Great Smokies Road Trip - Part One

We just got back from a nine-day road trip that included a couple days of camping in the Great Smokies. The whole trip was so much fun!

Last year we did a Gulf Coast road trip to visit my sister in Florida, planning the route to include as many states as we could fit in. We decided that this year we were going to explore another big chunk of the country - we figure that while we're living in Texas, we may as well take the kids to all the states on the eastern half of the U.S. that we can drive to (within reason. kind of).

This was our schedule: one night in Little Rock, AR; one night in Nashville, TN; two nights camping in the Great Smoky Mountains (on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina); one night in Charleston, WV; one night in Pittsburgh, PA; one night in Indianapolis, IN, and one night in St. Louis, MO (plus some stops in other fun cities along the way).

Our route looked like this:

We honestly couldn't have done it if our kids had not been such awesome travelers. I kind of expected it from the older four, but had no idea what to expect from Henry. He seriously amazed us with his no-fuss attitude in the car. He even took naps with no complaint:

We also watched a lot of movies in the car, and all the kids spent many driving hours drawing in the 99-cent notebooks that I had bought each of them for the trip (I seriously had no idea how useful those things were going to be when I made the purchase). And of course, gas station treats are always a help, too:

Day One: Little Rock, Arkansas

Purely by coincidence, we were staying in Little Rock the same weekend that Riverfest, an arts and music festival at the river market, was going on. Our hotel was selling cheap tickets, so we walked down to the festival and spent the evening there. We walked around for awhile, ate dinner at a little restaurant, and then found lots of fun things to do.

Tristan won a prize for his bean-bag tossing skills:

He also loved the rock-climbing wall:

It started pouring down rain during Oliver's turn, but he kept right on going and made it to the top. The rest of us stayed nice and dry under a nearby tent and cheered him on:

Happy and wet after conquering the wall:

The rain stopped after a little while, and we went on to enjoy the rest of the festival. The kids had a blast slipping and sliding around in the soaked bounce house for a few minutes before it was (wisely) closed down due to the wet conditions.

Next we found a little playground built into the side of a hill, complete with tunnels and a slide. I think this place was one of the kids' favorite spots at the festival.

On a bridge high above the Arkansas River:

We had a great view of the city from the bridge:

There were bands playing all over, and after we came down off the bridge, we joined one of the big crowds and listened to the music for awhile.

When we got back to the hotel it was pretty late, but we decided to let the kids do a little night swimming (minus Henry, who went straight to bed). This became a pattern for the rest of the trip - explore the city until dark, put Henry to bed, and then older kids swim from 9:30 to 10:30. Crazy, I know, but hey, it was a vacation. And they always took really good naps the next day in the car. Tristan decided this pool was a little too cold for his taste so he went back up to the hotel room, but Oliver, Rachel, and Elizabeth braved the frigid water and had a great time.

Day Two: Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee

We stayed in Nashville the second night, but on our way there we spent a few hours in Memphis. Here we are driving over the bridge into Memphis. Oliver wanted to be the first one into Tennessee, so we let him sit in the front and stretch his feet out as we passed under the "welcome to Tennessee" sign:

View of Memphis from the bridge:

Daniel and the kids on Beale Street (and yes, the kids are wearing the same clothes as the day before. Because it was such a long trip and we had so little room in the van, they had to double up each outfit):

Eating award-winning BBQ at Alfred's on Beale:

Oliver enjoying his first experience with ribs:

Dancing to the live music at Alfred's:

More dancing in Memphis:


By the time I took this video clip, they were a little worn out from all the dancing and the hot, hot weather in Memphis. You can tell Lizza has completely run out of steam, which doesn't happen very often:

I guess Tristan decided he was too old for dancing wildly in public, so he just climbed around on everything:

On the road again. Five napping children - what a wonderful sight!

When we first drove into Nashville that evening it was raining pretty hard, so we drove to our hotel and checked in. After awhile the rain stopped, so we headed back into downtown.

The highlight of the evening (besides the two hotdogs we bought from a street vendor to let the kids share) was riding around Nashville in one of those horse-drawn carriages. The driver was so nice to us, and let each of the kids (even Henry!) have a turn sitting up front with him to help guide the horse. They were in heaven. After the hotdogs and the carriage ride, Rachel kept saying, "I just never knew life could be so fun!"

No swimming this night. They went straight to bed when we finally got back to our hotel.

Elizabeth and Rachel:

Tristan and Oliver:

And. . . . Henry:

One of my favorite arrangments of the trip was having this little pop-up tent for Henry to sleep in at all the hotels. He couldn't climb out, couldn't see us, and went right to sleep every night. Plus, it rolled up about a million times smaller than his huge pack 'n play, which was a big deal considering our filled-to-the-brim car.

The next morning we headed on toward our camping adventure in the Great Smokies, which will be documented soon (hopefully) in Part Two.