Day 2 started in Memphis. Hotel breakfast of eggs and sausage from chafing dishes, and make-your-own waffles.
We hit the road around 9:00 a.m. and contended with some decent rain for the first hour, and more contending with the semis. The damn semis. One in the right lane is going 58 miles per hour. The one behind it decides to pass at 59 miles per hour. It’s an exercise in waiting on semis to pass each other to clear the left lane.
We made it to Nashville at 12:30 p.m. We drove through the Bellmont University and Vanderbilt campuses, a quick bite at Hattie B’s Hot Chicken, and then Elise, Mara and I did a quick tour of the perimeter of the Parthenon. At that point the girls were tapped out, so Elise and I had to stop and check out the outside of Tennessee’s capitol building. Then we had to go see the Grand Old Opry. I’d say not much of tourist spot unless you’re actually going to the Grand Old Opry. One last stop at the local used sports outfitter to get an extra lacrosse stick for Maly.
Then we were off again. North on 65 up into Kentucky through Bowling Green and a stop at Buc-ee’s in Smiths Grove because the kids have to stop anytime there’s a Buc-ee’s. The landscape wasn’t much unlike all of Arkansas and most of Tennessee until we hooked it east onto the Bluegrass Parkway in Elizabethtown. I’ve now been through the majority of the states in our nation and Kentucky has the most beautiful farm and ranch lands in my opinion. Rolling hills, that Kentucky bluegrass, huge horse ranches with beautiful homes, acreage, and fences. We made it to Lexington at dusk and stopped to get gas and Elise and I traded off piloting. Then it was mostly dark, quiet and fast highway miles through eastern Kentucky and into West Virginia. We could barely make out the silhouettes of the Appalachian range.
We didn’t get to Charleston until around 11:00 p.m. and it was quick to bed for everyone. I think Elise and I were a little too road weary to have our emotions from having made it to our final destination take their toll.
We made it though. Relatively uneventful and unscathed by the road. I neglected to look at the tripometer when we got out of our rental van. I think we hit 1,350 miles with 24 hours of driving time. That included a few hours and quite some miles in Nashville.
Wonderful memories, although it may not seem like it now! Some day a few years from now ya’ll will be sitting around the dinner table and someone will say “Remember that time we stopped in Nashville on our trip to take Maly to college…” Good family memories!