Tennessee

And here we are back in the United States and this time as a complete family!!!

Welcome to Tennessee.

It’s been 4 months since we left Scotty at the storage unit in Arkansas. On Christmas eve back home in Valencia we were having a good conversation while sipping a glass of mold wine stearing at the fireplace and the topic just popped up….. will our children join us for at least one section of our travels on our next adventure to the east and southeast of the country? After serious consideration the conclusion was that they would take a short vacation from their jobs and join us for a small portion of a once again, beautiful journey.

BUT, what are we going to do with Mila if all of us will be on the other side of the pond?

Hey!! someone will have to take care of me while you guys are enjoying your adventures!! It is when Rebecca from California who lives in Paris and an excellent friend of Jaime, volunteered herself to look after Mila…

It seems like I am saying… well hello!! Did you have a good sleep while we were away? This time Scotty didn’t suffer at all from its hibernation, all systems worked right away. Temperatures in Arkansas haven’t been severe this season, so all good!!

Scotty arriving at the campground in Greenbrier, AR. First night out after 5 months!! A couple of days later our son Jaime III arrives from Paris.

It is always nice to share a meal or two with our lovely friends Sam and Mandy from Conway

Scotty was pretty much ready for Adventure #5 so the only thing left to do was to depart from Arkansas headed to Tennessee and pick up Erika at the Memphis airport; she arrives from the Hague, Netherlands.

Obviously we had to get our bodies warmed up by playing on an 18 hole golf course in town!!

This is funny, see these two pictures both related to motorhomes, but 23 years apart… the first one in Germany back in 2003 and the second one in Memphis

A few years ago our son visited Nashville during his year abroad and he said we shouldn’t miss it!! Off we went to spend a couple of days in the city that has seen very famous singers and artists in general, and this is what we did!!. I can’t imagine how a “swiftie” or Taylor Swift follower would feel walking into the bars that she played at the beginning of her career!!

The campground was excellent, surrounded by a lake and a marina

We just had to wait; it was just a matter of time to visit the noisy city, and the street to walk by is Broadway Street itself. It is very easy to describe it in one word: CRAZY!!! You can hear the drums, trumpets, guitars all day long and well into the early hours of the next morning… so many great artists

Who said PAPARAZZI!!

Of course we had in the plan to learn line dancing without embarrassing ourselves 😂

But I have to say, Jimmy and Erika did a great job!! Much better than us

Shall we buy a hat or not…. that was the dilemma of the night… in the end they just tried it but no, they came to the conclusion that if they walk on the streets of Paris and The Hague wearing one of those, people will think they are going to a party 😂

After partying in Nashville it was time to be more in contact with the nature and show the visitors how me and Claudia spend our time visiting natural attractions. Time to visit Chattanooga and Pigeon Forge, two of the most visited towns in Tennessee.

It was a rainy day in Chattanooga so we decided to do just two things: visit Lookout Mountain and its main atraction, Ruby Falls, the nation’s tallest and deepest underground waterfall open to the public, featuring a 145-foot cascade located 1,120 feet beneath the surface. After this visit, why not going to the cinema!!.

Ruby Falls is a 145-foot underground waterfall located within Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tennessee, discovered by accident by Leo Lambert in 1928. While drilling an elevator shaft to access a different, sealed-off cave, Lambert discovered a new, hidden passageway, leading to the waterfall which he named after his wife, Ruby.

That evening the weather was fantastic so we thought it’d be nice to do a campfire and it is when Jimmy practiced his Scout’s skills from our time in Scotland.

The next day we departed to Pigeon Forge which happened to be a pretty nice town, lots of entertainment and very similar to places like Branson, Missouri. Nearby there is another, probably more beautiful little town called Gatlinburg. So many activities to do!! But as usual, we had limited time so we took advantage of the time we had and just enjoyed ourselves!

Just what we wanted, en route to Pigeon Forge we bumped into a Buc-ee’s station. As usual, fantastic place but we have to say, those Burritos are so hard to digest!!

Both Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg offer so many activities, from mountain coasting to zip lines to amuzement parks to great trails. We did a little of everything. We adventured to go for a 3.5 mile trail up to Grotto Fall. Claudia wasn’t too happy to walk upstream that long!!

It took us 3 hours to get there (uphill) and just an hour to come back to the car park (downhill)

The next adventure was zip line, the longest in the country!! Megazip at Wildside adventure park measuring a whopping 5,700 ft ( almost 1.1 miles) reaching speeds of up to 55 MPH and drops down to 1,100 ft at ground level. Claudia said when invited to join us: thank you but no thank you 😆

See what you have to do for your children!!

Some mountain coasting

And here’s Jimmy the son taking a motorhome parking lesson from Jimmy the daddy

Obviously tree number 42 had to be graciously planted by the overseas visitors who enjoyed the experience

And this is how the visit to state number 40 in our count comes to an end; the boy is already back in Paris and the girl will stay with us for a few more days on our next destination….. the state where a delicious chicken’s recipe was created….. Kentucky!!