A Spring Break Road Trip

In February when the weather was in the negatives and there was no end in sight, we started to look ahead at Spring Break and made a plan that we would be out of here the first chance we got. We dreamed up a plan to go to Nashville, which then evolved into Graceland and St Louis and Springfield and Dollywood and every stop on Route 66. But then we got real and whittled it down to Nashville, Memphis and staying the night in St. Louis. It was nice to have something to look forward to. Some days I would Google and re-Google maps/routes and odd tourist attractions and made a lengthy list of where we could stop along the way. Advice from friends also helped us out in the planning process. We really hoped the kids would be cool and we stressed to them the importance of being cool on the 7 to 8 hour drive. (Which in kid time is like 24 hrs.) Anyway, we did it and made it back in one piece. We took a lot of pictures and made a lot of stops.
This post will be long one. Here you go...

Salem, IL -
Home of Pollard's Motor Sales and his sculpture/car/awesome garden next door.

Besides the sculptures, there were lots of old cars in the back of the lot that we wanted to look at, but it was still pretty muddy. I thought this swing set was pretty cool.

A Lady "Bug." Get it? Bug?

There was an old car with Sharpies by it where you could write your name. Kate's is on the window and my super cheesy one is below. Sometimes you just have to be cheesy. Sorry.

My first ever encounter of a shoe tree. Wish I would have brought a pair to contribute.

The entrance is a little confusing, if you think you are driving up to someone's house, you are, but it's also where you park. There is a guest book that you can sign and a tin can that you can leave a tip in if you want to, but it's free to view and walk around. It was pretty cool.

Metropolis, IL
The home of Superman.

The statue of Superman is cool and worth the stop. There is a Superman Museum that we took a look around, it was also cool but probably cooler if you were a huge Superman fanatic. There was a lot of Superman memorabilia still in it's dusty packaging. It kind of reminded me of going to a Cornet's or some old store in a small town where some of the merchandise is starting to get dusty. It was off, but in a still go check it out way.

Kentucky, USA
We got gas and drove right on through.

Tennessee, USA
Our main destination.

Nashville, TN

We got to Nashville around 4:00, checked into our hotel and thought we'd drive to Broadway (a main street) where there are a lot of honky tonk bars/restaurants and check out the scene. The scene was super crowded up and down the sidewalks and we were hungry so we went off the map to find something to eat. We finally found a Chili's and gave up. We laughed because we were like Michael Scott from The Office who goes to New York City and eats at Sbarro. But we missed the driveway and ended up at a restaurant called Logan's Steakhouse. I'm sure it's just another chain restaurant, but it was pretty good, even if we could hear one of the cooks quitting to his boss right behind us.

The next day we headed to the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum.

It was cool to check out all of the country music history there.

Photo cred: Kate

Photo cred: Kate

Taylor Swift's guitar and some awards. I think Kate was secretly hoping she would run into her.

Photo cred: Kate

Broadway, Downtown Nashville

We left the museum looking for a place to eat and came across so many cool places that had live music but not a lot of space for a family of five with a stroller. We made the bad decision of eating at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. It was one of those decisions you make where you know you shouldn't right when you walk through the door, but you just do it anyway. We were hungry and all of the other places were crowded, what do you do?

Lots,

and lots, 

and lots, 

and lots of cool neon signs.

Broadway is a street that I'd come back to with just Ryan and go listen to music and mostly people watch for me. We were really impressed with Nashville and would totally go back there again.

Hwy 65 for all you Rayna James fans out there.

Franklin, TN

Our Nashville day kind of had a hiccup to it. (Or rather a barf up) After eating lunch at Jimmy Buffet's place, we walked over to check out the Ryman Auditorium and as soon as we got there, Kate ran over to the grass and puked. We then changed our plan a little and decided to drive out to Franklin and check it out. We heard their Main St was cool and that there were some Civil War sites there. We drove around and passed this huge park, so we stopped and let the kids run around and play for a little bit. It was a beautiful day and it was so nice just to be outside in nature. It had snowed in Illinois like two weeks earlier, so this weather was wonderful.

Sam wrestling Dad.

We had another barf up in Franklin, this time it was Sam, little did we know Millie was saving her's for the car on the way back to Nashville. I should say that Sam threw up a day before we left on this trip, but we thought it was just a fluke because he was fine the rest of the day. Oh boy, were we wrong. We hurried back to the hotel to clean up Millie and give up on the rest of the evening. 

I share the details, one, for posterity and two, because there is always a story behind the smiling photo dump. Despite our best efforts to clean the carseat, Kate made the funny comment that our car smelled like Pirate's Booty. Maybe that's TMI. We went from vacationing to survival mode pretty quickly. But luckily, by the time we got to Memphis it had all subsided. Ryan and I lived in fear the rest of the trip that we were next, but neither us got hit with the bug.

Memphis, TN

Our first stop was Sun Studios, where Elvis, Johnny Cash and other recorded. The tour was for ages five and up, so Ryan took Kate and Sam. Because we couldn't bring Millie, they gave us our tickets for free, so that was kind of nice and cool. 

I think Sun Studios was one of Ryan's favorite parts of the trip and Kate is at a perfect age to do this kind of stuff. She really was interested in it all and picked up a few bits of info at every place we visited.

Millie, standing where some of the greats have stood.

We checked into our hotel and went to Beale Street to try some BBQ. Luck was on our side this time and we ended up at a really good BBQ place. We walked up and down Beale St and enjoyed the music, people watching and neon signs.

That night we stayed at the Heartbreak Hotel, you know, at the end of Lonely St?

The hotel was right by Graceland our next destination. In the morning we braved the crowds and toured Elvis' house.

These two were a little restless, so toward the end, the three of us hung out in what was first the meditation garden when Elvis was alive and is now the family cemetery. For our own little "serenity now" moment.

Graceland was great. I would recommend going without kids or going when they are a little older. Kate loved it and could follow along on the tour, but the other kids were over it. There are a bunch of mini museums outside of Graceland too. You could really make it a full day of learning about Elvis' life if you wanted to.

Arkansas, USA
Drove right on through it and almost missed the dang sign.

Missouri, USA

St. Louis, MO

We left Memphis in the evening and in the morning, woke up inside of a caboose in St Louis. When we got in the night before it was pouring rain with thunder and lightning, so it was fun to hear it fall on the metal. Some KOA's have speciality kabins and when we saw that they had a caboose at this site, we had to stay there.

We were impressed with how nice it was inside. I would definitely do it again. Some KOA's have Airstream trailers that you can stay in. That's next on the list.

Trying to take a cute picture of the inside...

...and then the teasing happens and the pounding happens. These siblings love so hard and tease so hard. It is ridiculous.

The Gateway arch was on the list of things to do before we headed home. But, there was construction and we were starting to be done with the trip. Maybe another time. We did drive around Forest Park where the World's Fair was held in maybe 1903? That was cool and it made me want to watch Meet Me In St. Louis.

Livingston, IL

This wasn't a planned stop, but we saw the spaceship and the guy holding an ice cream and we had to stop. We took some pictures and checked out the antique mall. It was in an old Gymnasium, which was really cool and a great use of space. ;)

Lincoln, IL

As we were getting closer to home, the stops involved just jumping out of the car and taking a picture and getting back on the road. We stopped exclusively for this guy.

Atlanta, IL

A town that was on Route 66. It was another drive by, take a picture and keep moving stop. But a really cool place.

Road trips take on a different form as the kids get older. But for us, they are still worth it (I think.) and we love the time we have together as a family. It gets a little crazy at times, and they will probably never want to see another Muffler man when they are older, but hopefully they will have some good memories out of it. Phew, this was a long post. The End.