Josh's PSTC Graduation

On Monday Josh had his final test, final physical test, and he turned in his equipment. After 4 months of wearing a gun belt every single day, it felt kind of weird to not have it on! I took my mom shopping around Franklin all day. We hit up my favorite store..Goodwill! Before spending many hours in thrift stores and boutiques on main street. It was a wonderful change of pace for me after spending 4 months around law & nature fanatics :) We ended our "girls day" with pedicures so we would have the prettiest toes at the graduation!! When we got home, we ate dinner and then headed to a local bar to visit with a few of Josh's classmates. My Mom fit right in believe it or not! Everybody was giving Josh a hard time for asking if his wife and mother-in-law could come! By the end, I think they had more fun visiting with my mom than Josh! They truly are a great group of guys (and girls ;) that we will miss when we leave!

Tuesday was graduation day. Josh had to finish up a few last minute things at the school, and then my mom and I came just in time for the ceremony. It was a great ceremony, very inspirational! There were a few speakers, and then they all walked the line to receive there certifications. When they handed over their I.D.'s, they received a Challenge Coin signifying that they have "Been there, Done that". I am sure Josh will have a lot of fun with it in the coming future :) The culinary arts school provided a wonderful lunch spread. We stayed and visited, took lots of pictures, and said goodbye to a few of his classmates!

Mom's arrival & Biltmore Estate & Gardens

My mom flew into Atlanta on Thursday April 17th. Josh had school all day, so I made the 3 hour drive by myself. It was so pretty and peaceful! All of the trees were sooo green and some were blooming :) I am really bad about enjoying the scenery in the car. I either knit/crochet, read, or sleep haha I can sleep just about anywhere, so the second I get in the passenger seat of a car, I start to doze a little :) Anyways... Her flight was scheduled to land at 3pm, so I left early enough to find parking and get inside. I finally navigated construction and made a few laps before finding parking. I got inside at 2:45, and I found out her plane was delayed :( I was so anxious to see her! It had been 3 1/2 months... the longest I have ever been away from either of my parents!! I stood at the arrival gate looking at the board every ten seconds to see if it had landed. It took forever to say arrived after having said landed. I was literally at the front of the line scanning every single head that came up the escalator. (Side note..I did some awesome people watching during this time! You see all kinds coming off planes at an international airport ;) She was finally able to call me and say she was making the 5 mile trek from the plane to the arrival gate since the train was completely full! I finally saw her coming up the escalator, and it was all I could do to stay behind the security line! That first hug was the best feeling ever! I'm sure we looked crazy blocking ALL of the traffic and hugging and smiling and hugging and smiling more for like 5 minutes straight :) Once we finally decided to head to the car, I got lost! I am terrible about figuring out directions. I knew exactly where I was parked, but we could not figure out how to get there! Everyone we asked directions to told us to get on the bus, but I knew we did NOT need to get on the bus. Finally a nice maintenance worker pointed us in the right direction to the escalator! I was so excited to see my mom I had completely forgotten I took an escalator haha We stopped off for a quick dinner so we could drive home in the daylight. My mom picked the perfect time to come, because it is absolutely beautiful this time of year!! My mom was in awe at everything. It was so refreshing to be with someone seeing this place for the first time. We have gotten so used to everything, that I forgot just what we have surrounding us :)

The first night we stayed up visiting for a while. The next day we made plans to visit Biltmore Estate in Asheville. It is America's largest home built my George Vanderbilt in 1895. The estate is 10 square miles, and the home is 178,000 sq. ft. There are 250 rooms in the mansion plus a 70 ft. swimming pool, bowling alley, billiard room, and a 2 story library. There are synchronized clocks and an intercom system throughout the entire house. Even though it was built in the 1800's, it was fully plumbed and wired for electricity. They also had a full time staff with living quarters in one wing of the house. We chose to take a behind the scenes Butler's Tour in order to see where the crew worked and lived. It was very informative and amazing to see! The maids slept right next to the kitchen, and the men slept above the barn. A lot of times, the crew worked from 6am to midnight keeping the house running smoothly. It is now owned by Biltmore Company which is controlled by George Vanderbilts grandson William Cecil. It was opened up to the public as a tourist attraction to raise money during the depression, but family didn't stop living there until 1956 when it was officially declared a house museum. However, one of the families still lives on the estate, and works at the mansion daily. It is truly amazing!

Grand clock above the barn for all of the synchronized clocks

Men's quarters and service entrance

Outside view of the spiral staircase

 

In addition to the amazing mansion with shops in the old barn, there are amazing gardens, a greenhouse, and a winery in the old dairy barn. They have live music down by the other shops at what they call Antler Hill. We were there ALL DAY! We were tired by the end, but it was so fun :) 

 

Selfie in the Greenhouse :)

Rare car: cost $5,000 in 1904 = $110,000 in 2014

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!