Molly just told me that blog posts don’t happen on trips like this so I’m writing, among other reasons, to prove her wrong. She does have a bit of a point though. Who could blame me for not writing after being provided with all-i-can-drink wine and whiskey and a beautiful rooftop pool to enjoy it by? In addition to proving Molly wrong it would also be a disservice to two great Americans, George Roberts Clark and Aberham Lincoln (with special guest Francis Vigo), to not write about our visits to their respective NPS sites.
So to begin properly at the beginning, we woke up and were on the road by 6. Something we typically do daily in the summer, but due to some A-hole in San Fran haven’t been this year. The goal was to drive eight hours while making the aforementioned stops in order to arrive in Nashville in time to drink the aforementioned libations. In order to prepare for our stop at GRC’s rotunda we did some internet research. One of our favorite pastimes is reading one-star reviews of the National Parks we visit and it was there we learned we could expect to see the “wedding cake building”. We also learned from Twitter that GRC was the first person to add peanut butter to a s’more!
Yes, we also read GRC’s Wikipedia article and learned about his many accomplishments like winning the Western Front during the Revolutionary War. I’m not the type who likes to spread fake news, so here’s a #TrueFact you can share with your friends: Clark St, the one in Chicago, is actually named for William Clark’s (of Lewis & Clark fame) brother. That’s right, none other than our very own G.R. Clark.
From there we headed straight to the Old Thyme Diner. It looked pretty much exactly how a small town dinner should: slightly dingy, Bible verses on the wall, fried pork sandwiches, etc. The notable exception to this idyllic picture was the T-shirts worn by the teenage employees. Apparently the dress code is pretty loose, with each person being left to decide on their own apparel. I can’t imagine it was planned, because that would have been even creepier, but every employee’s shirt featured a death theme. Skulls, sickles, even one with just the word “death” in a stylized font. It reminded me of a Twilight Zone episode. The breaded pork was pretty damn good though.
From there the Lincoln Boyhood NM was just an hour’s jaunt down the road. It was both more, and less, than I was expecting. We pulled into the parking lot and I was awed by the semicircular memorial symbolizing the four stages of Abe’s life. After picking up the girls second junior ranger booklet of the day and taking a cursary walk around the building we made the half mile hike to the historic portion of the memorial.
We nearly didn’t take this walk. While Ellie payed our fee with her fourth grade pass the volunteer asked if we were interested in doing a little hiking. Molly very quickly replied no. Knowing that he was probably referring to the light stroll between our current location and the rest of the Memorial I interjected that we did want to walk around the grounds though. He conceded that used of the term hiking depended a lot on one’s perspective and handed us a map.
The exhibit consisted of several buildings reproduced to show what the Lincoln homestead may have looked like. I think my main problem with the display was that it could, in fact, safely be called an exhibit. There were even volunteers dressed up in period costumes doing period things. I’d much rather see a single overgrown rock that was an actual part of the Lincoln chimney. Think Yucca House NM.
By the time the girls had finished collecting their second junior ranger badge of the day the clock was at 2:30. We were also reasonably sure that we were back in the central time zone after spending much of the day in the Eastern. The upshot of all this being that we had two and a half hours to complete the two and a half hour drive to Nashville in order to make it to wine hour on time.
I’m happy to report that we very nearly made it. In fact we were in the building a few minutes early, but needed to make a quick detour to the room to drop off bags and change clothes. I think it’s safe to say we had wine in hand by ten after. We passed most of the time playing Bears vs Babies, a new game from the creators of Exploding Kittens. One of our most anticipated amenities of the Aertson was the rooftop pool. With one last top off of our glasses we headed to the eighth floor. I think that we would all be pretty happy to pass the next few days there, so it may be a bit tricky to pry everyone away tomorrow morning. At least it will be good motivation for everyone to get through whatever hiking we do.
