The Honeymoon

Well we’ve been back from our honeymoon for a little over a week now and it’s time to recap!  We went on a roadtrip going up through Alabama, across Tennessee, into North Carolina, then down through South Carolina, into Georgia and back into Florida.  On Day 1 we drove up to Tuscumbia, Alabama and visited Ivy Green which is Helen Keller’s homestead.

Here I am at the infamous well where Helen had her “aha!” moment and learned the word water.

That night we went out for Mexican food to celebrate Dos de Mayo.

Then we went to a Walmart to try to get some cord or something Matt needed for his phone and on the way into walmart a man pulled up next to us in his car and tried to sell me a bunny.  That was weird.

We stayed that night at a campground in Tuscumbia and headed out early the next morning towards Memphis, bound for Graceland! We toured Graceland, Elvis’s planes and visited the museums on site.

We ended up seeing everything we wanted to at Graceland by 2pm so instead of staying in Memphis for the night like we planned, we decided to fly by the seat of our pants and head to Nashville for the night!  We went to Jackalope brewhouse and then Yazoo brewery.

Then we got some dinner at Peg Leg Porker.

We took a drive down Broadway but couldn’t find any parking so we decided to just head to the Nashville Walmart and sleep there for the night.  The next morning we took off towards Asheville and decided to stop in Crab Orchard, Tennessee to see this waterfall.

It was a pretty awesome place to stop and stretch our legs with a short hike down to the bottom of the falls.  We continued our drive but decided to stop again when we saw a sign for Bootleggers Moonshine.

After some free samples and a tour we continued on.  As we were getting off the exit to the campground we were going to be staying at for the next 4 nights, we couldn’t believe our eyes, but there was a sign for Sierra Nevada Brewery! As it turns out, this Sierra Nevada Brewery location has only been open for a few years and it was just 2 miles from our campground.  For a long time Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale has sat in the #1 spot on Matt’s list of his favorite beers, so stumbling upon the brewery was good fortune!

The next day we visited the Biltmore!  First we toured the home and gardens.

Then we went over to the stables and winery!

On the way back to the campground from the Biltmore we stopped at Wicked Weed Brewing in Asheville for some beers.

We weren’t overly impressed with Wicked Weed so we headed back to Sierra Nevada for some more great beers and some amazing food.

I discovered that my beer of choice, Otra Vez, happened to contain cactus! The next day, it was time to attend the Mother Earth News Fair!  We arrived early and waited for the gates to open.  It was absolutely freezing out and we were grossly under-dressed for the conditions.

It was a nice day of learning and good food but cold, windy weather mixed with some rain made us long for some sunny Florida weather! We came prepared the next day though, which wasn’t quite as cold and windy.  We arrived even earlier the second day so that we could get good seats to Joel Salatin’s Pastured Poultry Profits workshop.  Then we headed over to the book signing so we could each get our books signed.

Here I am with my hero, Joel Salatin, holding my copy of “Everything I Want to Do is Illegal” after having it signed.  Joel is brilliant and I think everyone in America should read this book.  For the consumer it really sheds some light on why it’s so difficult to find wholesome food these days.  For the wannabe farmer it gives you an idea of obstacles 1-8000 that you may encounter when trying to sell the wonderful wholesome food you have produced.

Well that was certainly the highlight of the day, but we did also attend workshops on vermiculture and meat rabbits before heading back to the campground and cooking up some leftovers.  The next morning we head out en route to Kinston, North Carolina to eat dinner at Chef and the Farmer.  This restaurant is featured in a PBS show called A Chef’s Life that Matt and I have watched a few times which is how we got the idea to visit the restaurant.  Everything was delicious!

We slept in a Walmart parking lot that night about an hour or two from the restaurant and in the morning headed for Savannah, Georgia! We arrived at the Marshall House which is our hotel of choice when visiting Savannah.  There was a congratulatory bottle of champagne in the room which we drank in rocking chairs on the balcony overlooking the street.  Throughout our honeymoon we made 14 short videos and posted them to our new youtube channel “Mediocre Manor”.  Here is one from the hotel in Savannah:

If you are interested in keeping up with what’s going on at the farm, subscribe to the channel so you can get notified each time we post a new video.  Ok, now back to the story.

Next we headed down to River St. for our customary alcoholic slushies at Wet Willie’s but made it back to the Marshall House for the free cheese and wine reception at 6.  Next we got a crab boil for dinner!

Then we went on a walking ghost tour of Savannah and heard some ghost stories and ghost sounds.  We rounded at the night with an ice cream from Leopold’s, of course, because that’s what we do when we’re in Savannah! The next morning we were off again, this time homeward bound!

We had an amazing trip, got to see some really cool places, eat some great food, talk to interesting people and gain valuable knowledge. BUT, there’s no place like home!   A lot has happened since our return so I will catch y’all up on that in the next post!