The Aerie
Well here I am again at some ungodly hour, because I can't sleep. Of course, as an atheist, I guess all my hours are ungodly hours... Every night when I lay down to sleep, as I start to drift off, I get this tickle in the back of my throat that makes me cough. Happens every night, and once I wake up from coughing I'm not sleepy anymore... and I'm still coughing.
Just as well, I guess. I get a chance to comment on our trip to Tennessee.
It was, in a word, pleasant. Very pleasant, if I man invest in a second word. We had a really nice time.
My wife wanted to 'take our time' and 'see the sights' along the way, and while that sounds relaxing, seeing the sights entails getting there while the sights are open. Which means leaving really early. Which means packing the day before.
In our case we packed until 1:30 a.m., then I got up at 5:30 in order to start loading the car. We managed to get out of the city by about 7:00 a.m., which brought us into Springfield Illinois by about 2:00 p.m... just enough time check into the motel and to see the sights.
First we went to see the home of Abraham Lincoln. Now, if you're a famous person they might preserve your home... but if you're Abraham Lincoln, they preserve four blocks of your neighborhood. We watched a film in the interpretive center, and visited two of his neighbor's homes as well as his own. It was kind of interesting to be in the parlor where Lincoln was persuaded to run for office.
Afterwards there was just enough time to zoom over to his tomb before it closed. One moment we're in the home where he raised his family, the next we're in his tomb.
It was interesting to learn that despite having several children, none of Lincoln's offspring had children, and most of them died young. When I learned that Lincoln never had any grandchildren I felt a pitiful sense of "What was the point of his life?" How absurd! He freed the slaves and kept the nation united... and I pitied him the point of his life because his progeny died off.
By this time we were all starving. My wife had looked up a place to try for dinner, so we headed south across Springfield to the other end of town from Lincoln's tomb. Having now driven through Springfield, Illinois from end-to-end three times, I have to say that while it's a nice place to visit, I have no interest in living there.
At the south end of Springfield I spotted a place I wanted to try - it was a little shed that sold barbeque. Unfortunately the operator had decided to step out for a 90 minute break just about when we pulled up.
However right next door was the place we'd been aiming for - a place that claimed to be the birthplace of the corn dog.
We went back to the hotel where the kids used the pool and watched cable. Cable's a big deal for these guys, since we only have the ten broadcast channels at home, including the spanish channel 13.
We left the next morning for Pigeon Forge but accidentally stopped at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis when we missed an exit. We meant to take bypass to connect to a different highway, and we were looking for a place to stop and stretch our legs. But when we missed the exit and the Gateway Arch eased into view, we decided to stop there. Turned out to be a good idea: the Arch had a very nice, free, interpretive center, and it was a better place than any rest stop.
After a quick break we headed off for Pigeon Forge, listening to 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.' About two or so we got into Nashville, and although we didn't stop we did get off the freeway to drive through downown. It was a Sunday afternoon and very quiet, so we had a nice turn through the center of downtown, past the rather astonishing capital building, and then through the tourist part of town. We even caught a wiff of barbeque through the window, which although I didn't know it was about as close to barbeque as I was going to get on this trip.
Leaving Memphis we were in the final stretch and the next few hours passed quickly. Getting past Knoxville was a pain and we stopped to refuel at the only bathroom-less gas station on the whole trip. Legs crossed I pulled back onto the freeway and we got past the traffic and made the run to Pigeon Forge.
Exiting the freeway we came as close as we were going to get to a real squabble on this trip - the directions printed off the Internet had us go a mile past our destination, and then specified a U-turn to bring us back to the proper location. The confusion pushed our two-day hafta-pee starving tempers to the edge, but we managed to avoid a full-out fight, even when I almost ran into a pickup truck trying to figure out where I was going. Thanks Yahoo Maps!
We phone up Fairy and arranged to meet her at a "Books a Million" bookstore, so that she could lead us back on the twisting mountain roads to our cabin...
Posted by Albatross at August 23, 2005 2:44 AM | TrackBack