Nashville, how you've charmed us. And camping? We can do this! Our home away from home is not too shabby, if I do say so myself. Notice we also brought the bikes. More on that later...
Our trip down was eventful. We learned that we have to be very careful how we load the camper. My car did good pulling and stopping, but the wind had us all over the place. It was much better on our way back home. We also learned we like carrying our own refrigerator and bathroom with us. It was much preferable to some of the truck stops on the way! Especially when the ladies room was closed with a sign directing us to the trucker's lounge. Um, NO.
Along with exploring Nashville to see if we could see ourselves living there, we wanted to act like tourists and at least hit a few of the highlights. How cool is the Nashville Parthenon?!
Franklin was a town we kept hearing about over and over again. It charmed us the same as it seems to charm anyone who visits. If you're there, be sure to eat at Merridee's Breadbasket. Yum!
We visited Murfreesboro the next day. Now this is a place we could see ourselves. First we visited Stones River National Battlefield and Stones River National Cemetery. We brought our bikes to ride on the trails - which looked like so much fun! But as we pulled Jared's bike off the rack we popped his inner tube. So sad. So we walked some of the trails and made a little friend who took turns landing on each of us:
The next day we fixed Jared's tire and found more bike trails closer to our camp ground. For as hilly as Nashville is, the trails weren't bad. We had a couple big hills at the trail head but the rest of the ride was fairly flat and so much fun for our family!
We did a lot of driving around and looking at different neighborhoods and suburbs around Nashville. On this trip, we ended up mostly east and south of Nashville. If we go back, we'll need to spend more time west of Nashville. If we go back, we'll also need to revisit Jenni's Ice Cream. Seriously. This was lunch one day.
On our last full day we headed east to visit Donalson, Hermitage, and Smyrna. We had breakfast at First Watch in Hermitage. YUM. Then we visited The Hermitage, the home of President Andrew Jackson. We've visited a lot of historical places and homes and this was one of the most well-done museums we've been to. It's quiet and a little out of the way, but so worth the trip.
Our campground was on the same exit as the Opryland Hotel, so of course we had to visit. People have tried to describe it to us over the years but you really can't appreciate the scope and beauty of this hotel unless you actually walk through it. I promise, it's a must-see if you're in Nashville. I am already planning a weekend getaway here with Mike. He just doesn't know it yet. ;)
It's hard to give a final evaluation on Nashville since it's the only place we've visited so far. I would say we did love it. There is definitely growth and Mike can see finding work there pretty easily. I can see living there, in certain areas. Nashville has a lot to offer in the way of food, recreation, shopping, and especially entertainment and history. My heart feeling is that it is just too far west. The rest of the places we'll be visiting will be coastal states and that just calls to me so much more. I already have the feeling, though, that we have picked a group of pretty fantastic places to look at and without prayer and God's direction, this is going to be an incredibly hard decision.
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