we wanted to break up the driving from tennessee to north carolina with a stop. my cousin suggested we visit his buddy perry on his cattle farm just south of knoxville, and that sounded like an adventure to us.
we wound through the farmlands at night (passing some pretty sketchy stuff too) wondering what we'd signed up for. matt saw a lighted farmhouse in the distance and said something about how cool it would be if that were the house we were looking for...and it was! perry and his family were beyond kind and generous. sage woke up the next morning saying, "MOM! there are COWS outside my window!" she was in heaven. she adores animals, but from afar.
after his morning duties, perry showed us around. the kids got to chase the cows in the pasture and ride in the mini john deere power wheel. a baby calf was born that morning, and perry offered to let us come along while he tagged it. i'd never seen anything like this! perry jumped out of his polaris rig, grabbed the baby calf, distracted the angry mama, had nate hold it down, tagged it, and then that baby calf walked right back over to his mama as if nothing had happened.
nate had no idea he'd have to put his whole body weight into holding down that calf for a few minutes. obviously, we would be terrible farmers. we were so impressed with perry and his business.
and doesn't every kid need to experience off roading in some form?
this farm was the real deal. we loved meeting the philpotts family and letting our kids run wild. nate calculated that over the course of our road trip, the kids spent about 55 hours in the car. yikes! they were so good.
in honor of the numerous cracker barrel restaurants we passed in the south, we ate our last meal at cracker barrel. this was also our last squeeze-into-one-car road trip with matt and belize since they are expecting their third child. i vote we rent a party bus for the next road trip!
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