I woke up at six and seriously contemplated a run, but thought I should give the family a little longer to sleep just in case I woke them in my attempt to sneak out.  Then I awoke at seven with a vivid nightmare about Cody and I knew it was time to get up.  I went for a run to the amphitheater, visitor’s center, down and a nature trail, and then to the historic entrance of Mammoth Cave. It was a nice perk to go near the cave entrance and feel the natural air conditioning coming out of the cave as I was sweating before my run even began at seven in the morning. We were longing for summer back at home.  We found it!

We left Mammoth Cave and arrived in Nashville at eleven. We headed to Boot Country.  Brooke dressed herself up in some cowboy boots and a hat and said, “Now I just need an accent.”  Brooke dressed Cody up to and told him he was sheriff.  He wasn’t that into it so she tried to get him into the role playing by telling him he could be a storm trooper sheriff. The gentleman helping us at Boot Country suggested we try ACME off of Broadway for lunch.  It was a fantastic suggestion.  The portions were large and the food was oh so good. We caught the view from the rooftop before heading out.

We left downtown Nashville and headed to the Andrew Jackson Hermitage.  We started our mostly self-guided tour there at 2pm..  They had audio units for us to listen to as we went throughout the grounds.  You entered in the code on the sign of where you were standing.  They had separate recorded info for the kids and adults.  The kids recording was told from the perspective of Jackson’s parrot.  More on the parrot later.  The audio recording was a perfect way to introduce Cody to his first lengthy historical tour.  At first he listened to the numbers he was supposed to and then he just started putting in random numbers. One of his favorite tracks was about the cotton they grew on the estate.  The parrot started with, “Did you know your underwear are made out of a plant?”  He was giggling! Anytime there is potty humor involved in any way, you have his attention.

The kids learned that Andrew Jackson was the seventh president. He spent only one fourth of his married life at home with his wife, Rachel.  Jackson was elected president on December 3, 1828. His wife Rachel said, “I would rather be a housekeeper in the house of God than live in that palace in Washington.” Some said she died from worry and heart troubles due to her husband’s political career. Some of the difficulty Rachel endured due to Andrew’s run for presidency was the fact that Rachel had been previously married to, “a jealous and temperamental man.” Rachel had gone home to her mom to escape her first husband and it was then she met Mr. Andrew Jackson. Legal paperwork took a long time to process in those days and Rachel and Andrew were unofficially married for the first time in 1791 technically before Rachel was divorced from her first husband. To make matters even more interesting there is no legal record of Andrew marrying Rachel in 1791.  Andrew and Rachel officially married in 1794. They never had their own children.  They adopted Rachel’s nephew and took in many foster children.

December 22nd, 1828, just nineteen days after Mr. Jackson had been elected president, Rachel died. She got her wish to be a housekeeper in the house of God rather than live in the palace in Washington.

We weren’t allowed to take any pictures inside the main house.  Both the upstairs and downstairs foyers were covered in a large mural in the form of wallpaper that had come from France in 1836.  There were six bedrooms with a rice straw for the floor covering.  Every room had a fireplace for the cold winters. Andrew read fifteen newspapers a day and had them bound into books.  In eight years of being president he only came home four times.

I have pages of notes, but I am more than a week behind on posts so I will put in a few of our favorites:

- Pork was a common food and they used almost every bit of it, “You can use everything but the squeal!”

- Sugar was very expensive in 1836 and homes had a special sugar chest to show they could afford such a luxury as sugar. In the same dining room where the sugar chest was stored there was a secret door under the table that led to the root cellar.

- Mr. Jackson had a parrot who was said to have been removed from Mr. Jackson’s funeral service because he couldn’t stop saying expletives.

- Andrew Jackson was the only president to pay off the national debt.

We had to drag the kids away from the Hermitage.  The were loving all the information and interactive displays.  The Hermitage did a fantastic job of capturing the kids’ attention.  Scott and I were pleasantly surprised at the kids’ response to their first exposure to a completely historical museum.  We want to take them to D.C. at some point, but we want them to be able to appreciate the history.

We stopped at Wal-Mart near Nashville.  The kids enjoyed a lovely game of light saber Beef Jerky while waiting in line.  A woman asked if Scott was making breakfast in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart.  We store our eggs cracked open so as to avoid unexpected cracking and mess making.  It is quite a sight watching us pack all our groceries into our already very packed car. We try to move quickly because it is usually hot on the asphalt and the kids melt a bit waiting for us to fit everything in.

We arrived at Tim’s Ford at 8pm.  We still needed to eat dinner and set up the tent.

We had picked up a pre-cooked chicken from Wal-Mart for a clearance price of $2.50.  Cody called Scott the Chicken Ninja because Scott had suggested chopping the chicken with the same wild knife he had used to cut up the watermelon.  We had to shout over the cicadas.  The Sun Shower made an appearance, but was quickly abandoned because we had a water spigot on our campsite.  After a little bit of water play.  The kids, for the first time on this trip, put themselves to bed in the tent twenty feet away from Scott and I who were still enjoying the fire.