the civil war tour

Fort Donaldson, situated on the Cumberland river, which is now the foot of one of the lakes, was the site of an early and pivotal battle that was an early victory for Ulysses Grant, and the northern troops.

we got there just in time for a short film about the area, which piqued the interest of both Kate and I with a compelling account of the northern campaign to take the three forts on the rivers using assaults from land and river on the iron clad gun boats! in planning the trip, we had many ideas about what to see, but both of us neglected to realize we were traveling smack through the hotbed of civil war history! ha.

a day to deviate from the beaten path

today we decided to ignore the google map assessment of the fastest route into Arkansas, and chart our own course that would take us on some smaller roads, past more rivers and lakes.

leaving Nashville, we headed into the northwest corner to the bottom end of "the land between the lakes" recreation area.

a fortuitously timed need for a pee break landed up at quite an interesting landmark we otherwise would have blown by, Fort Donaldson.

Nashville visit with auntie dee-dee

after our multiple stops throughout the day, we got to Nashville a little later than expected for a visit with my aunt.

it was lovely to see auntie dee-dee, as it has been more than 5 years since I last passed through Nashville and saw her. we caught up briefly at her place, before heading to downtown Nashville to walk around and grab a bite to eat.

on the drive, she recounted the horrific story of how her entire neighborhood was destroyed in the flood a few years back. she lost nearly everything in her place, and it has been a long road rebuilding. her place is mostly back together, but still needs a lot of finishing touches, and furnishings. such a tragedy, but also a warming story of how her community came together to help one another.

downtown, we strolled through the bar/restaurant district, and settled on the big river brewery for dinner. we were all super pleased with the dinners, and tried a few of their beers. the ipa and pilsner were refreshing, but none of us liked their seasonal heff.

it was a really nice visit, and I wish we had had a lot more time to catch up... but Kate and I were pooped from a long day (with an extra hour added for central time), so had to bid her farewell for now. until next time.... :)

p.s. thanks a bunch auntie for the great gift bag of road trip goodies! we munched on them all day today! :)

dinosaur world!

nothing can be a more successful to trap tourists than putting giant sculptures of dinosaurs right at exit ramp for the national park. the idea of dinosaur world was just too silly for us to pass up in our road trip. we are becoming quite the fans of "colossus".

of course, as you suspected, the main attractions were behind a door with a fee that wasn't worth it... but Kate and I had fun poking through the gift shop, and taking silly pictures in the parking lot! ;)

mammoth caves national park

when we finally got to mammoth caves, it was almost 1pm, but we were excited to learn we crossed into the central time zone, giving us back an hour!

we missed the tour going into the caves at noon, but got tickets for the 1pm "new entrance" tour. it was nice to have a little time to sit, eat our sandwiches, fill out a few postcards, and relax for a minute.

they loaded the large tour group onto a bus, and we drove to the entrance to the cave. it was a tiny door in the hillside. we filed in one by one, and descended over 300 steps snaking through cracks in the cavern, until we all reached a large cavern 250'+ under ground. pretty cool!

the rangers stopped us along the way to talk about how the caves were formed, the history of their exploration, and to point out different features. we walked up and down, winding through the passages for close to 2 hours. the first parts were functionally interesting, and the last bit was where water dripping into the caves created awesome formations, including a large one called "frozen niagara".

as with many stops on our trip, the sights and information we took in were really fascinating, and left us wanting more! the pictures don't begin to do it justice. next time i would highly recommend some of the more strenuous tours to get off the beaten path!

bardstown Kentucky - bourbon capital of the world!

being that it was only 10am, and neither Kate or I are terribly fond of bourbon, we decided to take a historical trolley tour around town, opposed to doing a tasting tour.

the tour guide, Paul, was a lovely southern gentleman with a vast knowledge of the history of the town, and the roots of the burbon business. we saw many historic site such as My Old Kentucky Home (for which Paul sang us some if the song about it), as well as Jim Beam's home.

really fun and informative little detour. we hit the gift shop for a few samplers for our burbon loving friends... and we were back in the road headed to mammoth caves.

when in Kentucky...

...you have to sample the Kentucky bourbon! Kate and I were happily driving along the highway, taking in all the rolling horse ranches and plantation homes, when we saw the sign to the bourbon distilleries. can't pass that up right? so we began our morning woth a little detour! ;)