Missouri to Tennessee

Whew! What a day and what a drive.

Up early for breakfast at the hotel and a walk through old town in St. Charles. My hotel was only a block away from here, so it was an easy walk. You could see the clouds gathering and the tornado warning was due to hit around 5 pm that night in Memphis. But St. Charles was so beautiful, I had to take some time.

So St. Charles to Bells, Tennessee. A white-knuckle and long drive. Pouring down rain with occasional short breaks in intensity. I just hung on and drove, although there were times when I wondered if I should have booked another night in St. Charles and eaten one night’s stay at the Green Frog Cabins. But too late! I was really sad as I had to skip by St. Louis entirely and just drive, a long 7 hours of driving in the rain and finally in the encroaching dark. I made it, I found my cabin, and all turned out well.

I walked into the my cabin, the Moonshine Cabin, and the problem, musty! You could tell it wasn’t frequently used lately. My sinuses immediately responded, and not favorably. Plus I went from the frozen north to really green and blooming! This is where the room spritz helped, I sprayed it all over and it helped add a much better smell. The porch awnings were deep so I opened the doors and let the wind blow through the cabin. Unfortunately, only one window wasn’t painted shut so the fresh air only helped in the living room area (I later figured out that I needed to switch between heat and a/c to clean out the mustiness). But the place was so charming and the bed was very comfortable. I was also the only one at the cabins this week. The only person I saw was the handyman who came by the next day to clean up after the storm! Never met anyone else, at all.

Surprise Two – the grounds for Green Frog were filled with historic structures and they leave you a set of keys to all of them so you can take a tour through the grounds. Due to my allergy attack, I skipped going to Paducah and the Lakes between the States region and just stayed at the cabin. This was a nice way to get outside and take a short walk.

It also appeared that the owner was converting additional structures into cabins for stays. They have a very nice event center there that you can rent out for groups, I could definitely see that the ability to rent out more cabins would be nice. If the cabin wasn’t so musty, it would have been perfect. Except no television, no radio and no internet. Thankfully I had one bar on my phone so I could keep an eye out on the weather. Arriving during a severe thunderstorm and tornado warning was a little nerve-wracking! A weather radio would have been a nice addition. http://www.greenfrogfarm.org