And In the End........

At Rehoboth Beach, May, 2012

Hello, all; 

We didn't think it would take this long to do the last post, but once we stopped traveling, Alan started school, and Ruth got really busy, and we couldn't get back to the blog until now. The six months we traveled were fantastic; no matter what else happens in our lives we will always have those six months. We set a lot of goals and reached most of them; we knocked numerous items off of our bucket lists; and we forged an even stronger bond. 

A few statistics: 

During the period from June 30th until December 31 we took 11 separate trips and also traveled up to Charlevoix 8 times. We spent 96 of the 185 days in this period on the road or in Charlevoix. We slept in 20 different hotels and one cruise ship. We saw six presidential museums and one plane crash site. We drove over 5500 miles, not including another 4,000 miles of driving to and from Charlevoix. We flew another 14,580 air miles and spent well over 45 hours in planes. 

We heard countless live music  performances, saw 4 Broadway shows and a number of road productions, and visited the Grand Ole Opry twice, both times in historic Ryman Auditorium. We sat (on the floor) in Preservation Hall so close to the musicians that we thought the slide trombone might hit us and heard music that will stay with us the rest of our days. We wandered on Beale Street in Memphis, Broadway in Nashville (and Manhattan), 6th Street in Austin, and Frenchman's Street in New Orleans (we also wandered down Bourbon Street but the music [and crowds] on Frenchman's were just so much better). We attended the 50th Anniversary of the Philadelphia Folk Festival and the 10th Anniversary of the Austin City Limits Festival. We ate unforgettable Tex-Mex in Tucson and Austin and Whitefish fresh from Lake Superior in Munising. We had a surprisingly good Italian meal in Clear Lake, Iowa and a most memorable Italian meal in Vancouver.  We can tell you where to get vegetarian jambalaya in the French Quarter, and where to get great modern American cuisine in Nashville. We can also tell you that the restaurant in the Clinton museum is a great place for heart healthy meals, and that the notion of a heart healthy meal in New Orleans is a contradiction in terms.

We climbed on glaciers in Alaska; we hiked high in Saguaro National Park and low into the Grand Canyon. We sea kayaked in Seward and biked through Valley Forge. We followed a "treasure map", more or less, to find Buddy Holly's crash site, and most of the rest of the time our GPS lady became a close friend. We took planes, trains, automobiles, boats, helicopters, busses, bikes, and trolleys.  We danced, and sang, and laughed, and read great books and more touring information than we may ever read again. 

We also met a lot of people all over this country, and had a lot of great discussions.  We won't forget the young waiter in New Orleans who lost everything in Katrina and yet was brimming with thankfulness and optimism, nor the proud parents of a young singer we saw at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville who chatted amiably with us while we waited in line together to get in to see their daughter. There was the waiter in the finest hotel in the Grand Canyon who has spent his life working at lodges in many of the nation's finest national parks, and the owner of the B&B in Tucson who created a new life for herself after moving from the East. 

We also did a lot of things during the periods we stayed home.  We went antiquing in Clarkston, took a tour of the Rouge Assembly Plant, and spent time in the many fine museums and parks in Metro Detroit. We rode bikes a lot and spent time with our dear friends. During these same six months, we sent our youngest son off to the dorms in Ann Arbor, and spent time with our oldest son, freshly back from a year in Anchorage, before sending him off to a new life in Washington, D.C.  We watched our daughter graduate college, spend three months in D.C. interning for a congressman, and get accepted to law school. We welcomed new members into our family as Steven and Tammy became engaged. 

Our Excellent Adventure turned out to be, indeed, excellent. So much so that we will continue taking our trips, both goofy and great, as long as we can. Since Alan's semester ended 3 weeks ago, we have already been to Savannah, Charleston, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and, of course, Charlevoix. We have started to make our plans for our next great adventures this summer, and really, for our own satisfaction, we will continue to blog about them as we feel the spirit move us. We are blessed to live in this great country with so much to offer, to see, and to do. We are blessed with the health to continue to do it all.  Most of all, we are blessed with each other. In the end it makes no difference whether we are on the far ends of the earth or on a couch watching stupid TV, for as long as we are together it will continue to be an excellent adventure. 

Thanks to all of you for reading our blog; we wish all of you a lifetime of happiness, health and peace. Shalom Aleichem.  

Grooving on the Grand Ole Opry-our time in Nashville

It's hard to believe that the six months have flown by; this will be our last travel post (although we will post one more kind of summarizing everything). We ended our adventure in Nashville, also known as the "Music City".  Health Care may be the biggest industry in Nashville these days, but music, including songwriting, publishing, and recording, has to be a close second.  It was a great place to end our trip; Nashville has great history, great food, and, most of all, great music!

We started off with a tour of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

 Neither of us are big country music fans, but we still had a great time there; it is a huge repository of information, artifacts, and, of course, music!  There were also a couple of special exhibits while we were there one on Chet Atkins, CGP (a title he created for himself, it stands for "certified guitar player") and another, very moving and sad, exhibit about the Hank Williams family.Some pictures will best describe the museum:

Some of Chet's Instruments

Guess who's costume this is! 

Hat worn by Bob Willis at his last recording session (if you like Texas Swing you know who he is!) 

Guess who owned these blue suede shoes

Tricked out car owned by Web Pierce, he had the upholstery lined with silver dollars and there is a silver rifle mounted on the back  

Display Case of Hank Williams Artifacts

boots boots boots 

Hall of Fame Room 

Johnny Cash Plaque in the Hall of Fame

Gotta love the costumes!

A side tour available from the Museum is a trip to fabled RCA Studio B, the place where 1,000 hits were recorded. Elvis alone recorded over 150 songs there, more than he recorded anywhere else. In fact, when he left Sun for RCA this is where he came; eventually RCA built a special studio for him (which they named "Studio A", thus this studio becoming "Studio B") but Elvis preferred Studio B and continued recording there.  A few of the other artists that recorded hits there included Dolly Parton, Chet Atkins CGP, Willie Nelson, the Everly Brothers and Roy Orbison.

Everything was the way it was- original floor, original walls, and the piano has been there from the beginning 

Colored "mood" lights- Elvis would make them red when he was recording something "hot" and green when he was recording something "cool" 

tour guide playing snippets of some of the hits; she turns off the lights completely and plays Elvis' "Are You Lonesome Tonight"; you can almost see him singing it in the dark studio

Playing the same piano tickled by many of the greats including Elvis himself

How to get from the Hall of Fame to Studio B 

We spent a lot of time walking around several neighborhoods in Nashville- downtown, midtown, the Gulch, and Music Row.

Downtown was especially interesting and fun. The area had its heyday while the Ryman Auditorium (which we will discuss later) was hosting the Grand Ole Opry. When the Opry moved to its new location just  outside of Nashville,  the area took a turn for the worse; when the Ryman reopened as a general performance theater in the 90s the area began to renew; now there is a thriving nightlife along Braodway and spilling onto adjoining streets and areas.

Looking down Broadway at Night

Some cities paint cows, or tigers; in Nashville it's guitars 

Elvis on Wheels; the statue seems to wind up in front of different stores all day and night 

When in Nashville........

Historic Hatch Show Print;  a letter block print shop in continuous business since 1875; the posters are great and when they are printing the smell is fantastic! 

Lotsa boot stores! 

view of the river from downtown 

Ernest Tubbs- an iconic record store

inside Ernest Tubbs 

Ruth outside the Wildhorse Saloon; we somehow didn't find time for the line dancing inside- next trip! 

Lots of music on Broadway at night- and actually all day long too!

this place had hundreds of license plates hanging on the ceiling 

We couldn't get close enough to the stage to actually see this guy but they had monitors set up; he was playing "Great Balls of Fire" (also seems to be a requirement of bar bands) and was jumping on the piano, hanging from the pipes in the ceiling and playing upside down, and generally earning his tips 

Inside of Iconic Tootsies- right across from the Ryman; performers would walk across the street during intermission, through a back alley, and have a couple of drinks before the second half of their show.

Some of the wall memorabilia at Tootsies 

There are many beautiful buildings in the downtown area

Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet School; been operating in one form or another since 1855; Dinah Shore went there and Bettie Page, the pinup queen, graduated second in her class in 1940 

Union Station Hotel in Nashville- a restored railway station. We stayed there during our second visit at the end of the trip

Inside the Union Station- it's set up for a wedding 

Hermitage Hotel; the nicest hotel in Nashville 

inside the Hermitage 

We also spent a serene Sunday late morning at Centennial Park, Nashville's great urban park. There is a replica of the Parthenon there, left over from Nashville's 1897 Centennial celebration. It now serves as the City's art museum.

The park is filled with ponds and artificial canals; we had a very relaxing hour sitting on the benches, looking at the ducks, and listening to someone practice a french horn across the way.

We went to a few other great areas of the City:

Music Row, where many recording companies and other music related business have offices:

This statue, Musica, was part of a 2003 urban renewal of the area; its nudity makes it controversial and we were told that the figures are actually clothed for certain events 

Not nearly as controversial is Owen Bradley park with a statue of Owen Bradley sitting at his piano 

We loved the microphone/bike rack 

The Gulch, a relatively new urban renewal area

If you haven't seen the Doyle & Debbie Show, which runs at this little hole in the wall in the Gulch, check them out on youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzwFghLiIvg

How bad can a store called "Two Old Hippies" be? Actually although it was closed when we were there it looked like it had really cool stuff inside 

And, finally, the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center, which everyone should see (at least once) for its sheer size and indoor garden areas

We had a ball in Nashville, but we haven't yet discussed the best two parts-the Grand Ole Opry and reuniting with old friends.  

First, the Opry- we went twice- on Tuesday and then again when we came back in town.

The Opry has operated continuously since the 20s; it was located in several different places but in 1943 moved to the Ryman Auditorium, which was formerly a Tabernacle Church (it has church pews for seats as a reminder of its origins!). The Opry stayed at the Ryman until 1974 when it moved outside of Nashville to the Opryland Hotel area. After sitting vacant for years, the Ryman was renovated and reopened in 1994 following a series of concerts held there by Emmylou Harris.  It's known as the "Mother Church of Country Music". The Ryman is one of the iconic auditoriums for music; kind of like going to Preservation Hall. 

The Ryman 

Minnie Pearl and Roy Acuff inside the Ryman 

View from the back of the main floor; that's a Minnie Pearl Impersonator warming up the audience

 We were very very lucky in that the Opry theater actually has a Christmas pageant during the Christmas season, so they move the Opry back to the Ryman in December; we were able to attend two performances of the Opry actually at the Ryman! 

Minnie warming up the crowd on Saturday Night 

Little Jimmie Dickens-90 years old and a stitch ["my wife said come upstairs and lets make love- I told her I could do one or the other"; "I took one of them blue pills but had trouble swallowing; I've had a stiff neck for four hours" ]; when we got home we found out his big song is called "May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose" 

Bobby Osborne doing his hit song, "Rocky Top". Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I do believe that is a zoot suit he is wearing 

Keb Mo- got a great response from the audience and put on a great set 

The Grand Ole Opry square dancers-they were a lot of fun to watch, but since the Opry is at heart a radio show..........

The Civl Wars with Emmylou Harris; it would have been worth coming back a second time to the Opry just to see them

The Opry was great; but the greatest thing we did in Nashville was visit with dear old friends. Our friends Bruce and Marsha Brand moved down there several years ago, and we were able to spend some time with them; we had dinner with Bruce and Marsha our first night in Nashville, and they were gracious enough to give us the grand tour of the city; unfortunately Alan forgot to take a picture so we don't have one of Bruce, but on the last night of our trip, Marsha joined us when we went to the best little music venue in Nashville, the Blue Bird Cafe. 

The Blue Bird isn't located in downtown Nashville, or on Music row, or in the Gulch or midtown, but in a strip mall in the middle of a suburban neighborhood with the area's biggest mall across the street. It's very small; you need to line up early to get in; but the Blue Bird features the best singer songwriters, both established and upcoming, in Nashville. We were there Sunday night, and it was upcoming singer/songwriter night. We lined up very early, and met the couple behind us in line; it turns out that they were the parents of singer Vanessa Oliverez, who now sings in Granville Automatic, the band that opened the show. We had a delightful conversation with them, and Vanessa did not disappoint: 

Vanessa is on the right; they write historical songs; see http://granvilleautomatic.com/

After her performance, Vanessa came over to us and we had a chance to talk; she was as delightful as her parents and she posed with Marsha and Ruth: 

After Granville Automatic, the Cafe opened the stage to 10 singer/songwriters who had auditioned earlier and had been invited back to perform. All of them were very talented; clearly Nashville is the place to be if you are a singer songwriter. The second performers, Gimm and Icky, were a duo; one of the guys (the guitar player Jeff) was from Grand Haven, Michigan, and we greatly enjoyed them- in fact here is a link to a video of them taken the night we were there; if you listen closely you can hear us laughing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RfRufjG68E

So, that was Nashville; and that was the conclusion of our wonderful 6 months of traveling. We had a ball and have a treasure trove of memories that will be with us forever. We'll do one more post to kind of wrap everything up but for now, we'd like to thank everyone who has been reading this blog and following us; we are blessed with great family and friends. 

Last up: Memories and Dreams!