...and into the Keys for Christmas

     We've been doing a little bit of traveling and visiting since my last blog, which makes it difficult to keep up.  But today is a rest day, so I'll see if I can't get something on paper.

Alabama

     After Tennessee we worked our way south to try and find some warmer weather, and to re-visit Teddy & Maryanne and some of their family. We were down earlier this year, probably Feb. or March, as we worked our way out of Florida heading for San Diego.  It's always a treat to visit them, and this trip was no exception.  Teddy and Maryanne are always gracious hosts and welcome us into their home.  Sparkles, their dog, was even glad to see us, and after a few minutes, settled down enough for us to relax and visit.

They treated us to a trip up to view some extravagant Christmas decorations over in Calloway Gardens in Georgia, which included a trolley ride through the park.  Christmas songs were playing and soon their grand-kids were joining in.  They looked frozen by the time we finished, but some hot chocolate soon warmed everyone up.

The following day we headed over to Ft Benning and a tour of the National Infantry Foundation, which is truly a must see for anyone visiting the area.  It provides a comprehensive history on the U.S. Army Infantry back to the Revolutionary War and up to the war in Afghanistan.  There is plenty to see, and it's going to require a return visit.  The Army recruits getting ready to graduate from boot-camp walking around the museum with their families, reminded us of the terrific sacrifices made by these people.

Gainesville

     After saying our goodbye's in Alabama, we continued south for Gainesville, Fl. and a visit with some of my "peeps".  There's a clan of Doody's located in Florida, and it's always a treat to stop and visit.  And of course it was extra special this year to be present to celebrate Aunt Anita's 89th birthday.  And it became perfectly clear how our MaryAnne developed her wacky celebrations.  Our MAE likes to celebrate her birthday for weeks at a time, and we found ourselves singing Happy Birthday to Aunt Anita for 3 days!

Then we were invited to help put up the Christmas tree and set the Christmas table.  All the good china was brought out and Debbie was in charge of ironing the table linen.

The project was tackled with great enthusiasm from all involved, and soon everything was ready including Andrea Bocelli blasting out Christmas carols on the CD player.  As I've said before, it's just like going home when we visit Gainesville, and this year was something special.  Cousin Johnny has moved over to St Augustine and has installed a 50 amp plug for me, should I get over that way.  Now if I can figure out how to get my MH which is 12' 10" high, under his tree which is 12" 8" high, Debbie and I will be over for a visit.  Thanks to Patricia and Bob for putting up with us, and all their help.  Still waiting for the gate code from Cousin Timmy!?!

Key Largo 

      On Tuesday we started our push for Key Largo and The Point of View RV Resort in Key Largo, Fl.  As we came south past Ft. Lauderdale, I noticed Debbie removing her polar fleece.  I guess I finally was able to get her warmed up.  As we pushed through Homestead and onto the Keys Highway, the sunshine coming through the front windshield finally forced me to turn on the A/C. Hard to believe it took me 46 days to get far enough south to require A/C!
     The POV RV Resort is located at about MM 102 on the Keys Highway, just below Key Largo. The sites are all covered with small stones which prevents everyone from walking around barefoot, but gives the sites a nice clean appearance.

The sites are all separated by shrubbery giving everyone just a little privacy.  The waterfront has a small swimming area, but most everyone congregates around the pool.  On Thursday, MAE flew in from Syracuse and we picked her up in Ft. Lauderdale.  Followed I-95 north from Homestead and it dumped us right into beautiful downtown Miami.  Nice to say we've been there, but once is enough. MAE thinks the fun and sun in the Florida Keys beats the hell out of winter in Syracuse, even if she's running with her "peeps"!  Now if we can figure out a way to get Ben and Joanne and Jamo over for a visit.  They are working out in San Diego away from both their families, and it would be nice for everyone to be together for Christmas.
     So far, daytime is spent at the pool working on the tan.

Seems like MAE got in the habit of walking around her office in Syracuse singing, " All I Want for Christmas is a Real Good Tan" by Kenny Chesney, and some of the staff there now "hate" her.  So I guess she's going to have to do something really special to get back in everyone's good graces when she gets back to work.

       I sent a note up to Mr. Grogan at the Albany Office saying that this looked like Santa's sleigh, and he called me a jerk!  Some people are so sensitive!

Sundown every evening finds us down at the waterfront enjoying some spectacular sunsets.

   
Tomorrow we're heading 100 miles further south into Key West for Christmas at Blue Water Key.  Hope everyone's ready for Christmas....Santa is almost here!

Fall Creek Falls State Park/Jack Daniels & Cumberland Caverns

     On Friday 12/5/2014, we departed Nashville and headed for the Cumberland Plateau and Fall Creek Falls State Park.  This park is the largest in Tennessee and encompasses around 26,000 acres.  The park is pretty quiet this time of year, but during the summer months it is jammed pack full of tourists.  We planned on spending 4 days at the park, but we had planned plenty of activities to keep us busy if the weather is lousy.
     Friday night the rain started around 8:00 PM and continued throughout the night, and into the next day.  So after breakfast, we headed over to Lynchburg for a tour of the Jack Daniels Distillery.

 The tour is free, unless you want to take the tour that includes a tasting for $10.  Since we had a little drive to get home at the end of the day, we passed on the tasting.  The tour lasted about 1 hour, and we got quite a tour of the distillery. The distillery is located in Moore County which has been a dry county since Prohibition.  But the politicians allow Jack to sell bottles in their store on the property.  If you want to purchase it other than there, you'll have to drive a few miles down the road into the next county.   In the grotto behind me is where the special water used to brew Jack comes from.  It looked pretty clean....up to the point where we noticed some ducks swimming in the creek.  We all know what ducks do in the water don't we ????  Maybe that's what makes Jack taste so good!  At the end of the tour we passed by this Christmas Tree on our right.

They were going to have the official lighting later on that evening, but we didn't stick around to watch.  It was a fun day, and would recommend this stop if you're in the area.
     On Saturday, we had a special treat in store.  Last year when we passed through this area, we toured the Cumberland Caverns over near McMinnville, TN.  At that time we found out about their program called Bluegrass Underground.  What we discovered were music programs happening 330' underground in the cavern's Volcano Room.  We had seen that the Gibson Brothers from Chateaugay had played there last year, but we were unable to get any tickets.  While preparing for this trip, we found that Kenny Loggins would be performing with his band Blue Sky Riders.

 So we scored some tickets, and adjusted our trip to be here for the concert on Sunday.  And we weren't disappointed!  They put on a rocking program for nearly 2 hours, singing only 1 classic Kenny Loggins song.  There are 3 members in the band, and all 3 are prolific songwriters and performers in their own right.  It was pretty remarkable being 330' underground, at a concert.  But even more remarkable was the median age had to be on the positive side of 60! After checking out their website, we discovered that the age group they generally play to runs between 54 & 65.

Kenny's voice is still strong, and he generally seemed to be enjoying himself. They all seemed to be enjoying themselves, including the audience, as they played to several encores after their show.  This is an event that we would definitely recommend and you can find out more information about Bluegrass Underground by following the link above.
     Yesterday was cool but clear, and Debbie and I decided to tour around the park and see what it had to offer.  We walked over to see Fall Creek Falls which drops 256 ft.

The sign there claims it the highest waterfall east of the Mississippi, but I'm not quite sure that's true.  But I'll have to do a little fact checking on that.  We had a great picnic lunch, enjoying the crisp Fall day.  We passed a few deer enjoying themselves along the roadway, not really concerned that we were watching them. All we saw were does, but some park workers told me there's a nice 9 pointer with about a 2' rack running around.  Another fact that needs a little checking out??

We paused and watched a American Eagle catch a fish in the lake there.  He sat quite a while along the shoreline enjoying his catch before flying off.   After touring the park, we stretched out at our camp, made a nice campfire, poured a little whiskey over ice, and enjoyed our peaceful surroundings. It really has been our only chance for a campfire the entire trip, and we stayed out late as the fire died down.  Don't we look comfortable???
      Today we departed Tennessee and worked our way south into Alabama where we will meet up with our dear friends from our old California BP days, the Hamptons.  We had the fortunate opportunity to get to visit with nearly their entire family last year, which was a special treat, and we had to get together again this year on our way south.  So we are going to barge in, just a few weeks before Christmas, and hopefully not make a pain of ourselves.  It should be a good time.
       Debbie and I were looking at the weather report and noticed that another snow storm is headed for NY.  We really do feel so fortunate that we are able to escape that cold weather, and travel south for the winter.  We're hoping everyone has a great Christmas Season.

Touring around Nashville

      Sunday we departed Syracuse returning to pick up Big Red in College Park, MD.  MAE didn't seem too disappointed in us leaving.  As a matter of fact, as we pulled out, she was already sitting on a party bus heading for Buffalo and Bills football game!  She has made new friends in Syracuse and none of them like to spend too much time sitting around!
      Big Red survived our away time just fine, and Monday morning we headed across Virginia toward Nashville.  We traveled about 5 hours on Monday and spent the night at the Fort Chiswell RV Campground.  It's a nice RV park located right off of I-81, so it is quite convenient for over nighters like us.  And to make it even more inviting, there's a Pilot truck stop with a Denny's restaurant there also.  Tuesday morning found us filling our tank at the diesel pump, and our stomach at Denny's breakfast.  And you can't forget the 15% AARP discount now can we???  Continuing west on I-81 and I-40, by afternoon, we were nestled into the Two Rivers Campground about a mile from the Grand ole Opry.  We stayed there mainly because we were there back in May attending the FORBO Convention.  The sites have a crushed stone bed and are pretty much level, but the roads are not paved, and after a few days of rain, they were starting to get a little muddy.  This time of year there was no problem getting a 50 amp site, but I remember back in May, there were none available.  And right next door, there was a gigantic blinking Christmas light display.  It was quite impressive to sit and watch out our window, but it got even better after we found out there was music!  As we were pulling in, an Airstream trailer from Ontario pulled in across the way.   It wasn't long before I was over visiting our friendly neighbor to the north.  The following day he advised me that their was music accompanying the blinking lights, being broadcast on 101.5 on the FM dial.  Now we had a light show.......for free!  The price to drive through the blinking lights was $25, and cars were lining up at dusk to drive through.  People are amazing!

     On Wednesday we headed over to beautiful downtown Nashville to try and get a tour of the Ryman Auditorium.  The Ryman actually started out as the Union Gospel Tabernacle, built by Capt. Thomas Ryman, after attending a revival by famed evangelist Sam Jones.  Seven years and $100,000 later, in 1892, the Tabernacle was completed.  It was renamed Ryman Auditorium upon Capt. Ryman's death in 1904.   In 1943, the Grand Ole Opry arrived, remaining there until 1974.  After the Opry departed in 1974, there was talk of razing the building, but after a huge public outcry, the Ryman reopened in 1994 after a major renovation.  In 2001, the Ryman was named a National Historic Landmark.

Tuesday afternoon, during our tour, the seats were empty, but Tuesday night, the place was rockin' with Vince Gill and Amy Grant putting on their Christmas Special.  Score 1 for the "old guys" from Mooers.

     We toured around the streets of downtown and stopped in for a cool one in one of the numerous bars downtown.  Seems like that's all there was down there....except for the boot stores.  They were practically giving cowboy boots away....buy 1 - get 2 free!  But this was the best Debbie could come up with!

       Now, Friday was a special day.  Last year we discovered a country music duo on RFD-TV named Joey and Rory.  We both enjoyed their music and their once a week TV show from Pottsville, TN.  Part of the show is a cooking segment from Marcy-Jo's.  Now Marcy Jo is the sister-in-law of Joey, who is the female side of the duo.  Rory is the guy.......confused yet?  Anyway, last year we decided to visit Pottsville, TN and have lunch at Marcy-Jo's....and on Friday we headed down there. And Joey and her new baby, Indiana, were visiting the cafe when we got there.  Can you believe it! Being the bashful duo from Mooers, we didn't bother her, but it was pretty neat seeing her in person.

The food was great, even though the place looked like it was going to fall down at any minute.  If you didn't know it was there, you'd never stop, but there were several other couples like us who watch them every week on RFD-TV, and just wanted to go there.  
      On the way back, we ran across the Carnton Plantation commemorating the Battle of Franklin, TN.  Most people had never heard of the Battle of Franklin, but what took our eye was a plaque indicating a Confederate graveyard.  In our travels we had never seen one as the Confederates were considered traitors and were buried in mass graves at most battle sites up north.  We had an unusual tour guide named Austin who had his history down to a tee.  And he was very enthusiastic about telling us the story of the battle. I guess enthusiastic is being kind.....he was more like a nut.  But again, he knew his history.  (He is also a certified lifeguard.)  But I digress......

In November 1864, the Union and Confederate armies were both moving on Nashville.  If the Confederates got their first, they thought they would be able to secure a Southern Nation separate from the Union at the end of the war.  The Union could end the war and hold the country together by securing Nashville.   On November 30, 1864,  Federal forces positioned themselves on the southern edge of Franklin, a small community of 750 people.  At 4 PM, the Confederate Army launched a massive frontal assault on the Union forces.  The Confederate Army encountered massive canon fire as they tried to sweep across the fields near this plantation.  Five hours later, there were 2000 dead and 6500 wounded and 1000 missing.  This building became a field hospital for the Confederates and soon 4 Confederate Generals lay dead on the back porch.  Blood stains still soak the upstairs floors where the operating tables were located.

 In 1866, John McGavock, the owner of the property, donated 2 acres and created the Confederate Cemetery where 1481 men, killed in the Battle of Franklin were laid to rest.  All the property now belongs to the Battle of Franklin Trust and is supported completely by donations.
     Returning to Nashville, we drove through the current Grand Ole Opry grounds and enjoyed a beautiful Nativity scene on their front lawn.  All the statues are life sized and everywhere is bathed in white lights.  The massive white tree out front is surrounded by colorful light depicting poinsettias.  It was incredible to view, and I only wished I had taken some pictures that captured the scene.

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