August - December

As a friend pointed out to me, I haven't updated the blog since we returned home from our 11 week RV trip.  Time flies when you're having fun.  August was spent catching up on everything we missed over the summer and getting the yard back in order, which was a disaster for us.  All came together quickly.

We love bluegrass music and there are many festivals in late summer, so we were able to spend 3 weekends traveling in the RV and listening to bluegrass.  We had to give up our spot for next year in one of our favorite places near Columbus Ohio since we will be in Europe next year - bummer.

We spent a long weekend in the Ohio Amish country and went to the Swiss Cheese Festival.  No pictures since it rained a bunch, but we came back home with our car loaded down with every cheese possible, cider, vegetables, pumpkins and wine.  Really fun trip.

In October, we met up with friends in the Smoky Mountains and also drove to Asheville to see the Biltmore.  Really fun trip and great catching up with friends.

On our way we stopped to visit a child we've been sponsoring for the past 9 years and who lives in the Appalachia area of North Carolina.   Really great spot and fun to finally meet her and her family in person.

November was a busy month with a weekend at the Cleveland Food Show where we got to see chefs like Bobby Flay, Robert Irvine, Michael Symon, etc. prepare recipes.  Fun trip.  Greg went to the Ohio State/Penn State game in Columbus with a group of friends.  Sad outcome for our Buckeyes, but a fun trip for him. 

For Thanksgiving, we went to Foxwoods Resort and Casino in Connecticut.  Normally we would go to Las Vegas, but thought we would try something new this year.  Really nice resort, except for the cigarette smoke.  Loads of restaurants and shops.  Greg absolutely loved the poker room.  I guess it probably helps when you're getting some good cards and making some money--well that, and the fact they served free milkshakes!

December started out with a trip on the Polar Express with our niece and her family.  Fun time and really got us in the holiday spirit.

Waiting for the train - Greg, Brody and J'Lyn

Cheers with hot chocolate

Christmas carol time

Next we were off to New York City for 3 days.  We love just walking around the City, looking at decorations, windows and smelling chestnuts roasting.  We were able to go on weekdays this year which was so much nicer as the crowds weren't nearly as bad as the weekend.



Next week we're off to the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort to celebrate an early birthday present for me and then we're packing our bags and heading to Florida for two months.  We've truly turned into snowbirds - hard to believe.  We'll be spending New Years Eve in Charleston and we are really looking forward to that stop.

Two months in Orlando will include many trips to Disneyworld in preparation for our June trip with our great niece and nephew.  We also have several other friends who have retired and moved to Florida, so we will take some time and visit with them.  I'm sure the two months will go by quickly, but no worries, because when we return, we will have two weeks at home and then off to sunny Mexico for two weeks.

Just so everyone doesn't think our life is all fun and games, we're doing some good for our community as well.  We have both been appointed as Guardian Ad Litems for our juvenile court system.  We are a voice for the children who have been either neglected or abused.  We are assigned cases and work with the children to make sure they get their say in court.  Lots of sad stories and it's heartbreaking work, but we feel we are helping.  I'm also volunteering at the Forever Safe Farm, which is a non-predatory animal sanctuary for exotic animals.  I get to prepare food and feed the camels, zebra, pot bellied pigs, etc. and also am teaching the numerous goats how to walk on a leash so they are easier to take to the vet.  I love animals so am enjoying this immensely.  Greg is working with our County in helping them accomplish goals with their ever tight budget.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying life as we are.

Week 11 - Kansas and Missouri

We had a beautiful drive from Oklahoma City to Topeka Kansas.  Farmland as far as the eye could see and then miles of prairie grass blowing in the wind.  Arrived to 4 days of over 100 degree weather - this is crazy!  We drove to Independence Missouri our first day and visited the Truman Library which was pretty nice.  Not nearly as detailed as the Clinton Library, but lots of great info on the Truman years.

Greg high fiving Harry

Oval Office in Truman days

We then visited the Vaile Mansion, which was pretty cool.  The Vailes were a wealthy family that lived in the area and donated their mansion to the City.  Most rooms were decorated Victorian style and the murals on the ceilings were gorgeous.

Our next stop on the same day was in Kansas City Missouri - the Hallmark Visitor Center.  Hallmark has been a major employer here for a long time and they have a great visitor center showing the history of the card company, displays of their ornaments, and lots of other things.  You got to make a bow to take with you and they gave us one of those books where you record your voice - pretty cool.

I am SOOOOO happy to be visiting Hallmark!

On our next day, we drove to Wamego Kansas where we went to the Oz Museum.  They have the largest collection of Wizard of Oz memorabilia.  Really cool museum with great displays.  Small theatre where you could watch the movie.  Great stop.

The Wizard is in session

We stopped at the Oz winery and sampled their wines, hoping they would be something we would like because the labeling was awesome.  Turns out they spent all their money on packaging and none on making good wine.   So no wine purchases there - ugh.    Taco Toto's for lunch - love the theme in this town.  Our next stop was in Alma Kansas, which is famous for their cheese - more specifically curd cheese.  We never had it before, but it is great.  Lastly, another winery which is known for elderberry wine.  Not our normal kind of wine, but we actually liked it so bought a few bottles to bring home for Kansas night on the deck. 

Fourth of July weekend was packed full of events.  On Saturday we went to the little town of Holton for their July Jubilee.  Bluegrass and rock bands, a water ski show, and a hilarious group of "actors" doing western theme skits.  Typical food vendors and rides for the kids, and it was all in a great park setting overlooking a reservoir.  Later that day we went to Heartland Park which is a auto racing park.  We never watch Nascar, but we had a lot of fun here.  Between people watching and making bets between eachother on the races, it was great.  We were seated right on the turn and it was cool watching them make the bend on 2 wheels. 

These skits were a hoot

View of stage and reservoir

Car races

Sunday was spent in Kansas City, Missouri at their Riverfest.  Huge festival along the Missouri River with 2 stages with a variety of music, arts and crafts, food booths, etc.  Really nice.  Made a stop at a casino beforehand, but had no luck.

4th of July was in Topeka at their Spirit of Kansas Blues & Crafts Festival held on Lake Shawnee.   Beautiful lake and park setting with typical fair type things such as a car show, rides, food and crafts, but the blues were spectacular.  Had a nice stage and each group played for 1 1/2 hours.  Really awesome music.  After 6 hours we had enough so didn't stick around for country music, water ski show or fireworks.

We are really liking Kansas and could put this on a list of states to live, if it weren't for the tornadoes.  We met some really nice people at many of the festivals, and the terrain is really pretty.

Surprise call that we have water line problems at the house, and we feel a need to go home.  Disappointed and happy at the same time.  It's been a great 11 weeks and there are a few places we have yet to visit that we really wanted to see, but we'll catch them on the next trip.

Week 10 - Hot Springs and Oklahoma City

We finished out Hot Springs with a visit to a local winery, a long drive on a scenic byway through Ouachita National Park and attended Brickfest.   Arkansas wines are way too sweet for our taste, so we won't be shipping any of those home. Brickfest was a 3 day event with music and lots of fair type happenings.   Tractor pulls, motorcycle events, car shows, a baby contest, best dressed brick, etc.   All of it was great and we had fun interacting with the local folks who were a bit more friendly than we previously experienced.   Here are a few pictures of the events.

Winners of the baby girl competition

Winners of baby boys contest

These are dressed bricks

There was a Harley Davidson event going on in town the day before we were leaving.  There were hundreds and hundreds of motorcycles and stuff going on everywhere.









The weather never let up in Arkansas - between 94 and 100 each day.  I think we've seen every summer movie over the past 10 weeks just to get out of the heat for a bit.  Here's some things we learned on this trip thus far:
1)  We really don't need all the "stuff" we have at home to be happy;
2)  We can live happily in an 8' x 32' area and not drive each other nuts;
3)  We really live in a great country;
4)  It is really cool seeing armadillos in the wild;
5)  We still love Friday night martini nights; and
6)  We are still loving retirement!

We had an 8 hour drive to Oklahoma City and 4 of it was driving through 25 mph winds - not fun.  The temperatures were between 104 and 110 all 3 days we were there, with high 80's at night.  The winds were so bad the first and third night that the RV just kept rocking.  It was way too hot to cook so we ended up eating out every night, which gets really old for us, as we like to cook. 
Most of the activities we had planned were outdoors and we just couldn't do it.  We ended up spending a day at a local casino, which was a decent trip for both of us.  Much nicer than the ones in Tunica and we had better luck.  We also visited the zoo - yes, again, but first thing in the morning.  They had Galapagos turtles and since we are going to the Galapagos Islands in 2013, we just had to see them.

You can't go wrong seeing a baby elephant

Was never this close to a grizzly bear

There is a great area in the Oklahoma City called Bricktown, which consists of cool nightclubs, restaurants and stores.  There is a small river walk area, much like San Antonio, so we were able to have a drink along the river, but had to have dinner inside because it was too hot. 

There was a great ballpark, but unfortunately no games while we were there.  Mickey Mantle was born in Oklahoma so they had a plaza in the park named after him and there are several restaurants with his name as well.

Off to see Dorothy in Kansas.

Week 9 - Hot Springs, Arkansas

After surviving Bonnaroo, we knew we would need some down time and Hot Springs Arkansas "Spa City" is the place to be.  On our trip here, we did spend an afternoon at the casinos in Tunica, Mississippi, which were flooded when we stayed in Memphis, but now re-opened.  They are all small, and not glitzy like Las Vegas.  Unfortunately neither of us won anything.
Great shaded campground in Hot Springs, which is a good thing because the temperature was 100 for our first 3 days.  Our air conditioner is not getting a break.  We took a Ducky Tour, which turned out not to be much of a tour, and visited the American Gangster Museum, again, not much of a tour and then went on a tour of one of the bathhouses, which is what the area is all about.  It was a great tour and made us want to spend time at one of the bathhouses and indulge in the spa services.  This City was booming back in the late 1800's and early 1900's due to legalized gambling and the healing waters of the hot springs.  Many movie stars and gangsters lived here.  Currently gambling is illegal, so it is now a destination for the so-called healing waters.

We went to a magic show one night, in a very small theatre.  The magician was great and managed to pick us out of the audience to help with a magic trick.  When asked if I was Greg's wife, sister or girlfriend, he said "all of the above".    Got quite the laugh.
 

Bathhouse Row - 7 or 8 houses

We did a couples afternoon at a bathhouse, where we got to soak in a tub and then had a massage, a chocolate foot rub and a facial.   It was fabulous and I didn't want to leave.  It was Greg's first facial and he liked it too.  The water comes out of the ground at 143 degrees and they have to cool it down to 100 for bathing.   We spent another afternoon just in the baths, where there were 3 different pools, all of different temperatures.

There are spigots all over town where people come and fill water bottles to take home.

Needle shower while on the tour

There are 2 state parks nearby so we were able to do some hiking.  Really pretty lakes and lots of trees.  The one park recently had over 2,000 trees go down from a tornado, which closed a number of the hiking trails.

We spent a day in Little Rock, which was an hour away.  Visited the Big Dam Bridge, which is a pedestrian bridge built over a lock and dam.  Nice long walk and then a park at the end.  We also visited the Clinton Library, which wasn't high on our list, but turned out to be a great visit.  Architecturally, the building wasn't anything to get excited about, but the history inside was interesting and we really enjoyed it.  We also visited a great little area with open air markets and lots of great restaurants.  We had lunch at a place that served several hundred types of beer.  Once you drink over 200 different kinds, you get a plate with your name on it hung on the wall.   Drat - we don't have time to do that on this trip!

Replica of Clinton's Cabinet Room

Time Line in Library

Arkansas people are not nearly as friendly as everyone else we have encountered thus far.  In fact, this is the most unfriendly campground we've ever encountered, but it is mostly inhabited by Texans.  We're here for a few more days to attend a festival and then off to Oklahoma City.

Week 8 - Bonnaroo - Manchester, TN

This part of the trip was what Greg was looking forward to most.  Since I'm not a big crowd person, I went along for the ride, but was really happy to have this experience.  We took the VIP route, and were really glad we did.  We had a nice large spot to park our RV, we were really close to walking into Centeroo, amazing clean restrooms, air conditioned tents to chill out when the sun got too intense, special seating at 2 of the stages, VIP line to go through security, and then we also bought the meal plan so we had great food available for lunch and dinner.  

Entrance to Centeroo - is he in heaven or what?

View from the roof of our RV

Bonnaroo is set on a 700 acre farm and over 80,000 people attend the event.  There are 2 large stages and about 10 tents which have a smaller stage.  Centeroo houses dozens of arts and crafts booths, a post office, and other stores.  There are hundreds of food vendors throughout the farm selling anything you can think of.  There was also a beer garden where they sold dozens of micro brews.  There is a comedy club, a cinema which shows older movies, a ferris wheel, an adult swim area, a large water slide as well as other small buildings which provide some shade and somewhere to relax.

Largest stage - this area was filled during an act

The temperature was in the mid 90's all 4 days, and in the mid 70's at night, so sleeping wasn't bad.  During the day, the heat was pretty unbearable and you had to drink a ton of water to stay hydrated.  The dust got so bad that you had to wear a bandana around your face so you could breath.  Everyone attending was so nice it was amazing.  We made tons of friends and really had a good time.  As our friend Neil would say "we were pressing the flesh". 



The general admission camping area was horrific.  Tents of every different size and shape were set up one on top of another.  No room to move around and probably really hot.  Some people had a 50 minute walk into Centeroo.  Considering the way that over 60,000 people were living during these 4 days, it is phenomenal that everyone was happy and having a good time.  People dressed in crazy outfits - lots of girls were fairies.  25% of the girls wore bathing suits the whole time and a small portion of those girls were topless and just painted their breasts.  Guys wore watermelons on their heads and carried large sticks with different things on top.  One guy had a Pee Wee Herman doll on his stick and when he walked it looked like Pee Wee was dancing.  What a hoot!

At about 11:00 p.m. on one of the nights they had 6 skydivers drop in and also tossed out of the plane thousands of these little blue and white twinkly whirlybirds.  From the ground it was beautiful to see all these twinkles in the sky.   Another night they had beautiful fireworks.  Practically every night, people brought these lantern fireworks that would stay lit and fly through the sky - really awesome.

fountain to keep cool

Water station

The crowds during a performance

Now for the main reason we came - the music.  There were so many options that you could run yourself ragged trying to go from stage to stage.  Buffalo Springfield was to have been the highlight for us, but they were a bit disappointing.  Part of the problem was that the mix wasn't right and the crowd was chanting "turn it up", but they really didn't.  They started off with really weak song choices, but then Neil Young stepped up and turned it on so the last half was a crowd pleaser.  We found some great new bands, with Mumford & Sons being our favorite.  Some of the others were Old Crow Medicine Show, Alison Krauss, the Head and the Heart, The String Cheese Incident, and Widespread Panic.  Some of our old time favorites were Robert Plant, Dr. John, and Greg Allman (he was great).  There were dozens of bands playing for the younger crowd which wasn't our style as most of it was rap.  Eminem was the headliner on Saturday night and we went and got showers during that show.  There was a crazy band that played from 2:00 am until 4:30 am  that was so loud it was rattling the windows of our RV.  Not our favorite night for sleeping.

Neil Young on the screen

So all in all, it was fabulous and we are so happy we went. 

These southern storms are nothing to mess with.  On our drive from Manchester to Memphis, we saw a storm approaching and looked at radar to see that 70 mph winds were coming.  We pulled into a Cracker Barrel and this horrible storm came through and pulled down trees and power lines and killed several people.  We're feeling fortunate to have dodged yet another one.   2 days here, including a visit to the Tunica Casino area.

Week 6-7 - Nashville

Wow, is it hot and humid!  It's no wonder that people in the south walk and talk slowly!  The 13 year cicadas are here and the sound is deafening and having them flying around is a little gross.  We're trying to figure out what is next for us.....famine?  We've had floods, tornadoes, and insects, so not sure what else it could be.

Uneventful drive (thank goodness!) to Nashville and arrived to a nice quiet campground, although no campfires allowed (too hot anyway).  We spent the first day on a bus tour of the city, which included a visit to the Ryman Auditorium, former home of the Grand Ole Opry and then the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum.

State Capital, Bicentennial Park - bells for each county

What a ham at Ryman Auditorium

The Museum wasn't on our wish list, but it was actually very informative and interesting.  Bicentennial Park is beautiful and has a wall that stretches forever with important dates and events engraved.

Greg and Father of Bluegrass

That same night we saw BB King and Buddy Guy perform at the Ryman.  Buddy was amazing and played for 1 1/2 hours.  We could have listened to him all night.  We've seen BB King at least 4 other times, and this is the last.  At 85, he has finally gotten to the point where his performance is sad.  He talked more than he sang and would lose concentration and just ramble on.  His band is still awesome, but you really feel for him.

Nashville has 2 areas full of bars with bands playing music all day long.  We spent several days just going in and out of each one enjoying some of the music and others not so much.  Neither of us are country music fans, but many of the groups put a spin on the songs so they don't sound so country.   We think we've died and gone to pig heaven.  It is served BBQ, smoked and grilled and is all delicious.  No BBQ pork nachos here so we are making a quick stop back in Memphis after our Bonnaroo trip.

We visited The Opryland Hotel, which took 6 months to restore after last years flooding.  It is spectacular!  There are multiple lobbies, and each has an atrium area with gorgeous plants, waterfalls, flowers, pathways, restaurants and bars.  There is even a boat ride you can take around all the lobbies.  We are returning to Tennessee in October to spend time with friends and have decided we will drive to Nashville to spend a night here.

This is in one of the atrium areas

 

Cocktails at 3 pm anyone?

Cool fountains everywhere

rooms have balconies overlooking atrium area

When in Nashville, you have to go to the Grand Ole Opry, even if you're not a country music fan.  It's a two hour long show, which is also being broadcast over the radio.  There are 4 different singing acts, and smaller acts within the main acts.  It was too much country for us, but definitely a must if you're here.

A local winery had a great event on Saturday night, with jazz on the lawn.  We took a picnic basket and bought a bottle of wine and sat and listened to music for hours.  There were well over 1,000 people in attendance and it was really nice.  I know......Tennessee wine?   but it was decent.

It was 99 today, so what did we do.....went to the zoo of course!   It was a small, but beautiful zoo, with great exhibit areas for the animals.  We weren't there more than 45 minutes before the winds started howling and then large tree branches actually started cracking off trees and falling all around.  Wow!  As Greg's Dad would say, we "shagged ass"!

We visited historic Franklin, which is a great little town south of Nashville.  One of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War was held here, so lots of history to follow.  Great old buildings which are now being used as offices, stores or restaurants.
The Country Music Awards Festival starts here on Thursday and everyone started arriving on Tuesday.  Many of the streets in downtown Nashville have already been shut down and huge stages are being erected.  We aren't staying, but will be heading to Manchester for Bonnaroo.  For those that never heard of it, it is the modern day Woodstock.  We are taking the RV, but most people camp in tents.  No electric or water, so we will be roughing it in the VIP bathhouses.  Our main concern is sleeping at night because Tennessee has broken the heat record set in 1870, yes 1870,  for the most consecutive days above 90.