DAY 01 (Adam’s post)

… and, we’re off!
Vacation has begun and so thus has our ill-planned, probably highly regretful, yet surely unforgettable summer road trip throughout the U.S.
We are officially Griswaldin’.

Most of you know that experience and our own preferences helped form a few basic ground rules for this trip. With few unavoidable exceptions we:

* Won’t spend more than 4hrs on the road on any given day.
* Will try to spend at least 2 days in any populated location
* Won’t plan our next steps any more than 1-2 days in advance
* Will agree to change our plans on a moment’s notice
* Will try to find hotels that can accommodate all 5 of us. 2 bedroom “suites” are a must to keep our sanity. Thankfully, these are fairly obtainable in the US. They were a rare luxury in last summer’s European destinations.

We had spent several months talking over potential routes (“do we go north first, or south?”) and, consistent with our planning, had to scrap it all just before we left. I have a business meeting next Tuesday in Louisville – one that may be worth my time to not miss. As a result, we scrapped potential Route A and Route B and starting calling audibles before we left our driveway.

And so, just a couple of days ago, we decided to spend our first several days touring around bits of Tennessee and Kentucky that we’ve never seen.

The kids’ last day of school was Thursday. They had early release and were home all afternoon to give us time to get organized and pack for the next morning. Come Friday, we packed up, closed down the house (we do have a housesitter this summer, the same girl that watched over our place last summer), locked things up and departed.

Our Ford – all cleaned up and ready to go.

Off to Nashville we go.

We grabbed lunch in downtown Nashville – down on Broadway, one of the main drags.

Afterwards, we head out of town a bit to visit The Hermitage – Andrew Jackson’s home up until his death in 1845.

Waiting in line to get into the main mansion.

Waiting our turn at the front door. They only let people in 12-at-a-time, so we had to wait about 15 minutes to enter. The house and it’s furnishings are essentially unchanged since the late 1880’s.

Walking the grounds. Slave cabin in foreground.

It’s our first day, so getting checked in, finding groceries for “wine time” and getting luggage & gear sorted out was our priority. The kids hit the pool late in the afternoon and we turned in early.
It’ll take us a few days to get a routine down; the mundane issues of laundry, work (yes, I do have this..), feeding, pottying, breaking up fights & etc take far more time in the day than the actual “touristy” things.

The kids’ highlight on each day. The threat of loss of “pool” is what keeps them from revolting in front of every museum ticket booth.

Brenda’s post:

Today was our first day of vacation.  We left early this morning (around 8 am) and drove to Nashville.  We arrived around noon and had picked out a famous ribs joint for lunch, but when we got there it was such a dingy hole in the wall – with no seating –  that we ended up walking down the street and eating at a chain called Margaritaville.  Strike 1 for our memorable historic locations.

Anyway, after lunch we went to The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s homestead.  According to the guide, Jackson is the 3rd wealthiest president (adjusted for inflation) of them all, from Washington to Obama, but he never told us who the first two wealthiest were.

Jackson had a huge plantation and over 150 slaves.  Due to politically correct verbiage, every sign with historical information on it referred to “the enslaved” and never once used the word “slave.”  It was kind of weird and called attention to it, rather than making it better.

Anyway, once again we came away from the tour with the distinct idea that being poor now is better than being rich back then.  As one of the very richest people in America, he still lived in a house where men spat so much tobacco on the floor they had to invest in disposable interior flooring, and the wealthiest folks took a bath once every six months.  At great expense (and for the purposes of snobbery) Jackson installed an outhouse in his garden, which was largely unused because people preferred to use chamber pots.  An outhouse was just too fancy to sully.  They routinely slept 5 men to a bed that is slightly smaller than a modern Queen size.  The house was over 8000 sq feet, but only had 4 bedrooms that serviced more than 30 people living in the house at one time.  Privacy was non-existant.

After The Hermitage, we bought some deli food at a Publix and retired to our hotel for the evening.  Our room is small, but has a patio that opens onto the swimming pool.  Adam and I sat at our little table and had wine time while the kids swam.  It was a really nice evening.

Tomorrow is The Grand Ole Opry.  Vince Gill is the headliner, and Larry Gatlin (of the Gatlin Brothers) is also playing, along with 5 or 6 other people I don’t recognize because I’m not up on country music.  I hope it’s fun.  It will be the kids first real evening show.