HXN in Nashville {part 1}

Last Thursday morning, Opal, Toby, Joel, and I left our house shortly after 7 AM with Coach Russow and her two kids, Amber and Jeremiah, and Ella and headed south for Nashville for the Homeschool National (HXN) cross country meet. This was the second year Opal, Toby, and I went.

At a rest stop somewhere in Illinois, where it seemed we were pretty much all the livelong day.

Hours later... The kids: "Are we still in Illinois?" Sandra and me: "Yes, we are still in Illinois. Go run around." In fact, in some cruel twist of fate, the last two miles of Illinois, right before you cross the Ohio River, were almost completely stopped. The ladies handing out coloring pages at the rest stop mercifully routed us around a different way, and we finally did manage to exit the state of Illinois.

Made it all the way to Tennessee! Our hotel, the Drury Inn, has a yummy, free dinner every night, for which we arrived in plenty of time.

After dinner, the kids enjoyed the indoor/outdoor pool.

And hottub.

I thought Ella and Opal's made bed was so sweet.

After the pool, the kids met down in the lobby for some card games and free popcorn.

Such a fun lobby! They joined some other cross country runners and played hide and seek around the common spaces (though, they broke off from the others and played hide and sneak by themselves once the other team showed they couldn't really be respectful of the other hotel guests (pushing all of the buttons in the elevator after I had sepcifically told them not to 🙄)

On Friday morning, after free breakfast they spent some more time in the pool.

Then we drove to the Andrew Jackson Hermitage, where the race course was held, on the beautiful rolling grounds. We didn't get a chance last year to tour the museum, but I was glad we decided to this year, as there was a lot to see (plus, the runners got a discount)- so much authentic history... and they didn't water it down. It was refreshing to see the introductory video when we first went in, giving a balanced view from the Native and African Americans on his part in their history- the good, the bad, and the ugly. Politics were apalling then, too. One thing I found intriguing was that Andrew and his wife Rachel did not have biological children but adopted two sons: Andrew Jackson Jr. (Rachel's nephew) and Lyncoya, a Creek Indian orphan. They also served as legal guardians for many other relatives and children, including nephews and nieces.

And political cartoons, just as lovely.

The history of the mansion was fascinating. This was the third and final state of the house before Andrew Jackson died there of heart failure when he was 78. It had sustained fire damage and undergone two major renovations prior. We got to tour inside the house, but photos were not allowed.

Throughout the museum, when we weren't inside the mansion hearing the tourguides, we listened to a free self-guided audio tour, which was also fascinating.

Our whole Nashville crew

Alfred Jackson's slave quarters- Alfred, born to the enslaved cook Betty, was also enslaved by Andrew Jackson and was known for his long life at the Hermitage, his work as a stableman a tenant farmer, and his role as a tour guide after the property became a museum. Alfred remained at the Hermitage his entire life, longer than any other person, and is buried near Andrew Jackson's tomb.

Back behind the Springhouse, where a spring flows.

On our way to the Enslaved cemetery

Andrew Jackson's first home at the Hermitage- he had a pretty remarkable story of rising from a humble upbringing.

Cotton, just one of the crops cultivated at the hermitage (Nashville isn't necessarily a great cotton growing climate)

The family cemetery

Rachel, Andrew's beloved wife, was initially buried in her garden after her death in 1828, and Jackson later had this permanent tomb constructed for them both, where they are buried together.

The enslaved Alfred Jackson was buried right beside their tomb opposite the family cemetery.

After a couple of hours of thoroughly touring the museum and grounds, our feet were starting to hurt, which we thought was maybe not the greatest, since the kids still had to do their course walk-throughs at 4. So we rested for an hour+ while in the van before meeting up with the other team we were going to join for the race (the Homeschool Eagles). We were all glad to be able to count the day as a field trip day. We did learn a lot.