Out and About: The Great Southern Excursion (NC/TN/KY)

Where do I even begin? The past nine days have been fun, and now, looking back, they are a bit of a blur.... So many things to see and do, and I feel like we did just a teeny portion of them. Your fair warning: This is a bit of a long post, with several pictures. BUT ITS ALL AWESOME!

Day One: The Hermitage
Technically, this is day two, but we arrived in Nashville at 11pm last night so I'm making an executive decision and not counting it. Today, aka Day One, we visited The Hermitage, which was the home of President Andrew Jackson.

The back porch

They don't allow photography inside the actual house, which is a bummer, so the majority of the pictures were in the garden.

These were really striking. 

Day Two: Oak Ridge
We visited the American Museum of Science & Energy in Oak Ridge, TN. This is the East Coast equivalent of Los Alamos, which we visited last summer. Lots more info on the Manhattan Project, etc. They had a great exhibit with photos of the aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima. I sucked at pictures this day, and took just one photo. Its a modular home, of the type that was commonly used when Oak Ridge was first established.

Home Sweet Square Home

Day Three and Day Four: Pisgah View Ranch and Ashville, NC
The primary reason for our trip was the wedding of our friends Lee and Pauline. It was a gorgeous wedding, even if it did rain for like 36 hours straight and the ceremony had to be moved indoors. Lee and Pauline are amazing people and we wish them many, many happy years together! When the rain cleared, it was easier to appreciate the amazing beauty of the Smoky Mountains.

The Barn at The Ranch 

Smoky Mountains!

We also visited the Biltmore House in Asheville, which was awesome! I had never heard of this place before I started looking for things to do in Asheville. This should be a must-see on everyone's list in this area. The sheer scale and size of the place is amazing, much less the detail of the architecture, the artwork inside and the luxe feel of the whole place. They don't allow photography inside the house, and that really bummed me out because the inside of the house is so amazing. The dining hall blew me away! The tapestries, the heraldic insignias, the plush details... all of it!

RAWR! 

Very big, very cool greenhouses.

And finally, we took a tour of the North Carolina Mining Museum and Bon Ami Mine at Emerald Village, which was so cool. The mine is a feldspar mine, and the feldspar mined here was used for Bon Ami cleanser. Over fifty others types of minerals and gemstones are also found here, but they weren't collected for commercial purposes - they include emeralds, garnets, mica, aquamarine and quartz. Its a beautiful property as well, and it was fun to see the collection of mining equipment that they have kept.

One mine flooded, one mine not. 

This one pegmatite structure holds up the ceiling.

We drove a bit of the Blue Ridge Parkway on our way to our next stop, and it was absolutely gorgeous. There are tons of overlooks and places to stop and see the sights - it would be worth a trip all of its own to explore just this stretch of road!

Day Five: Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, Bryson City, NC
Today we took a train ride to the Nantahala River and back to Bryson City. We met LC and Janet on the ride - they were from South Carolina, and it was nice to meet and chat with them during the ride. The tracks run alongside and over many rivers and a fairly large lake. At the Nantahala River, we got to walk around some before reboarding the train for the return trip. Entertainment on the train was provided by members of a local band called The Freight Hoppers, and they were really great!

Choo-Choo! Its train time! 

And yes we did sing "She'll be Comin' 'Round the Mountain".

After the train ride, we headed out toward Kentucky. By chance, we ended up on a stretch of U.S. 129 known as "The Dragon". Holy moly, talk about a curvy road! I very rarely get car sickness, but this twisty road did me in. Gorgeous scenery, lots of other great cars - its popular with sports car fans and motorcyclists - but dang its very topsy turvy!

Day Six: Bowling Green, Kentucky - Mammoth Cave National Park
With the forecast still clear of rain, we headed out to see a cave. It certainly lives up to the name, and is really, really big in both size and distance. The cave system covers over 400 miles, and is still being explored. Its so amazing... but really hard to take pictures in the low light. Darn! Also, the tours are not for the faint of heart (or fat of ass) as they have many, many, many, MANY stairs.

Historic Entrance to the Cave - AWESOME!

We explored historic Downtown Bowling Green as well, and had dinner at a great place next to the Fountain Plaza Park. I love the details on the old buildings.

This old theatre stole the show for sure.

Day Seven: Still in Bowling Green - National Corvette Museum
Another tick off my Life List.... Bill and I went to the National Corvette Museum. It was pretty cool! Room after room full of Corvettes, and lots of history about the making of this classic American sports car. They had a gallery of concept models as well, and some were pretty outlandish looking. It was very interesting to see.

I love the paint job on this one. 

I have a thing for insignias and badges.

We also explored the Historic Railpark & Train Museum in Bowling Green, and that was super cool. The museum primarily covers the history of the L&N rail line, and they have been working hard to restore several old train cars. They have three completed now, and visitors can walk through them to experience what rail travel would have been like in the past. The restorations are well done, and it was really neat to see the cars. (Being from Arizona, I have little to no experience with rail travel and trains, so its always fun for me to see these kind of things, even if they are more common for other folks.)

More trains! CHOO-CHOO!

Day Eight: Back to Nashville
We loaded up the trusty rental car and headed back to Nashville. We stopped at the Lane Motor Museum - which, again, I had not known about prior to this trip and I feel like its a bit of an overlooked gem. The collection of cars on hand here is mostly European, with a smattering of Japanese and one-off American makes. It is a fantastic collection all around! Lots of things that you don't see at other auto museums, and lots of very unique one-of-a-kind vehicles.

Ultra Van! The first motorhome. 

An enormous 6x6 Tatra flatbed truck. REALLY BIG!

A LARC amphibious vehicle - HUGE!! SO COOL!!

We had heard that Nashville was also home to a life-size replica of The Parthenon, so we hunted that down too. In Centennial Park, our search was over. They really do have a life-size replica of The Parthenon!

Amazing!

This was so cool! And big! We would have loved to stay longer and explore it more, but the weather finally turned against us. It began to rain... and then really rain! (Also, congrats to the extremely happy couple that got engaged while we were walking by. Best of luck!)

We also found out that Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams has a scoop shop in Nashville! I have only heard about their ice cream from friends, and I thought they only had a shop in Ohio. I was thrilled to learn otherwise... and even more thrilled after tasting it! OMG. So good! I had Pistachio & Honey and Chamomille - SO GOOD!! I would be in serious trouble if they opened up here.

Day Nine: Sigh. Back to Arizona we go.
This was the day we headed back to the misery of the airport and headed back West to our dusty desert home. I wish we could have spent another week exploring this area of the country, because it was a lot of fun and we only saw a handful of things that the area has to offer. There is always so much more that we want to do on these vacations, and alas, we never have enough time.

It was an amazing vacation though - I loved everything that we did, loved meeting lots of new people and seeing our old friends again, learned about new things, got to cross a few more states off my list and one item off my Life List, and relax and recharge. Awesome!

And now... on to the next adventure!