The adventure has begun!
We left Burlington at about 8:45 this morning. Our destination today is Jackson, TN tonight, which is a LONG way!
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| Lizzie prepares for a long ride in the car |
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| Serra Jo is ready to go |
Heading up Black Mountain is a beautiful drive, as always. Photos through the windshield don't do it justice.
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| Heading up the mountain |
I just checked the weather. It looks like the first week of our trip is going to be blazing hot, but once we get to the west coast and Canada, the temperatures will start to drop significantly. Maybe I should have checked on that before only packing shorts and t-shirts!
Lunch was at the Tennessee visitors center. We had a nice picnic and enjoyed the scenery.
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| Tennessee welcome center |
Our first Off Beat stop - The Minister's Treehouse near Crossville, TN. Begun in 1993 by a local minister who was told by God that if he built a treehouse he would never run out of materials, the treehouse was a popular attraction until it was closed for fire code violations in 2012. Check out the Wikipedia article for more information.
We located it and managed to get a few photos - at a distance. No fewer than 3 other carloads of curious folk stopped by while we were there.
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| This was about as close as we could (legally) get to the treehouse itself. |
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| Lots of warnings to keep away! |
Back on the road and the weather took a turn....
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| storm clouds |
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| Rain started on the other side of the road |
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| Downpour! |
Nashville at rush hour in the rain. Ugh!
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| Traffic |
We finally reached our destination for the night, Jackson, TN.
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| Dinner at The Old Country Store in the Casey Jones Village in Clarksville, TN |
Miles traveled: ~620
Tunnels traveled through: 1
U-turns made: 1
Arrests: 0
While duly impressed by your mileage stats (which indicate Martha did most of the driving, otherwise that number would have been roughly half as much), I must say I'm a bit disappointed in your other numbers, and the likely intentional omission of the Rest Stop statistic. I'm assuming that with a car load of librarians, the stats are sorted by numerical achievement (though oddly not displayed in the proper Dewey Decimal format) so the Rest Stop stat was left off so it wouldn't be sorted above the mileage stat. Not to brag or try to overshadow your one impressive stat, but I would have beat your U-turn number before I left Burlington. I know this because I've done so many times on FAR lesser adventures that might cover only a few miles. And last, with all due respect, I feel as though your readers are being slightly misled by the low arrest number, since you're not displaying the numbér of hours slept by Lizzie and Serra Jo, which if I may, dramatically skew the arrest number. However, if one can overlook the statistical skewing, the overall Epic Adventure appears to be off to an excellent start, and I'll look forward to additional entries as the adventure begins to accelerate. Happy Trails...
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