Father's Day on the Road: Church, Barbecue, and More History

Early Monday morning finds us still in the central time zone as we welcome summer. When we checked into the Hampton Inn in Lebanon, Tennessee yesterday afternoon it was a toasty 99 degrees. We had thought about going out for a tour through the streets where General Patton's troops trained for their march through Europe, but we decided to call it a day.

Yesterday we left our hotel in search of a Dunkin Donut shop which, as it turned out, closed on Sunday. We worshiped at Two Rivers Baptist Church out near Opryland. It is a large church which was used by the Opry for at least one performance after the flood. Yesterday was the interim pastor's last day, and we heard a good sermon on what it really means to be a church member. I liked his reminder that the church is a who instead of a what. Unfortunately too many people forget this.

After church, we again set off in search or brunch or lunch or something. We ended up having an early Father's Day lunch at Famous Dave's Barbecue close to the Hermitage. The meal was excellent. After lunch, we drove back up the road to the home of Andrew Jackson.

We began our tour with a film, standard procedure, picked up our headsets, and walked the five minute walk up to the back of the mansion. The front is currently under restoration. It didn't take long to recognize the political correctness that the interpreters had immersed themselves in since the last time we were there. I understand that much of what Andrew Jackson did, in hindsight, was flawed. This can be said about any leader. However, life does not take place in hindsight. If it did, great historical movements would never take place. Every action has two sides to it, if not more. Every time one group of people advances, some other group suffers in some way. Anyway, after we got to the house, groups of twelve at a time were taken through the rooms. We saw fourteen rooms. The hallways have the same wallpaper that Rachel chose, a wide sweeping vista, both downstairs and upstairs. Our favorite rooms were the bedroom and library that were Jackson's own rooms.

We exited the mansion and walked through the gardens. I loved the herb gardens leading to the tombs. The bees were working the blooms and the fragrance was heavy in the hot air. There were huge beds of echineacia in full bloom, daylilies, roses, alhea, and many other flowers and herbs that I could not identify. The gardens are laid out in a formal English pattern of squares. All in all, we spent over two hours walking the grounds.

After returning our headsets and retrieving Klep's ID card, we did the museum shop, returned to the car. The Battle of New Orleans was playing on AM 650. We drove around to the old Presbyterian church where the Jackson's worshiped and the home which is owned by the Donaldson's, Rachel's sister's family where the Jackson's adopted son's twin brother lived. I hope I got all that straight! After that, we found highway 70 turned left and headed East.