Easter Sunday

 

The third day my mom was here, was Easter Sunday. We got up to go to 8:30 mass at the Catholic Church here in Franklin. It was a little different than we are used to. The priest was oriental, so he was kind of hard to understand. He used A LOT of incense! Everybody kept coughing throughout the entire service :) The congregation is primarily older folks, so all of the ladies' Easter outfits were fun to look at! After Mass, we went home to get the turkey cooking.

We had rented movies to watch all day, so that we could have a lazy day enjoying each others company. Our couches aren't very comfortable to watch movies on, so we push two together to make a big bed! Once you get in, it is kind of tough to get out :) It was really fun.

Our Easter outfits didn't last long :)

We enjoyed our turkey dinner, stuffing, sweet potatoes, deviled eggs, and green beans out on the porch! I don't ever remember eating Easter dinner outside!! It is always snowing in West, so that was a nice change :) We sat in the grass to eat our pumpkin pie during intermission of the next two movies ;) It was a very relaxing day, and one we will remember forever!

My "famous" rainbow deviled eggs!

Bavarian Village & Tallulah Gorge

 

The second day my mom was here, we had another big day planned. My cousin recommended we visit Helen, GA. It is a Bavarian Village about an hour away from here. They happened to be having a Corvair car show going on. We walked through quickly before hitting the town!

This truck/bus was so cool! We had never
seen one before!!

 It was so fun to walk through all of the shops! We met some very interesting locals :) As we were leaving her shop, one lady told us a story about her trying to quit smoking... Her husband bought her a vapor cigarette. The first time she tried it, she felt like she was doing something wrong, so she was hiding it from everyone! She had a deep southern accent, and made the story VERY animated! It was so funny to watch haha

One of our favorite shops was Windmill Dutch Imports.

For those of you who don't know, Josh is Dutch. His Dad is very heritage oriented (??? I don't know how else to say that!) We love to look at all of the wooden shoes and windmills. Of course the candies are the best! Hoppies and Almond Fingers are a must buy every time we see them :) My mom and I spent some time in a quilt shop looking at all of the beautiful patterns. There was a fun candy shop with amazing fudge! For lunch we found a traditional German restaurant. They had amazing German Potato Salad! (It is made with vinegar and nearly mashed potatoes. Served at room temperature. Yumm!) Before we left, we found a coffee shop that had just roasted fresh coffee! It was so yummy :) The town was filled with so much character! We can only imagine what it might be like during Octoberfest!

Don't we look cute!! Next Halloween??

Wooden Toy Shop
We played there for way too long :)

 

After wearing out our legs, we decided to get back on the road and head toward Tullulah Gorge for a short hike. Everybody sells boiled peanuts and pork rinds on the side of the road here. We don't care for the boiled peanuts (they are like beans!), but we LOVE the pork rinds :) I know the whole concept is kind of gross, but when a local character offers you his homemade goodies, you don't say no :) We had seen a sign on our way into town, so we went back. It was a little shack with something smoking out front. My mom and I went up to buy them while Josh waited in the car. Oh man did we find a character!! My mom could hardly understand him. He offered us a taster of his Brunswick Stew. When he handed mine to me he says, "Ur gramma get a taste uh that she be jealous!" HAHAHA I couldn't help but laugh!! I asked him what came on his rib plate. He rattles off a list of about 5 sides then says, "And if you want some uh tha Brunswick Stew I put sum uh that on top too." This guy was hilarious! He insisted we go inside and take a "tour". We thought it was just a road side shack, but oh boy were we wrong. He showed us the kitchen and little convenient center storage area before taking us out back to a deck with picnic tables. He pointed to an old 5th wheel trailer and says, "Go down there and getcha self a 6 pack. When it gets dark we'll light a fire n you can getcha self another." Please read that line one more time and just picture this old redneck. The best part is... I think this scene is my brothers dream! I bet he could have stayed there all day with that old man :) I wish I would have thought to take a picture with him, but I guess the memories will have to do!

Tullulah Gorge is in Tullulah Falls, GA. It is where the Tullulah River cuts through the rock dome forming a giant waterfall. The series of 5 falls drop 460 ft. in 1 mile! We walked down over 1,000 stairs to get to the bottom of the falls. The Gorge floor was closed due to water release. We crossed a suspension bridge in the middle. It was kind of freaky but completely sturdy :) Josh took some awesome pictures as always! It was the perfect end to another great day in the mountains!

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! 

Pizza & Bowling

$1.99 Margaritas

Well some of you may have guessed what we did this weekend from my Facebook page! You can't go wrong when you find a cute little pizza joint with a group of old men playing country music, and the special is $1.99 margaritas!

Josh was supposed to get out of school at 3pm on Saturday, so we had plans to head to Asheville (aka the closest "big" city) to do some shopping…. but the teachers decided not to tell them they had changed the schedule. They finally got out at 6:30! The alternative was to go for pizza and bowling with a few other students :) We had a great time chatting with everyone, listening to the band, having a few drinks, and eventually enjoying some awesome pizza! I was glad to finally put a few more faces to names, and it was nice to participate in the stories I hear about every night :)  Josh & I tried a new pizza called Mama Mia. It had cranberries, walnuts, white sauce, chicken, and a few other things I can't remember. It was awesome! I think it might be my new favorite :) We did some dancing with these super cute old people.


After the pizza place, we headed over to the Franklin Lanes for some cosmic bowling! We had no idea, but it was Saturday night :) I had on an awesome neon shirt, so that worked out nicely.
Also, there was a full bar there! Kinda pricey, but this was the first night out with friends we have had since we got here. (Actually since New Years!)

We played a couple rounds of bowling. Josh beat me the first round, and I was second to last. I beat him the second round, and barely ended up in second place (on my screen)! The boys started competing to see who could throw the ball the fastest! Josh won with nearly 30mph :) We were the last people to leave since it is county law for all minors to be home before midnight. All in all it was a fun night out! 

Mary, Yoder, Me

Meyers, Starkey, Josh, Deeds, Bond, Yoder, Mary

I am the bottom right - MrsC short for Mrs. Coffee :)