Everybody's Working For The Weekend.......

Hey folks,

Lots to fill you in on.  First off, to fulfill one of the purposes of the blog, to let family, friends and enemies know where we are and where we’ll be.  We’re in….. ready…. drum roll…. Nashville.  Yeah, still here but that’s not a bad thing because there’s still lots to see and do.  The company decided to keep me here for another month to help the permanent crew catch things up.  We’re not complaining and oh, this will give me more time to get my recording contract all sewn up….

So what have we been up to?  Well, as the group Loverboy said back in ‘81, we’re “working for the weekend.”  After working through the week we make it a point to explore the area each Saturday or Sunday.  Last weekend we went to the Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art in South Nashville, the 55 acre estate of the Maxwell House Coffee fortune.  It’s a sight in itself in the daytime with the immaculate gardens but starting back in May and running through November they commissioned an artist by the name of Bruce Munro to do his magic with light.  Using hundreds of miles of fiber optic cable and over 20,000 lighted spheres he’s transformed the gardens into (using his words) an “iridescent landscape”.  My pictures here by no means capture it but at least give you an idea.  Their web site does a better job here.  We took it in with a few hundred other like minded art aficionados on an absolutely perfectly crisp and cool evening.

The white bulbs in the background are actually lights, turned off in the daytime.
The whole landscape changes color. Quite a sight.

The loggia "light shower". Note the size of the doors compared to Margo.



This weekend we took a ride to Franklin.  A sleepy little town south of Nashville that seems to be well liked by a few celebs who have made it home including Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman as well as NASCAR’s Darryl Waltrip to name a few.  They were all busy so we instead just checked out the downtown area.  Margo was in heaven with all the quaint shops and of course we found a cool local coffee shop, The Frothy Monkey.  I people watched and took pictures, my idea of heaven.  This was mainly a trip to get the lay of the land as we’ll be going back to check out the memorials and old southern mansions associated with the Battle of Franklin, a major civil war battle that occurred here in November 1864, also called the “five bloodiest hours” of the war.  We’ll report on that in a future post.

Until then we know you’ll be working for your weekend and hope you are enjoy them as much as we do ours.

The Frothy Monkey. Great coffee.

I HAD to take a shot of this little shop. Nice choice of names. It also turned out to be Margo's favorite.

] Downtown Franklin

Bicycle, Bicycle......

…..I want to ride my bicycle.  I want to ride my bike. I want to ride my bicycle.  I want to ride it where I like…..

Remember the rock group Queen?  Freddie Mercury.  What a voice.  They had a playful song called “Bicycle Race.”  It was on their “Jazz” album which did not contain any jazz per se but did contain a good collection of 70's rock.  If you’re my age I’m sure you’ve heard the song.  For you whippersnappers here’s a link to YouTube, "Bicycle Race."

This Saturday morning the sun hadn’t quite made it above the horizon and I was wide awake because our two dogs have no concept of what a weekend is.  I was listening to the I-Pod on scramble or snafu or shuffle, whatever it’s called, and the song came up.  I thought, yeah.  That’s a great idea.  So I did.

Nashville has a fantastic Greenway with over 190 miles of bike trails in Davidson County, 50 of it paved.  You can get on your bike near the Grand Ole Opry and ride all the way into downtown if you want to, most of it along the Cumberland River.  I decided to start my ride near the J. Percy Priest Dam (the same one LuLu drove over in the last post) and rode toward town.  It was actually quite busy.  Everyone was taking advantage of the cool morning, in the 60s.  I had a sweatshirt on to keep comfortable.  Margo had opted out and until I warmed up I thought that she probably had the right idea but after a while it was perfect.



The pictures don’t do it justice but there are plenty of hills, some quite steep, so it was a good workout.  Oh, and to a certain blog-reading, mountain bike riding Dalton Georgia gas company supervisor; I didn't wimp out and stay on the pavement.  I rode plenty of gravel -  and stayed upright.  How's that arm healin' there sport.....

So everybody, get out there and ride your bike and ride it where you like.

Won't you stay just a little bit longer

Hey folks,

In our last episode you were wondering where we were headed off to.  Remember there was talk of South Carolina.  Well, in preparation we checked out of the KOA and on Monday, Labor Day, we headed over to the Corps of Engineers campground at J. Percy Priest Recreation Area.  Talk about getting back to nature.  It’s right on the lake which is actually a reservoir created when they built the J. Percy Priest dam in 1968.  It’s set up like a state park, sites with electric and water but no sewer hook-up.  They have a 2 week limit so it isn’t really conducive to full-timing.  However it’s ideal for a few days of recreation.

The Corps of Engineers can build 'em right
Overlooking the J. Percy Priest Lake

Our friends Ron and Carol arrived shortly after we did and before long we were planning meals and activities.  As I said, Ron and Carol are on a cross country adventure to see the sights and made Nashville their first muti-day stop.  First order of business was the grocery store where Ron put the butcher into overtime cutting steaks.  Cows all over Davidson county were in mourning for their cow friends and cow neighbors when Ron served up those perfectly seared 16 ounce Rib eyes.

While they were here we took in The Hermitage, the 1,100 acre estate of Andrew Jackson, our 7^th President.  The mansion and surrounding buildings, including slave quarters as well as the tomb, are a history buffs dream.  Many of the furnishings all the way down to the wallpaper are original.  I won’t go into the details of it here but if you’re in the Nashville area you have to visit.

So, as I said, we were pretty much going day to day with our camping since we figured we would be leaving the area soon.  The call came but with instructions to stay put in Nashville for another month.  It was great news since we’ve been enjoying ourselves here and had more we wanted to see but we had to make another moving decision.  We were still at a campground with a 2 week limit and pay by the day rates.  “Hey Honey guess what.  We’re gunna move for the third time this week”.  That statement brought an icy stare but she’s a trooper and started packing up the spice rack.

We thought about going back to the KOA but in the end decided to get out of the hustle and bustle of Nashville proper and head to the country.  Our new home is at the Countryside Campground in the town of Lebanon, about 15 miles east of Nashville.  We could have hopped onto the Interstate to get there but opted to take the scenic route instead which included going over the dam.  Then Margo suggested we get a picture of LuLu crossing over the top.  We decided she should be behind the lens rather than behind the wheel so I dropped her off at the bottom with the fisherman and circled back, turned around at the marina, then drove across again where Margo captured “the shot.”
DAAAMN!
Heading in to pick up the "photographer"

Lebanon’s claim to fame includes it’s many antique shops and the corporate headquarters of Cracker Barrel, how’s that for country living.  As the weather cools the fall festivals get cranked up so there’ll be much to do and see.  We want to visit Cheekwood, the 55 acre garden estate built by the Maxwell House Coffee fortune.  We also plan to ride the Greenway trail system and the cooler weather will definitely make that a more enjoyable experience.

Country living

We can be found here for the rest of the month.

So just like Jackson Browne, the boss said, “won’t you stay just a little bit longer…….”