Road Trip!

Since our sail to Mexico, we've been busy getting Nirvana ready for her own sail. In addition to the propane project, we've tackled several other projects in order to live "off the grid", which I will post details about soon.

All of these projects have kept me away from our blog since our 1 year anniversary as liveaboards, so I wanted to pop in with a post about something fun. The past few months have been pretty stressful, so we were happy to take a break .. and a road trip!

Last Thursday morning, our daughter & son-in-law picked us up at the marina to join them in a trip to Indianapolis, Indiana for our daughter's graduation ceremony. We were grateful to be able to join them in this trip, as we are so proud of our daughter's hard work. While pregnant and teaching first graders full-time, our daughter was also taking courses to obtain her Master's Degree in Education!

The trip was a much needed break for us, and time with our "kids" is always treasured. Our only grandchild came on the trip too, and it was so fun to see his personality coming out. At almost 6 months, I think he's getting to know his "Gramps" and "GiGi"! Here's the cute guy that shared the back seat with us. How could we get bored with this lil man?!

We broke up the road trip with a night in Nashville, where we visited the infamous "Hattie B's". They're known for their spicy fried chicken, & they did not disappoint! I wasn't expecting much, but their batter & spice were unlike anything we've had before .. so good! The hour wait was worth it!

The following morning we took a quick tour of downtown Nashville .. pretty cool place!

There were tons of cool murals ...

and pretty cool dudes too!

On the way to Indianapolis from Nashville, we stopped at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky to stretch our legs. We had just missed the last cave tour for the day, but enjoyed the scenery. We wanna come back to camp here for a few days someday. The cave is about 200 miles long! 

Our grandson is gettin' started with his new hat ...

That evening we arrived in Indianapolis, where we crashed. The next day was spent at the graduation, which was a really nice ceremony. Our daughter looked beautiful in her cap & gown!

Love this lil family!

That evening we celebrated with drinks at St. Joseph's Brewery, which used to be a church. The architecture was beautiful, and the beer was flowing! Afterwards, we went downtown for dinner. I didn't get any pics of downtown Indianapolis, but it was a great city with lots of restaurants & breweries.

The next day we headed back towards Louisiana, with an overnight stay in Memphis. On the way to Memphis, we saw a sign saying, "World's Largest Wind Chime". We thought this place would be a good excuse to stretch our legs. Little did we know that the small town of Casey, Illinois would be so charming .. and full of other "World's Largest" items!

The town reminded me of "Mayberry", and there were flowers everywhere! Our daughter rang the chimes!

Before arriving in Memphis, we took another detour in Arkansas to check out the boyhood home of Johnny Cash! It was in the middle of nowhere, but worth the extra few miles off the interstate.

When in Memphis, we drove by Elvis' home before it got dark. It was hard to get a good photo!

We then went to Beall St. for some barbecue and music.

Before leaving Memphis the following morning, we went to the "Peabody Hotel" for the traditional marching of the ducks. Basically, the red carpet is rolled out in the hotel's lobby and everyone gathers around to watch the ducks exit the elevator and jump into the lobby fountain. Evidently, this has been a tradition for decades! It was crazy how many folks were at the hotel spending money on cocktails and souvenirs. What a marketing scheme! The ducks weren't that amazing, but the fountain and the hotel dating back to the late 1800's was gorgeous!

I don't wanna make this post even longer, so I won't show all the cool memorabilia that the hotel had!

Kinda blurry, but if you look closely to the left of the red carpet, you'll see our daughter & grandson waiting for the ducks. He's the lil baby standing up! 

The trip to Memphis wouldn't be complete without a visit to the imfamous "Neely's Interstate BBQ" for a huge lunch! Our son-in-law was familiar with this place, and this also did not disappoint!

Ken & I split the "Sampler Platter" ... bbq sausage, beef ribs, pork ribs, brisket & pork along with bbq beans, coleslaw and bbq spaghetti. A delicious feast!

After filling our bellies, we headed home. Our road trip consisted of four nights and five days and we passed through nine states .. from Louisiana into Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois and Arkansa! Our lil "Junior Ranger" has already got some miles behind him!

We arrived home Monday night and found Nirvana was still floating .. whew! Tuesday we were back to reality and boat projects. Stay tuned for what we've been doing on Nirvana the past couple of months!

Hasta luego .. until then. Mid-Life Cruising!