Natchez Trace

On Saturday we headed to Franklin again. Hoping parking would be better on the weekend. Again, we never made it. On the way we were driving down the Natchez Trace. It is a 444 mile scenic route though MS,AL, and TN. It goes from the campground to just outside Nashville. Along the way there are all these markers that tell you about historic sites or other points of interest. We were passing one called Metal Forge and Eric had remembered reading about it so he wanted to do a quick drive by. Well the was the beginning of the end of our plan to hit up Franklin. Metal Forge is the site of an old Iron Forge. It has a nice little area you can wade into and so we did. It was a blast. William was shocked we could just walk on into this river and when we were leaving g said the best thing ever. "I never knew nature could be so cool!!!" This is coming drop my kid who u less he is in a pool or theme park has no use for the outside. Eric and I just looked at each other and knew that was it. Franklin was NOT happen ingredients. Instead we would be exploring the Trace and all its cool offerings. 

                                                            Ashton liking the area

Tiny little cute rapids

Me and Zoey with our feet in the water. (Shoes are a plus, owwwww rocks)

William really starting to dig this nature thing

The sign telling about the stop

 Before we took off we went back to the campground to stop at their little store to grab some drinks since we had not planned on being out and about. We were not far so we figured it was the easiest way to get drinks. We were right. There are no stores along the Trace. There are some off shoots where you can find other towns with gas and food but in the Natchez Trace itself there is nothing. 

  We continued down and did a drive by of where Merriweather Lewis is buried. Again William shocked us all and asked to go walking on the trail. We told him we would have to go back because we all had on flip flops and no water bottles. Again I was not sure WHO this kid was but it was cementing in the fact that we decided to hit the road and travel again. 

                                                                            The sign 

The monument 

Where he died. It is a debate on if it was suicide or murder.

Remake of the Grinder House

About the Natchez Trace Trail

Next up was a spot with a little waterfall. Once again our footwork posed a problem as the path to the bottom is a bit rough. So we just took in the sights and went back on our way. 

  

  That is when we came upon it, the highlight of our day. Jackson Falls. It is along the Duck River and is a very steep angle down. However it is paved with a wide sidewalk. William was really scared and didn't want to go because the start of the path has no railing and he was scared he would fall down the side of the mountain. I worked with him and got him over his anxiety enough to start down the path. He was really scared, wringing his hands and whimpering but worked through it like a champ. Soon there was a railing and he felt much better. We saw the falls and though it was pretty there was not much water coming down. We were a little bummed but then this nice family told us about the slide. 

  "Hey if you go up there you can slide down the waterfall."  I looked at Eric, he looked at me. We both looked at the waterfall. We both look confused and quite frankly SHOCKED as we said What??? I mean surely we heard him wrong. Was he NUTS?!?!?! We really are not fans of broken bones. His wife then laughed and said "Oh no you can't see the slide from here. It is over there." Sure enough we moved up a fee steps and saw it. The most amazing thing ever. A waterfall with a flattish part with water running down it ending on a large flat area. Holy cow it was a waterfall water slide. I will tell you I don't know when we all had so much fun and we had annual passes to all the parks in Orlando. At one point William again said he never knew nature could be so cool and that he gave the slide 5 stars!!!! After riding the slide for a while we went down to where there is supposed to be a swimming hole but there wasn't enough water. So the kids and Eric tried to make a damn. Ashton did a lot of the work and he really had it filling up by the time we left. 
  
                                                   The sign. The really mean STEEP!

William finally walking down the path on his own. I was so proud of him! 

William going down the slide

Ashton going down

Family picture. Man I love them all!

Hubby at the bottom of the waterfall. This might be my favorite picture ever of him. Le sigh! <3 p="">

Ashton plugging up the damn with some mud and leaves.

Finding rocks for the damn.

 We pulled off a few more times to read this sign or that one. Then we came to this little off road the was marked as the Old Trace and you could drive on it.  It was just dirt roads with a huge drop off. It was tons of fun to drive down. It lead to talks about how this path was used over 100 years ago by Merriweather Lewis and other explored and people living in the area. How they used to go on. It on hoseback or with carts. How the roads were made and cleared. Ect. We all really do take modern times for granted. 

                                                                           The road. 

The drop off. So pretty though. 

  Eventually we hit the end of the Trace. We didn't know where we were and had no phone signal. Another thing the Trace doesn't have is signal. At all. So we decided to follow the signs to Nashville and find something to eat. So Eric made a random turn and the was The Loveless Cafe. It was on my Pinterest Board to try put and we had seen the episode of Showdown with Bobby Flay it was on so we took it as a sign and stopped in to eat. Look for that review coming soon. 
  Overall it was an AMAZING day. We had tons of fun and even the hardest to please kids had a blast. We will have to revisit a few spots again before we leave. We all fell asleep nice and early and I woke up feeling very old. Lol We had planned to go the other way on the Trace Sunday but we were spent so we just chilled out. So if you are ever near the Natchez Trace you must take the drive and see the sights. You will not regret it.

Hot Chicken and Cupcakes

So our first full day we ran up to Franklin. Eric had a massage and then we were going to head to the downtown Franklin area. Well, parking was hard to find and there was no way I was going to parallel park the massive van so we changed plans and went back to where all the main stores are to eat. We decided to try Bishop's Meat and 3 since they had Hot Chicken, a Nashville area staple, and boy were were glad we did. It is some of the best food we have had in a while. I will warn you though their hot is HOT. Both Eric and Eric ordered hot as they always do and both said it was to much. I was glad I stuck with medium. I got a breast and the skin was so crispy. I usually am not a white meat fan but this was really good. The boys got tenders and it was crispy as well. I didn't try the mac and cheese but that was because Zoey ate it all before I could. I had carrot souffle because it sounded interesting and I could have eaten the whole pan!!!! Think sweet potato casserole but better!!!! We will be back before we go for sure. Trying to convince the family to go on a Tuesday so I can get Liver and Onions.  Yep, I love liver.

Ashton got fried chicken, mac and cheese, and pinto beans. Loved it all.

Eric got HOT hot chicken and green beans. He said the beans were really good. 

William got fried chicken and chicken and dumplings which was excellent as well.

Zoey's KIDS meal! Fried chicken, Mac and cheese and cornbread muffin. 

My medium hot chicken, cornbread, and carrot souffle! OMG I could eat a whole pan of it!

Their menu for the week You can also find it in the link above. 

After dinner the kids begged to go next door to GiGi's Cupcakes. We went just to look but they had buy 5 cupcakes get one free. It was like a sign since there are 6 of us. So without being quite sure how we would manage to fit them in our stomachs we all ordered one. They were nice and moist and came with lots of frosting. Eric remembered the proper cupcake eating method and so some of us followed it. We took the bottom of the cupcake off and put it on top making an icing sandwich. Mmmmmm Me and my rolls were happy.

In case you didn't guess. Zoey got a princess cupcake. 

William got white Midnight Magic and so did Eric

They had no peanut ones today so we gave it a shot and Ashton got Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough 

Eric got Midnight Magic Chocolate Chip

I got Chocolate Salted Caramel

Cocina Real

As I mentioned our tradition last year when we were traveling was to go out for Mexican each time we got to a new place. So we figured no better way to kick off traveling again then getting Mexican.

We were a bit worried there would be nowhere to get food as we are in the middle of nowhere. However I asked the front office if there was a Mexican restaurant close and he pointed us to this AMAZING little place. Of course close by is a relative term here. It was 30 mins away in the nearest town but well worth the trip.

  William got the usual, burrito, soft taco, rice, and beans. Eric got his usual, a cheese quesadilla and rice. That kid is so picky. Ashton went with a burrito with rice and beans and Zoey got pizza rolls. Hey, she's 3. I got some steak pieces that were smothered in cheese, onions, and bacon. OMG it was delish. It was a lot of bacon and other was nice and big, crispy chunks. Eric got strimp tacos. He enjoyed his meal but also enjoyed quite a bit of mine. ;) The beans were really good. Nice and fresh tasting. The chips were good and the salsa wasn't half bad either.

We all really enjoyed it and Eric has gone back 2 times already. A must stop if you are hungry for some Mexican in Lawrenceburg TN.

                                                      My steak smothered with bacon, cheese, and onions.

                                                                            Eric's shrimp tacos

Heading to Tennessee

So we took 2 days to drive to Tennessee. Eric had just gotten back from Africa and so not only was he tired and his sleeps schedule was off but we knew the drive would take longer the GPS was saying. Eric didn't want to drive the rig through Atlanta so I found a route that took us west and then north through Alabama. I found a campground that was a tad past what should have been halfway. According to GPS it should have been 400 miles of our 750ish mile trip. It ended us taking us about 10 hours. It was rough. Thankfully the campground we stopped at was great. We  ended up at Deer Run RV Park in Troy Alabama. They have all pull through sites, wifi (we didn't happen to see it when we were there so we couldn't test it), over 70 cable channels, 2 stocked lakes for fishing, and even a SPA!!!! To bad we were only there for a day. The lady at the front desk was nice and helpful as well.  Eric and I both agreed that we would stay there again and even consider doing a month there.
  The next morning I made some bacon and deviled eggs for breakfast before we headed out. It was a nice change from rushing to hit the road and having Eric and I forgetting to eat which is what usually happens. It was a nice benefit to his sleep schedule being messed up. He was up nice and early which gave us a more relaxed morning. We hit the road for the last leg of the trip that took us into Tennessee . It took us about 6 hours for the last 350ish miles so it was a much faster trip. We were all happy to finally arrived. We found a spot, Eric hooked everything up and we loaded up the van for our old tradition. New location=Mexican food for dinner. Mmmmmm it was good. I will post a review later.

Hitting the Road Again

So I know I have been MIA for a while. We ended up stopping in Florida in April 2015 and stayed there until last week when we hit the road again. The Hubby was tired of towing the travel trailer ans who could say no to Disney for a year!? Not this Disney Nut!!!! We lived just outside Orlando for much of that 16 months and absolutely loved it  I got out of the habit of blogging since I  was so far behind d and we were not traveling anymore. I felt that there wasn't much of a reason to blog even though we were keeping busy. I just felt if we were not "traveling" it wasn't interesting enough. Truth is this is The Smith Adventures and we had plenty of adventures in Florida. So I think I will try to do some Throwback Thursday posts about our time in Florida. In the mean time I will get back to blogging about our travels now that we have hit thoughhinkravelingravelinghe Olean road. Most posts right now will be done from my phone since that is easiest for me right now. 

So here we are again. Traveling and enjoying everything life has to offer us. We have a new rig, a Class A Motorhome, a renewed desire to travel, and a whole country to explore!!!! 

About to hit the road

Pulling out of Thousand Trails Orlando