Stage Seven Recap

Pictures:
The family with former President Andrew Jackson. Himself!
Mr. Jackson and I having a private chat.

Hi there!
Tonight we are in Farragut, Tennessee. This state is longer than we anticipated, and we have become a bit lazier in the mornings and more interested in sites along the way. No worries though, we are still fine on time and enjoy the trip.

This morning, Mom and I eagerly scampered down to the pool to resume our daily swimming regime. The desk clerk, however, informed us that the pool would not be opened until 9. Sheepishly, we went outside to stare whistfully at the cool waters. Until Mom said.. "Oh what the heck" and we quietly swam about for a half hour or so. A rope was strung across the pool, perhaps indicating it was not for use, but we just swam under or over it on our links. So, we may be fugitives of Jackson, TN! We drippingly (we had expected to get towels from the front desk) made our way back to the rooms, sneaking past the front desk. Showered and packed up, and headed down to a nice breakfast. Back into the faithful Subaru after consulting some maps, and headed off, with Mom at the helm. We started listening to "ShopGirl" by Steve Martin on tape. A fun story, and I loved the movie, but apparently the book was a bit more risque, which is hard for a daughter to hear while her parents are in the car. Very hard. But we are all grown ups, right?

I scouted fun locations to stop for lunch and just outside Nashville we came across The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's home before and after his presidency. Much more our style than the touristy aspects of Nashville. It was a running farm, with lots of cotton, racehorses, and slavery unfortunately. We watched the introductory movie and then explored the grounds. It was a beautiful house, he apparently really liked wallpaper and brightly painted walls, some of the rooms looked right out of the stylish home decor magazine, Domino! They had very important feeling docents dressed up in their late 1800's clothes who proudly showed us around the house. Dad found an exact copy of a desk passed down through our family in Jackson's office, but the docent didn't have many details on it. How interesting though!

We wandered through the kitchen and some of the slave's quarters, as well as the garden where Jackson and his wife are buried. I know very little about this President, and had never been to a presidential home before, so it was an interesting trip. On our way back to the cafe for lunch, we ran into the docent who plays Jackson himself. Strikingly similar in many ways, he referred to himself as Mr. Jackson and answered questions in the first person. In a manner I am finding more and more common down here, he had lots to say and took his time saying it. It is quite a change from the quick pace of CA. Unfortunately, we were beginning to melt in the humid heat and were starving so we slipped away from his political soapboxing. The cafe had the nicest Southern style food I've had yet. Great shrimp gumbo, beans, beets, and cornbread. Really yummy. We sat and talked about Dad's memories spending summers down in South Carolina as well as Kings Mountain, NC.

Back in the car with me at the wheel and we began heading East with no real goal. We just were finishing ShopGirl when the storm hit, quite innoculous at first, but then really opening up and dumping water. Once the lightning started coming quite close, we decided to call it an evening. Plus we lost another hour to the time changes so it was getting on in the day. Mom found Farragut, a suburb of Knoxville, and we decided on the Country Inn, based on my assesment of their pool (clean, but small) and the promise of a good breakfast. The rooms all seem alike by now, but this hotel has a cute, cottage like, feel. We immediately headed down to the pool to swim away our stiff backs and legs. I had fortunately received an email back from the UNC prof offering a rotation in his lab, but this brought on a new wave of anxiety as I realized I was about to get back to work in a very big way. Lots of studying to do when I get to our new house. I will be a faithful patron of some lucky coffee shop, since we will have no table or lights yet..

After the swim, Mom and I headed out to explore the town in hopes of finding a place to eat dinner. We ended up taking a bit longer than planned, finding a beautiful big lake with a private yacht club with sail boats, as well as a public one with mostly motor boats. Huge houses lined the shores; this town is doing quite well unlike others we've been to lately. We managed to find the older downtown and saw lots of cute churches and old homes. Back to the main strip and we were overwhelmed by all the options for dinner. It was getting late so we opted on picking up some chinese to bring back to the hotel. I asked for some steamed broccoli with some black bean sauce on the side and they gave us about a pound! Yummy though. Stopped by a Kroger's to get some Red Hook beer that will hopefully calm my nerves and we had a lovely dinner, chatting on the beds. Talked to Trent who calmed by fears (although I am nervous about his upcoming eye surgery on Monday and his crazy amount of work to do at his job and with packing up the apartment). I think I'll have another beer and call it an evening.

Stage Eight (over a full week of travelling?!?) passes through the Smokey Mountains into North Carolina and Asheville. Because we spent the night here, we will have a full day to explore this area before heading down to Kings Mountain and staying the night out there. Then into Chapel Hill on Monday. So much to do there, but I am very eager to get there and get going on all those things, instead of just fretting about them now! Yet, bittersweet in knowing that our fun adventure is nearly to a close...