September 24, 2007

We did a self-guided walking tour of downtown Nashville today. There is so much to see and do that it would take days to see everything. We sent several hours trying to see all we could.

Here is Richard with a new friend.

This guitar on a street corner is taller than us.

We did go into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. If you are a Country Music fan then you will love this place. It is almost everything you could want to represent the past and present of Country Music.

There are lots of instruments and costumes from the stars to see.

Here we are remembering the songs that became the gold records and made the performers famous.

This hall is unique. It contains the bronze plaques of the stars that have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. The words around the room are “Will the circle be unbroken” a reference to past, present and future inductees and their continued outstanding performance in Country Music.

In the center of the room is a wonderful circle. Because of the shape of this round room with a domed ceiling, when you talk while inside this circle it sounds like your voice is being amplified and it comes back louder to you. The people outside of the circle only hear you as they normally would. It is a pleasant sensation but you feel a little strange as others watch you and wonder what you are doing.

Charlotte felt like she was on stage and everyone was watching her.

Here Richard and Vera are enjoying the sound in the circle together.

We also stopped for a quick look at the Ryman Theater where the original Grand Ole Opry was preformed.

The day was filled with lots of walking. By the end of the day we all had tired feet but it was well worth the time and effort.

September 23, 2007

We started today’s adventure with brunch at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. The food was delightful, the courtyard was magnificent, the service was excellent and the company at our table was marvelous.






After a very enjoyable meal, we walked around the gardens and enjoyed the flowers. Here are a few of Vera's flower pictures for our dear friend Linc.











We discovered everything about this hotel in dazzling.

Notice how good we look on this grand staircase.

I was fortunate to get this picture of a fun loving couple.

Look who is horsing around with Vera?

Here are more great pictures of the hotel.

This is a beautiful place to stay or to visit. We are very glad Vera suggested that we stop for a few days in Nashville. Our homes are not as large or grand as this but to us they are perfect.

September 22, 2007

We are in a campground a little north of Nashville, Tennessee. The leveling jacks won’t work so we drove up on blocks to level our coach. This was a first for us. I hope we won’t have to wait long to have the jacks fixed.

Since we all enjoy Country Music and are in the Nashville area, we went to the “Grand Ole Opry”. We were extremely fortunate to see some of Country Music’s most celebrated entertainers perform tonight in the Opry House.

We got to our seats early.

Little Jimmy Dickens.

Porter Wagoner.

The Opry Square Dancers.

The Whites. Sharon White is in red with the guitar. I will have more about her later.

Charlie Pride.

Jim Ed Brown.

Sawyer Brown.

These pictures are not all of the people that performed tonight. I selected ones I thought most readers might know. The show was fantastic. It was the fastest 2 ½ hours ever. After the show, we went to “The Cracker Barrel” for dinner. As we were going to our table, we saw Sharon White and Vera stopped to thank her for a great performance earlier. It was a great evening and during dinner we couldn’t stop talking about the show and the entertainers.

September 21, 2007

Today as we were preparing to leave Indiana and family to continue our trip, we had a problem with our leveling jacks. The front left jack was down and would not move up to the travel position. After some review of the operating manual by Richard and I and a call to Charlotte’s brother Bill, we decided to get out the tools and raise it by hand. In a short time Bill arrived with more tools and helped us get the jack in the upright travel position. During this process, I discovered I didn’t have the correct tools for this task. Lucky for me, Richard and Bill had what was needed. I will need to go shopping in the next day or so for more tools.

Finally after a three-hour delay and much frustration we were ready to leave. It was about noon when we left the campground. We drove to Louisville, Kentucky to spend the night at a Wal Mart. While there, I bought the things I will need to handle the jack problem should it happen again.

September 20, 2007

Today we visited with Hugh and Joann Borg. I used to work with Hugh at Sears in Michigan City. We hadn’t seen them for over thirty years. They are both retired and enjoy life to the fullest. They like to travel by car and have been going to Las Vegas each Fall for the last ten years. They go to meet with family and enjoy the town not to gamble. They are also regular visitors to Missouri and Florida. They keep healthy with lots of exercise from golf and bowling. When not on the links or lanes, they are active in their Church.

Retirement and RV traveling now gives us the opportunity to see friends from years past. Hopefully, we will have many years for traveling to once again see friends around the country. We still have lots of people to see and places we want to visit.

September 18, 2007

Today we headed east to Elkhart, Indiana to see some old camping trailers and RVs. It was very nostalgic to see RVs or trailers similar to some we had used in our early camping days.

This is a 1913 “Earl” Travel Trailer and a Model T Ford.

A 1931 Model AA Ford Housecar.

A 1932 Gilkie Kamp King Tent Trailer.

Here is a 1954 Shasta Travel Trailer.

A 1954 Yellowstone Travel Trailer.

Here is a 1957 Serro Scotty 10’ Teardrop Trailer. I think Richard wishes he had this one when he was a kid.

This is a 1974 GMC Motor Home. I don’t think Vera is ready to trade in her Bounder.

Richard is looking at the Winnebago storyboard. Is he thinking about a new Winnebago motor home? I don’t think so. This is a great place to spend a morning, an afternoon or an entire day. If you like RVing, plan to visit the RV – MH Hall of Fame at Elkhart, Indiana.

Next we drove to Shipshewana, Indiana to the Blue Gate Restaurant for an Amish style lunch. The food was plentiful and the pie was extremely delicious. I think I liked the coconut pie better than the rest of the meal. Isn’t that a surprise?

After lunch, we wandered through some of the shops. Then we went to E & S Bulk Food store for some of Richard’s kind of flour. This is the same store where some the Amish residents shop for their food. It was moving to see the horse and buggies parked along the side of the building like they were in the last century. After our shopping adventure, we loaded the car and headed back to the campground.

September 17, 2007

We went to see; one large farm of 19,000+ acres; 30,000 cows in 10 different barn sites; 80 calves born every day; 400+ regular employees and more seasonally; milking takes place 24 hours a day seven days a week; 34 bulk tank trucks of milk each day. The place is Fair Oaks Farm Dairy in Northwest Indiana. We took a bus tour on a specially air conditioned bus. There was always glass between the cows and us to insure they were never exposed to an outside disease.

Look at this happy group on the tour. Left to right front row: Jeanette, Charlotte and Vera. Back row: Bill, Ray and Richard.

This is one of the barn sites on the farm.

Delivering specially mixed feed to the cows.

Yummy! Look at them eat.

Here they go to the milking parlor.

Here is the left half of the rotating milking parlor. The cows come enter and exit through the big door on the left. They do this without any direction from anyone. It takes eight minutes for the turntable to make a complete revolution. The cows are milked three times a day. The remainder of the day they can eat, sleep or hang out with the other cows.

Here is the right half of the milking parlor.

After the tour, we had lunch at the farm snack bar.

Next we headed to the birthing barn.

This is the theater style seating in the birthing barn.

This cow just came into the birthing area.

This little fellow is about 10 minutes old.

This was an eye-opening day. We had no idea what to expect. We had all seen farms and cows but nothing like the size of this operation. We all have a new appreciation of today’s mega-farms.