Saturday 7/2

Fly like an eagle, a photo by Olivia Linkel on Flickr.

We left the campground in St. Louis around 7:30. We hoped to make it home on Saturday but had no specific timeline in mind outside of getting to Fort Donelson National Battlefield in Dover, TN.

As I was looking at the maps, we noticed Metropolis, IL and I thought I recalled a Superman statue. We double checked the internet and there was so about 11:00, we took a detour off the highway into Metropolis. We spent about an hour in town, taking pictures, visiting the gift shop and getting gas.

Back on the road, we headed a couple hours drive over to Dover, TN to see Fort Donelson. This was the fort that we avoided in our spring break trip to Tennessee because of the flooding. Lorelei did the junior ranger program and while we were at one of the stop points on the auto tour, we saw bald eagle fly out of the trees and swoop down over the river. Next thing we knew, right outside our front window, was an immature (less than 4 or 5 years old) eagle who was not yet "bald". He sat for a while and then screeched and took flight. It was awesome and felt like a fitting end to our trip.

We drove over to Clarksville and stopped for dinner at Cracker Barrel and then we were on the road non-stop. We left the restaurant around 7 pm. We turned the generator on and let the kids watch a movie as the sun was setting. Around 10 we put the kids to bed and other than a stop for gas west of Asheville, we drove straight through until we were home. Scott and I had some nice long talking time between 11 and 3 am when we finally arrived home but it made the drive less miserable and we had some good laughs as well.

Every one was in bed by 3:30 and no one was up before 8:30 which is a miracle in this house. We had a great trip and I am already wondering where our next destination will be.