Greeneville, TN is a great destination for a quick getaway road trip for couples, friends, and families from WNC. Lots of history and beautiful scenery. First published August 14, 2019.
Four of us – two couples – share an interest in history, exploring new places, taking in scenery from the road, excellent food & music, great spots to stay, and unexpected discoveries, so when an opportunity came our way to put a new 2019 Chevy Blazer through its paces, Heidi, Tom, my husband, and I hit the road on a three-night Romantic Couples Getaway.
We left Hendersonville, NC early on a Sunday morning for Greeneville, TN, stopping in Marshall, NC for a late breakfast.
Photo Note: click all smaller images to enlarge, and in some cases see an additional caption.
Don’t judge when I tell you we got to Greeneville just in time for a fabulous, and I mean fabulous, Brunch (served Saturdays and Sundays) at Brumley’s Restaurant & Lounge at the historic General Morgan Inn & Conference Center.
We took back roads that were full of curves, hills, and scenery – much of it along rivers. The scenery was great and we hugged the road in both 2 and 4 Wheel Drive.
We wanted to see how the Blazer’s OnStar® 4G LTE Wi-Fi hotspot, advertised as able to handle up to 7 devises at a time, worked on country roads through the mountains. It also has up to a 50-foot range from the vehicle, which might come in handy in a few different scenarios. Not only was the network easy to connect to, not once did the signal drop throughout this entire trip.
Another bit of tech I tried was connecting my phone to the car using the Android Auto App. Every time I got in the car, the App activated automatically. All I had to do was plug my phone in to a USB jack and I could use voice to get to everything on my phone: other Apps like Waze, my calendar, make and receive calls (contact list accessable without uploading it to the car), get to my play lists, audio books, basically whatever’s on my phone. If you have an iPhone, use Apple CarPlay.
When I didn’t need to get to specific things on my phone, voice commands worked great with the car’s dash-mounted screen: maps, music, downloaded Apps, and calls via my Blue Tooth-paired phone.
Greeneville, and Greene County for that matter, are full of history. We toured the President Andrew Johnson National Historic Site: Visitor Center, Homestead, National Cemetery, Birthplace Replica, and Statue of Andrew Johnson. The Early Home was closed for roof replacement by a specialist company brought in from out of state. Greeneville’s also full of surprises like booming manufacturing and schools ranked #1 in the state! Tusculum University, home of Andrew Johnson’s Library, is close to opening the pioneering Niswonger College of Optometry with a full compliment of faculty and staff.
Later in the afternoon, we took some very cool, meandering back roads. Like, “Hi! We’re here for dinner at your front porch because it’s so close to the road”, kind of back roads from Greeneville to the David Crockett Birthplace State Historic Park in Limestone, TN, not far from Greeneville. It’s a pretty amazing park with lots of RV parking, a rec area (including an outdoor pool), living history type cabin, green areas & facilities, and an interesting Visitor Center. A really nice, wide river, the Nolichucky, runs along much of the park, also. P.S. He preferred to be called “David”, not Davy, after getting in to politics.
It was such a beautiful day, we set a romantic picnic table next to the river for dinner: Ploughman’s Fruit & Cheese Board and Biscuit/Scone leftovers, cheeses, crackers, and a variety of small boxed wines we brought from home.
It was pushing dusk, closing time at the park, so we packed up and headed back to the historic General Morgan Inn for the night. Two romantic rooms had been booked for us and we were looking forward to a little “down time” on our own.
Inn General Manager Michael Brown welcomed us early in our visit and filled us in on some of the Inn’s history. Hospitality has been happening on this spot since the late 1790s when The DeWoody Tavern was welcoming travelers and offering locals a meeting space. They were in business for almost a century. An interesting note about the General Morgan Inn, which stands on the same spot as the Tavern, is that it’s actually three different railroad hotels that were combined in to one.
I loved the hotel and our room. Our room was perfect for relaxing and cooling off after a long, warm afternoon outside. As my thoughts wandered, they settled on one way I’d describe the Inn – as the home of a much loved, favorite Great Aunt. Beautifully decorated, extremely clean, and well lived in.
In the picture of the hotel below, the front corner is a good coffee shop, Catalyst Coffee Co, accessible through the Inn’s lobby or from Main Street. Each hotel guest gets a $7 Catalyst voucher in their check in package. We all took full advantage in the morning. Yes, I did my standard Latte test and they passed with flying colors.
Cooler temps the following morning were just the thing for a historic downtown walking tour called “A Walk With the President”. Our Guide, Wilhelmina Clemmer Williams, met us in the Inn’s lobby for a pre-walk conversation about Greeneville history. She’s a Guide rather than a Docent because all walking tour Guides are highly trained by the National Park Service. She was friendly, professional, and definitely knew her stuff!
Our Romantic Couples Getaway was Sponsored by Chevrolet and Visit Greeneville TN.
