North Carolina or Bust!

I suppose it is time I write this post. I have been putting it off because A) it is a long one! B) I have been working on the shutter fly version of it C) my other posts have been spur of the moment thoughts.
(I am going to cheat a little and upload my shutter fly pages rather than the individual pictures. We took almost 200 pictures, and I want to share as many as possible :)

SO... here goes our 5 day journey to the East Coast!

Day 1: We left Montana not knowing when we would return! We knew Josh would be in school for 4 months, but we weren't sure if he would get a job before we would move back to MT. 

The first day we crossed the Idaho state line and the Utah state line.

We spent the first 2 nights with Gary & Raylene. Said our goodbyes to all of our Utah family friends before heading out on "Day 2" of our journey. We left at 5am so we could drive for about 14 hours before stopping in Kansas. We traveled through Colorado, and Josh got to experience tunnels for the first time! We saw an awesome sunset just after the Kansas border, and then we had Mexican for dinner. It was a long day, but we got to see a lot of new country!

Day 3: The next morning we drove for about 2 hours before stopping in Manhattan, KS where are friend McQ goes to school. He was home on winter break, but we found his car and left him a note :) Once we were there we found out the Wizard of Oz museum was just a short drive away. That was our first spur of the moment stop! It is a neat little place :) The next stop was St. Louis! We arrived just in time to check into our high-rise motel and get some dinner! 

Day 4: We toured the Gateway Arch, but it was freezing!!!! It was zero degrees and windy. While we were inside it was fine, but it was a bit of a walk between the car and the actual monument. Once inside, there is a display room that talks about a lot of different history. You have to buy tickets to ride up to the top, so we left on the next available spot. You line up along the wall, and when the "trolley" arrives, you crawl into these little pods. (Side note: we had to agree that we were not scared of heights or claustrophobic in order to buy our tickets.) It is about a 4 minute ride to the top. The pod travels a little ways, stops to re-level, travels a little further, stops to re-level, etc. It was kinda freaky! At the top there is a lookout with windows on each side. It was a cool view of the city, but not too much to see up there. We were hoping for a little more action. 

After leaving St. Louis, we got back on the road before finding a winery along the way. It was really small, and it wasn't growing season. However, we got to try all 8 wines, and we ended up buying a bottle! It was our next spur of the moment stop. After drinking a bit of wine at 11:30 in the morning, (haha) we decided we better have some lunch. That is when we had our first glass of sweet tea & some southern BBQ! Shortly after getting back on the road we saw the road signs for the world's largest Superman! How could we turn that down? (We don't even like superheroes, but when it is the largest something... you stop!) They also had a super geeky museum that I am sure many of our family and friends would have enjoyed ;)

After all of that fun, we continued driving through Kentucky and eventually into Tennessee. We had to try some Hot Chicken, and the local secret is that Hattie B's is better than Prince's! Prince's was on T.V., but Hattie B claims to have created her recipe after ordering Prince's on many occasions. We planned to try both, but the schedule didn't work out. Hattie B's was awesome though! 

Day 5: The next morning was the start of Day 5. We went Lookin' for the Pickers! They weren't there, but we did see their vans and all of the stuff in the Nashville store. It was really busy, so we didn't take any pictures inside. For those of you who watch the show, the Pig Head is hanging in the Nashville store :) 

Next we traveled down to see The Country Music Hall of Fame! Josh wasn't too crazy about it, but it is just one of those things you HAVE to see in Nashville! It was really neat, but we probably made it through quicker than most ;) We were pleasantly surprised to find out the Reba exhibit was there! (Josh has been obsessed with Reba since he was a little boy :) They also had a free guest speaker/concert. Marcus Hummon is the writer of "Bless the Broken Road", and many other hits. He was awesome! His son Levi, who is also a songwriter in Nashville, was there as well. 

Our next stop in Nashville was the Ryman Auditorium. It was another place that we weren't crazy about, but we are glad we have seen it. The concept and the history of the radio show that made country music famous is awesome! However, we wish we would have booked tickets to actually see the show rather than just tour an empty building. 

Our last stop to our busy tour day was the Belle Meade Planation. I am crazy about plantations! I like to think I should have grown up in a past decade ;) I LOVE to hear the stories and look at the old construction. Josh had never toured a plantation, so he loved it too! This was the highlight of our trip as far as tours go! They have a winery on site, so the wine tasting was complimentary :)

Day 6: After our long day of touring, we got a hotel room in Franklin, TN, just outside of Nashville. We booked it on Hotwire, so we had no idea where we were staying. It ended up being the cutest little town! It was dark out by the time we got there, so we didn't take any pictures. We definitely plan to go back some day :) We found some dinner at Pucket's boat house! That was the only seafood we ate on our journey! (We don't like seafood, but popcorn shrimp is still seafood right???) We ended up buying the awesome mason jar glass :) The next morning we got up fairly early and headed out for NC! We were sad to leave "vacation mode", but we were VERY anxious to get to our destination! After crossing the Georgia state line, we entered the Eastern Time Zone! 

We finally arrived in Franklin and found our place. It took a few tears to get settled in, but we were glad to be "home".
Read about that here if you would like! 

We drove 2,468 miles and crossed 11 state lines in 6 days!