Touring Nashville Before Heading Home

Belle Mead Plantation

No biking planned today, just the long drive towards home. Before leaving Tennessee, we decided to tour a few sites around the Nashville area. Our first stop was at the Belle Meade Plantation. We arrived before the visitor’s center opened to take pictures of the property.

Hermitage House

Our next destination was The Hermitage—Home and plantation of President Andrew Jackson. We spent 3 hours touring this unbelievable property. The fall colors were a beautiful backdrop for photos of the property.

Andrew Jackson was the ideal embodiment of the unruly, contentious era that followed the young nation’s birth. On his journey from a Revolutionary battlefield at age 13 to two terms in the White House, his unconventional, often controversial principles and vision shook things up politically, culturally and on the field of battle. He played a pivotal role in America’s westward expansion, yet his legacy is also marked by slavery and Indian removal issues that still echo today.

Andrew and Rachel’s tomb is located in the gardens near the Hermitage mansion. Members of Jackson’s family and friends rest nearby.

We had lunch in the Museum Café and then slipped back into our van for the 12-hour trip home to Minnesota. It was 12:30 a.m. when we finally drove down our driveway. Our expectations of this trip were fully exceeded. The memories, friendships and times of laughter will continue to be with us as we now enter the non-biking season in the months to come. We bid farewell to the South and hope to return again someday soon.

The pictures on the map above indicate states we have currently biked in. The midwest states are quickly filling in but we will need to work on going farther east and west in the years to come. The Southern Tandem Rally will be held in North Carolina next year with the Northwest Rally advertised for Wasington State. We hope to bike in each state before retiring our wheels so we must keep on biking!