Three Hour Tour

This morning we got up early (even set the alarm) and had to be out front at 8:15. The shuttle pulled up, and off we went. The first stop was at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel to pick up more folks. Our tour was now started. The driver took us to the historic area old Nashville. We didn't stop there, but past the Fort Nashborough. We went by so fast we couldn't take photos. Then it was on to the State Capital. We went through the park, which had some wonderful places to stop, but we didn't. Then we went up and down Music Row. That was really interesting. Not what I expected. Then we went on to the Ryman Auditorium-The Mother Church of country music. What a fabulous place. Just thinking of the talent that has been up on that stage boggles the mind. Tom and I walked all over the building, except backstage. Tom got some nice pics. A fellow was taking pictures of folks on the stage, with his camera or ours. We took advantage of his patience, and he took 2 for us. Neat, right? On we went to our next stop, The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. We could have spent a whole day there. The exhibit on right now was the Hank Williams Family. They called it Family Tradition. That whole thing was great. The second floor was where we would have spent more time. They had suits and dresses of the stars, and lots of memorabilia. All over the walls were all the Gold and Platinum records of anyone who ever had one. I found one of Alan Jackson. I know there were more, but not enough time. I told Tom we had about 10 minutes left, and we were both disappointed.
Our last stop is a place called Ledgend. It's a bar near the Ryman, and someone was sining, but we don't know who. He was pretty good, though. We were only there for a few minutes. Everyone on the tour got a free soft drink. We went outside to get some pics and look at some of the little shops on the street. Then it was time to go.
Now for the critique. We were disappointed in the first part of the tour. If we had taken more time on that, we wouldn't have had as much time for the good stuff. So I guess all in all it was OK. We haven't decided if it was worth $45 each yet, but we have decided to come back again and do it more on our own. We really want to walk around downtown and just see more of the city. The old town was so neat, and we would have spent a whole day down there. They had what looked like some great places to eat, and just browse around. We'll take care of that another time.
Tomorrow we leave here and head for the Natchez Trace. We may not have electric many nights, so if we don't answer e-mails or write the blog, you'll know we are dry camping. Tom will now add the pics, and we hope you all enjoy.

The Grand Ole Opry

For the last few days it has been raining here. First not so much, but yesterday it rained all day. But last night it was great. We went to the Grand Ole Opry. We saw Whispering Bill Anderson, and Jeannie Seeley. They were great. They may be up in age, but they can still belt out those old country tunes. We also saw George Hamilton IV, and there was also great songs from Jack Greene. Some of you folks who were around in the fifties would remember their songs. They called them teen ballads. We also saw 2 bands not to well known. We thought both were good, but The Road Hammers from Canada brought down the house. I'm sure we haven't heard the last of them. The other was The Del McCoury Band. They did blue grass. The ending was the best. We got to see Charlie Daniels. Man, can that guy play the fiddle. The whole night was wonderful.
Tomorrow we are doing the tourist thing. We have tour tickets to see some of Nashville's famous places. I hope we remember the camera this time. We should be gone all morning. Stay tuned for our review.
Today we did some fun things. We did laundry this morning during the rain, and then we went to see Darrel and Judy. They had stopped to see us in Pennsylvania and are work camping here at the KOA. Camping world is right near by, so we stopped by to go through the store. We also went through some new motorhomes. Nothing we liked better than Emily. Then we went to the grocery store. We have to have food for the Natchez Trace. We leave here on Friday morning, and will be dry camping for a few days. On our way to The Big Easy. Good Food!!!

Breckenridge Rv Park

Breckenridge Rv Park is in Crossville, Tenn. It's a nice little park, but really friendly. This is the park we chose to be our home park for Coast to Coast. The total cost of staying here for three nights is 4 dollars. That's right! 4 dollars. We got the first night free. I suppose because it is our first time here, we didn't have to pay for the first night. If anyone has questions, you would have to ask Tom because I don't really know all the ins and outs of joining Coast to Coast, but 4 dollars is OK by me.
On Friday night we went over to the Cumberland State Park for supper. There is a great restaurant there that has a buffet every night. The building itself was really a nice place to sit down and eat. They have wall to wall and ceiling to floor windows so it's like your eating outdoors. The food was wonderful. Tom even liked the catfish. They have lots of meats, veggies, potatoes, soup, a big salad bar, and plenty of desserts. They are famous for their homemade banana pudding. It's made with vanilla wafers, and they put piles of meiranige on top. DELICIOUS! We came away filled up right proper.
Yesterday we took off to try to find the local flea market. After a stop at the post office to mail our absentee ballots for the November election, we finally found our destination. It was fairly good sized, and we picked up a few little things we needed. At least that's what we told ourselves. We stayed away from the funnel cakes. I think that's something we don't need. On the way home we stopped at a bakery thrift store, and bought some good bread. It was really warm out, and we had a really nice day.
Today we planned to stay home and just rest for a bit before heading out for Nashville tomorrow. I made some fried breast of chicken with mashed potatoes and country gravy. I added some corn, though I would have liked something green. None in the freezer. When we sit for awhile we will stock up a bit more. It's hard to travel and cook big meals. There is plenty left over to have a good meal when we stop tomorrow.
We don't have that far to go to get to Nashville. We plan to take a tour and maybe get to the Grand Ole Opery. We'll see how it goes. The plan is to stay for a few days before heading out for the Natchez Trace. That will be dry camping for awhile. It's supposed to be quite beautiful. Then on to New Orleans for a couple of days. Maybe. That's what nice about this life style. If you don't like where you are, you just move. Even if you like where you are, you can go find somewhere else you like. We love it.

Seeing Some of Tennessee

Today was a great day. We started off by going to the Bristol Motor Speedway. What a place! We took the tour, which lasted a whole hour. Since we were the only folks for the 11:00 tour we had one on one with Janet, our guide. She took us up to Burton Smith's luxury suite. What a view. What a room. For those of you who are not race fans, he owns the track here, plus a few more. We were able to walk up the banking of the track. It was hard to walk up. She also took us up to Victory Lane. The van we were in took the track at about 60, and you could tell we had the wrong tires.
The complex also has a drag strip. We took a run down the lane there, too. We were very pleased with the tour, and suggest it to everyone, fan of racing or not.
After we left the track we headed out for Jonesborough. It's the oldest town in Tennessee. What a neat place. There are so many old buildings there. Old hotels that daste back to the early 1800's. Presidents have been there, and many people of note. Today the town is getting ready for their annual Storytelling Festival. All the churches are going to have dinners or lunches, they have these huge tents all over the place. If we had known about the festival, we probably would have gone over the week-end. We did the shop stopping thing, and had some good ice cream.
On the way to Jonesborough, we passed a BBQ place with a packed parking lot. We decided to stop on the way home. We ordered pork BBQ sandwiches. They also have beef, and ribs. Tom got fries, and I ordered onion rings. They served huge portions. The sandwiches were great, as were the fries. The onion rings were nothing special. The place is called Pardners. We would also put them on our list. We like to go to places that local folks think are good, and the amount of cars there was a good sign.
We packed a lot into one day, and now it's off to Crossville to see a Coast to Coast park there. We'll be there a few days, so we will do some more touring. Man we love this. Exploring and finding great places.

On Our Way

Well folks, we are finally on our way. Last night we stayed in Harrisonburg Va. at the Wal-Mart. We didn't have such a good night. I don't sleep well if it's not dark. Tom did ok, but not as well as he usually does. We went in and bought a few things we needed plus a rotisserie chicken.
When we got back to Emily we sat down to a nice warm dinner. I had a bite of chicken and a bite of bread and butter. I felt something in my mouth. Out came one of my crowns. Now, if I hadn't been in the dentist's office the day before, I wouldn't have felt so bad. Tom had some stitches taken out, and I drove. Now we have to find a dentist that takes our insurance. We will most likely wait till we get to Texas.
Today we arrived in Bristol, Tenn. Tomorrow we plan to take a tour of the Raceway. They have a nice program that takes you all over the speedway and the drag strip. We'll let you know more about it tomorrow. We have made reservations at our home park through Coast to Coast. It's in Crossville. The plan then is to visit Nashville for a couple of days since we will be staying so close-by. We may even get to go to an Apple Festival over the week-end. Yummy!!
Some of you know we had to get a new computer. Tom has it up and running, but once in a while it does some funny things. Everyone knows they are touchy little buggers. That is why I haven't added to the blog for some time. He was busy taking things out of the old one, and putting them in the new one. Not too much cussing. We think now things are OK. Time will tell.
We are hoping to find some warmer weather soon. We are really happy to be on the move again.

Rainy Day.

Yesterday I talked about all the hot weather. Well, today it's raining. It's coming down steady, but not to hard. We thought maybe we could get to the soccer game, but then the rain started and we stayed home. I lifted the bed and started to sort things out. We had hopes of fitting a small folding table under there, but to no avail. I found a place it fits nicely with the ironing board, so all is good. From there I went on to the linen closet, and on to the bathroom cupboards. I took out everything we haven't used this past year, and it either goes in the trash or to the house or whomever wants it.
Penn State comes on in a few minutes, so you know what we will be doing for the rest of the afternoon. WE ARE---PENN STATE. Go Lions!!!!
It is so quiet here. What a difference after last week-end. We went to watch Connor play at 10:00. It;s so funny to watch 6 year olds play. They all just run around after the ball. All in a little bunch. They only play about 5 minute quarters, so we weren't there long,and the game was over. Then home we came. I started to cook when we got back. I made my bacon-cheesy potatoes. They all like them. I also made hulushki with kielbasa. Yummy. Susan, our neighbor, brought some fillets, and there was also salads and desserts. Ed and Jane added the corn on the cob, and some of their Italian bread with toppings. We ate too much, of course. Sunday we had leftovers. Everything was just as good, if not better, the next day. Ed and Jane always are so nice about having get-togethers. They have a big area with a couple of picnic tables under cover in case it rains. Some folks left on Sunday night, and some left early on Monday.
Well, it's almost time for the game, so I'm off to sofa city. It's just so hard to hear with the rain on the roof. Good thing it's on TV.

HOT!!!

It has been so hot here for about a week. To have temps up in the high 80's is unusual for this time of the year. Usually when the kids go back to school it's warm for about a week or 10 days, but not this warm. We are absorbing it as much as we can. Soon it will all be over. There has been a nice breeze with it all. though.
Next week is the RV show in Hershey. We are planning to go if the weather holds. Tomorrow we are expecting Hannah here. The rain is supposed to start sometime over night. Rain is to stay around all day. It will be a good day to get to the stuff under the bed. We have to sort through it all and get out stuff we haven't used for the past year. Some cleaning is in the cards also. In the morning we'll go see Connor play soccer if it doesn't rain. That's unlikely.
We are still having problems with our Jaxon staying alone. Of course we are still working on it, but sometimes it seems impossible. He is such a good boy otherwise. Wish us luck.
Next Saturday we have a wedding to attend. We have a place to board him. I hope it works out. It will be an over-nighter. We'll see what happens.
The campground is really quiet tonight. I guess folks have stayed home because of the weather. The pooled was closed on Tuesday morning. Always the day after Labor Day. It would have been nice this week. Another thing is there are no kids around. The kids are always walking by with their fishing poles and nets. Not so anymore. I guess summer is over. I see some leaves falling, and plants are dying. Fall will be here soon. That's why we go south. We follow the warmth. Another few weeks and off we go.