August 1, 2013 - Thursday

We left Little Rock KOA around 9:30 or 10 AM and headed to Nashville, Tennessee! We were so excited to get to Nashville, that we didn't make any stops, except for gas, along the way. Chris and I made lunch that morning, so we ate on the road. One interesting thing about this highway and these states we've traveled through lately: there are a BUNCH of dead armadillos on the side of the road. The armadillos are as abundant as our dead groundhogs or opossums. For some sick and twisted reason, it was kind of exciting to see these animals and try to identify them, because we weren't seeing any in the wild and they were different than anything we see at home. In Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, we saw a possible coyote pup, a few porcupines, and something else that was big and hairy-TBD. :) I understand the names from the restaurant we ate at in Arizona appropriately named "The Roadkill Café."

On to more interesting things. The Nashville spirit got the best of us and we decided we'd purchase each other's Christmas gift while we were here. Chris wanted to learn how to play the banjo, so we stopped at two music stores in Nashville and we found a banjo set that was recommended for beginners. We even met a man working at the store who was an excellent banjo player and he showed Chris a few things. Chris was excited and I was excited that now he has a Christmas gift! I wanted a nice new pair of cowboy boots that I could wear out. I only have my "work" cowboy boots that are super comfortable but very plain and English boots are not the most stylish boots to wear out on a Friday night. So, we landed at Opry Mills where the Grand Ole Opry is. This place was huge! We got to see the outside of The G.O.O and shopped for a couple hours. This mall was like a King of Prussia. There were a lot of high end stores like Saks 5th Avenue and Cole Haan. There were also a few large restaurants like Rainforest Café and Aquarium Café where you could watch the sea creatures in huge aquariums as you ate. There were "regular" stores in between the few I listed above. I found out this mall was redone and opened this past spring after the flood of 2010 shut the entire Opry Mills area down, including The G.O.O. We ended up at The Boot Barn and found some boots in our price range. We matched each other on gift purchases. I really liked the Corral vintage style boots and we found a pair that fit perfectly-I was in love. Now Chris didn't have to put any thought into my Christmas gift either-it's going to be a quiet and relaxing Christmas because we have our family gifts done, too! We are really ahead of the game this year.

It was about 7 PM at this point and we were hungry. We decided to grab a bite to eat at the food court which also had a carousel for kids; it was pretty neat. Chris and I were only a couple miles from the campground and we pulled in at 8:03, right after they closed for the night. Luckily, a few nice people let us in and told us where our site was and that we could just finish checking in tomorrow. After we got the camper unhooked and set-up, we got ready for bed. We had a nice site with some sort of tree frog and another type of frog that sounded more like a duck, but it was nice to listen to.