Traveling week

Nashville, Tennessee

      Thie past week three of us girls did some traveling.  Sarah and I made a trip to Asheville,North Carolina. Rachel made a visit to Alabama with friends.  We had never been this way before so it was quite an adventure for all of us.  Why did we go?  To spend time with people we love. :)  We had planned our N.C. trip this last spring, but were unable to go. So we rescheduled for now. Rachel caught a ride with good friends going to Alabama to visit more friends in Alabama. :) 
     This is a picture of Nashville.  Which was interestingly fast to drive through.  I will gladly take a one lane dirt road over this anytime!  :)

We had beautiful weather to travel in.

The mountains were really pretty.  We had never experienced driving through them before. (sorry about the dirty windshield, next time I will pick a better pic! :)

Tunnels!!

      For someone who is slightly claustrophobic this was quite the adventure all on it's own! :) I asked Bryce if there was anyway to take a different route to avoid these all together, but he assured me there wasn't unless I wanted to drive a long ways out of the way. (which I did not!)  Needless to say we survived and were not swallowed up by the mountain! :)

Inside one of the tunnels.  Not a great picture but you get the idea.

Downton Abbey??  :)

     The main reason Sarah and I traveled this direction was to visit The Biltmore in Asheville.  Bryce and Em visited in June and it made us want to go all the more. :)  To say it was a huge, beautiful estate would be an understatement. We couldn't take any pictures inside.  So you will have to go visit it yourself.  It was truly a trip back in time, and the house told the story of a families life over a hundred years ago. 
    Some facts:  It took 6 years to build.  It has 33 bedrooms. 43 bathrooms.  A dining room table that seats over 30.  2 walk in refrigerators. An elevator. An inground, indoor pool. George Vanderbilt, his wife Edith, and there only daughter Cornelia lived there.   They all three were booked for passage on the Titanic, but decided to take a different ship instead because a friend told them the other ship was better.  George Vanderbilt died tragically 2 years later of an appenicitis. 

A view from the loft in the stables.

Lunch in the stables. :)

     Sarah and I enjoyed lunch in what used to be the stables.  Sarah was thrilled with this part of the house. Because the barn is one of her most favorite places to be at home.  :)  It was really pretty. The horses lived as well as the family in the main house. :)
     This is still a working estate. They farm a thousand acres. Rasise 300-400 cows, and a large amount of chickens (antibiotic and hormone free), for their restaurants and Inn.  There are over 40 houses on the estate for permanent year round workers. They also board 40-50 horses for other people that ride on the estate as well as house their own horses for guest horse back riding and carriage rides.  The walking trails and bike paths (what we saw), were very pretty. The house sits back from the road quite a ways.  And after entering the main gates of the estate we drove at least 3-4 miles, and then after parking the car walked about 10 minutes to get to the house.  Walking though the woods in the mountains was very pretty and not a chore in the least! :)

Guess what this is.  :)

      If you guessed McDonalds in Asheville your right! I  can honestly say this is the most elegant McDonalds we have ever been to!  There are building codes in Asheville (at least for the downtown ),of how they want things to look.  Including McDonalds I guess. For instance no Building can be built higher than the church steeple.  This MCDonalds also had a grand piano.

The Grand Bohemian Motel.

    Sarah and I stayed here. It was across the road from the main gate of the Biltmore.  It was a cross between Jumers and a really pretty hunting lodge. :) 

Part of the main lobby.

     After we visited Asheville we drove back through the mountains and stopped at Pigeon Forge.  There was a Titanoic Museun we wanted to visit. Which was also interesting.  There were a few other things we would have liked to visit but because of time we started home.  Of course we stopped at many antique shops amd thrift stores along the way looking for interesting "treasures". :) We spent a great deal of time driving which wasn't so bad because everything was so pretty.  If it weren't for the GPS , (and Sarah knowing how to operate it!) we wouldn't have been able to get there. 
     Back at home Brooke and Michelle, and Megan held down the fort for us.  Life, school, anjd farming continued.  The kids were glad to have the girls to play with.  Next week Sarah and Michelle will probably start work so I was thankful to have this time with Sarah,  She is great fun to travel with.  Endless laughing would be the best way to describe it.  Especially when we began to get tired! :)
     Rachel had a great time as well.  She got to visit with some of her very sweet homeschololing friends, and see how they do their life in Alabama. She also visited their church and attended their homeschool co op. They attend a church of about 3000. Yep you read that right, 3000. And a good share of them homeschool their kids.  The church literally takes up about a mile, and as you can guess they have multiple services.  On her trip she acquired a mandolin and is looking  forward to mastering it. 
     After about 4 1/2 days of traveling we were all glad to be back together under one roof.  But happy to have had the experiences that we did.  I am grateful for a wonderful husband who encouraged us to go and see the things we did.  Because of him we had a good reliable vehicle to get there ( we saw many cars broke down along the road), stayed in nice places and ate some really good food, and made memories that we will always have.  I am thankful for such a hardworking, wonderful man. :)  Thanks Doug. :)
     Well that's about it.  Time to get back to the real world.  Peaceful, simple, sweet, real life.  :)
                                              ~Thanks for visiting!