#roadtrip – Team Carter's Big Adventure

A memorable stop at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home in Mansfield, Missouri. No pictures are allowed inside the house, but at the end of the tour you get a photo with a Laura Ingalls Wilder cutout.

Our Summer 2021 was our first “big” road trip with our kids, then 3, 5 and 7 that was out of the Carolinas. Our goal was ultimately to see and stay with friends in Northwest Arkansas (Lowell). Along the way, we were able to visit and catch up with more generous friends who let us crash with them. Ultimately, we think trips to see and visit with friends and family make the best trips. Our total distance was 2,400+ miles and we rode 57 hours in the car, without personal screens. Our itenerary was as follows:

Day 1: Rock Hill, South Carolina to Cookeville, Tennessee (336 miles) We drove throught the Carolinas, on the Blue Ridge Parkway into Tennessee. With the Smokies behind us, we drove past Knoxville and into the home of Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville! It reminded us of “dear old” Clemson (University). Lots of cows and farmland. We visited and stayed with our friend, Brandon and also got to visit from Blaine who made the one hour drive down from Nashville. They took us to Red Silo Brewing Company for some good eats and drinks. There was live music on stage and the Pizza Machine Bus was selling pizza out of a converted school bus. We also went to the Lazy Cow Creamery for dessert–very good!

Day 2: Cookeville, TN to Columbia, Missouri (844 miles). We left Cookeville and the drive through the rest of Tennessee was canceled, because of a downed bridge they were repairing in Memphis. So we re-routed through Paducah, Kentucky and went north to Illinois, before it brought us to St. Louis. In St. Louis, we made a stop to visit Gateway Arch National Park. There is a free museum underneath the arch to learn about Missouri history and as you exit the museum, look up! That is that iconic Instagram photo of the arch. We made it to Columbia, home of the University of Missouri, “Mizzou” and to our friends, Paul and Amanda who welcomed us for a night.

Day 3: Colombia, MO to Lowell, Arkansas (270 miles). We took a lunch break and visited the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home, in Mansfield, Missouri. We decided to ride through Branson Missouri (it feels similar to Gatlinburg, Tennessee or Myrtle Beach, South Carolina) to stop at the Bass Pro Shop. Bass Pro Shop- White River Outpost, is very big here and this one has a big aquarium to look at while you shop. We also rode past Kids Across America Camp- KAA3, in Golden Missouri, where David worked for a summer. We got into Lowell to stay with our friends, the McDonnoughs and they treated us to several days of rest and family fun.

This is Laura Ingalls Wilder’s retirement home where she wrote her memoirs from her book *On The Way Home*

Outdoors, fish and guns at Bass Pro Shop in Branson

Day 4: Bentonville, Arkansas (near zero day). We hung out with our friends and got to see the sights of Bentonville, home of the original WalMart, J.B. Hunt and Tyson products. We toured the free WalMart Museum, which is the life and legacy of Sam Walton, the founder of WalMart. We also played in downtown Bentonville’s fountain park and when it got too hot, we walked a few blocks to the downtown Splash Pad for water fun and slushies. Then we walked to the Compton Gardens Trail that leads to the prestigious American Art Musuem- Crystal Bridges. They have lots of public art outside of the museum and because we were all wet from water play, we did not ventue past the bathrooms in the lobby.

Compton Gardens Arboretum has lots of public art throughout it

Day 5: Beaver and Eureka Springs, Arkansas (40 miles, or one hour away from Lowell). We did a small travel day and visited the beautiful village of Beaver, Arkansas and had a picnic by the “Little Golden Gate” suspension bridge. Eureka Springs is nearby and feels like a smaller Asheville, North Carolina. Plenty of coffee shops and places to eat and shop, bubbling and trickling springs to find around the town and you drive up to the creepy, Crescent Hotel at the top of the hill for a stay or tour. We enjoyed looking at all the cute “Cape Cod” and “dollhouse” styled houses too. On the way back to Lowell, we also stopped by Thorncrown Chapel, which had a service happening inside.

The single car “Little Golden Gate” bridge in Beaver

Having a snack at Bean Me Up coffeeshop, in Eureka Springs

Day 7: Rodgers, Arkansas (near zero day). We took this day to rest before the drive home. We ate at King Burrito, a local drive-thru Mexican restaurant. How I wish someone would bring this to South Carolina! You would make millions! We also went to downtown Rodgers splash pad to play and also visited Iron Horse Coffee Company for a date. Thanks friends for gifting us that!

Day 8: Lowell, Arkansas to Huntsville, Alabama (549 miles). We rode through the University of Arkansas, where we got our “Fayettechill” sticker from. We drove through endless green fields of the Mississippi Delta. We took a detour to Oxford, Mississippi, home of “Ole Miss” the University of Mississippi. Then we briefly stopped to stretch our legs at The Birthplace of Elvis Presley Park, in Tupelo. We made it into Huntville at night, so we saved exploring Huntsville for the morning.

Day 9: Downtown Huntsville and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center (near zero day). We got up early and got an excellent coffee at Honest Coffee Roasters. It is down the street from the famous giant inflatable parrot, Polly Rocket. Once the US Space and Rocket Center opened for the day, we spent the rest of the morning on a tour. We really enjoyed the space-craze exhibit and the Saturn 5 hall. We were also excited to show our kids were US Space Camp meets, if they decide to attend one day. After our 2-3 hour tour, we set off in the direction of home. Huntsville to Rock Hill is 316 miles.

Q and As

What types of accommodations did we stay in?

We are so thankful to our friends in Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas who graciously accommodated us for 1-3 days! It was great to see you and we are grateful for your friendship and hospitality! When we weren’t staying with friends, we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Huntsville.

If you didn’t have screens for your kids, what on God’s green Earth did you do?

Luckily, our kids don’t have personal screens, so they didn’t miss them. However, there is nothing wrong with having them! We just like traveling like it’s 1980 with no entertainment (except for music, radio and books and toys) and a lot of paper maps. We listened to audiobooks, such as On the Way Home, and Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. We also got each of the kids a new, smaller toy that they had to wait to play with until our road trip.

What would you have done differently?

If we could have redone this trip, we would have taken a few extra days to see more of Arkansas. We avoided Crater of Diamonds State Park because we had small kids and the reviews said it was hard and hot work to mine for your own diamonds (which you may or not find). We had also wished we had one more dsy to take a boat rental on Lake Catherine and visit Hot Springs Nstional Park.

How much does a trip like this cost?

We could have saved money, not eating out on the road so much or drinking so much coffee, however this was our vacation. I regret nothing. Our trip ended up being around $2,000USD including food, fuel, admission to the museums that cost and souvenirs.

If you have any further questions or comments about our trips, please let us know at: teamcarterfamilyadventures@gmail.com or comment below! Thanks for coming along with us!

For six months give or take, our family had seriously been looking for another vehicle. My trusty 2001 Dodge Neon had surprised us all and has gotten me through ten years of awesomeness. We knew that eventually we would outgrow this car, but we really wanted to hear God in buying a newer car. Two weekends ago, we were driving up to Rock Hill to see family and on the way David and I both thought (but didn’t say it out loud to either of us) “Hmmm, this car is almost at 150K miles….I wonder if this can be it’s last leg?” We even drove around the dealerships, “just to look.” Then we felt totally called out on the whole thing and we were declaring all of the good things about my car because it is/was a great car. When we would look around for our new car, the timing (and money) never seemed to match up, so we kept patiently waiting. God was telling us “when you need a car, you will get a car.”

Ironically, coming home from Rock Hill, we did get in a wreck. Praise God that everyone was ok. Our girls slept through the whole thing and we had air-conditioning for the whole hour we waited for a ride and the tow-truck! (Later, the technician told us that the car’s AC was not working at all…hooray for supernatural AC in the Columbia heat!). The guy that we hit, who thankfully was ok as well (just some fender damage) was on his way to Ft. Jackson and he stayed with us until help arrived. His fatigues displayed his last name, “Blair.” David’s sister wonderfully gave us a ride to the rental car place and we were so grateful! We were thinking: “Ok God, we guess we REALLY need a car now….so you are going to have to show us one much sooner.”

We got a rental car through insurance to get us home, and my parents generously lent us one of their cars for the past two weeks. Then God creatively stepped in and we received an unexpected inheritance from my recently deceased grandmother that was totally unexpected. I really hope that God was able to tell her before she left to be with him (or else she is hearing about it now) that she was able to bless our family so much with what we had been needing and praying for! So the problem of not having a down payment for the car was solved in less than 48 hours after the accident! Wow, thanks Mimi!! We also had a generous gift given to us from family members to contribute to our future car (little did they know that we would use it in a few weeks) oh wait, it gets better:

So I am depositing that check into our account and I was doubting what it should be used for. I’ve never been given a check that big before and I was contemplating what else it could be used for, or stored up. Then the verse from Matthew 13:44 came to mind: “the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field that a man found. In his excitement, he buried it again and sold everything he had and bought that field.” Remember how the guy we hit, his name was “Blair”? I looked up what that name means and it means “field”. That was my confirmation that that money was specifically for our car! (cue my happy dance).

We prayed about what kind of car to get and David and I agreed we wanted a newer model. It didn’t have to be “brand new”, just newer than say 2008 (which is the year that VHS tapes officially died, y’all.) I kept hearing “white Honda Odyssey”. There are many Honda Odysseys for sale all over the internet webs, but we were “to wait for the one.” So we kept waiting and frustrating things were happening all around us. We had so much opposition this last week, it was CRAZY. But then we received a call that the 2014 white Honda Odyssey that we looked at online was available for us to look at, at Carmax (which was our first experience with them and it was awe-some!). We knew it was ours when we test-drove it. We named her “Pearl” because this van is a long-awaited treasure for us! (and Miriam thinks the van is a spaceship…)

This car was a huge lesson for us in patiently waiting and stewarding well what we had. It is repayment for things we had previously lost or given up. It is proof that God fights for us and truly wants to give us his best! I was listening to a podcast by Eric Johnson about “Kings Give to Kings” on the Bethel app and in it he was talking about living in abundance. “We give our best to God, so why don’t we expect the best from him? Abundance teaches us about the very heart of God and we don’t get to tell God when or how to stop blessing us…but we do have permission to ask for more.” (Seriously, so much good stuff in that podcast, I highly recommend it for a listen.) We contemplated just getting “a cheaper car that we could pay off instantly.” Perhaps that makes more “logical sense”, but instead He challenged us to not want just ANY car, but the most expensive brand out there! And we thought, “how can we afford the most expensive one?” but then he said it was a “future investment.” And we knew when we drove it, that it isn’t just what we needed, it’s everything we needed and everything we WANTED! Because He is like that friends! He really does want what is BEST for you! Be patient for it, but do what He says and it will be given to you!

**Update from 2023: We still LOVE this van! It is now named “Odysseus” because it has taken us on many an Odyssey! We’ve been across the Carolinas, up and down mountains and to the Grand Canyon and back in this thing and it has given us no complaints! **

Team Carter's Big Adventure

Tag: #roadtrip

South Carolina to Northwest Arkansas Road Trip

Meet “Pearl”, the new Team Carter Van!