This is still my “Nashville road trip” even though I am now writing this post from my friends’ apartment in Alexandria, Virginia.  In between the hustle and bustle of Nashville and the metropolitan D.C. area, I passed though beautiful, historic country today.  Right now I don’t know which is better: city traffic or being sucked dry by mosquitoes and then itching the remaining flesh for days.  Ok, it’s not that bad, but I do enjoy the perception of ease of life in the country.  Also note that this post seems really long because of the lack of pictures from yesterday and the fact that it is very long.  I wanted to post it as a sort of diary entry for future reference.  I will not give refunds to those who sleep through it.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures from yesterday.  That being said, I didn’t do a lot yesterday.  And that which I did do, I pulled from the previous days’ itinerary.  The most notable variation was that Amanda, Grace, and I went to the Tennessee State Museum.  The museum seemed like it would be a quick, fun outing that we would be able to enjoy and complete fairly quickly.  As we drove up to the address which we plugged into the GPS, our thoughts seemed to be confirmed because the museum is apparently housed in the same building as a convention center and performance hall.  That doesn’t leave too much room for a large, multilevel museum, does it?  It absolutely does.

My phone GPS setup that got me from Nashville to DC. And yes, I was doing 80 most of the way.

The museum started one floor into the basement and continued down to 3 floors into the basement!  These aren’t just like small basement rooms.  We’re talking convention center sized floors.  There were so many interesting things to see and read that I’m sure Rob and Amanda will be back multiple times (if Amanda thought it was interesting enough).  The exhibits spanned from pre-colonial native peoples to the first half of the 20th century.  The most interesting artifact that I saw was a piece of tree recovered from a civil war battlefield.  In this one 3 foot section there were 2 large pieces of shrapnel and one plum sized iron ball.  It really gave me a sense of what the soldiers faced when ordered to thrust themselves into battle.

Later that evening we ate again at SATCo and had dessert at Sweet CeCe’s.  I told you that it was good.  I hope any doubters now believe me when I say, “It’s GOOD!”  We finished the day with another episode of shark week on Discovery, Amanda taking pictures of Grace sleeping in her “big girl bed” and lamenting my imminent departure.  I set my alarm to get up in time to pick up the rental and be on the road before too late and went to sleep.  I woke up at 4 am to a great thud and crying from Grace (who i was sharing a room with).  I knew immediately that she had encountered he first (probably of many) tumble from her bed.  I picked her up and put her back in bed and tucked her in.  She was asleep before I was able to get back to my bed.

In the morning I said goodbye to Amanda and Gracie.  Rob was kind enough to drive me to the airport to pick up the rental car.  I said farewell to Rob and inspected the shiny new car that they were ok with letting me use all by myself.

It was raining this morning when I left Nashville.  It got worse as I drove toward Knoxville.  I don’t know exactly what the countryside looks like between those two cities.  If I did, it would have been an up close and personal encounter like that of some motorists who ended up spun-out in the median.  There were some intense instances of being sandwiched between semi trucks which squirt an amazing volume of water from their wheels to the exact height of my windshield.  When I was able to see, the trip was great.  (Just kidding.  The intenseness lasted about 10 seconds, which was 10 seconds too long in my opinion.)

The rest of the trip was A-MAZE-ING.  I loved seeing the country.  I drove past sign after sign of “Davey Crockett This” or “Historic Battle Field That“.  The mountains of the east are different than those of the west.  The ground out here is covered in foliage; I couldn’t see rock or dirt unless there was a cliff without vines on it.  I guess technically what I’m trying to describe is Appalachia.  Slowly the brick buildings turned to wood, the forests to fields, and the sun crested it’s zenith.

Eventually I entered the Shenandoah Valley.  My impression is that it is possibly the most peaceful-looking places that I have ever been.  I was struck by the beauty of almost all that I saw.  It seemed to incorporate the beautiful facets of each of the places that I have yet visited on this trip; mountains from the West, corn fields (in less vast proportions) and farm houses from the Midwest, little rivers from Illinois and Tennessee, and country lanes from Nashville, but at a  lower humidity level.  The song “Oh, Shenandoah” came to mind as I traveled past family farm houses and farm buildings that the whole of the environment seemed to polish and improve instead of deteriorate.  The old structures that were no longer occupied seemed not to be crumbling, but simply shifting from one state to another, neither one better or more beautiful.

I was sad to enter the city suburbs and lose the scene.  I already want to go back.  I made it to Shea and Meghann’s apartment in Alexandria just about 9 pm.  They live in a basement apartment just a few miles from D.C. which is one of the smallest apartments that I have been in.  I am very thankful for them to be willing to put me up for a few days.