And Then We Were Home

Monday morning we packed up our truck and trailer in Memphis and set sail for our hometown, Fayetteville, Arkansas. We'd driven this 320 mile stretch many, many times before from when we'd lived in Memphis and went to visit home. Sky could have probably driven it blind by now. We drove by downtown Memphis, crossed the bridge over the Mississippi River, and then traversed all the way across the state of Arkansas on Interstate 40. Forty five miles further north from there, on Interstate 540, and we were home. WHAT???

Memphis, TN- Almost Home

After Nashville we only had one more stop before going home for the holidays, and it was Memphis. We had lived in Memphis for 3.5 years, and had last been there when we moved back to Fayetteville over 2 years ago. Having lived in Memphis for so long we knew what we would find there, but were interested to see it from a visitor’s perspective. I wondered if Memphis would seem different to us now that we’d seen so many other cities around the US and had something to compare it to.

Nashville, TN- The Music City

Thursday we drove from Knoxville to Nashville in just under four hours. It was just getting dark as we were pulling in and Nashville was lit up by a gorgeous sunset. Just off the highway we found gas for under $3/gl, which is the cheapest we've been able to find on this whole trip! We booked a KOA campground on the northeast side of town, right by the Grand Ole Opry, and after settling in we decided to take it easy and start our city exploring on Friday morning.

Knoxville, TN

Tennessee was our 33rd state on this trip and the last state we visited before coming back to Arkansas. After visiting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park we got back on interstate 40 and drove into Knoxville for an evening. Since we had promised back home that we’d be back by Thanksgiving, we had a somewhat tight schedule to work with and after allotting our other destinations (Nashville and Memphis) their days, we only had one night left over for Knoxville.  It was good to be back in Tennessee, we were excited to be back in the South!

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park in the United States. What’s funny is that we had lived in Memphis Tennessee for over three years and not once had ventured any further east than Nashville. We’d always heard great things about the Smokies and had the desire to go see them. But, like always, when you live close to something you always put off seeing it. I guess better late than never; we are glad we finally took the time to visit the park on this trip.