We drove from Topeka, Kansas to Fort Collins Co. Just a mere 595 miles. While driving thru Kansas we saw a sign for free lots. FREE!! And yet we kept driving.

When we arrived in Colorado it was frigid. It snowed a day and a half before we arrived. Glad we missed that snow storm. By the time we got there a lot had melted. You could still see some big patches of snow here and there in the fields and on the roof tops and of course on the Rockies. I wish it hadn’t been so cold. It was too cold for site seeing. There were places I wanted to see. Estes Park , at the foot of the Rockies. ” Little Yosemite” I was told . It was my parents favorite park. Next time!! We met up with Dave Swenson for a quick visit. Dinner at a Mexican place called ” Fuzzy”. Interesting name but fabulous food.

Missed my friend Terina’s bday at home. We did celebrate before we left ( in April) but not the same. Happy Birthday Terina! Stayed at a Walmart. Nicest one I’ve ever seen.

Today we left Indiana for home. We didn’t really make any site seeing stops. We were trying to get out of the tornado alley, hail and beat the snow over the Sierras. The plan was drive til didn’t feel like driving anymore. We drove from Indiana, thru Illinois, Missouri and part of Kansas. We stopped in Topeka Kansas. Over 563 miles. We passed a town where friends lived but with the severe weather warnings coming up behind us and a still ahead we just wanted to get out of there. A day later we saw pictures on our rv website of hail damaged units and tornado shredded rvs. In Topeka we stayed overnight at a Walmart parking lot. The horns had just gone off for a tornadoe. Great. I met a doctor who was in his airstream. He gave us a lesson on which clouds were tornado clouds. Funny thing was i remembered that from living in Minnesota as a kid. Anyhow there were 5 of them. One of those landed the next day in Missouri, real close to where we’d been driving . Other than a few hard gusts of wind and some rain we made it through that day unscathed. But boy was it cold.

After watching some of the horses go through their morning training we made the rounds to say goodbye to all of our horse buddies.

We parked at a church in Floyd Knobs Indiana where my friend Lynn, works at. Great spot. Thank you to the church who let us park there. Lynn took us to Squire Boone caverns( John is a descendent of Squire Boone) . Waterfalls and a river ran underground. This cavern puts out 1 million gallons of water a day. Crazy how something so spectacular was underground and yet you’d have no idea of its existence.

Dinner was at Crackle Barrel and then the Warriors game at Lynn’s. A beautiful home. It was nice spending the night there. And watching the Golden State Warriors Win. It was great getting to visit with Lynn .

First thing we did was greet all of our horse buddies. What fun personalities. We had to say hi to each one. Needless to say that took awhile.

Today we checked out Shaker Village. Interesting religious group. They were amazing carpenters. Learned about their worship services. Longest one was 23 hrs. long!

After the village we headed out to a Kentucky distillery. We went on a tour and learned how they make the whiskey. At the end was a tasting. I got a pretty funny picture of Nicole and her reaction to whiskey. The Woodford Distillery was beautiful. We saw some enormous horse barns. Fancy digs. I wish we’d had time to drive further on those back roads. The stables kept on getting bigger and more luxurious.

Today we headed for Kentucky. We get to stay on a horse farm. A world champion and so many adorable foals. Lush green pastures and lots of horse play. Fire flys at night. So peaceful. Dinner out with the Erwin’s and Nelson’s. Great little bbq place.

I was not prepared for the noise. Bar after bar had country music blaring out the front windows. Some bars were 3 story’s high. With a different musician on every floor. Be careful where you sit or you may pick up two songs at one. Honky tonk bars, swank bars, pop style. Blue grass, pop country and just country. It was humid which means hot n’ hotter. We enjoyed listening to some really good musicians. John found an ice cream store. Owen loved it because it had a train on tracks going around the store. We walked over to the Ryman House. That was fun. We got an accidental little tour. I can’t believe , looking at all the outfits how tiny most of the country stars were and are. After the Ryman House ( the first Grand Ole Opry) we walked around some. So much music. The Kid Rock bar across from Luke Bryant’s roof top bar was so LOUD. We listened to three young guys , at Luke Bryant’s ; they were good. After that we met Jen and Tay for dinner at Jason Alden’s restaurant.

John and I took a tour of the Hermitage House of President Andrew Jackson. Beautiful grounds. Crazy stories. ( they adopted a twin boy from his wife’s brother. I guess they already had a ton of kids and the Jacksons did not. Who does that ?)

We learned about duels and Jackson’s love of horse racing. There was a beautiful garden he had designed for his wife. The flowers and colors and sweet scents. I loved that. Some darling, little school children , dressed in period clothing gave us historical information. Loved their accents. After our lovely tour went over to our friend Bobbi’s house. Who lived 5 minutes from where we were at. We got a tour of her lovely home. Then we headed to Court’s. Laundry , visit, then we headed off for lunch with the girls and Bobbi. We ate at the Taproom and Grill which had the most delicious shrimp dip.

We drove around some old neighborhoods, walked thru a few shops. ( saved court from near disaster. A shelf bracket came out of the wall and she was stuck balancing the shelf it til i noticed her dilemma. I was outside wondering why she wasn’t moving and Owen was. He usually doesn’t get too far from her. They had 4 huge glass jars stuffed full of toys sitting on this shelf. The clerk says oh yeah it’s happened before. You think? After that we found a cute bakery. Looked but didn’t touch. Cause ice cream was planned at a place called Jenni’s . Best ice cream ever!!!

After that we went to a shop called Uncommon Janes. Nicole’s hit list. Owned by some celebrity with a show. The girl waiting on us is on the show. Very friendly. Darling stuff with $$$ tags.

After all that we headed back to Courts before we met up with Felicia, Jen and Tay( courts step daughter who is funny and cute. )

The food is soooo good in Tennessee.

Courtney arrived at our campground to take us on a tour of Nashville. First stop was Biscuit Love for breakfast. Yummy. After that we walked around , went into a real cute clothing shop . A drive around parts of Nashville. . Later we drove up to Jen and Courtney’s home. We went out for dinner and left Nicole with Court.

Today we left Charlotte. Hard to say goodbye to Trevor , Alyssa and Benton. They are such calm first time parents. And he is so chill because of that. I think I made more noise over his spitting up on me. We are heading to Nashville. Here we come Two Rivers Rv Park. And time with Courtney (Matthews)Clariday and her family. And so happy to see Felicia.

We hit the ground running once we arrived. We set up camp then drove over to the Grand Ole Opry to see if we could get tickets to a show ( that night) . Yes, we did get tickets, great seats and a fantastic line up. From Hunter Hayes, Ghost Riders in the Sky( aunt Nancy you would have loved them. I know dad did), Rob Ickes a master do bro player , Sawyer Brown, Chris Janson( I’ll buy me a truck ; song) he plays a mean harmonica like no other. And of course the best surprise, Keith Urban. Keith and Chris did an amazing duet together. I’ll try to put a piece of it on fb. What a show put on by all of the musicians. We were so lucky .

Before the 9:30 show we walked around the Gaylord Hotel. It is massive. Waterfalls, a boat ride around their waterway, shops, dining places. Ballrooms. A water park for hotel guests. An atrium. Glass ceilings that took your breath away. Nicole and I were in a store when this guy walks in. He stands next to me , by the cash register with a $20 placed between his fingers. Just right for picking. So you know me , I gently nabbed it very quickly and said ” thanks, i could use this”. He laughed and said ” man you didn’t even skip a beat. That was so smooth.” Of course I gave it back. So you can imagine my surprise when we were at the opry and they introduced the do- bro master, hall of fame player. Yep you guessed it. The guy I hijacked the $20. from. What a fast and furious unplanned first day in Nashville.

We had a great time celebrating the day. It was Jared’s birthday. And even though he wasn’t with us we thought about him. So blessed.

Spent a relaxing day babysitting Benton. The girls ran errands. John got the truck ready and napped. Dinner , cards and boom our visit was over with the kids.