Bemidji Trip - Day 1

Left early in the morning - kids in a good mood. Played the license plate game and looked for signs. Took I-65 to I-24. Ate an early lunch (or late breakfast) at Burger King in Manchester, Tennessee (1030L). Continued north to Murfreesboro and visited the Stones River National Battlefield. It was kind of quiet and very green. The kids had lots of questions about the "Unknown" cemetery stones in the battlefield cemetery. Later drove through the "Land Between the Lakes." I have seen this from the air a few times and wanted to see it. There were live buffalo - a big herd - and lots of other wildlife. The lakes looked very inviting and there were several places where we could have stopped to have a "picnic buffet" on the side of the road. After being tempted for miles, we stopped at the Kenlake State Resort Park (near Hardin, Kentucky) for a dinner - we wanted to try some of their Southern cooking! The kids checked out the buffet and brought back some skinny looking legs of what looked like chicken. After devouring a few of them, the kids went back for more - and I saw that they had been eating frog legs! Despite this revelation, they seemed pretty proud of themselves (I was glad they weren't upset...). Before dark, we visited Fort Donaldson, site of one of US Grant's first victories on his way south to Vicksburg and immortality. Drove until dark. Luckily, we found a cheap hotel (Best Inns of Mount Vernon) in southern Illinois.