"You Can't Make Old Friends"

In spite of the T-storm that rolled through Goodlettsville about 5 this morning, we got up to a bright, shiny, warm morning that prompted us to go do something fun.  The forecast was for a heavy storm in the late afternoon, so we decided to make the most of mid-day.

Downtown Nashville is a busy, thriving, growing (upward) area.  Nest to the convention center at Music City is the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  We decided to check it out, but first we needed to get some gas for Gus. The Shell station next to the rv park surprised us by lowering their prices by 6 cents over night!

At the Hall of Fame, the first special exhibit is one honoring Kenny Rogers.  His song "You can't make old friends" was written for Dolly, honoring their long professional relationship. Donna waned to get some of that relationship stuff.

Kenny formed a band in high school as "a wall to meet girls". Named the Scholars, they had some fun and made a little money! Kenny is second from the left!

However that turned out, he found he liked entertaining, and at the age of nineteen scored a gig on American Bandstand. Soon after that he joined the New Christy Minstrels, but found that studio and contract restrictions were stifling his career.

He soon joined The First Edition, perfecting his skills and adding to his resume.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Kenny Rogers has maintained a lifelong passion for photography, and several of his cameras are on display. This is a Calumet Scientific 8 x 10:

This is a Poloroid 600SE:

And his Linhof Master Techika Classic 4 x 5:

Thank you, Kenny, for the memories.

Of course the museum is filled with artifacts reflecting the roots of country music.  This guitar is a C.F. Martin classic American guitar built in 1851.  The accompanying case was designed to protect the guitar while being transported by stagecoach.

This fretless banjo was made of hand split white oak and groundhog hide by Victory Crawford of Blair's Gap, Tennessee, in the early 1800's.

Most of the top (third) floor of the museum is devoted to the groups that made country music.  The origins of country music can be found in Britain and Europe, originally, and when imported to America melded with African and Caribbean rhythms to produce the sound we know as country. In the '20's and '30's, many pioneers of the sound started to put together the instruments and tunes that laid the foundation for the future.

In the '40's and 50's, country music added film to it's medium, with Roy, Tex, and Gene becoming the heroes of a whole generation of boys.

Roy and Dale are memorialized with their favorite boots. Dales are the red, white and blue boots.

One of Patsy Cline's stage dresses is on display.  Patsy wrote all of her songs, writing them as if she was making entries in a secret diary.

The museum even has some automobiles that were owned by country stars. Webb Pierce's Silver Dollar Convertible is an over the top rendition of a 1962 Pontiac.

Elvis Presley had a favorite Cadillac, a 1960 limousine customized by Barris of North Hollywood.  The exterior sheen is due to its 24 carat gold highlights, and 40 painted coats of a translucent crushed diamonds and fish scales know as "Diamond Dust Pearl".

Classic guitars are on display, including these from the stars of country music:

The 5 string banjo of Earl Scruggs:

And the Martin D-28 of Lester Flatt:

Along with the Martin D-28 played by Hank Williams:

The Rotunda of the Hall of Fame contains bronze plaques commemorating each inductee into the Hall, including these:

The Outlaws are remembered.  Do you recognize that guitar with the hole in it?  Clue:  W.N.

Two larger than life country singers came from Bakersfield, California. Merle Haggard and Buck Owens. With a sound from the south mixed with the misery and frustration of the Dust Bowl migrants and the roughneck workers from the oil fields, they created a unique "Bakersfield Sound".  Merle, born and raised in Bakersfield tapped into the pride and unbeaten attitude of the migrants with his iconic "Okie from Muskogee", and followed it with "Streets of Bakersfield". Buck Owens came from a migrant family that stopped in Mesa, Arizona, on their way to California, due to a broken trailer hitch.
While there, Buck met and married Bonnie, and they moved to Bakersfield in 1951.  Their marriage was in trouble almost from the beginning, and they soon divorced, with Bonnie working as a carhop and singing in the local honky tonks. She never achieved stardom, but coincidently she had great success as a backup singer and duet partner with her second husband…..Merle Haggard. Buck Owens, of course, is a legend in country music due to his "freight train" sound and his very astute business sense.  He died at the age of 76 of heart failure, having performed onstage the night before at his ballroom in Bakersfield.

Donna is pointing to the area we grew up in, just a hundred miles south of Bakersfield. If we had listened closer, we might have been able to hear the music!

Thousands of Dust Bowl migrants came to California in response to ads like this one.

And, as in the days of the gold rush, most of the ads were untrue.

We finished the day with dinner at Cantrells.  A small neighborhood BBQ take out, we were a bit uneasy when we saw the multiethnic neighborhood and the lack of customers. But let me tell you, the shop has been in business for 42 years, and the food was superb. So much for appearances, huh?

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is only 164 miles south of Louisville, but seems like a world away.  We're definitely in the south now; people are friendlier, speech patterns have shifted to a warm southern drawl, and the weather has warmed up to the 70's!

We left Louisville after a little anxiety over getting out of the KOA Metro park. A choice of backing out of our site, around the office building and into the gas station area, or drive straight ahead and maneuver around parked rv's, make a sharp left hand turn, then a sharp right hand turn, and after all that, hook up Gus for towing.  Whew!  So after a couple of cups of coffee, we chose the straight ahead route.  Donna walked ahead, pointing out possible hazardous areas and checking for traffic.  And a fine job she did, too.  In spite of blocking the exit for 15 minutes or so while we hooked up Gus, we made it out with little fanfare and on to I65 south.  Most of the highway system in Louisville is under construction, with speeds reduced to the 30's and 40's due to one lane restrictions, but we navigated through fairly well.

Somewhere in LaRue county we moved into Central Time Zone, and picked up a much needed hour!  We also made note of several things we want to come back and see as time permits.  Tennessee is know for it's distilleries and the major reason for that is the limestone rock that naturally filters the water.  Limestone is also fairly soft, and over time, dripping water and moving streams create a wondrous underground system of caves.  We saw signs for several state parks centered around caves that we would like to see.  Some caves are privately owned, and even have underground zip lines! Now that would be something! Another reason for returning to the I65 corridor is Bowling Green, Kentucky.  Home of the GM plant manufacturing Corvettes, as well as the privately owned Corvette Museum. These alone warrant a return trip!

We pulled into the Nashville North KOA at about 1:30, got settled into site 19, and talked about what to do with the afternoon. Donna was up for going "to town", so we punched in the address for the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center and hit the road. The hotel (a somewhat underwhelming title) is a sprawling complex of several separate areas joined by a complex of walkways. Each element in the design includes water features, canals and fountains. The entry is so huge that a photo was impossible, but we got this shot from across the street of one of the wings. The Resort contains 2,881 rooms, 220 suites, and 15 restaurants.  It is owned by Gaylord Hotels, a division of Ryman Hospitality, and is managed by Marriott International.  It is the largest non-casino hotel in the continental United States outside of Las Vegas. Oh, Boy!

The main checkin area is centered with a wondrous blown glass piece symbolizing the limitless resurgence and rebirth of the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center.  The piece shows flowers of all sizes from buds to full flowers, and is very pretty!

The stained glass ceiling over the flower piece includes butterflies, flowers, ladybugs, musical instruments and bees.

The Cascade is a segment of the Resort enclosed by a huge glass cover.

And is named for the waterfalls in the center.

The Delta is so named for the New Orleans flavor with a canal boat ride.

The Magnolia is the center of the Convention area.  Huge rooms on several floors are available for private events.

One atrium area was reserved for a wedding.  We didn't intrude, but took a photo from an elevated walkway.

Somewhere along in here, we were overwhelmed by the immensity and complexity of the Resort and forgot the name of the last atrium!  A guest should never need to leave the Resort, with two Starbucks and 13 other restaurants available for use.  Of course, the calming water features and magnificent greenery will provide multiple areas for sitting and relaxing.

Within walking distance of the Resort, the Grand Ole Opry building is another work of art itself.  Unfortunately, the Opry is only open three days a week, and today wasn't one of them.  We took a couple of pix and visited the gift shop (of course, that was open!). The young lady who helped us make a couple of purchases had just moved to Nashville from Southern California, just a few miles from where Donna and I grew up.  Once again: Small World!

The main entrance to the Grand Ole Opry:

From the street:

And, of course, just across the parking lot is a huge shopping mall that we just had to visit!  It really is a very nice mall with upscale stores and restaurants and even a 20 screen movie theater.

We're thankful for a nice place to stay after the tight quarters of the KOA in Louisville.  The evening news tonight called for a huge storm to move into the area Monday evening about commute time that will include rain, hail, and wind, with a great possibility of "rotation", which is apparently a nice way of saying "tornado"!  Whatever we do tomorrow, we need to be home for the excitement.  We're parked under a big tree, which could be good or bad…..We'll see how it goes.  Unlike those people in the West, we're praying for an end to the rain and storms that have plagued us all summer.

Sluggers, Runners, and Farmers

This morning the sky was perfectly clear after the overnight rain, but the wind was blowing about 15 mph and the temp was 44 at 9 am.  Nevertheless, we hopped into Gus and headed into downtown Louisville.

Louisville is a large city of about 700,000, more if outlying areas are included, and is the most populous city in Kentucky and the 28th largest city in the United States. Just across the Ohio river from our rv park, we jumped on I65 and drove across the river, turned right, and dropped into downtown. A short distance from the freeway is the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory.

With the World's Largest Bat in front. The bat is 120 feet tall and weighs 68,000 pounds.  It is an exact replica of the bat used by Babe Ruth.

Speaking of the Babe, the museum has one of the bats used by Babe Ruth on display.  Babe notched the bat each time he hit a home run with it!

Shoeless Joe Jackson (so nicknamed because he took off a pair of poorly fitting shoes and played a game in his socks), Honis Wagner, Joe DiMaggio, and Ted Williams all have exhibits with artifacts from their playing days.

A factory tour was part of the attraction, and the factory was in full swing on a Saturday due to the Baseball Playoffs starting and the  demand for playing bats as well as souvenir bats.  Unfortunately, no photography was allowed within the factory, but take my word that it was awesome.  Jim was positioned at a wood lathe with a billet of Ash, turning a bat to demonstrate how it was done in the "olden days", while just down the line, exotic CNC automatic lathes were humming, turning out a bat in 30 seconds, while it took Jim about 4 hours to get one done. The tour took us through the entire manufacturing process, from tree to hand.  The smell of Ash and Maple filled the air. At the end of the line, the logo and the signature are burned in and the bat is sanded and finished. A remarkable process for something that we almost take for granted.

In the lobby, a huge glove carved out of 450 million year old Kentucky Limestone provides a great photo op!

The stone glove weighs 34,000 pounds and required that the doors to the factory be removed for it to be brought in!

Near the gift shop, our factory lathe friend Jim was walking by with a Breast Cancer commemorative bat, so we talked him into a photo!

Great tour!

We left downtown for the south of Louisville, and a visit to one of our Bucket List places.

The life-size bronze of Barbaro, the 2006 Kentucky Derby Winner that suffered an untimely death due to an infection. This statue is the only one in the world where all four of the horses hooves are off the ground, and is a fitting tribute to Barbaro, who is buried under the statue.

The Derby is all about ritual and tradition, from the stable colors,

To the Mint Julep glasses,

To the required ladies hats!

The entire race track is devoted to honoring the men, women and horsed who have given their best on this 1.25 mile track. Every Derby winner is honored, as well as the reigning winner.

From down near the track, we were able to look up at the Millionaires Box and The Mansion above that.  The Mansion deck is by invitation only…..

Donna just had to stick a toe out onto the track1

What a magnificent facility!

Organized in 1875 by the grandson of William Clark of the famous expedition, the track is the oldest continuously operating sporting event in the country.

After a stop for a hot cup of tea at Starbucks because the wind was still blowing and the temp never was comfortable today, we took the "long" way home and stopped by the Farmington Plantation.  This is a well maintained farm from the 1830's that was big in the hemp for rope business.  The owners were good friends of Abraham Lincoln, and even though supporting slavery, supported President Lincoln in his presidential campaigns.

A short ten mile drive got us home to Clarksburg. We spent the afternoon prepping for departure tomorrow and celebrating that departure by grilling some steaks. Yum!

Makin' the Turn

A tremendous storm arrived in Nappanee about midnight last night, and in fact the storm stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes.  It moved roughly from southwest to northeast, and drenched most of Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio until noon today.  We had made plans to leave Nappanee early this morning because the route we wanted to take involved some two lane roads of unknown condition.  Needless to say, we didn't leave early!  About 9 the rain stopped, so we quickly unhooked and stowed the utilities and headed for the local truck stop for fuel. Just as we arrived, the heavens opened up again, and it was 15 minutes of standing in the outdoor shower! Finally about 11 we were hooked up to tow Gus, had a full tank of fuel, and were off.

Our selected road led us south towards Indianapolis, through Kokomo, a town made famous in a song!

Somewhere north of Indianapolis we ran out of the rain, and the skies turned to mostly cloudy for a nice run south.  Road construction on I465 in Indy caused us a bit of grief, but we made it through, and settled in for a 100 mile run to Louisville, Kentucky. Well, just outside of Louisville on the north side of the Ohio River, still in Indiana, and staying for two nights in the KOA Metro rv park.  This park is one of those older parks that we all fear running into, but whose online description appears appealing.  We do have a site, and the utilities all work, but getting in here was a job!  We disconnected Gus in the parking lot in front of the office/convenience store/gas station, backed up and wiggled into site number 37, just across the lane from a whole string of seasonal/full time residents and about 50 feet from the railroad tracks.  Our slides are roughly two feet from the neighbors on either side, and we have to step over their water and electrical hoses to get to our car. But the office staff is very helpful and friendly, if a bit slow, due to having to sell gas and cigarettes to other customers…..

We're parked next to a couple from Ontario, Canada, who like to watch Jeopardy on tv and drink beer. I only know this you understand, because we're so close…

So, 261 miles from Nappanee, we're about a 1/4 mile from the Ohio River.  This mighty river rivals the Mississippi and Missouri in width and shipping volume, and is very impressive here in Louisville.  Seen from across the river, downtown Louisville looks interesting, as well.  We're looking forward to checking it out.

Just 3/4 of a mile west of Clarksville is the Falls of the Ohio State Park.  Clarksville is not named for the famous explorer, but a statue in front of the interpretive center at the park commemorates the meeting between Lewis and Clark as they met to begin their epic journey to the Pacific.

They met here, made their way down the Ohio and up the Mississippi to the Missouri where they officially began their trip. The planning for the trip was all done while they journeyed between the Falls and the Missouri.

The Falls of the Ohio is an interesting place. Not very steep as to elevation change, the rapids extend two and one half miles, making the Ohio impassable at this point. Today, concrete walls and locks control the flow of water and shipping traffic as well as sending river water to hydroelectric plants.

In the distance you can see the main shipping channel on the far side of the retaining wall.  On this side is what remains of the falls.  The "rocks" that you can see are the fossilized remains of huge corals that were alive when this was a subtropical ocean near the equator millions of years ago.

Several of the coral formations are accessible, so we walked down near the river to check them out.
There are remains of thousands of small creatures embedded in the rocks.

The falls were once a barrier to travel on the Ohio, but now are an archeological point of interest.

The sun was setting as we left the park, with storm clouds on the horizon.

So, we've made the turn south.  A few stops along the road will get us going west towards home.  We are looking forward to it.

Nessie's Back!

After a good night's sleep at the Amish Acres Inn, we got up this morning to a grey and drizzling day.  About midmorning a call from Jonas brought us back to Building 16 at the Newmar plant to check on the progress of the roof repair.

The techs had removed the awning and trim along the door side roof edge and reworked the roof material so that it fit properly.  The fiberglass roof and the radius that rolls over from the roof to the wall are all one piece. Newmar makes the roofs in house.  As it turned out, when Nessie was assembled the roof structure was not placed firmly and flatly on the wood underlayment; the edges were screwed to the sidewall with the roof in an incorrect position, and the coach moved on down the line.  Guess I haven't been very observant over the last year to not have noticed the problem.

In any case, the techs removed, reinstalled, and resealed the pieces and parts, and we're back on the road!

After taking delivery of Nessie, we treated ourselves to a cup of coffee downtown, and took a couple of photos of the fall colors gradually creeping across the landscape.

Friends of ours are in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, and have been hammered all day by rain, lightning and thunder.  According to our HD Radar app, the band of storms is heading directly toward us, with ETA about midnight.  We're hoping that it will be over by the time we leave Nappanee tomorrow morning!

Oh, The Places We Won't Go (for awhile)

No photos for yesterday or today. We truly have been homeless!

Nessie went into the Newmar Hospital early Tuesday morning for analysis of her roof issue.
By the end of the day, a fix had been proposed that involved another day in the hospital, but not much else.  Donna and I enjoyed a day tripping the local Amish communities, but since we've been here twice before, our interest was limited to cinnamon breakfast bread at Essenhaus, pies at the Blue Gate, and cheese and chops at Yoders Market.

With instructions to be ready to leave the motorhome at 6 am this morning, we went to bed a bit early. No Jimmy Kimmel last night!  Nessie left us again this morning, and we retreated to the Starbucks kiosk in the local Martins grocery store.  We got reacquainted with some old friends from Nappanee, Dale, who is a local businessman, and Cynthia, who works at the Middle School and with her husband owns an apple orchard.

After several cups of coffee, and a light lunch, we left Martins at about 1:30. Yeah, seven hours sitting at a plastic table on a plastic chair! We checked progress with Jonas, our Newmar tech, who apologized and told us that very little had been done to Nessie today. Rats!

Our motorhome is now not driveable because the roof is partly removed!  Oh, never fear, Jonas tells us, we'll put you up in a nice local hotel. If you've ever been to Nappanee, you know that there are only two hotels in town. We were sent to the nice one, Amish Acres, which has a checkin time of 3 pm. So here we sit, again. This time in the local Library, where the chairs are even more uncomfortable than the grocery store!

It's 5 pm as I write this, and we'll soon brave the front desk at Amish Acres. At least we know that the grocery is open 24 hours, so we have a backup plan.....