Let me start by saying I am a frustrated writer. Not to say I am frustrated when I write, but, because I can not write as much or as often as I would like. I took creative writing in school, was on two newspapers ,enjoyed writing essays ( I know call me crazy ) and liked detailing about a novel in class and even trancsribing French to English. I have lost most of the use of French, but, I can sure tell when someone is using bad language! Ask still know how to order and ask where the bathroom is, I do not ever intend on traveling to France, so……..

All that being said, I still want to try chronicle our travels together , starting with our very fist trip. I will try to link as many places as possible. And when we travel , we stop a lot!! Hence, the name of the blog, we always say, a six hour trip once took us three days, no kidding!

Our very first trip was a short one, we decided to stay close. A friend of ours had told us of a great little restaurant, near where she lived as a child. Not too far, hotel close by…let’s try it!! We are forever in love with Soda Pop Junction in Lynnville Tennessee. The same dude is always there to cook the best burger ever! Well, in our opinion anyway! You must try their fried pickles and fried green tomatoes. We missed trying the fried pickles on our first anymore though. As you can see from the picture, the burgers are hearty. Take your appetite and take time to walk through the Lynnville Train Museum. If you are a lover of trains, as we both are, you will thoroughly enjoy it.

Near to Lynnville are some great southern towns, such as Pulaski , Lewisburg and Columbia. We chose to stay in Lewisburg and discovered a local hotel that is never really too busy. It is our location of choice if we want to just go get a burger!!! The Walking Horse Lodge mainly hosts people coming in to town for horse shows and the like. Very reasonable pricing and clean rooms, though it may be a little outdated.

We drove through Lewisburg that evening, this must be when he discovered my fascination with Courthouses. Whoops! I may have not told him that before. I am enamoured with all the older courthouses across the US! We were nearby in Pulaski County and their court house was incredible. David even talked one of the security guards into letting us take a look from over, into the main courtroom. I took a video so I can’t post it here. It is pretty awesome though!

We continued west on our journey, going through the western part of Tennessee. Stopping at many cemeteries. This passion, he was alredy told how nuch I love to trample through old cemeteries. Every time, he wouls ask if I wanted to stop. I counted ten when I started listing them in my phone. I try my best to track them and log them into my genealogy blog www.fanniesyouraunt.wordpress.com . Here I lost as many as I have been to that I remember to document as I travel. It is quite extensive, still being updated. David took this photo on our cemetery trek in Tennessee on Hwy 129 just outside of Lynnville, so we pass this huge tree often.

A unique place we visited was an antique and unique store. We had stopped a few minutes before to photograph a beautiful country church. The pastor invited us in for a tour and gave a brief hostory of Choates Creek United Methodist Church, located in Lawrenceburg Tennessee. founded in 1854, Pastor Niles Worsham was so kind and gave us church swag, invited us back and mentioned this unique junk store down the road.

So this Pickers Paradise is quite an attraction. The owner is nothing if not eccentric. David had a bit of fun with him as Pastor Worshams urging. Suggesting he say “how have you been” ? , as if they had known each other a long time. It worked and had the man going for a while. Then David gave in to him. The Powder Mill Trading Post is a must see when is central southern Tennessee. Check them out on Facebook.

From Tennessee, we meandered south into Mississippi. Staying in Corinth, but, not much there. But, once we go to Canton, Mississippi, we learned so much. It is a charming and beautiful small town. We stopped in an antique store and spoke at length with the owner, Ms Doris. It has a mixed variety, something for everyone. Canton Square Antiques. She also told us of the Christmas theme the town has and invited is to come back to visit. The, we asked about the courthouse which looked really familiar. It was the scene of the courthouse in one of our favorite movies, ” A Time to Kill ” . A story about injustice in the black community, where Samuel L Jackson plays the father of a young girl who is raped by several white young men and his attorney Matthew McConaughey, who is struggling in the shadows of his predecessor , Donald Sutherland. Other stars include, Oliver Platt, Kenin Spacey , Ashley Judd and Sandra Bullock If you have not already seen this film, you really must.

From Canton we made our way south through Jackson , Mississippi. I have a dear friend who was once the Superintendent in Jackson , back in the early sixties. A time of tumoil, integration and a poor education system. Dr Brandon Sparkman stood up to the racism with his wife and three young children. Often being a target of hate crimes for supporting the black community . He later wrote a book about his time there. The book is titled Called to Jackson, Mississippi: The Last Bastion of Segregation: A Historical Documentary . It is a great read. We stopped at the capitol building in Jackson, which is absolutely beautiful.

We went through a few cemeteries there and headed toward home, back to Alabama. Our first trip together was a gret success. We learned we bth enjoy many of the same things. Trains, history, courthouses and antiques! We took the small car by the way!

Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed!