Nashville

We set up camp here in Lebanon, TN just outside of Nashville on Sunday and spent the day watching football game after football game. First Tennessee/Denver, then Eagles/Redskins, and finally Giants/Bears. The only game that really mattered, I’m sure you all will agree, was Eagles/Redskins. OMG what a heart breaker. Did the Eagles have to loose to McNabb? They didn’t loose to the Redskins, they lost to McNabb. Heads are hanging low.

That was yesterday – today is another day and we are going to Music City. The ATT building is known around here as the Batman Building. It does look like Batman doesn’t it?   Bicentennial Park is a lovely park.  The history of Tennessee is etched all along the granite walls. Quite pretty. Next to the park is a huge Farmers Market. The mums and pumpkins were plentiful as well as all of the fruits and veggies you could ask for. Across the road and up on the hill is the Capital Building. In place of a dome is a structure that was built to look like a lantern. Do you know how much the city paid for the property the Capital sits on? Any guess? They bought it for one milk cow. The people who sold the property was poor and needed a milk cow. They thought the property was worthless being up on a hill with plenty of rock. So they were very happy with a milk cow. What a deal.

Nashville has a free bus system to get you around center city, so we jumped on the blue line and headed uptown to music row. In other cities we have taken a bus tour to get more details about the town and today we took the trolley tour. The tour took us all over town, up music row, over to the writing and recording area,          and then to Parthenon. It was a good tour, gave us our baring for the city. When we were buying a tickets for the tour, Tommy saw a guy wearing a Phillies hat. Being the quiet shy guy that he is, he started a conversation. They told us that they had tickets to a Keith Urban, Allan Jackson, Vince Gill, Dolly Parton, Miranda Lambert, and John Mayer concert for tomorrow night (10/5) at Bridgestone Arena.        Wow what a line up! Since the concert hall was just a few blocks away and we had 1/2 hour before the tour, we scooted right up there. We did not expect tickets to be available. Well… Woot Woot! We have tickets! I usually don’t like floor seats but when they said the 6th row center, I said sold! A concert in Nashville!

After the tour we walked around music row and the music was spilling out and onto the streets. Honky Tonk after honky tonk the music filled the air.       We had to go into  Legends and Tootsies. Lots of history in those buildings and lots of people got their start on those stages. The band playing in Legends was sooo good.   There were plenty of musicians playing on the street as well. Tommy had to get into the act…. I wonder if he has a chance of being discovered? He doesn’t sing or play the guitar but he looks really good! Fun day in Nashville. And guess what … we get to do some more of the same tomorrow!

Windshield Replaced and On The Road Again

Yes the windshield was finally delivered and installed by 2 pm yesterday. We had to sit still for 2 1/2 hours after installation until the glue was set. Then on up the road. We drove until dark and pulled into another Camp Walmart. We will have a couple of log driving days until our next main destination.

We have taken so many pictures of farmlands and ranches. We have seen dairy farms, cattle ranches, corn fields, soy bean fields, and today it looked like it snowed. Field after field of snowy white cotton. Some fields were in the process of being picked and all along the roadside were balls of cotton.         Of course I’m  saying “pull over  pull over. I need the raw cotton to show the grandkids.” And to take some pictures too.           We have all seen hay bales but have you seen bales of cotton? Big bales, baby bales, and Big daddy bales. We were lucky to see the cotton picking machine. Before long we were passing through Kennett, MO, hometown of Sheryl Crow.        I wonder if she ever picked any cotton, I know she can pick a guitar.

We had to pull off the side of the road and watch this crop duster. He was an acrobat, making tight turns, then diving toward the field,   and pulling up just before the electric lines.   It looked like he would land on top of the cars. Fun to watch.

We knew we would have a long drive day but we didn’t thinks we would go 447 miles! Doesn’t sound bad when driving in a car but an RV is a whole different animal. That’s pretty far but I’ll tell ya, if we hadn’t driven that far we might not have gotten this. What a sunset just outside of Nashville, TN.

A Few Days in Branson

We left my brothers on Tuesday 9/28 and headed closer to Springfield, MO to get our cracked windshield replaced. “They”, the insurance company, said on Thursday that the windshield would be here on this Tuesday or Wednesday. That was bad info, we called on Wednesday 9/29 and was told that the earliest will be Friday. The campground we are in has room for us until Friday. We will either be getting our windshield fixed on Friday and then be moving up the road towards home or, if the windshield doesn’t come in, we will move back to Branson and barge in on my brother or find another campground in the area.

For today we went to see the original and largest Bass Pro Shops. The aquariums and waterscapes were phenomenal. Look at this pretty duck, he has a blue bill, and it’s home in a pond with a water wheel.          These ducks had the prettiest faces. The store has waterfalls, fish, turtles, and even an alligator! Loved the lighting            and wouldn’t you love to curl up on a comfy couch during a snow storm with a cup of hot chocolate in front of this fireplace. Beautiful. To go through this store actually took a couple of hours. Forget about looking at the merchandise, the displays of stuffed animals,   the waterscapes,   and the multiple aquariums kept you there. Tommy loved to look at the vintage guns. At a mere $82,000, I think everyone should have one or two. LOL  

Yesterday, we washed to RV and Hooptie. They haven’t had a bath since Tok, Alaska in August. We have put a lot of miles on and seen a lot of places since then. You could almost hear Hooptie saying Ahhhh when we were washing her. The rest of the day we hung out at the RV park and had one of those restful – do nothing days,.

Today we went back into Branson and saw the Jim Stafford show. Do you remember the tongue in cheek song he made in the 1970’s “Spiders and snakes”? The main line goes something like this… “I don’t like spiders and snakes and that ain’t what it takes to love me, the way I want to be loved by you”. Yeah that guy. Dave was able to get us tickets, so off to a matinee. Cute show, lots of music and cheesy comedy.    I will say he can really play that guitar and banjo! After the show, we went back to Daves for dinner and Wii games with the kids.                           We said our good byes not knowing if it would be for a day, months, or years before we would see each other again. I really have such a good guy for a brother. He is so easy going and would do anything for you and he married an equally nice woman. They compliment each other so nicely. Until we see each other again, remember…I love ya.