I’m writing this as we travel through South Dakota.
We are camping overnight in our Tesla tent at campgrounds. We hook the tent to the back of the Tesla, put all the seats down, and blow up a mattress that fits exactly in the space, and sleep in the Tesla at night– we put the Tesla on camp mode, and on the screen, it shows an outdoor setting with chairs and a log fire…it’s pretty cool. The camp mode keeps us warm or cool as needed. The mattress isn’t bad, which is one step above it isn’t good… It’s doable, and I’m looking forward to sleeping in hotels for 3 nights once we hit Nashville.
We’ve seen some beautiful prairie land. South Dakota and North Dakota are miles and miles of prairie. So miles and miles of nothing- but atleast it’s green. They are some of the least populated states of our 50…and it shows. We have voted the ugliest state award goes to Wyoming. If it didn’t have Yellowstone, it would be bleak. North Dakota has been windy!
Wayne made it to his 50th state… North Dakota. We went to Fargo, where he signed the registry and joined the last state club- North Dakota- and got a free T-shirt to commemorate. It seems so many people do North Dakota as their 50th state that it’s a “thing.” It’s been an adventure. This is why we started planning this trip in the first place. How else do you get to North Dakota?
We’ve been driving east and waking up early, so we have seen some beautiful sunrises. This is a 4600 miles round trip with 8-10 hours of driving every day. We have the Starlink hooked up as we drive, so we have internet, and i can do my schoolwork, and we can watch movies and get General Conference in real time. It’s been awesome having a car that drives itself. And it’s fun to hear Wayne argue with Grok– the AI voice in the Tesla as we go.
We are having a protein drink for most breakfasts, eating “healthy” snacks in the car and having one sit-down meal a day as we drive. Once in Nashville, it will be different– the Grand ol Opry and Dollywood! I’m currently in my 3rd day of the same outfit… It’s comfortable, but kind of messy at this point. I figure– hey I’m camping!
Oct 5–We woke up in the dark at the Missouri State campsite.. ( we also set up in the dark) we have no idea what this campsite even looked like. We are getting faster at setting up and taking down; that’s for sure. We drove to Nashville, TN.. and made it there by 5:00 pm. Finally SHOWERS and a good bed. We unloaded and were able to meet up with one of our old YSA’s Emma Hicks at Martin’s BBQ for dinner. She got her MBA at Vanderbilt University and has stayed here for work. We caught up and then she took us down to Broadway where all the nightlife and Honkytonks are. There are a lot of bright lights, a ton of people and live music coming from every bar front. We settled in at Rovert’s Western World– which features the “old’ country music. Wayne and I danced and then settled in for drinks and listening. This place serves a fried baloney sandwich on cheap white bread with chips and a rootbeer for 6 bucks. It’s called the recession special. This is a fun honkytonk! I also danced with some old dude who moved me around the dance floor like a pro. It was fun. More wandering down Broadway. We ducked into candy shops and boot stores and more honkytonks. We landed at Chiefs– it’s 4 stories of different bars and artists playing live music. We got to the roof and enjoyed the view! It really is a fun city and so good to share it with Emma.
Next morning, we got the tour the city trolley hop on hop off pass and saw all the historical sites. We ate an amazing 100-layer donut at 5 Daughters Bakery. It’s a cronut with cream inside and outside. It was heavenly! We wandered Broadway for a bit in the daylight– not many people in the honkytonks–but still live music happening. It’s kind of sad with no audience, but you can see the musicians just want to play. We got a giant chocolate turtle to eat and ice cream as we wandered. We saw the State Capitol and the Ryman Theatre ( where the first Grand Ole Opry was located) and the new Dolly Museum soft opening– and met some nice people along the way. We ate at Arnold’s restaurant for lunch– which is a Meat and 3 place– so you pick out your meat in a cafeteria style line, and get 3 sides– we got roast beef, mashed potatoes, roasted brussel sprouts and Corn pudding– it was all over the top delicious. We wandered some more–the got back to the hotel for a nap. We headed back out for dinner at Hattie B’s Hot Chicken. It was so good. We love eating our way through a new place.
We made it to the Grand Ole Opry and Opry Mills, which is a big outlet space. We found some great shoes- 2 pair for me and 2 pair for Wayne. Then settled into the Grand Ole Opry. It really is so cool! I had to pinch myself. We got there on a good night where Mitchell Tenpenny was having a raise-the-money-for-cancer night, so there were a lot of artists playing.. We had Jackie Lee, Jo Dee Messina, Lee Brice, Ernest, Devin Dawson and Chris Young all performing. The caliber of talent in voice, songwriting and instrument playing is truly amazing.
We once again got up before the sunrise and headed out to Dollywood– we had a 3 ½ hour drive from Nashville and a time change that added an hour, and got to Dollywood at 10:30– it was a gorgeous weather day. We have had gorgeous weather for this whole trip ( minus the wind in North Dakota for a bit). Dollywood is an experience. First off we walked through a Dolly biopic– that went through her whole life with pics, movie clips, memorabilia and sparkle. There is a lot of “I will always love you” sadness because Dolly died– but it is a clean, well-run, hometown-style amusement park. It was all decorated for Halloween too– which was cool. They had real pumpkins lining so many walkways–1,000s of pumpkins, plus all the carved pumpkins and giant pumpkin trees and spooky decor, etc.. Dollywood has a lot of land– and features eleven rollercoasters. We got the time saver pass so we wouldn’t waste our time standing in line and did all of the coasters we could– Wayne was being such a good sport.. We did a lot of circles and corkscrews, some with dangling feet, some that went straight up and straight down… it was a lot. I loved them all. They had a giant free-fall tower as well.- 230 feet in the air ( 20 stories). When you are at the top, the view is spectacular! I love that “wee hill” feeling. The rides were super!
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The shows were amazing. We saw two shows- Rhonda Vincent and the Rage– a bluegrass singer and band. She has won 8 grammy’s for female vocalist of the year for bluegrass and she was excellent..once again the guitar, banjo, and mandolin playing was off the charts! We also saw a dad and son duo called “the Zinks”– they sang a lot of covers that we recognized. Very down-home, and the guitar picking was excellent.
The best thing at the park to eat is the cinnamon bread– it’s actually a whole loaf of hot cinnamon and sugar-coated pieces of dough baked together- ( like monkey bread) and it was amazing! They sell 3,000 loaves a day on average!
Day 7– up and early again— so we would get out and do 10 hours of driving. We have loved using the self-driving in the Tesla. It makes it so we are relaxed, watching movies, and Wayne isn’t exhausted. He’s even fallen asleep a couple of times behind his dark sunglasses…we are totally safe. We arrived at Graham Cave State Park in Missouri before it was dark– and the campground is beautiful. We set up our Tesla tent quickly and hung out til dark- then slept, and you guessed it, up early again for Day 8 and more driving….to Kansas this time, then pushing for the long haul home… we decided not to use the reserved KOA site but push on 3 more hours to Denver airport and stay in a hotel! Day 9…more Wyoming driving...arrived Saturday night back in Layton. We have seen 7 sunrises over the past 9 days. They were all gorgeous! We knew we were almost home when we stopped at Little America in Wyoming and got our $1.00 ice cream cones! We did it!
