#1. The Goggomobil Dart

OK, you are asking yourself what the heck a Goggomobil Dart is? Well, read on, and you'll find out - plus lots more you probably don't need to know!

We wanted to be home for our granddaughter, Anna's, second birthday, so we planned to leave home on the 15th.

                      
Once upon a time, many moons ago, Anne decided that it would be good to have separate dishware, cooking utensils, bed linens, etc., for the RV. Theoretically that would make travel preparations easier. It does, probably, but not by too much – at least judging by our latest exodus, which was fraught with the usual exhausting flurry of cleaning, hauling and packing activities. In addition to these, we like to travel with our water tank full, so we can use the RV bathroom and kitchen. Even though the RV has heated water compartments, its no small task to get the tanks filled and the system purged of antifreeze in below freezing weather. An even bigger headache was the tires.

Getting the RV ready to roll involves inspecting the tires. The fronts are new, but the rears are the original tires. Although they only have 60,000 miles on them and lots of tread left, they are 11 years old, and were starting to show some age cracking (from UV exposure). When we took the tire covers off last Saturday, the outer tires had some pretty extensive weather checking. We hurried over to the truck tire dealer in West Chicago, and luckily he had four tires. It turned out that the inner tires were ok, having had little sun exposure, and only the outer ones showed age cracking. So we were able to save some moolah (well, $1397 to be exact) by purchasing only 2 tires. Ouch!

Getting on the road is always a relief, and we usually plan a short day for our first stop. This time we spent the first night in Effingham, Il. at Camp Lakewood.

Arriving in Nashville the following morning, we pulled into Two Rivers Campground, and spent the next morning with our niece, Abby, with her new two month old sweetie Railynn.



Lunch at Cheddar's with Abby, Landon, and Railynn, who slept through it all, was great! Railynn is just about the best baby we have ever been around!



Our next stop was our seventh president's plantation home, Andrew Jackson's Hermitage. 

We were given a guided tour of this impressive 8000 square foot home built by Jackson between 1819 and 1821. Many rooms have original furnishings and wall coverings. Rooms are notable for their large size, and high 12 or 14 foot ceilings. But most furniture  was practical. It was no surprise that the home required 9 people to care for it.  Jackson and his wife Rachel had no children, but were given a nephew (one of twins) to raise as their own son. 

Gaining notoriety in the 1815 Battle of New Orleans, Jackson was a born leader, and the last president to have personally met every one of his predecessors in the White House. 

The estate also has some restored homes of the slaves who worked there. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of history for the slaves, but some information is displayed.

Although the Hermitage and Museum as well as other dwellings and buildings gave a good idea of how the occupants lived and worked, we left the Hermitage with a feeling that we really didn't know a lot about what kind of man President Jackson was. His nickname, Old Hickory, may provide some insights, however.

On Thursday, our friends Kay and Rodney visited us, and we went to the Gaylord Opryland complex, a huge hotel, conference and entertainment center in Nashville. The complex has three separate gardens with many hotel wings, restaurants and bars, and walkways throughout. It is fully covered with a glass roof.

Although we almost got lost a few times, we enjoyed the gardens and our walk.

They even have an indoor waterfall, about 25 feet tall!

After dropping Kay and Anne back at the RV, Rodney and I went to the Lane Auto Museum. This turned out to be an interesting and different kind of museum, specializing in unique cars that did make it to production, though not big quantities. It is not unusual for visitors to remark that they have never seen 95% of the one hundred and fifty or so cars in the collection.

Note the opposing cylinders between the front wheels on this three wheeler.

Here are some of the "micro" cars in the collection. All 14 of the cars in the collection weigh about 3400 pounds - some as little as 250 pounds!

One of the micro cars had both an engine and pedal power!

I'll bet you remember the little Italian Isetta car!

..... but not the Australian 1960's era Goggomobil Dart!

Now on to Atlanta ..........stay tuned ........