Hi Y’all! We are so excited to be asked to collaborate with Travels with Delaney on our one MUST HAVE RV item. You all know we were missing our fluff but thanks to our friend Christine we no longer are missing it, so what could this item be? Check out Travel with Delaney’s video to see what our MUST HAVE item is!
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These three rolls of toilet paper are causing me so much anxiety. I am sure there are some of you out there that find three rolls of toilet paper acceptable. I would have to disagree with you and am sitting here in pure panic to think anyone has less than this in their bathroom. LOL In our sticks and bricks home I require, at the minimum, the giant package from BJs or Costco as my emergency stash. Each bathroom has a minimum of nine extra rolls per bathroom. Since we have downsized, I have one bathroom in our RV and lack the amount of storage for these three rolls never mind any more than this. We are looking to have more simplicity in our lives, but I cannot seem to get past the need for an abundance of toilet paper. This is something that keeps me up at night, anyone else?
We have been on the road for more than 30 days now. What at the beginning felt like being on vacation is slowly transitioning to, this is our lifestyle? Everyday is not a vacation trust us! But we still need to transition to this being our lifestyle. We now have a new way of grocery shopping, doing laundry, and connecting with our friends and family.
Grocery shopping used to be a mindless activity. We would have a running list we knew where everything was, and we would be able to get in and out quickly. We knew the times of day the store was most crowded and when we could get away with no one else being in the store. Being full time on the road means you will never know where you regular items are. You will need to have a constant list going and you must shop more often as you do not have enough room to keep a weeks’ worth of groceries in your fridge.
Oh Laundry… the never-ending chore that needs to be done. At home this was constantly being done in our basement and more times than not being ignored. While on the road we must find a laundromat that has above 4 stars as a rating. It would be helpful if the place takes credit cards cause if it doesn’t, we must get quarters. While this all seems like a lot of work, we do enjoy being able to get all our laundry done and folded within an hour and a half. We kind of wish we had focused this much on it at home we would have always had clean clothes.
When at home it was easy to see friends and family. We had calendars we would fill with different events. We were always coming and going doing something. Being on the road we do not have the luxury of just meeting up, but we do have the phone. We have found some of our relationships with friends and family have grown closer since we now make an effort to talk with them once a week. Face-time is wonderful, you can see your friends and family. This certainly does not take the place of being home with them but does help the homesickness you can get while on the road. Our connections since leaving I feel have been greater so for that we are grateful for this trip. When we get home, we will want to make sure we are no longer filling our calendars with mindless activities.
SUNDAY! Crystal’s birthday and of course football! The patriots were playing. We were not sure where we were going to be able to see the game. Bo was able to find a bar called Live Oak in Nashville. This is where the Nashville Patriots Fan Club meets for games. It was such a fun place to watch the game. Everyone was great, the food was fantastic, and we got our very own Nashville Patriots Fan Club swag. The Patriots won so that made it soooooooo much cooler. If you are ever in Nashville during a Pats game we HIGHLY recommend going to Live Oak during the game.
The next day it finally stopped raining! We still haven’t seen the sun, and luckily, we never had to evacuate the campground. We went over to the Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage. It was very interesting to see the museum and the property where the Jackson family lived. After grabbing dinner at one more BBQ place we had to say goodbye to our friends. Another piece of home was leaving us. We were sad, but excited to move on to our next destination. Ten days in Nashville went by very fast. Nashville will forever have a part of our hearts.
On to Memphis.
Our friends arrived early on Thursday morning. We were so excited to pick them up from the airport and start to explore Nashville more. It was early and we were all hungry, so we ended up at the Cracker Barrel. We brought them back to the campground to see Bella and Bentley. While we were sitting at the campground the owner came over to let us know that they are calling for 5 inches of rain on Saturday. That would mean our site will flood. He recommended we get set to leave in case the flooding is bad. We brought our friends to their hotel and came back to get everything put away and ready to leave just in case. Later that afternoon we went downtown to the Honky Tonks. We waited in line at Jacks BBQ. Little did we know this would be the start of many BBQ places this weekend.
Friday morning, they were calling for rain for the day, so we went and waited in line at a restaurant called Hattie B’s. They are known for their friend chicken. We waited in line for two long hours to place an order. The food was good but not two hours in line good. Did we mention it was raining? Once our bellies were full, we went to an old car factory turned into a retail place. We tasted moonshine there that was fabulous. Dinner that night was low key at a place called Rafferty’s.
Saturday we were so excited to have tickets to the Opry Tour. We were able to stand where every famous artist has performed. We had backstage passes to see all the dressing rooms. If you are ever in Nashville, we highly recommend the tour. We also went to see a show at the Grand Ole Opry that night, but not before having more BBQ. We went to Mission BBQ at the Opry Mills it was yummy. The Opry show was amazing. We experienced every emotion possible.
We arrived in Nashville on a warm sunny Sunday. We were excited to get set up and check out what Nashville had to offer. The campground had live music every night along with their restaurant being open for dinner and breakfast. We were hungry and went to the local outback and were greeted by some wonderful people at the bar. They were able to tell us some places to eat and see while in Nashville. They also agreed that the campground we were at was wonderful. The Patriots were playing Monday night football, so we decided to listen to the music at the campground.
We woke the next morning and it was raining. We decided this would be a good day to run errands and do laundry. We were also excited to find out Crystal’s Aunt and Fiancée were in Nashville traveling through with their Model A Club. We had dinner with them and were able to watch the Patriots game in their hotel lobby. It was so nice to have them there a month in on our trip. Having a piece of home there was a great cure for a little home sickness.
The next day was nice and sunny. We went downtown to check out the honky tonks. This was lunch time on a Tuesday and every bar had their windows open with music playing in them. It was kind of overwhelming because how do you decided what bar to go in to? We just picked one and went with it. It was so much fun to listen to live music in the middle of the day. We went to a few other bars and saw some great bands along our way. We had some friends coming later in the week so we knew we would be back for sure.
We arrived in Kentucky at our campground, Guist Creek Marina and Campground on Monday night. We knew they’d be closed but they said we just had to find site 21 and check in the next day. Yes, we promised our family we would not travel at night, but we were almost there and wanted to get settled instead of staying in another parking lot for the night. Well, let’s just say it wasn’t quite that easy. There are mostly seasonal campers at the marina and the signage they have is less than adequate. We drove around a little bit in the pitch black. We were waiting to hear banjo music. YIKES! We decided to leave and come back in the morning. We ended up staying in the local Walmart parking lot.
The next morning it was much easier to find where we needed to go. The check in was uneventful and we got all set up. Later, we made a trip into the little town of Shelbyville. We stopped into the Shelbyville, KY Visitor Center. We were greeted there with a very warm welcome. The best question asked was, “So, what brings y’all to Kentucky?” We both looked at each other and said, “Good Question?” and had a laugh.
The girl provided us with a ton of information to help our stay here be enjoyable. She mentioned a restaurant called Claudia Sanders Dinner House. She added “Yes, the Colonel’s wife” and we both had a light bulb moment. Ooooohhhhhh right…. we’re in Kentucky, Colonel Sanders, duh! Claudia Sanders Dinner House is the real original recipe, not the one at KFC. There is lots to do here, especially if you’re a bourbon fan.
Across the street from our campground is Bulleit Distillery. We went over for our first ever bourbon tour. We were not sure of what the difference between whiskey and bourbon was. Our wonderful tour guide gave us detail, the law says, to be bourbon there must be more than 51% of corn in the process. There are other factors as well, but that’s the main thing.
We enjoyed out first bourbon tour so much we decided to work our way through the bourbon trail. Our next tour was at Wild Turkey. We learned that they get their corn within 80 miles of their location. The distilling process has really interested us, and we look forward to learning more about it. After the tour we were driving back to campground and on the highway, there was a sign that mentioned home of the famous “Bourbon Ball”. We had to see what this “Bourbon Ball” was all about. We stopped at the Rebecca Ruth Candy shop for a tour. We learned chocolate is a fruit so we will be sure to add this to our diet immediately. Rebecca Ruth Candy uses as much of the original equipment Ruth Booe used in 1939 when she originated the Bourbon Balls. When the tour is over you end in a museum like room loaded with lots of antiques.
Our trip in Kentucky has been quite eventful so we have decided to stay another week.
