Thanksgiving in Gallatin Tennessee
We were never originally supposed to stay the full two weeks in Gallatin, A Northern suburb of Nashville. We knew we wanted to spend Thanksgiving week here. When we got close to Nashville we couldn't pass up an opportunity to settle and we really wanted a break from the road as the holiday approached. What we actually received was a warm home full of lots of love and laughter, a warm comfortable bed, lots of great food and a Thanksgiving shared with our great friends Joe and Amie and their three daughters Amberly, Maddie and Piper. We met them on our move to Palm Springs in November of 2012. We literally pulled off the interstate in Blythe, California to get a bite to eat and go to the bathroom at Carl's Jr, with a two and three year old in tow the drive was getting long from Houston to Palm Springs. We met Amie and her two year old daughter and three year old daughter in the play structure at Carl's Jr. You never know when and where your closest friends will pop into your life. It's crazy how we have been blessed with many great friends through such random encounters. We have remained close friends since that fateful day and always wanted to visit their home in Tennessee.
We had our first freezing weather on our trip this fall. We spent a lot of time doing zero activities, just relaxing. I went through a period of five days that I never left their property.
While we were there I asked Joe, who is one of the most handy people I have ever met, to please help me solve our water leak in the front shell of the rv. He was amazing as he navigated five full days of gutting and repairing all of the damaged areas of the overhead compartment. I could not believe how bad I had let the water damage become. We now have a mold and water free rv because of our work together to get the damage repaired. I learned so much about what to do should future damage occur. The total cost was around $300 for the supplies. The labor bill would have been outrageous had I serviced it at a shop. To say we are grateful for Joe and Amie is hard to truly express.
Erica was able to spend quality time with one of her favorite people. Amie is easy going and has a very kind spirit who gives everything to her family. They had a few lunch dates and enjoyed a date at the salon to get pedicures. The kids enjoyed full days of play together with Boyd and Maddie rising with the sun and Blythe and Amberly falling asleep at midnight most nights. There was trampoline time and time for game playing and drawing. Boyd built "Fort Petree" from fresh cut bamboo poles and old logs from Joe's junk pile of wood. He made two rooms for Thor, a pitbull of the most tender kind, and left one room for himself. Blythe finally got her ears pierced by Erica and Amie. Erica passed up the opportunity to pierce Blythe's ears as an infant so she would share this moment with Blythe when she was old enough to ask for it.
We took a trip up to Southern Kentucky to explore Mammoth Cave National Park. The day turned out beautiful and the cave was awesome. Mammoth Cave is the longest cave system in the entire world with 400 miles of mapped tunnels to date. What is amazing is that new tunnels and parts unknown still exist and are being discovered every year. Who knew that this natural wonder existed in the U.S? We headed back home but not before enjoying some really good southern sweet tea and barbeque pork sandwiches at Top Hog Bar-B-Q restaurant in Gallatin.
We enjoyed outings to fish a few local watering holes but wound up humbled by some really smart fish in Northern Tennessee. The kids can't get enough casting and reeling and being outdoors.
I can get enough untangling fishing line.
I cut away for a few hours to venture into downtown Nashville and visit the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum. They had a really great exhibit on Emmylou Harris and another titled Outlaws and Armadillos, chronicling the texas country music journey that included Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson among countless others, before and since, that created the Texas Country sound.
Many nights were spent playing competitive darts with Joe and his brother Jordan, who lives with them. Jordan works two jobs but always found some free time to join Joe and I in a friendly game of darts. Living here in Tennessee for the last three weeks, I'm reminded of how I appreciate a slower pace of life represented here. Erica and I used to spend our nights as newlyweds in Southern Missouri playing card and dice games, Yahtzee to be exact. We brought our game playing back to life with nightly Yahtzee games. I even taught the kids how to play Yahtzee and they spent the last few nights playing each other.
Thanksgiving was exactly how we pictured it with friends we love and non-traditional food that hit everyone's favorite list of food. Pasta salad, mashed potatoes, cranberries, steak, hamburgers and mac-n-cheese were the winners. Everyone was happy and content. We ended up spending the last two nights at the local movie house to see Ralph Breaks The Internet and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.
It was hard to leave and climb back into the rv. We are grateful for having had such a great memory with Joe and Amie and their family to hold onto forever.
Peace and Love