Mount Pleasant to Nashville

Saturday, February 25th, 2023    

Saturday was an early day, We woke up, watched Chopped, checked out, and said goodbye to Iowa. The drive to Tennessee was as excited as one could imagine, what made it fun for us was stopping for what looked intriguing. We each drove half of the 8 hour trip and took breaks to stretch our legs. First stop was in Metropolis, IL, the home of Superman! Not sure if it is the actual home but it was a cute area to stop, stretch our legs, enjoy the themed gift shop and snap a great photo with the giant himself.

(Ruth Anna and Erin with Superman! -Erin) 

    Getting back on the road, we witnessed a car crash right next to us, reminding us that there is never a dull moment in St. Louis. Our next stop was at Patti's 1800's Homestead in Grand Rapids, The road opened up on our right to a gorgeous marina, boats lined the shore glistening as they caught the beginning of the setting sun. To our left was the biggest log cabin restaurant we'd ever seen. Reading their story, Patti's is defined itself as, "Good food, local history, simpler times, beautiful gardens, a day on the lake, a lazy afternoon with comfortable conversation and friendly, smiling faces." We asked if they had any dinner availability and they offered a 4 hour wait. We decided to walk around the shops. One of the first we walked into introduced us to Michael, a smooth talking retired gentleman, more southern than fried chicken. The best part about Michael is that he was in charge of the free moonshine tasting. Ruth Anna and I spent a good 45 minutes learning about pie flavored moonshine and what happens when you drink pie flavored moonshine. Our favorite was called, Sawdust Pie. "Patti’s award winning and nationally recognized Sawdust Pie now featured as a Moonshine! Our pecan, graham cracker and coconut pie, topped with whip cream and bananas has transformed into a Moonshine that everyone is raving about. Made with all natural flavors that you taste individually in one sip." What made it stand out was that the flavors stayed separate so when you sipped it you'd taste things one at a time in waves. But the banana was the tricky flavor, we weren't tasting it and so Michael told us the story about a small woman who came in on her own one day to try Sawdust Pie, when she couldn't taste the banana flavor she was furious and began to storm off, only to turn back to Michael, burp and say, "oh, there's the banana". Upon hearing this story, we all began to laugh, that's when I started to taste the banana. Unfortunately, We didn't think moonshine would travel well in the tour car so we opted against purchasing but I am glad to say it can be shipped, 

and even gift wrapped.

(The front door to Patti's! The rest was even prettier. -Erin) 

    Our day was only getting started, we arrived just outside Nashville to our hotel. Ruth Anna triumphed at getting her suitcase up the stairs. We crashed for a couple hours and began getting ready for a night out on Broadway in Nashville! We'd both been to Nashville before in college but now we were adults in Nashville. It felt rewarding to be back at a different point in our lives than we were as students. So in that mature spirit, we got ready while we watched another cooking show, this time; Diners, Drive Inns and Dives. Our Uber arrived, yes it was a truck, I can't remember if it was a ford or not, sorry dad, and we made our way downtown. We went to Ole Red (Blake Shelton) and Casa Rosa (Miranda Lamberts bar) first. Ole Red was a great start but Miranda Lamberts was a party place with a patio roof! Outside we saw bubbles coming from the roof next door so we obviously had to go there. After that we stopped at a Honky Tonk playing Misery Business and decided we were all tuckered out after taking to many flights of stairs to our final rooftop bar. So we found ourselves singing Fleetwood Mac in The Taco Bell Cantina, because yes they have live music too. We road in our Uber (this one was not a truck) back to our hotel, enjoyed our food and called it an end to an eventful second day on the road.

(Our Rooftop view of Broadway in Nashville, With BUBBLES! -Erin) 

-Erin