Whew! 2162 miles, 98 gallons of gas, and too many bathroom and food stops to list. But, you know what? It was worth every minute.
We headed out a week ago last Saturday on our pilgrimage east. The first trek was a scheduled 493 mile jaunt to Hernando, MS. Nothing like driving in 4 states in one day. We left our house about 10:30 in the morning, set the cruise on 75 and pointed the family truckster towards The Mighty Mississippi. It did not take too long for the boys to start in on each other, but Daddy had planed ahead and purchased the boys two mind numbing/intoxicating video games each, so we quickly broke them out. Ahhh....peace and quite for the next couple of hours...yes. Normally that would be great, except that was only the first two hours of a scheduled 8+. Ouch.
The miles flowed by like water, and before you knew, we were there........yeah right......before you knew it, we heard our first "I need to go potty". Grrrr......"Ok buddy, I'll find a place to stop". That sequence was performed 4 more times during the opening leg, and after passing from Texas to Arkansas, to Tennessee, we finally rolled into Mississippi around 7:30pm Saturday night. What a beating. We got everybody fed, including Mystic, and we were all in bed by 9:30. (Note to any of you travelers: If you are going to bring a dog on your trip, do not plan on staying at the Hilton or Embassy Suites or Hampton INN or Motel 6 for that matter. Oh, no, no, no, you just keep going down the line until you get to the Days Inns and Super 8's of the world. Some were bit scary, but beggars with big dogs can't be choosers.)
We woke up early Sunday morning as stiff as the mattresses we slept on. Lori and I perked up a bit after our morning coffee, and we headed out the door to start our day. Senatobia was our first stop of the morning. Senatobia is the resting place of my late father, and it still looks the same as it did when I used to travel there with my family when I was no older than our boys. As I passed by Coleman's BBQ on Main Street I got a bit sad thinking about the last time I ate there with my dad. I was 15 at the time, and we were headed to our current destination, Bethesda Cemetery, to pay our respects to his mother and father. Thinking about that made the lump, that was already in my throat, grow two sizes bigger.
Bethesda Cemetery is small and peaceful, and Dad is buried with his mother and father, his younger brother, and his older sister. There are huge beautiful oak trees standing watch, and just as we got out of the car, you could hear the church bells ringing in the distance. "Hi Dad" was all I could muster before my emotions got the best of me. Thank God I have such a wonderful wife and family to lean on during such times. We had been fighting rain all morning, but just as we arrived the clouds parted for a bit, and beautiful rays of sunshine lit our path. "Thanks Dad" I thought.
Lori and the boys went to work cleaning the markers and pulling a few weeds. I collected my thoughts and composed myself, then took a few pictures. We brought new flowers for each marker, and by the time Lori and the boys were finished, everything was beautiful. As we were gathering our things to leave, I noticed something strange in the dirt on the east side of Dad's grave. "What is that?" I wondered, but as I looked at it more closely, I realized that it was deer tracks. Deer tracks right there beside his resting place! "Wow, Dad is surely smiling now", I told Lori. He would have loved that. He really would have. Rest in peace Dad. I still miss you.
We got back in the CX-9 about 9:00am, and set out on our second leg of the journey. This one was only going to be 432 miles. A walk in the park compared to the day before. Ok, 60 miles less does not seem very noteworthy, but trust me, when the boys are in the car with you for 8 hours, knocking one whole hour off the trip is a Godsend.
The drive from west Tennessee to east Tennessee is long and beautiful. Once you get past Nashville the mountains start and the views are spectacular. After making too many stops along the route ("I need to go potty" is now permanently etched in my brain), we finally arrived at Nana and Pawpaw's farm about 6:00pm on Sunday night. Steve and Dianne were there to greet us, along with their 9 dogs. Yes 9!
Mystic was a bit apprehensive at first, but after a lengthy "smell the butt" meet and greet, she was fully accepted, and ready to run with the pack. Fortunately for rest of us, our greeting of Steve and Dianne was much different, and we made due with lots of hugs and kisses. After unpacking and having a wonderful steak dinner that Steve grilled for us, everybody was pretty tired, and we made an early night of it. Before dinner though, I had an opportunity to snap a picture of the mountains at sunset. What a glorious greeting for some weary travelers. Mmmmmmm......smell that mountain air.....
The next morning came bright and early. (as it always does when Christopher's around) As we were preparing for the day, Christopher found himself a Lady bug friend to play with.
Today was Monday March 14th, which also happeened to be Lori and my 13th wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe that we have been married that long already. The years have flown by, and I could not have a better wife. She is the love of my life, and each day I am reminded how truly lucky I am. The flowers that I ordered for the occasion arrived late in the afternoon, and they were as beautiful as their recipient.
As far as the day went, well it was a bit overcast and wet, so we spent most of the day inside visiting and playing various games. We had a great dinner, and after many fierce games of UNO, we all went to bed early.
Tuesday was another rainy day, but we made the most of it. Aidan started the day off by assembling 1 of 2 extremely cool Lego sets that Nana and Pawpaw had surprised him with.
(He is amazingly adept a assembling these. Maybe a future engineer?) Christopher passed the time by playing with the super cool playdoh sets that Nana and Pawpaw got for him, and then moseyed over to the piano to tickle the ivories a bit.
We all got dressed early, and headed out to Outdoor World. Wow, if you haven't been to one of these - go! So much stuff, so little time. Here are Aidan, Nana and Pawpaw posing in front of the HUGE fish tank.
Christopher started getting a bit restless, so on the shoulders he went.
Aidan and Christopher found the ATV section, and they were ready. "Let's ride".
We enjoyed lunch at Cracker Barrel, and headed over to Knifeworks. Knifeworks is located just outside Pigeon Forge, and just as you might have imagined, it is a knife store. A HUGE KNIFE STORE. 3 stories tall, and as big as a grocery store. Every blade that is known to man is located in this store. It's unbelievable how many knives are in the place. They also have a home furnishings section on the bottom floor, so Lori and Dianne had a wonderland of their own. Steve and I were kids in a candy store, and really enjoyed looking at thousands and thousands of knives. After everybody got tired, we finally headed home mid afternoon. Other than me and Steve conversing in the front seats, the rest of the car was like a tomb. Yep, 4 sleeping campers in the back two rows of the CX-9. Good thing it's a big comfy vehicle.
After we arrived home, fed the chickens, cows, horses, dogs and ourselves, we all gathered around the TV and watched some of March Madness. We always each fill out brackets and try to pick the winners. It's amazing how truly awful I am at this. I always seem to end up on bottom. Oh well, at least there is no money riding on my picks. After the games, and of course our nightly games of cut throat UNO, we all made our way to our bedrooms and drifted off to sleep.
Wednesday the weather was getting better, and the cows were ready,
the horses were ready,
and the polar bears were ready,
to watch us go fishing. We started off pretty well, with a couple of fish caught in the first 15 minutes we arrived. Here is Aidan on his side of the pond,
and momma on her side while the cows watched intently.
Aidan caught himself a crappie, and after much coaxing (threatening) he finally held the fish for a picture.
Wow, can you tell by the picture that he was not too sure about the whole "hold your own fish" thing?
While we were fishing, Pawpaw was busy putting hay out for the cows. The cows suddenly lost interest in watching Lori fish, and made a bee line over to their new best friend.
Christopher joined in the fishing escapades, and Aidan was bit angry that Christopher's fake fish on the end of his line was almost as big as the crappie he caught earlier.
As we were leaving, I stopped to take a picture of a recent addition to the herd. It was sure nice of her to pose so well.
Thursday started early, and the weather forecast called for a beautiful warm day. Mystic and her new friend Pebbles waited patiently for their play day to begin.
We all gathered at the breakfast table, and Aidan entertained us with his rendition of "Oh Mammy how I love you".
After our breakfast, it was time for the all the animal's breakfast. Christopher fed and petted the chickens.
Fed and petted the horses.
While Christopher was channeling his inner Jack Hanna, Aidan was channeling his inner Terminator.
"I'LL BE BAUCK"
Just as we got back to the house, I snapped this picture in the driveway.
We then headed for some playtime in one of their pastures.
While one boy ran with this dog,
the other took a more laid back approach and enjoyed the warm sun, cool mountain air, and contemplated life in general.
After tiring ourselves out, especially the dogs, we heading back to the house and Steve cooked us another great steak dinner. Mmmmmmmm..........steak.......
Friday came too fast, and before you knew it, it was time to go. We wanted to get an early start, so we snapped a few pictures,
said our tearful goodbyes, and headed back on the road. Only 983 miles to go until home. Uggghhhh.......................
The trip home (broken up into two days) seemed to go faster than the trip to the farm. Don't get me wrong, it was still a long, long, long ways, but the kids did better, and their were far fewer stops. We ended up getting home at 4:30 on Saturday afternoon, and everyone including Mystic was already missing the farm. We can't wait for our next trip to the beautiful Smokey Mountains.
William
