Day 29 - Lexington, VA to Home

We woke a little later this morning, Wednesday, our last travel day of this trip. We packed up, had breakfast, and were on the road by 8:30am. The trip from Lexington to home was a short one at only 166 miles. We had an uneventful drive and were back at the house by 11:15am.

Our stats for this trip were:

7,286 driving miles

28 days

15 hotel stays

9 states (VA, TN, AR, OK, TX, NM, AZ, NV, CA)

8 Museums:

1. Osteology

 

2. National Cowboy & Western Heritage

 

 

3. Arizona-Sonora Desert

 

4. Titan Missile

 

5. Palm Springs Air

 

6. White Sands Missile Range

 

7. National UFO

 

8. Belmont Mansion

5 National Parks

1. Petrified Forest

2. Death Valley

3. Joshua Tree

4. Saguaro

5. White Sands

2 National Monuments

1. Organ Pipe

2. Bandelier

1 National Historical Park (Manhattan Project)

1 State Recreation Area (Salton Sea)

1 Aunt and 1 Uncle visited

1 Scenic Byway to Sky Islands (Mt. Lemmon)

 1 real rocket launch (a Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Base seen from Joshua Tree at night)

 

1 simulated rocket launch (at the Titan Missile Museum)

 

We had a blast! (forgive the pun)

 

 

Day 28 - Nashville, TN to Lexington, VA

On our final full day of driving, Rob announced we'd be stopping at Buc-ee's, a travel stop, to see what all the hype is about. Michele heard that their bathrooms are the gold standard for cleanliness. In all our travels we've never stopped at one despite many opportunities to do so.

 

We slept well last night, hearing the last of the airplanes at 11pm. Michele liked the breakfast setup, enjoying a freshly made egg and vegetable scramble, and blueberries with yogurt. We left the hotel at 8am. The skies were clear and the temperature was 37F. Departing Nashville in eastbound rush hour was easy since we were already on the east side of the city and reverse commuted out of the city. Back on I-40 we traveled for 90 minutes to the Buc-ee's in Crossville, TN.  We were greeted by two long rows of gas pumps. 

Whoa, impressive. Michele said she planned to wait for Rob to finish fueling the car because the place was so big she'd never find him if she went inside alone. Inside, Michele declared, "I've been using gas station bathrooms when I could have been here instead?!" For a gas stop, it was amazing! 

 

The bathrooms were exceptional, Rob said the men's were also. It was like a mini Wal-Mart, but so much better. Clothing, shoes, camping gear, hot candied nuts station, fudge station, tortilla station, a counter with hot breakfast sandwiches and BBQ sandwiches for lunch, a wall of jerky, a wall of taffy, kitchen items, beauty items, gifts for everyone in the family, and what looked to be synthetic animal pelts that people could use for decor. 

We spent about 30 minutes wandering around in a daze, then drove an hour to lunch at Nixon's Deli in Knoxville, TN. It was a nice sandwich shop with friendly women running it.

 

Back on the road, we had a 30- to 45-minute traffic delay due to rolling road work. Tennessee DOT was doing rolling tar patching, which Rob thought was likely a waste since the workers just dump asphalt into the potholes with a shovel, no smoothing machine is used, leaving rocks everywhere for traffic to flatten it. While sitting there we saw an overloaded truck.

After we got past that several mile slowdown, we drove in moderate traffic straight through for five hours without stopping. In that time we crossed back into Virginia at 3pm. The temperatures throughout the day hovered in the mid to upper 60s. We arrived at our hotel in Lexington, VA just after 5:30pm, driving over 470 miles in total today.

Michele got us a 6:30pm reservation at the Bistro on Main, a 10-minute walk from the hotel. Since we were in the car so long without a break today, it was nice to get our legs moving. 

 

We enjoyed a Caesar salad, fresh bread, and beef short ribs with mashed potatoes. We were too full for the dessert options tonight. After dinner, downtown was quiet and we peeked into shop windows. Michele liked this mannequin's outfit, with a little dog bone treat poking out of her fashionable fanny pack. 

Rob noticed the clever items for sale to keep her doggie safe on a hike.

We thought this tree at our hotel was quite impressive. It was too large to fit in the camera frame.

Back in our hotel we relaxed and watched movies. Tomorrow is a short drive day to home.

 

Day 27 - Conway, AR to Nashville, TN

Since we had extra mileage yesterday to get to Conway, today would be a shorter mileage day. That would get us to Nashville early with time to visit the Belmont Mansion.

We came out to a very frosty car this morning on all windows. Despite being 37 degrees, the car was in shade and needed the sun on it a few minutes to defrost. By the time Rob dug the scraper out of the trunk from underneath all of our bags, it had melted. We were on the road at 8:10am. 

Approaching Little Rock, traffic wasn't too busy for morning rush hour. We took a break at 10am for a fuel top off west of West Memphis. 

It was obvious there had been a lot of rain or snowmelt. The farm fields were more saturated and flooded than when we passed by on our westbound trip. The roads were very dirty and likely treated overnight. That meant the Mazda would be filthy by end of day and Rob would have to find another touchless carwash.

We crossed into TN at 10:30am. At 11:45am we stopped for lunch in Jackson, TN at the Chicken Salad Chick that Michele scoped out yesterday. It was very bright and clean inside, and busy with grandmothers already eating lunch. That's a sign of a good restaurant! 

We ordered the BBQ cheddar chicken salad croissant with pasta salad, a pickle and cookies. It's an interesting flavor combo and it was delicious. We googled locations and there are 270 across the US, two are in NOVA--near Fairfax hospital and in Falls Church. Yum!

After lunch, we continued east towards Nashville and arrived at the Belmont Mansion at 2:30pm. The mansion is on the campus of Belmont University, although the mansion came first and the university was built around it. It was the largest home in Tennessee built before the Civil War at 10,900 square feet with 36 rooms in the Italian villa style. 

Both enslaved Black people and white contractors built it from 1850 into the 1860s for wealthy socialite and philanthropist Adelicia Hayes and her second husband. Her family was displaced by the Union Army during the Civil War's Battle of Nashville in December 1864. Belmont was the scene for many preparations for this battle. Some of the rooms are recreated to show the Union Army's presence. Michele spotted a beautiful vase hiding behind old socks drying in front of the fireplace. 

Rob declared that the primary bedroom was way too busy. Upon waking, one would see the people jumping off the cliff in the wallpaper! 

After Adelicia's death in 1887 and over the years into the 1900s the house became a college for women. Renovations began in 1976 to turn it into a museum to restore as much of its original history when Adelicia lived there. 

These windows are red Venetian cut glass and can be tilted for airflow. They are in most of the rooms and stunning with the light coming through. 

Other bedrooms upstairs.

This unique staircase leads up to a cupola that the Union army used during the battle preparations. The home's placement on the highest hilltop afforded them an excellent view of Nashville and the surrounding area. 

Rob was inspired by this little statue.

Michele was inspired by Queen Victoria.

But then she whacked her knee hard on the iron railing!

So much for looking elegant on the elegant staircase. After our visit we headed towards the hotel and got the car washed. Our mileage today was 387 miles and we arrived at the hotel at 4:50pm. It was 62 degrees in Nashville. We are staying at the Element by Westin/Mariott, a new hotel brand we haven't tried before. It's by Nashville Airport so we may or may not have a restful sleep!

Dinner was across the street at Darfons Restaurant. It was lively, slightly upscale and delicious. We shared roasted chicken with asparagus, corn grits, marinated tomatoes, a salad and bourbon pecan pie with ice cream.

We changed tomorrow's original itinerary since The Hermitage, where Rob wanted to tour in the morning, is closed for visitors only on that day in all of February, of all days. We had intended a shorter drive day tomorrow to Knoxville after touring Andrew Jackson's home. Instead, we cancelled our Knoxville stay and will drive a full day to Lexington, VA to stay overnight. Driving home all in one day would take 12 hours including stops and lunch (13 hours if you include the time-zone change), so we opted to not push ourselves.