LEAVING MICHIGAN AND NASHVILLE

September, 2018

Breaking camp in Michigan was not really that difficult.  We had accomplished the goals of taking a break from the frenetic pace we had set the first 2 months of our journey, and we attended 3 home University of Michigan football games.  We had figured out our wintering plans, and we had made campground reservations (the highly-rated campgrounds fill up for November – February by Labor Day); we decided to buy bikes, and we enjoyed a fair share of trail/road rides; we found a delightful congregation in East Lansing for worship on Shabbat and the High Holy Days.  We enjoyed visits from 2 of our friends in Pennsylvania, and spent time with children and their families.  We enjoyed our time in Michigan and it did go by quickly, but we also agreed that it was time to move on.

We planned to go south then stay southwest and west for the winter.  Our penultimate goal is to stay warm and not have to deal with snow; we’ll face the ultimate “how hot is hot in summertime” when we get there next year.  Our preparation for a wintering route would take us from Marshall, Michigan through Yellow Springs and Bloomington and include brief visits with children and grandkids, to Nashville and Memphis, into Hot Springs National Park, and a layover stop in Campbell/Greenville, Texas before pulling into Livingston, Texas to become Texas residents (more on becoming Texans in another blog), and then into Austin for a month .  Nephew Jon and family moved to Austin about 4 years ago, and while he has been so kind as to stop by when he’s been in the northeast, we had not seen Lucy or Lily in those 4 years, and we had never met Bennett, who is now 3 years old.

Before we move onto Nashville here’s a few snapshots of the assorted critters we  lovingly call family.

 

We pulled into Nashville and set up camp in an RV “Resort” in a section of town known as Music Valley.  We were excited to be here, not just to see the sights, but because Barbara’s sister Joy and her husband of 49 years were driving up from Atlanta to spend the weekend with us.  What is there to do in Nashville?  Well, to experience a country and western music review has to be second to seeing a show at the Grand Ole Opry, and lucky us, just around the corner was one such “highly”-rated dinner show (of about 100 highly-rated shoes, but it was in the neighborhood!).  The star of the show was the fiddler, a truly gifted musician who did a rousing version of Charlie Daniels’ “The Devil Went Down To Georgia,” and “The Orange Blossom Special.”  What a fun evening.

Unfortunately our activities planned for the next day were curtailed as one of us was feeling more than a bit under the weather.  We did get out in the afternoon to see the new Grand Ole Opry venue and play some putt-putt golf.  Barbara was channeling the best pro putter from the PGA tour, and easily beat all comers with her score.  Afterwards we were riveted to the TV screen watching our beloved Michigan Wolverines come back in the second half and beat Northwestern.

We rode one of the hop-on/hop-off guided tour trolleys around town our last day in Nashville.  Nashville is a very attractive place, and outside of the Broadway honkey-tonk district there are plenty of beautiful greenspaces enjoyed by the locals.  As we rode along Music Row we were amazed at the number of recording studios in town as well as the tremendous amount of music produced in this city.  We really didn’t realize that the superstars who have recorded in Nashville goes way beyond country and western.

We also learned to appreciate how many of the stars have given back to the community.  For example the Sarah Cannon Cancer Center only exists because of the generosity of its namesake, who by the way assumed the name Minnie Pearl during her professional life.

When in Nashville a stop at Prince’s or HattieB’s for Hot Chicken is a must.  It is believed that hot chicken was originally conceived as a punishment for Thornton Prince, known for his womanizing back in the 1930s.  As the story goes, he stepped out on his lady one Saturday night so on Sunday morning she doused his fried chicken with a heap of hot pepper.  But there was a snag.  He liked his punishment, shared the chicken with friends and the word spread.  It was so popular, he opened a chicken shack, and the rest, as it is said is history.  Barbara had mild and Brian hot (not that spicy at all) and both agreed about the deliciousness of Hot Chicken.

No visit to Nashville would be complete without a walk down Broadway listening to music coming from the honkey-tonks, and perhaps even stopping in to a joint or 2 to enjoy an adult beverage and the band.  Turns out that the Titans were playing the Eagles the Sunday we were strolling up and down the boulevard, and there’s a bridge that connects the stadium to the Broadway honkey-tonk scene.  We happened to be on the street as 50,000 of our closest friends descended on Broadway, most ready to celebrate the Titans overtime victory.

Not sure why, but many of the more popular venues such as the Ryman Auditorium, Hatch Printing Company and the Country Music Hall of Fame close on Sunday at 4pm.  Unfortunately we missed the opportunity this visit to see many popular sites.   It just might be that another trip to Nashville will be in the cards in the future!