How did you end up here?

It's a question we get asked a lot. On our journey we have found some beautiful, out of the way, places and met some great people. Most of the time it's pure serendipity and the nature of not planning too far ahead.  So how do we decide where to go and where to stay?

You'll have seen from our rough plan that we have general directions and destinations in mind but nothing, other that the initial tri-city tour, has been planned in detail ahead of time. We have a US route map, a SatNav (GPS) and a book called "1001 Places to See in the US Before You Die".  These, and guidance from people we meet along the way, are our planning tools. We look at the major destination and use the SatNav to find out how far it is. The distance will determine how many stops we will make on the way.  We use the book to find out places of interest in the right general direction, the route map to find scenic routes and to locate state parks which have camping.  If it's not a very interesting area or the distance is considerable, we'll opt for travelling on the Interstates.  Otherwise we look for the most interesting route avoiding Interstates.  Once that's decided we look at where the parks are and decide where we are going to stay next. (We pick up State Park guides along the way and if there's wifi we can look up more details online.  Trevor likes the ones with fishing lakes) For the smaller parks we call ahead and reserve a spot, for larger ones we just take a chance they will have sites available. If there are no State Parks we look for a KOA (Kampgrounds of America) as you know exactly what you'll get.  Twice we've had to use independant commercial sites and have had a lovely time at both.  Once we know have an address it's programme up the SatNav and off we go.

We are always heading to a major destination but the journey is the adventure and sometimes it outshines the ultimate goal.  The second leg of our trip, "The Road to Nashville", is a prime example.  After leaving Lake Michigan we headed for Nashville, Tennessee.  A journey of about 500 miles through Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, which we decided we'd do in three stages.  The first stop was just an overnighter in northern Indiana (lots of corn and soy beans but very little else). However, our trusty guidebook told us there was a place called Nashville in southern Indiana too.  As luck would have it Brown County State Park in the Hoosier National Forest was right on the very doorstep so we planned to spend a couple of days there. It was the biggest park we'd see so far.  The campsite was 4.5 miles from the park entrance!!! Oh and the forest...

...trees as far as the eyes could see in every direction! Hidden lakes, miles of walking, biking and even horse riding trails through the most beautiful hill country. It  was stunning.  Just the drive up and down to the campsite was a pleasure.  You'd never believe there was a tourist town just a few miles  away with shops and entertainment aplenty.








Nashville, Indiana is essentially an artists colony and something of a mecca for bikers. It has some of those iconic elements of small town America but at first glance it looked a tacky tourist destination. The folks were friendly though so we gave it a chance and, as our guidebook suggested, headed through town to The Muddy Boots Cafe for our elevensies.

The welcome was warm, the decor funky, coffee delicious and with live music to look forward to at night it changed our whole perception of the town. We walked out with fresh eyes ready to look beyond the tackiness to see the creativity going on around us. The walk back through town was a joy and we even bought an original piece of art to bring home with us. It's going to look great on the wall at home and will forever remind us of 'the other Nashville'.

Our guidebook also directed us to another tiny town nearby, that of Story. With just a population of 3 people it was like stepping back in time to the turn of the the 20th century. Though now just a restaurent/inn it's a unique place where even having a pint of the local brew is an experience....and yes, it was served in a jam jar!

 To be continued...