Continuing our Smoky Siesta story, we left off in Nashville, after spending an evening enjoying some great BBQ and music.  Before continuing on to the Smoky Mountains, we spent a little more time in Nashville the next day by visiting the Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art.

Steve is framable!

Since we've done a lot of the normal tourist stuff in Music City in the past, it was nice to explore something different and new.  Also, given that we recently became members of the Chicago Botanic Garden, we got discounted admission because of a reciprocal admissions program run by the American Horticultural Society.  In this case, membership actually did have its privileges!

Welcome to Cheekwood, stay for the pineapple

Cheekwood is a lot different from the botanical gardens I'm familiar with.  In reality, it's more like a historic estate that happens to have gardens on the property.  In this case, that estate was owned by a couple who made a lot of money after creating Maxwell House coffee… a brand that originated in Nashville (named after the Maxwell House Hotel downtown, no longer in existence).  Eventually, the 55-acre property was opened to the public in 1960.

Cheek Mansion

At the center is the Cheek Mansion, which houses the art museum side of things.  Everything seems to radiate out from this point, with gardens situated at various points on the property.  While there are paths connecting things, there didn't seem to be any sort of logical organizational system in place, which made exploring more difficult.

Garden Railroad

Like other botanic gardens across the country, Cheekwood has sold out to the idea that "kids like trains, so let's build a train garden!"  I swear there's probably just one garden railroad company traveling around building these things for everyone.  (And I would be right!)

The train exhibit was located at the front of the garden and it was obvious that it was more of a temporary development, given that it was situated in an open field.  In contrast, the Chicago Botanic Garden fully integrated a garden railroad into a specific area.  (Then again, Chicago's garden is free to enter, but charges an additional fee for the garden railroad, whereas Cheekwood charges a gate admission and includes everything with that.)

Bridge made of glass blocks on the Sculpture Trail

Circling the property is something they call a "Woodland Sculpture Trail," which we envisioned being a trail with large art sitting next to it.  After walking through a buggy, poorly maintained path of woodchips that seemed neglected, we moved on.  Good idea, really poor execution.

Amy explores the Japanese Garden

Cheekwood also has a Japanese Garden, which, I guess was cool, but nothing comparable to the immersive experience we have at Chicago's namesake.  Still, it was interesting to see a different take on that concept.

Herb of the Year?

After a few hours, we hit the road and headed towards the cabin in North Carolina that we had rented east of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  It was at this point that we really transitioned from flat roads to Interstates plotted through mountains.

Gross burgers in the South

Along the way, we made sure to stop briefly at a Krystal, the South's version of White Castle.  If you are wondering about the difference between the two chains, I point you to my 2003 explanation during our Smoky Mountain Menagerie trip!  It's not a great product by any means, but sort of a tradition when we travel in the South mainly because Amy grew up eating them when she lived on the wrong side of the Mason-Dixon Line. Plus, Krystal is well within the guidelines of the well-established Steve & Amy road trip "No Chain Rule" and "Fazoli's Exemption".

A beverage reviewer's job is never done!

During the drive, I was also able to track down some regionally-based beverages for BevReview: Cheerwine and Cherry Lemon SunDrop.  Both are quite excellent soft drinks!  Here's hoping they get more national distribution soon.

And then there was the direction problem.

We probably spent too much time in Nashville, because it was our intent to make sure we got to the cabin with plenty of daylight, as based on the last time we rented a mountain cabin, it's no fun trying to navigate in the dark.  We thought we were doing well on time.  Amy plotted directions to the cabin using Google Maps and we confirmed them with our GPS as well.  In the end, this was probably not a good idea.

Winding through tunnels in North Carolina

I started driving up this mountain, which had various houses on it, nothing seeming out of the ordinary.  But then the switchbacks increased, as well as the grade, and eventually I found myself shifting the car into 2nd gear… and then eventually 1st just to keep going up.  It was getting pretty scary, to be honest, as I really wondered who would want to live on a big incline like this.  The whole thing reminded me of a favorite old movie of mine, 1954's The Long, Long Trailer, starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.  Rent it sometime and you'll see what I mean.

Looking at the map, Amy told me we were near our destination.  And then we ran into the entrance of a gated community at the top, preventing further traveling on the road.  Something wasn't right here.  So we called the owners to clarify.  It was at this point we were told that we were on the "wrong side of the mountain."  I about lost it, finding out that not only were we not close, but now I'd have to descend down this crazy road.  I'm no fan of heights or driving roads that have little or no guardrails to keep me from plummeting to my doom.  This didn't help.

Yellow denotes our destination; Red shows our mistake (Source: Google Earth)

If you take a look at the mountain image in this post, illustrated via Google Earth, you'll note that the Yellow Arrow indicates were we should have gone, while the Red Arrow shows our incorrect position at the top of a mountain.  Oops!

Finally reaching the cabin!

After some deep breaths, we descended the mountain, Amy attempted to keep me sane, and eventually found the place where we were supposed to be.  We've never been so thankful to arrive at a location as we were that day!  So let this be a lesson, kiddos.  When driving through mountains, Google Maps = Bad!