Tennessee

After a brief overnight stay in a small town in Missouri, we made it to Tennessee for a 2-3 week stay.  We pulled into a nice park about 25 miles outside of Nashville.

It was on a lake with a marina attached so the setting was very nice.  The Lake House was actually the office.

While our site wasn't ON the water, we had a pretty nice view from different angles, especially when some of the lake side sites near us were empty.

It was completely off the beaten path so except for trucks and trailers driving around, there was no traffic.  Lots of families with kids and dogs and it was perfect for them because it was so easy to walk or bike around the property.

The next morning we had an important errand to run which reminded me, again, of reason #723 why I love Costco.

Early in the journey Ron had an accident with his glasses and they were virtually unusable.  While we both had an extra pair, they were the previous prescription so we knew we had to figure out a way to get him a new pair.  Since we purchased them from Costco and they had the prescription, we went into a Costco in Arizona and asked if they could, perhaps, order him another pair and have them shipped to a Costco in a different state.  Sorry, they couldn't do that but they suggested we try calling a Costco a few weeks before we were going to be long(ish) term in a place and see if they could help us.

While we were waiting for our truck repair in Kansas, Ron called a Costco in Nashville and asked for some help.  They told him as long as he wanted the exact same pair (he did), they could order them for him and have them by the time we would arrive.  He said yes please and gave them our credit card to charge.

So here we were and it was time to pick them up.  It turned out that the Costco we picked was about a 45 minute drive and not an easy place to get to but because we had already pre-ordered the glasses, we had no choice..  We did some shopping (reason #371 of why I love Costco is the fruit) and headed to the Optical Department.  And there waiting patiently for him was a brand new pair of glasses.  And, the woman who checked him out was the same woman who had taken the order.  So all was right with the world again and I was reminded again of why I love Costco.  

The next day we went to visit the Stones River Battlefield in Murfreesboro.  The battle was one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War and was fought from December 31, 1862 to January 2, 1863 and resulted in 81,000 casualties and 23,000 wounded.  In the end the Union Army, led by General Rosecrans, gained control of middle Tennessee and its rails, farms, and roads when the Confederates, led by General Bragg, withdrew.

There was a nice museum and then we drove to the cemetery which is the final resting place for 6,000 Union soldiers.  It was a beautiful cemetery.

The stones lined up really show the magnitude of the battle.

I found a very familiar name.  I looked him up and it shows that he was believed to have served in the 18th US Infantry but he was not located in the US Army Regiment of Enlistments (1798-1914).  Thank you for your service, L. Levy.

And now, reason #1099 why I love Costco.

This is good - I mean, seriously good.  If you have the opportunity, buy it.  You'll thank me later.