Category: road trip

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Nashville and Beyond

The front view of the Hampton Inn, in Nashville, charming!

Batman here:

The stay in Nashville was as expected, very nice. We stayed at the Hampton Inn Nashville-Vanderbilt, 1919 West End Ave. in downtown Nashville. The hotel was once again, very nice, and clean with friendly staff, and on site parking for a $25 fee.

It was remarkably easy to get to, (which we did not expect arriving to a big city on a Monday), and their service was excellent, to include an excellent breakfast. Peach and I, although not really fancy, ate at Halls Chophouse, which was a short walk away from the hotel and it was EXCELLENT. Definitely, not something we are used to, as it was pretty fancy, and pricey, but it was worth every penny! The steak was the best I’ve had any place, ever, and the atmosphere perfect.

We will stay here again, if we come this way and probably eat at the same place.

Next, it was off to Columbia, Missouri, where we stayed at the Country Inn and Suites, 817 N Keene St. The hotel was very nice, and the staff friendly.

We did not eat breakfast there. We ate at Cracker Barrel instead. Never a complaint there from us! And then we were off again.

Peach here:

Our quick visit to Nashville was just right! The hotel was charming, and the staff very kind! But, Halls Chophouse was an unexpected pleasure, to be sure! Live music, quite the classy ambiance, wait staff who are extremely professional and good at what they do, which is help you navigate their offerings of delicious beef and wine!

Our waiter was a gentleman and the dessert (chocolate cake with fudge icing, and raspberry sauce) was scrumptious and more than Batman and I could eat together!

I loved that we could walk to it from the hotel!

Missouri was a quick shot and off again, as the travel ran long that day. More on that in another post!

We’ll be back soon with more travel deets!

Love and peace, Y’all,

Love and peace!

Peach and Batman!

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adventure backroads joy Love Marriage retirement road trip travel

“Heads Carolina…”

First picture on our little road trip!

Peach says:

Oh, my goodness! You may have seen Batman talking about us planning a little excursion! We’ve been counting the days until we could take a little time for some adventuring!

Oops

Today is the day we set out! We have a general destination and idea of what we want to do and see, with no particular tight time frame. And lots of opportunity to take rabbit trails! We’ve never done this, well, maybe back in 1996, 1997 on a couple trips with our sons!

But, this is just us! Some music! And more than a few pairs of boots and clothes! I should add here, that as we packed yesterday, it was very obvious who was in the military in years past, and who…was not! 😂😂

There’s nobody better to take a road trip with than my Jerry! He’s up for anything, we like the simple pleasures! He will stop for anything, anytime!

Now we are having stretch sessions at the rest areas! 😂😂 It really helps! Things you don’t really need or think about when you are in your 30’s! In our 50’s though, this is a big deal!

We will be giving updates for fun and memories to look back on in the next couple of weeks!

Happy Sunday, Y’all! Peace and love!

Peach

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backroads dads food Life Love nature photography road trip travel Uncategorized

Down the Road

Batman says:

Road trips are a fun way to spend an afternoon or weekend. Cruising forgotten highways and byways of the states always takes Peach and I to interesting places. Normally we don’t have a plan, pick a direction and off we go, to me that’s easier as there’s no firm destination so there’s no worry about getting anyplace in a hurry, which is the way we like it. We are apt to pull over and take pictures of airplanes or signs on the side of the road at any given moment.

We generally take these trips as photo opportunities and snap pics at things we think is cool or interesting, be it places or objects. Kinda like a mobile photo shoot so to speak, so I will keep attaching photos from several of our trips, maybe someone will recognize a place or see something they may want to visit.

Going for a ride does so many good things for Peach and myself, without a destination we are free to stop and explore, basically anything we want, and we like to explore together, so there’s that. There’s also the fact that we both really like taking pictures of just about anything and everything and what better way to see various things than to go on a road trip.

Then of course there’s eating, and if you know me you know I don’t like skipping meals (no fat jokes, I’m a sensitive guy) and again there are soooooooooooo many small shops and eateries to stop and sample food. Local favorites where ever you are, usually do not look like much in small out of the way towns and places, but boy howdy the food is outstanding most times and the staff in these small places are usually friendly and polite and try and ensure you have a pleasant meal while you are there.

Some of the views we get are crazy outstanding and some of the places are rich and full of history, take a walk thru Savanna’s squares and read the plaques denoting a time gone by (a time which a lot of my friends say I’m a throw back from) where a person had to work to make a living, and people genuinely cared about their cities and towns and their neighbors. We see a lot of these type places driving down forgotten county roads, the roads the truckers used to rely on for their routes. My dad when he was young was an over the road trucker and used to in his latter years comment on how he wished he had the time to drive some of the roads he used to just to see the routes again, to my sadness, as bad as I wanted to surprise him and go on a road trip with him over those old routes, he went to be with our maker before I could make that happen, sometimes I feel as if he is pointing me in directions to go (crazy? Maybe but I believe).

To me, and I believe to Peach also, the fun is in the adventure of what we find along the way, and we continue to find things that surprise, enlighten, and give pause, all have been happy interesting things, some things have been long in finding, some just around the corner, but in all, we know in our hearts that, “You will not find happiness at the end of your journey, if you do not bring it with you” (read that scribbled on a bathroom wall on one of our road trips 🤣 an have found it to be so true).

If you’re out and about and see an old country boy and a beautiful Peach stopped on the side of the road taking pictures, or in a small town wandering and photographing with phones and cameras, don’t be alarmed, it’s prolly just Peach and Batman headed “Down the Road”

Y’all take a piece of advice from an old country boy that’s “living in the wrong time” in this new fangled world; Live your life as God intended, learn to take happiness with you where ever you are headed, stop and meet people in small out of the way places, smile, give a kind word to someone, and above all, find that someone that you can not stand to be apart from and hang on to them forever, the adventure awaits just down the road.

“Peach, it’s getting time to spin the dial and see which direction we should head, don’t ya think?”

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family Ford F150 Life New Year photography ramblings road trip thankful Time management Uncategorized writing

Dunno

Batman says:

I will preface this post with saying that it’s probably going to ramble and make NO sense at all…

New Year, hmmm ok well it’s not like we have a choice about staying in the old one, so here’s hopin y’all enjoy this one. Funny thing, the passage of time, sometimes it goes fast, sometimes excruciatingly slow, but it always passes. Sometimes I feel 800 and others 12 (Peach says I always act 12) but in the great scheme of things I age like everyone else. Time is supposed to help us grow wiser and learn from past mistakes and victories, but some don’t learn at all it seems. I for one seem to repeat mistakes numerous times before they sink in and I try stuff a different way.

Christmas is gone and I’m saddened a little, I like seeing the joy on the faces of people that get what they hoped for or get unexpected, but welcome gifts. Funny how watching the joy others get, makes a genuine person just as happy.

New Years Eve, everyone and their brother around here launches fireworks, from dark till who knows, and it is cool to watch and see. No apologies to those who move here from somewhere else and then complain about the noise scaring their pets…go back where you were and take your pets, one person’s trying to change the way 50 have always done, is kinda self centered, don’t ya think? (My post so I can say stuff like that till Peach over rules me 😬). One thing time hasn’t fixed, I am still frightened of Peach 😂😂, j/k but I am frightened I may disappoint her.

Ever wonder where stuff went over the years? I do, all the time, like where the heck did my patience go? I used to be sooo patient with everything, now it’s like calm then instant irritation. Or where did skinny me go? It’s like this big grumpy guy ate me and I’m trapped in him, trying to get out but liking peaches’s punkin pie too much. Socks, that’s easy, the washing machine eats them, end of story.

Bought a book the other day, that in itself isn’t unusual we do that quite often, this one claimed it would improve my photography skills. I’m always willing to learn to be a better photographer and I figure this fella must know a bit as he’s graduated from the New England School of Photography, been on tv shows has his own business and so on. So I fork out a few dollars and start reading…impass.. what is it about college educated people who want to teach people things, always talk at such a high level of expertise that the only people who understand them, don’t really need to be taught, as they already know the material??!! I did expect to have to struggle a bit as I am by no means someone that knows much about the technical aspect of photography, my skill lies in the ‘oh look, that would make a cool picture *snap*” and move on school of picture taking. It’s kinda funny how almost every camera on the market these days has an auto feature, and EVERY expert photographer right off the bat says “don’t use the auto feature”. Then why in the Sam Hill did they put one on the camera?? I take pictures, I like the looks of some and I trash the others, I will probably never be anywhere near Ansel Adams (he was a famous photographer), and who knows if I’ll never sell much, but I like to learn stuff. Why can’t these edumacated folks speak in plain speak. You can explain all the technical aspects and do it using plain speak instead of technical mumbo jumbo, can’t ya? I mean how hard is it to say “the higher the f/stop number, the smaller opening on the aperture” this is something I can wrap my foggy brain around. I use lower f/stop numbers to blur the background and higher to make the background more clear, easy peasy. Anyways, I’m reading it grumbling all the way and I’m sure I will glean information from it, I just wish it wasn’t taught by a rocket scientist (joke). Maybe I’m too old and set in my ways to be taught, probably be better through trial and error.

Read something yesterday I found interesting: the Country music band from my youth “Alabama” was awarded over 200 awards over its career, and are the most successful music band in country music history! Who’d a thunk it? Told y’all I’m all over the place today 😬

Peach and I took a trip in my BRAND NEW FORD F150 😬 which we bought on the exact same day of the year that I got my previous one, to go see my sister, her husband, and my mom, who’s 85 (and ornery as ever) and we had an excellent time. We learned stuff about the truck and we learned we can’t drive as long as we used to without stopping to stretch the old bones (mine Peach you’re not old). And we learned that the next day is pretty much marked off for recuperation.

By the way, John Wayne, he was awesome.

Ok, I think I have bounced all around enough for one post. Peach and I truly wish you and yours all the blessings you want and need over the new year and hope to see you somewhere down the road…

By the way, anyone know a really good travel trailer for a couple, weighing under 6000lbs…

“Yes Peach, I know Peach, but I warned them it was gonna make no sense”