Road Trip to Springfield Missouri: Day One

Here we are; me, mom and Lucy, in Nashville, TN. So far, our trip has been easy; no issues!

Lucy and I left our house bright and early this morning; just a bit after 6:30 am. We arrived at mom and dad’s a bit before 7:30 to find mom ready and raring to go!

So, a smidge before 8 (which was our agreed-upon departure time from Pittsboro), we shoved off with me doing first driving duty.

Our drive was leisurely; looking for license plates (we got 26 the first day; the farthest ones being Rhode Island and Arizona), stopping at Mickey D’s for breakfast (mom says don’t bother getting the chicken biscuit), eating Cheez-Its and Gingersnaps for “snack” later and yakking, yakking, yakking away. In case anyone is wondering if we ran out of things to gab about during our five day trip (four of which were spent in the car all day), the answer is a resounding NO!

We actually drove through a bit of snow going through the mountains near Ashville (what a pretty, pretty drive, even in “snow") and then again outside of Knoxville, TN. We stopped a rest stop on the east side of Ashville to let the Goose out to do her “business” and stretch her legs. Boy, was she ever interested in the grass at that rest stop! We only had to fill up once for gas, near Canton, NC (I have to say that we spent just about an equal amount on gas this trip as we did for the four nights we stayed in motels. What does THAT tell you? Gas is EXPENSIVE, that’s what it tells you; why the hell is that since there is absolutely no shortage of it?) Mom took over driving near Knoxville and took us on to Nashville.

We arrived in Nashville at The Red Roof Inn (near the airport, right off I-40) around 3:30 CST (we gained an hour), having driven 508 miles (our directions said 508.8; pretty damn spot on, huh?) After checking into #123, I walked Lucy around the property and promptly lost an earring (I didn’t find it until the next morning while walking to the office to get our morning fix of Java; by the way; Red Roof Inn now has these really cool coffee machines (in the lobby) that makes decent lattes and mochas (in addition to regular coffee, tea and hot chocolate)).

After we somewhat got settled (no sense in unpacking since we were only there the one night), we cracked open a bottle of vino and took Lucy for a walk, cups in hand. We found a somewhat rundown neighborhood nearby so that’s where we went. About ½ way down the street, mom said, “Well, I sure hope there isn’t an open container law here, this IS Tennessee, after all!” We didn’t see any offices of the law but Lucy did spot two kitty cats (and promptly tried to chase after them).

Mom gets ready to go out to eat while Lucy says "ho hum!"

We ate dinner at a place near Opryland called John A’s (review to follow). We WERE going to go to a joint called The Plantation House but they were closed Mondays. Maybe we’ll try that on our way back through Nashville on Thursday.

After returning from dinner, we played some Gin (I was ahead by 5 points when we quit), took Lucy for another quick walk, and settled down to read up on Laura Ingalls Wilder.

So, tomorrow we plan on leaving around 8 to head on to Springfield. We’ve got some conflicting directions, but, I can’t imagine we’ll get lost!

BTW, it appears that Lucy is electing to sleep with Grammy tonight; she’s already up on her bed! She says, “Bully to you, mom!”

Mrs. B

Grammy and Lucy bunked down for the night in Nashville

Mrs. B's Review of John A's

“Decent” (4 out of 5 Stars)
John A's
Empress5150
Durham, North Carolina
Apr 20, 2008
I had planned my trip to use Entertainment coupons (buy one, get one free, etc.) for eating out. I found several places in Nashville near the motel we were staying at (Red Roof Inn, Nashville Airport). John A's was one of them; less than 10 miles away and easy to get to/find.I called before we left to make sure they were open; the only "bad" experience was that the person that answered the phone (a woman) was pretty terse.We found the place, and, realized quickly WHY she'd been terse, they were fairly busy and appeared to be under-staffed.Be that as it may, we sat down and were approached pretty quickly by a waiter, who was very friendly.We were there on a Monday night; we had draft beers for $1.50 each. The menu was decent; ribs, burgers, sandwiches, salads, some pasta dishes. My mom had a prime rib sandwich with cole slaw (to me, this looked more like a French dip) and I had a burger with sweet potato fries. The burger was great (fantastic pepper jack cheese) but the fries, although tasty, chilled off very quickly.Apparently, this place is an off-shoot of another famous place in Nashville where country music stars like Randy Travis and Garth Brooks got their starts. John A's DID have live entertainment, but, we did not stick around long enough to hear it.The only problem we had was resolved by our friendly waiter; the coupon we had for two for one didn't work. I'm really not sure why. But, he gave us a house coupon for a buy one get one free sandwich/burger, so, as that is what we got, it all worked out fine.My only complaint about the place wasn't the fault of the restaurant at all; rather, everyone around us was yakking away on their cell phones. Very, very annoying!John A's is very close to Opryland, so, extremely convenient for folks staying there/visiting the park, etc.If I'm ever there again, I would probably stop there again.