Southeast Trip Stop 10 ~ Mississippi

By Parker (3/2/20)

Our time in Mississippi was very short. First we went to the beach. It was really fun but where Lincoln and I were playing STUNK. It smelled like sea gull poop. 

The sand was very interesting.  It was like white sand with black lines in it. 

We also played football and keep away at the beach. They were both really fun. Calla did not play football or keep away with us. 

We also saw some people feeding the sea gulls and there was a lote of sea gulls around the beach.

That night we ate at the Rackhouse. More shellfish. Mom’s favorite. 

I would go back to Mississippi sometime and see something else. There has to be more to Mississippi than Gulfport and shellfish. 

Southeast Trip Stop 9 ~ Alabama

By Taite (3/1/20)

“Alabama. Sweet home Alabama.” Said Willy, a true redneck to his best bud Sonny in the greatest southern drawl since Tyler Vansumeren. “Now what was you doing in Alabama, sonny?” Sonny smiled at his buddy and in an equal accent replied, “Well Willy, me and the fam was there for ‘bout a night. It was a good time.” Willy, curious about his buddy’s travels, asked, “That ain’t very helpful. What did ya do, Sonny?”  “Well, we took a look at the Crimson Tide stadium, did some learnin’ ‘bout the civil rights march that had to take place three times before the marchers could get from Selma to Montgomary, and visited the bridge where they were stopped the first two times.” Sonny took a breath then continued, “Parker had her first oyster.” “Oysters are delicious” Willy interjected. “Ain’t they?” Sonny agreed. “We all enjoyed them, ‘cept Mama (she’s lergic)…and Parker didn’t love them.  “We ate some good redfish too. That was about all we did in ‘Bama though. It was good.” Willy nodded and said “Yup, sounds like ‘twas a good time, Sonny.”

Southeast Tour Stop 8 ~ Tennessee

By Kate (2/27/20)

Fabulous Friends and Fun

Southwestern Company is where it all began. I don’t mean this trip. I’m talking our lives together. If there was no Southwestern Company, there’d be no “Travis & Kate.” No Taite, Calla, Lincoln, or Parker. No farm. No insurance company. No galavanting around the United States. I might not even be a Christian. Selling books during our college summers completely changed our lives. If we were going to be in Tennessee, we were going to share Southwestern with our kids. 

Travis scheduled an appointment with Dan Moore, our friend and current president of Southwestern Advantage. Dan took us (well, really our kids) on a tour of the building. We saw the “Wall of Greats” and many of our friends’ photos hanging on the wall. Much of Southwestern has changed, but the foundation of hard work and positive attitude remains the same. We were also able to visit with author, speaker, encourager, and head of Southwestern public relations, Trey Campbell. He blessed us by sharing his vision and a few of his published books with us. I can envision at least one of our children being involved with Southwestern Companies. We’ll probably be back here someday. 

Travis’ Executive Admin, Liz Manning, and her best friend Olivia met us for dinner at a hip Mexican spot called Taco Mamacita's  We spent the whole time eating delicious food and talking about the Bible (one of my favorite subjects). Then they took us to Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams for dessert. Brown Butter Almond Brittle. Need I say more? We don’t have Jeni’s in Minnesota. We might have to come back to Nashville just for some ice cream. 

Tony and Tessa Ripley moved to Nashville last spring with their beautiful kiddos, Cael and Elise. We sold books with both Tony and Tessa. They were in our wedding and we were in theirs. We traveled to Israel with them a couple of years ago. Needless to say, we go way back. We love this family. We were blessed to spend the day with them Saturday. All the boys (including dads) ran around at a park and played soccer for hours. The girls had their own games that were overwhelmingly imaginative and I have no idea what they were doing. Tessa and I talked (and talked and talked - typical for us). Tessa prepared a delicious vegan lunch. Eventually we all became tourists. We visited the Parthenon, Music Row, and Downtown Franklin. We planned to eat dinner at a pub with live music but that didn’t work out so well. 🙄 So we ate at a Greek reataurant. I think that was better anyway. When the music is too loud ya can’t hear each other. The kids had already made a plan to swim at our hotel’s indoor pool. The management had to kick us out of the pool area to close it down at 10:00. We were sad to have our evening come to an end. Looks like we’ll have to come back. 

Taite’s very first nanny, Nicole (Price) Rodriguez and her husband Javier live in East Nashville. Nicole sold books with Travis. Another friend of ours, Katie (Pelligrini) Thornberry and her husband Brandon also live in East Nashville. (Katie was one of my favorite book selling roommates!) Good news, these two families both go to church together. We wanted to see them and we wanted to worship the Lord. How perfect! We met them for service then went our for pizza at Boombozz. After worshipping, eating, talking, and playing it was time to head to Alabama. We missed so many touristy things in Tennessee. We’ll probably have to go back someday. 

EDIT: on Sunday afternoon, March 1st, we left Nashville for Alabama. On Monday night East Nashville - and the establishment where we ate pizza (Boombuzz) was destroyed by a tornado. Please join us as we pray for our friends and all the residents and business owners of East Nashville. 

Top: The East Nashville corner where Boombuzz is located before the tornado. 

Bottom: Same corner after the tornado. 

Southeast Tour Stop 7 ~ Kentucky

By Lincoln (2/25/20)

While in Kentucky we did a lot of things, so I am going to tell you my top four. All of them happen to be museums.

The Ark Encounter. It was a life size Noah’s Ark with a lot of interesting history and handmade scenes of Noah, his family, and the animals. I thought it was weird that Noah and his wife named his son Ham. The ark was absolutely huge! It was 300 cubits (450 feet) by 50 cubits (75 feet) by 30 cubits (45 feet).

The Creation Museum. The Creation Museum compares the evolutionary point of view to the biblical point of view on pretty much everything. I thought it was really cool to understand both perspectives. It helped me see why people might not believe the Bible and the evidence to support the Bible.

The Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. It is located in, well, Louisville. They gave us a tour of how they make their famous Louisville slugger bat that over 8,000 professional baseball players use. They showed us how different professional players like different bats – like the types of wood, the color, length, hollow bottom, etc. We even got to hit a few balls in a batting cage. The guy running the batting cage said he wants mom on his softball team. It was a great experience. And we got a mini bat.

The Kentucky Derby Museum. We saw a wall of all the winners of the Kentucky Derby from 1822 to 2019. I learned that the horses racing at the Derby are all three years old. After a tour of the race track, we went inside and played a horse race video game. I think I beat Taite so often because I’m much lighter than him. We also placed our fake wagers on a screen, got our ticket, and watched a horse race simulcast to see who won.

In Kentucky we also ate KFC (I mean, we were in Kentucky), we did an Escape Room, swam, and played pool at our hotel. Kentucky was beautiful. I thought it was awesome that people would spend so much money, time, and effort into sharing God and his wonderful creation to the world. Just as Solomon said, “blessings crown the head of the righteous.” (Proverbs 10:6)

This little girl said I was her best friend. 

 

Southeast Tour Stop 6 ~ West Virginia

By Calla (2/25/20)

In 1992 an underground nuclear bunker (which Congress would have used if needed), under the Greenbriar Hotel in West Virginia, was exposed and decommissioned. We stayed at the Greenbriar Hotel (not in the bunker, thankfully).

Let’s start in the mountains, though, we entered through the Appalachian Mountains. I think we were above the clouds! It was so beautiful. We could see for miles.

Then we went to the hotel I was talking about earlier. The first thing I noticed when we drove up was that it looked like the White House! The inside was wild and fun! It had so many different patterns, colors, and shapes. It had chandeliers in almost every room, even one that was used in the movie “Gone with the Wind”!

We enjoyed swimming for a few hours, then headed to Drapers for dinner and ice cream. Side note: Dorothy Draper was the interior decorator, they named the restaurant after her. We went back to our room after a Shirley Temple and learned more about the history of the building. Then we found a Hallmark mystery movie, which I personally really enjoyed and hope to watch another one soon!

We woke up this morning, got smoothies (not from McDonald’s) (family joke), and drove away for Kentucky.  

God has blessed us with many memories. Over dinner we were talking about our previous and future travels. I hope we remember these travels long into our blue hairs!