A Time For Everything

 

This is my first picture ever of Buc-ee. I was introduced to the beaver at the Madisonville (TX) store by my dear friend Michelle. I don’t think either of us expected things to turn out this way—me dragging DD all over the southern United States to visit every Buc-ee’s there is. :0) But I think she’d get a kick out it.

Any who, day one (Saturday) was mostly about travel. But we planned a visit to the Memphis Zoo to get some physical exertion after seven hours in the car. And the Memphis Zoo is awesome. So if you’re ever in Memphis and have the time, visit their zoo.

DD and I had an awesome experience with a lion... We got to hear the lion roar! And it was just the most amazing thing to watch him and to hear him as it echoed and vibrated in the air. It was just more incredible than I can really describe.

Check this out...same critter, two different perspectives:

On Sunday, we hit the first of two Buc-ee's locations with lunch with a friend sandwiched between beaver sightings. We also traversed the bottom section of the Appalachian Mountains which was both a surprise and very beautiful. We weren't on roads with any kind of steep drops, but they were very windy and very narrow and so just a little anxiety inducing.

This doesn't do the scenery justice, but here you go...

We also got to experience Atlanta traffic at rush hour and, yowza, it was more harrowing than cutting across the Appalachians!

We passed the Olympic Torch Tower which was actually not the official Olympic Torch Cauldron from the 1996 Olympics.

Monday was our trip to the World of Coca Cola Museum, lunch with another friend, and two more Buc-ee's visits.

The museum was fun and we got to taste all kinds of Coke products from around the world. I took some pictures, but am just sharing this:

Tuesday was another looong travel day with a stint through Dallas traffic at rush hour to cap it off. But we had fun and made it home in one piece--obviously.

Now to turn my attention to my friend's visit. She arrives tomorrow and *we're going to hockey game together!* Her team is on town playing my team, so that should be a lot of fun.

I'm very excited. :0)

Take care and catch you in a couple of weeks.

 

Back to Music City we go!

After my trip through the Ryman and on the Studio B Tour, I found myself back at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. I was ready to meander through it. It carries a couple of special exhibits as well as its general ones. Specials included costumes and things from Carrie Underwood's Blown Away Tour as well as The Bakersfield Sound. The Hall of Fame and Museum is also constructing an addition which will include a Reba McEntire presentation.


Walking through was like a trip down memory lane, and I was re-introduced to artists I hadn't thought of or heard in years. The whole time I kept thinking how much my dad and my younger daughter would have enjoyed the whole thing.

The best part, of course, was the actual Hall of Fame the rotunda on the front left of the building. Round because no one is better or worse than any other. Three music staffs (the set of five lines on which notes are arranged) line the walls and the plaques are hung randomly. Most recent Hall of Famers includes Kenny Rogers, Bobby Bare, and "Cowboy" Jack Clement.


After the museum, I crossed the street to the Music City Walk of Fame.



And after that, I trudged back to the parking garage to go back to the hotel to get ready for my  anniversary dinner aboard the General Jackson Riverboat. I don't have too many pictures from the evening because it was my anniversary and I just wanted to enjoy the meal and the show and the view of downtown Nashville from the Cumberland River. The Heart of Tennessee, A Musical Journey was fantastic and I was familiar with just about every song they sang. It was fabulous. All pics are also on Shutterfly--use the link above.


And we're not through yet! But Saturday's trek is for another day. I hope I'm not boring you all too much. But it was such a neat trip, I can't help but share.

So after tramping around downtown Nashville for five/six hours last Thursday and taking close to a hundred pictures, I needed to decide what was on the agenda for Friday.

As I mentioned Wednesday, my options included the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere and the Belle Meade Plantation right up the road from the hotel, among tons of other options. I mean, there were tons of Civil War markers all over the place and I'm a history buff too.

What I ultimately decided to do was go back downtown and tour the Ryman Auditorium and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. At first I hadn't planned to do either. But something just got in my head or my heart (I think it was my daddy.) and I realized that I couldn't visit Nashville for the very first time and *not* go see these places up close and personal. Even though I'd walked by them and taken pictures of the outsides just the day before. I had to go inside them. And I'm SOOOOO glad I did.

I credit my love of country music to both my parents. To my mom who just always had the radio on, exposing me to it. That's just what we listened to in the years when music becomes an important part of kid's life: junior high and high school. And to my dad who loved music so very much and exposed to me to real records and many different musical genres.

A few highlights of the Ryman:



After the Ryman, I headed over to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. But first--I took the Studio B Tour...

Oh my gosh! I'm so so so glad I did. Another wonderful treat. Our tour guide was rather cute, too!



Anyway, Music Row, contrary to my original belief is not in downtown. It's really a pair of residential side streets that look mostly like a regular neighborhood. Except, of course, for all the signs in the front yards.


Young Randy, the tour guide, shared a few anecdotes with the group that I'm going to share with you.

First: The hit song "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton is not your traditional love song. She wrote it for Porter Wagoner as a thank you for the opportunity he gave her to be on his show, which was the launching point of her career. Because she wanted to go out on her own, she was "fired" from his show. As a way to show no hard feelings, she wrote and performed this song for Porter.

Second: Don Gibson wrote his two biggest hits (Oh, Lonesome Me and I Can't Stop Loving You) after his wife up and left him. He continued to send her roses on their anniversary thanking her.

Third: Elvis Presley, who recorded over half his hits in Studio B, was A) responsible for making Studio B famous--he preferred it over Studio A, and B) requested or made arrangements for light fixtures that held four different colored light bulbs. He liked to set the mood while recording songs.



In fact, if you listen closely at the end of an original recording of Are You Lonesome Tonight? you can hear a thud.  To set the mood, the lights ended up being turned completely off and Elvis hit his head on the microphone.




For the rest of my pictures of the Ryman Auditorium and the Studio B Tour, visit my Shutterfly Share page.

And there's still more to come! I hope you'll stay tuned.

Back to Music City!

So you're going to Nashville--what do you see???

Once I decided to go, I needed to figure out what to do or see. Thank goodness for Google. After a few searches, I had all kinds of things to choose from. Of course, Nashville is the country music capital of the world, so no trip would be complete without a pass down Music Row or past the Ryman Auditorium or the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

I'd definitely decided on a self-guided walking tour, complete with a map and pictures and descriptions of the things I was supposed to see. A trip to the zoo was also a possibility, but I didn't want to schedule every minute of every day either just because I'd be exhausted and I don't really roll that way. DH goes there quarterly, so I can go back at some point.

And when we drove DH to the conference the first day, thank goodness we took the back road, because I saw some gorgeous homes and architecture (I'm a architecture nerd even though I know nothing about it.) *and* I discovered the Belle Meade Plantation was right up the road and open daily for tours. A live plantation?? Right up my alley. As for the zoo...well, an elephant is an elephant is elephant, right? But maybe. I still had time to fill.

Here are a few highlights from my walking tour. All my pictures can be found on my Shutterfly account, if you're so inclined.


Below: the guitar in front of the Hard Rock Cafe at the corner of Broadway and First Streets.

Below: the entrance to Printers Alley.

The Wildhorse Saloon

The Ryman Auditorium--home of the Grand Ol' Opry until 1974. Some say its acoustics rival Carnegie Hall.

The Tennessee capitol building.

Hope you'll come back on Friday for day three of my trip and more pictures!

Today, you get a two-fer! My Movie Monday post which I'd already postponed once should already be up, so scroll a little farther down for it. In addition you get the details of my trip to Nashville!!!


Road Trip, Day One

So DH had a conference in Nashville and invited me along, and I said YES!!! I hardly ever take time off work and show up when I'm sick, etc., etc., etc., so I thought this time I was gonna live a little. The travel and hotel is a business expense for him, so that part didn't really cost extra for me to go. Plus our anniversary was the 19th, so it seemed ordained for me to go.

It was approximately a 10 to 12 hour trip by car. We rented one as our employees needed ours for their client appointments. This is what we got:
 

 A Honda Civic. A nice little car, but not one I'd buy if in the market for a new car. First of all, not enough cup holders for the number of beverages I travel with!


I drove the first leg, from Fort Worth well into Arkansas. I enjoy driving through Texas and depending on which way you travel (north, south, east, or west) you're going to encounter a lot of different terrains. I wanted to get a picture of the "Leaving Texas" sign, but either I missed it, or there isn't one when when you head east on I-30 into Arkansas. Instead, DH took this:



And while driving along I-30/I-40 through Arkansas and into Tennessee was pretty because, almost the whole way, the highways are bordered by thick copses of trees, it quickly became monotonous because, well, the highways are bordered by thick copses of trees on both sides! I usually prefer wide open spaces like farm fields. Don't get me wrong--I like trees, but again the view quickly became tedious.

We did see a couple of cool things along the way however. Like a crop duster dusting a small field right along the highway:
 

And this... They're not the greatest pictures, but basically it's some sort of vine plant that's overtaken and overgrown the rest of the foliage. It looks like a huge slipcover or like topiary. I did learn that this vine is not native--it came from Japan or somewhere and takes over the other foliage. That's not so good, I guess, but it's very neat looking.



We hit Memphis shortly before rush hour and as this is a mini-vacation for me, I asked DH to stop for dinner. I mean we weren't visiting Memphis but the timing was fortuitous, so I figured we could at least eat there. So I did a quick search on the best places to eat in Memphis and decided upon:



It was just a little hole in the wall kind of place a couple blocks from the Mississippi River, but they had some awesome chicken and were voted the in ten best eats in Memphis at least in 2009 and 2011.

Rewinding just a bit...

Entering Tennessee means crossing the mighty Mississippi River!





We arrived at the hotel about 8:30 and got all settled in for the night. We're actually in Bell Meade rather than Nashville proper, but it's a very picturesque little suburb and I'm quite pleased with it.

I was a little worried about ten hours in the car with DH, but in light of my new-found life lesson on happiness it turned out fine. We talked about a lot of things, including said life lesson, and he was all for my decision to not let his irritation and grumpiness affect my moods--unless of course I'm responsible for his mood. Ninety-nine times out of one hundred, I'm not, so...

It was a lovely day for a drive, with gorgeous blue skies and scattered clouds all the way from Fort Worth to Nashville.


More details and photos of my trip on Wednesday!


Have you ever been to Nashville??