east of Nashville on I-40. We could have driven onto Nashville tonight but Nashville to St Louis was a longer drive in one day than we wanted to do so are staying in Cookeville tonight and Paducah, KY tomorrow night before onto St. Louis. We had no idea about anything in Cookeville so had a pleasant surprise when we got here today. Cookeville was founded in 1854 and is the county seat for Putnam County, has a metro population of 106,000 people, home to quite a few manufacturing companies, home to Tennessee Tech College and Dixie College. 

This is one of many the restored homes in the town's North Dixie Avenue Historic District. All of the houses were built before WW II and are examples of many types of architecture ranging from Queen Anne to Colonial to Bungalow. 

Admissions building for Dixie College that was founded in 1909. 

Literally, across the street from Dixie College, is the Tennessee Tech College founded in 1916. This is Derryberry Hall which is the Admissions, Administration and home to the Master's college. 

The present county courthouse was built in 1900 after the previous one was destroyed by fire. This town certainly likes their white columns.....

I have no idea what the story is behind this mural. We saw some other murals around town but this one really stood out. It covers the whole side of a building. 

We hve to make a stop in Nashville in the morning on our way to Paducha to pick up my Kindle e-ready that I left at the hotel in Nashville. I missed it as soon as I got to Asheville and started unpacking. I called the Nashville hotel and the cleaning person had turned it into the manager. I miss it and had to resort to reading a paper book the last couple of days!

Biltmore Estate

 George Vanderbilt was the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt who amassed a fortune in New York through Steamboats, railroads and various business enterprises. George was born in New York City but did not like the city or the social life there. He visited the Asheville, NC area and liked it so that is where he built his home. George fashioned his Biltmore Estate home after the castles he had seen in Europe.

Biltmore House opened on Christmas Eve 1895 after six years of construction. All the brick and tile used in the house was made on site. The house was on 124,000 acres  and 8,000 acres still exist in the estate. The house has 255 rooms, 34 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms and 65 fireplaces. Visitors were frequent and were furnished a map of the first 3 floors including a basement which contained a pool, gym, swimming pool and one of the first residential bowling alleys in the country
.

They don't allow pictures to be taken inside the house so this is off the Internet.  It is a picture of the Banquet Hall with its 7 story tall ceiling. Tapestries on the walls were from Europe and were made in the mid-1500s. The oak table seated 38 people for dinner.

The views from the house are wonderful and all you see are trees and hills as far as the eye can see. 

The gardens were just unbelievable!  There is a Water Garden, Italian Garden, Shrub Garden, Spring Garden, Walled Garden, Rose Garden, Azalea Garden and a Conservatory where the orchids, etc are grown.

I love water lilies and take pictures of them every time I find some.  There were some colors here that I had never seen before.

This is in the Walled Garden and you can see the wall in the background. Many of the plants in this garden are replanted 4 times a year.  They had planted many, many mums but they were not opened yet. There are around 250 different roses in the Rose Garden.

Lunch was in the Stable Cafe which is a restaurant in the old stable next to the house. The food was great.

Our booth was literally in an old stall.  You can see the original wall and iron work behind our seats. Behind us, by the back wall, was a sink that held water for a horse and the hay went behind the vertical iron bars at the back. If we look tired, it is because we were!!!!!!! We did the tour of the house that lasted about 2 hours, had lunch, toured the gardens, had some ice cream while we rested, visited the gift shops and called it a day. Sam got us back to the hotel 6 hours after we left the hotel this morning and it was only a 10 minute drive to the Estate.  That is the most time we have spent at any one attraction while on the trip.

Tomorrow we head west and will be staying in Cookeville, TN tomorrow night.

Greetings from Asheville, North Carolina

Asheville is our turn-around point and on Sunday morning we head back west. Asheville was not on our original planning but we decided to add the drive on over here and are so glad we did! The drive over was beautiful. Asheville is surrounded by tree covered hills or mini mountains. It is just so green!

We gave Samantha a rest today while driving over the Smoky Mountains but she did lead the way. If you didn't catch the earlier blog posts, she is not someone we picked up along the road but is Samantha (Sam) our Garmin GPS. I selected a rubber ducky as the image for my vehicle - complete with a little tail. It was quite amusing to watch her move around the sharp curves today.  She can't move smoothly around them but does it in little jerking moves. However, she earned her keep once we got into Asheville again by easily getting us to the hotel, etc. We have about decided to give her a permanent job. EVERY time I have tried to second-guess her, I was wrong.....

The Smoky Mountains were absolutely beautiful. We left the hotel a little early so there was still some fog in the valleys which just added to the beauty. 

This a stretch of the Appalachian Trail at one of our stops. I think it would be really neat to hike a little portion of it (maybe 4 miles) but certainly won't be doing the hike to Katahdin, Maine from this point which is 1,972 miles northeast. 

Just before leaving the park, we stopped at the Mountain Farm Museum.  It was really interesting and well done. Above are a couple buildings on the farm. Besides the house and barn, there were several out-building with signs on them as to what they are and what purpose they served on the farm. Both of these buildings are corn cribs. A split rail fence surrounds the farm. 

And what farm would be complete without some hogs....  There was also a flock of chickens. 

Tomorrow we spend all day at Biltmore Estates touring the home of George W. Vanderbilt, the gardens, his winery and the village shops. Somehow I don't think we will cover all 8,000 acres of the estate....

The Branson of the Smoky Mountains

9 days and 1,245 miles.... 8-)

Today has been an easy day and my back said "thanks". It was about a 4.5 hour drive over from Nashville to Gatlinburg, TN including lunch at a Cracker Barrel along the way. I simply cannot believe how many trucks are on Interstate 40 across Arkansas and Tennessee. I would estimate that 75% of the vehicles are big-rigs. It is nothing to see 10-15 big-rigs, both vans and flat beds, at a time in a group. Many of them run in the fast lane so it is not fun to get caught in a bunch of them. I also don't appreciate having them pass me when I am doing 70 -75.

Traffic was a nightmare once we got off the interstate on the way to Pigeon Forge, Dollywood and Gatlinburg. It was bumper to bumper, 15-20 mph for the next 10-15 miles. Gatlinburg is like a  "Branson in the Smokey's" in my opinion. The only difference is that the streets are 2 lanes in each direction but it is still bumper to bumper in both lanes and touristy stores wall to wall. The town's setting is very pretty with the tree covered hills surrounding it. I'm looking forward to driving over the Smoky Mountains tomorrow to Asheville which is our turn-around point.  We head back west on Sunday and get home a week from today.

I paid $1.93 for gas this morning to fill up.  8-)  I can't remember the last time I paid under $2.00/gallon for gas.

After we got here, we visited the Sugarland Moonshine Distillery where Jane and I did a tasting. Neither one of us had ever tasted moonshine before so was curious. The tasting cups are slightly smaller than the plastic measuring caps on cough syrup.

I tried the Lemonade and to me it was like taking a drink of gas that was slightly flavored with lemonade. Jane tried one that was 100% proof, clear and said it tasted like turpentine. I'll stick to wine!

Samantha is definitely keeping her job at this point and is almost becoming invaluable.  Today,  she very nicely said "when you can, make a U turn and go back to River Road".

Nashville

We left the hotel at 8:30 this morning and got back 11 hours later with tired feet and sore backs. Samantha did a great job today getting us around and may soon be off probation.....

First stop was Hermitage which was the home of Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States.  I knew the name and even knew his picture was on the $20 bill but really didn't know any more about him. I didn't know he was in the Revolutionary War when he was 13 years old or that he led the U.S. forces in the 1812 Battle of New Orleans. I didn't know his wife, the love of his life,  died after he was elected president but before he took office. I didn't know he returned to Hermitage after leaving the Presidency and preferred to be called General Jackson - not President Jackson. It was an amazing story.  The home and grounds are beautiful and have been wonderfully restored.  The exhibits are new and awesome. It was disappointing that I couldn't take pictures inside the house but oh well...

All of the volunteers, both men and women, are dressed in period dress. 

This is the back of the house.  The front of the house is mostly hidden by the tall trees that have grown up. 

A butterfly resting on a flower in the gardens. 

After Hermitage, we went to the Opry Mills Outlet Mall to see what we could find. Our feet wouldn't let us walk the whole place but we did last long enough to find the Vera Bradley Outlet store. I was thrilled that I wasn't the only one who came out of the store with a sack - both Nancy and Jane also had bags. 

Then it was on to the Opryland Resort and what an amazing place that is! We walked, had a drink , walked some more, had dinner and walked some more. The gardens just go on and one. My drink was a "White Dress" which is White Peach Puree, Pineapple Juice and Sparkling Wine. 

Blown glass art piece in the hotel lobby. Absolutely beautiful!

Waterfall next to the patio bar where we rested with our drinks. Everything is under one roof including 17 restaurants, 3 glass atrium's with fountains, walkways and every plant/flower you can imagine, 2,881 hotel rooms plus a convention center. 

Another pool with fountains. 

There are beautiful flowers in every direction. 

Resting feet and backs....

We were going to do a Backstage of the Grand Old Opry but decided not to since neither Nancy or Jane are big country music fans.  We spent more time at the Resort instead. 

Tomorrow is back on the road to Gatlinburg for an overnight before heading over the Smoky Mountains. 

If it's Wednesday, this must be Nashville....

Easy 3.5 hour drive this morning from Memphis to Nashville. Along the way we stopped at Casey Jones Village which is about half way. It was a good place to stretch our legs and look through the General Store. Then it was on to Belle Meade Plantation which is a short distance southwest of Nashville. 

The original owners of the Plantation goes back to 1806 when they moved here and lived in a log cabin surrounded by 200 acres. He grew the farm to 2,600 acres and began breeding thoroughbred horses in the 1820's. The bloodlines of Seabiscuit and Secretariat can be traced back to this farm. The farm ceased operation in the early 1900's and today sits on 30 acres. 

There is even a tombstone on the ground where one of the most famous sires is buried. 

Samantha did a wonderful job today and her job is still secure. We came in on one side  of Nashville and she took us right to our hotel, on the other side of the city, over a multitude of different freeways and streets. I was sure we were going to end up in Kentucky or some other  place but she brought us right to the hotel. 

Tomorrow is another lesson in history when we visit Hermitage which was the home of Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States. I know nothing about him so it should be interesting.