We spent a few hours in Tennessee two days ago while exploring the Shiloh Battlefield, and today we spent most of the day in Tennessee. Our first attempted stop was at Krispy Kreme where we thought we would finish off a gift card since the Baymont wasn't offering their usual hot breakfast due to COVID, however even though there was a line in the drive thru, we eventually discovered they weren't actually open. We just ate a little bit of food we had in our van instead. After we pulled out, I counted five cars in line for the drive-thru! Our actual first stop was a children's museum called Discovery Center. In the past I've included far more children's museums in our itinerary, but with Nadia being 13 years old this was the only one I included on the trip. Thankfully they had several animals, which is always a highlight for Nadia. We got in free with our ASTC membership. We spent more time than originally planned at this stop because the much larger science museum is currently not open on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, and today is Wednesday. Similarly, Andrew Jackson's home, The Hermitage, is also currently not open on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. We did well during the first almost 3 weeks of our trip as far as everything being open, but we've hit several closures this week starting with a National Park closed in Little Rock. In hind sight, I should have come up with one more thing to add into our schedule in Nashville because we ended up eating an early dinner at Cracker Barrel and checking into our hotel in Bowling Green, Kentucky much earlier than usual. I suggested that Paul could take the van to a nearby Walmart Auto Center to get the tires rotated and oil changed, but he said he'd rather do it back at home on Sunday afternoon. As we were driving from Alabama to Tennessee yesterday afternoon, I saw a sign advertising the James K. Polk house and museum. The kids weren't interested because they were hungry and didn't want to delay our arrival at Olive Garden for dinner. Paul was interested, and the kids usually enjoy Presidential house tours, but in light of their hunger and my broken ankle, we decided to skip it.
Our second stop today was another Civil War battlefield. The rangers at this National Park site were definitely the most hyper sensitive about COVID than any other we've been in over the last 18 months. For example, Ian and Oliver were standing outside the front door petting a dog, I wanted to ask the boys to come inside the Visitor Center. I was told I couldn't open the door to ask them to come in but rather would have to walk through the building, exit out another door, come around to where the boys were, and then come back in with them. Seriously?! I certainly wasn't about to do all that while hopping on crutches so I resorted to communicating through the glass door with hand gestures to let the boys know it was time to come inside. The park rangers also wouldn't touch the junior ranger booklets the kids did. We left them there, and they said someone will check them tomorrow and then mail the badges to us. This place was NOT at all crowded. There were other parks we have been at on this trip such as Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, and Zion that were crowded. I can't picture these rangers working at one of those parks. As of today, Nadia has earned 27 Junior Ranger badges on this trip. Ian has earned 22 so far, and Oliver has earned 21. This battlefield tour was much smaller than Shiloh's so Paul didn't feel like he needed more time as he had two days ago.
Our third stop was a replica of the Parthenon that was built in the late 1800's. I figured since we are studying ancient Greece this year and won't actually be traveling to Greece, why not? They also have a replica of the huge state of Athena. I had considered taking the kids to the Art Institute in Chicago, but we didn't do that this time around so the Parthenon was the closest we came to visiting an art museum on this vacation. Masks had to be worn inside all three attractions today. Paul and the kids didn't spend much time there, which is why I think I probably should have found something else for us to visit in Nashville. Planning a vacation during a pandemic can be challenging at times. I'm also aware that there might be a government shutdown in the near future which would mean the National Park sites would be closed. If that happens, I think the only problem we'll have will be our last stop - Friendship Hill in Pennsylvania. If it ends up being closed again (we tried to visit it last year in October), we'll just pick Milo up earlier. We miss him, and tomorrow is his first birthday! Thankfully he's been doing really well lately at the dog sitter's.
During the past 22 days we've driven a total of 6.243 miles, and we've been in 24 states. State #25 will be West Virginia. We started our trip driving west and also north. The farthest north we were on this trip was on September 14 at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park (south unit) in North Dakota, which is in the southwest part of that state. The farthest west we were on this trip was the Grand Canyon in Arizona on September 20. On September 28 when we were in Huntsville, Alabama, we were the farthest south that we went on this trip although Huntsville is in the northern part of that state. We've changed time zones five times so far, and tomorrow will be the sixth time as after we leave Mammoth Cave, we'll return to EDT.
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