Posts of Pinkie's ballet costume and Junior's graduation up on my other blog.
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Nate goes to Nashville

So, here is the long awaited documentation of my trip from the great state of Utah to Nashville, Tennessee!

See how loaded down my poor car is? Yeah, I had that guy (his name is Chuck) full from floor to ceiling, the boxes on the top, and two bikes on the back.

The first day of driving wasn't too bad until we, Drew Tycksen and I, hit the Rockies. Wow! They are tall! Chuck could barely do 40 mph up those perilous slopes.

 

Despite the slow pace I was feeling somewhat ok about driving through the mountains until I saw this view. Yikes! Slushy, nasty snow! Now I'm worried. What if there is snow on the road ahead? I thought. I was about ready to turn around and head back to Salem. But, I forged on! There is a job waiting for me in Nashville! I will make it, I thought to myself. After seeing a sign that said we had reached the summit at just over 10,000 feet I thought my mountain climbing troubles were over. Not so! After a bit of going downhill we started to climb AGAIN! We eventually reached the summit at over 11,100 feet! Right after that was the Dwight D. Eisenhower tunnel; America's highest tunnel. Cool! Through the tunnel and out the other side and it was relatively smooth driving to Colorado Springs where we spent the night.

Day 2 was much less eventful driving wise. After a few hours of driving we finally reached Kansas. Wahoo! Flatness! That picture up there is at the Kansas visitor center near the western boarder of Kansas on I-70. While there a gentleman looked at my car and then looked at me and said, "You've got that toaster so full there's no room for the toast!" Bahahaha! What a great way to start the day through Kansas.

Time for lunch! We stopped in Colby, KS for lunch at the place shown above. You could buy a bundle/variety of meat and your lunch all at once! Since there wasn't any room in my car for a sizable load of meat we kept it simple and just ordered lunch. I had a bacon cheeseburger. The bacon was freshly sliced and I'm pretty sure the cheese came straight from the farm. Delicious!

Somewhere along the way gas dropped to a lovely $3.36. Wahoo!

 

We saw plenty of this in Kansas but let me be the first to tell you that Kansas is not as flat as everyone makes it out to be. Only half of it is flat! The other half is beautiful green rolling hills! Thursday night we stayed in Overland Park, KS with a friend from my mission. I could live in Kansas City. It was beautiful there.

Friday morning we drove up to the Kansas City, Missouri temple. It was a lot bigger than I expected.

After stopping at the temple we jumped over to Liberty Jail. We took a quick tour through the visitor center and jail and then continued on our way.

Friday for lunch we stopped at a place called Steak n' Shake. They serve hamburgers made from steak? I guess. They also serve shakes. It was pretty delicious.

 

Is that what I think it is? Yeah! The Gateway Arch! We stopped here for a minute to take a break and pretend to be tourists. Underground right below the arch is a museum. We walked through the museum only to see things that we had already seen on our drive east horses, tractors, cows, pioneer relics. You know, the usual stuff found in the west.

We drove for a long time Friday. So long that we were driving well past sunset. After a long day of driving though, we arrived in Nashville, Tennessee!

 

With the few hours that we had on Saturday before Drew's flight back to Utah we went out to explore my new city. First stop, the temple. It's a small one. I think I'll go there often to escape the craziness that is my neighborhood. After the temple we headed to downtown Nashville for lunch. We at at this place called Demos'. They serve steak and spaghetti. Weird? Just a little. You can order pasta dishes if you'd like but the real treat is to order a steak dish that comes with a side of spaghetti! It seems a little strange at first but boy it is delicious!

I'm sure the next few weeks will be full of adventure so check back soon for my tales of excitement!

Here we are in the Sacred Grove. Hope you all get the chance to go there. Very peaceful and beautiful.

The next picture is with our friends. The Palmyra temple in the background and in front of us is the Grove. So cool.









This statue is in the Smith Family Farm visitors center.  It is the Father and Son appearing to Joseph. We loved how the Father had his arm around Jesus.




And on a lighter note, this guy was in the restroom at a little cafe by Niagara Falls. Yes I went in the men's restroom and took the picture

Here's Nathan all packed and ready to hit the road. Good Luck in Nashville Nathan!