Our quest to visit all corners of the continental U.S. is pressed for time. We wedged a trimmed-down trip to New England between prom and graduation, but to pull it off, Brandon dropped us off in Nashville and flew back to Texas for a work conference. That gave us a few days to visit our old home on Peachtree Street, where we lived in the early 2000’s, and to do RV repairs. Again.

When Thomas Wolfe said ‘You can’t go home again,’ I suppose he had something metaphysical in mind. When we visit Nashville, we get to stay in the actual house we lived in, on a street populated by many of the same neighbors we enjoyed fifteen years ago. Our friends, Connie and Tom Michael, bought the house when we moved, and though the home is distinctly theirs now, every corner of it is full of our happy memories, too. On this trip, the Michaels were finishing up their school year, so we tagged along and found ourselves retracing the familiar routine of our old Nashville life.

The Michaels participate in the same national homeschool group, Classical Conversations, which we attend, so we were excited to watch Paul’s CC mock trial competition. His team won!

The Frist Center is a gem. Though it has no permanent collection, great traveling exhibits rotate through this museum, which is located downtown in a beautifully renovated Art Deco building. Each Spring, we used to attend special seminars about the newest Frist exhibit at our local library branch, and the final program included a visit to the museum. This year, we arrived just in time to visit the Frist with our former librarian, Lana White, who marveled at how tall her little art students had grown.

“Miz” Lana and the kids at Thompson Lane library just before we moved in 2005.

We’ve worn-out most of the tried-and-true Nashville field trip options over the years, so we drove down to Maury County to see the James K. Polk Museum.

Visiting the (Nashville) Parthenon together circa 2003

Reunited with Brandon and operating a fully-functioning (fingers crossed) vehicle, we sped on to Columbus, Ohio, where we spent the night with Nicole and Jonathan Kelly, old friends from our early days in Lubbock. They were newlyweds when we met them, and they credit then-toddler Jane with inspiring them to have babies. Now they have three cute girls, and the youngest is called Jane! We had a fun time catching up with them and exploring  Columbus.

Jack Hanna’s Columbus Zoo

Next, we visited Gettysburg. We listened to Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels, on the way. In the introduction, Shaara’s son, Jeff, tells about a family visit to Gettysburg that inspired the novel. Though the book won a Pulitzer prize in 1975, it was not commercially successful during the lifetime of the author. His son says that Shaara felt like the project was a failure. While our tour guide was careful to point out some inaccuracies in the book, the haunting voices of the novel powerfully colored our impressions of the battlegrounds.

One phrase, “All those young hearts, beating in the dark,” kept sounding in my mind as we plodded along on horseback through the fighting of July 1st, 2nd, and 3rd 1863, tallying the terrible expense of the war. I’ve never understood the enthusiasm of Civil War buffs; perhaps because I’m a Southerner, I feel a sense of shame and discomfort at places like Gettysburg. But I do think it’s important to visit these monuments sometimes. Underneath whatever other political and economic reasons given are given for the  war, there persists a bitter truth; we built our country using slave labor and repeatedly hardened our hearts against the correction of that injustice. I had to reminded myself that I can love my country and its unique graces, while simultaneously acknowledging its brokenness.

Later, we watched a documentary called The Address, about students with various learning disabilities, who memorize and perform the Gettysburg Address. Georgia immediately started working on it, too, and she spent the rest of the trip four-score-and-seven-year-ing us.

One might think a tour of New England should involve the major cities of the area, but since we visited Boston, Philadelphia, and New York a few years ago, we decided to focus on parks and smaller cities this time. We couldn’t miss the chance to stop briefly in Philadelpia to see some old friends, though.

We ate lunch with Stacy Bartholemew, an Athens friend who encouraged and nurtured me when I was a college student. I’ve enjoyed following the Bartholomew family adventures over the years, and their enthusiasm for big cities has infected me. I remember marveling at how well their children navigated New York City after spending their early lives in smaller towns and suburbs. They moved to Philadelphia several years ago to plant a church in Center City, and their affection for this adopted home makes me view it with friendly eyes.

Just across the Delaware River in Collingswood, New Jersey, live our friends, Jim and Emily Angehr. They are church-planters, too. We loved touring their neighborhood and watching our children play together for the first time since the Angehrs moved from Lubbock four years ago.

(Emily took these pictures. See more of her work at junedayphoto.com)

Last, we dropped in on Rocky. Our children like to believe he’s an actual person, and their wish was fortified when they learned (spoiler alert) there’s a gravestone for Adrian Balboa in the local cemetery.