Monday, October 28, 2013

Nashville, Tennessee

We are in Nashville, Tennessee at the Nashville Country RV Park.  On our first full day here we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  We saw the special yearlong display honoring superstar Reba Entire. They had her costumes, memorabilia, and a nice documentary about her life in the spotlight.  The film highlights her years in the rodeo, singing as a kid, her rise to music super stardom, her film, television, and Broadway acting career.
                                                                       
                                                                         
Reba's Accomplishments

 The rest of the hall of fame was awesome too.  Lots of info about all of the members of the hall of fame as well as possible future inductees.  There is an area that has all of the plaques of the members of the hall, a restaurant, hundreds of displays, guitars, and of course, numerous walls of silver, gold and platinum albums.  There is a He Haw display and so much more.  It takes several hours to go through, but it is worth it.
Debbie at one of the walls of Gold & Platinum records  



One of the walls of hall of fame plaques
Dolly Parton's plaque, one of the many
Part of the huge Carrie Underwood display
One or Porter Wagoner's fabulous suits
One of Hank William's suits
Country Superstar wanna be Debbie on the red carpet
On day three we drove to the Loveless Motel & Cafe, a former motel, now a restaurant and tourist trap.  The motel rooms and cabins are now stores. While we were there, a group with some 1920's cars came on a trip from Natchez to Nashville.  We got to see the cars, but didn't eat or buy anything in the shops.                                                                           
                                                                               
                                                                             

Autumn is here and the colors are starting to turn
More colors
  Later that day we checked another item off of our bucket list.  The Grand Ole Opry.  Eight acts that all were exceptional.  4,400 screaming fans got to see and hear Maggie Rose, Dustin Lynch, and country legends the Del McCoury Band, Montgomery Gentry, Larry Gatlin, T.G. Shepard, Ricky Skaggs and Bee Gees legend Barry Gibb singing with Kelly Lang.  We could take photos, but videotaping was forbidden.  I cannot tell you in words, how great this two and a half hours was.  We will come back to Nashville just for the Grand Ole Opry.  The Grand Ole Opry is a live radio show on W.S.M., Sirius radio, and many other stations.  It is the longest running radio show on Earth. Ricky Scaggs and Barry Gibbs sang several BeeGees hits and brought the house down!
                                                                            
                                                                                      
Maggie Rose
The Del McCoury Group
Dustin Lynch
Larry Gatlin with his daughter
T.G Shepard
Montgomery Gentry
Barry Gibb & Kelly Lang sang "Islands in the Sky" to a standing ovation
Rick Skaggs
Barry Gibb & Ricky Skaggs brought down the house!  What a night!
On our last full day in Nashville we went to tour Barbara Mandrell's Log Cabin "Fontanel", all 27,000 square feet on 136 acres.    This is a lavish palace, full of memorabilia, swimming pool, shooting range, family rooms and guest rooms.  Saying "Lavish" might do this home an injustice. Luxurious! 
                                                                                 
The front  porch area of the "Log Cabin", plus wings on each side.
The Dining Room
The reception area full of memoribilia.  See Debbie on the far couch.
Overlooking the pool area
The pool is covered and will be used as a dance floor at a wedding this week
An upstairs hallway, full of memoribilia on the way to the bedrooms
Barbara's Miss Tennessee Teen USA sash
A guitar signed by The Eagles
Half of Barbar's bathroom with a marble bath tub
The other half of Barbara's bathroom and makeup table
Play cards in the gameroom
Play the juke box or the Dolly Pardon Pinball Machine
Debbie the Soda Jerk in the gameroom
Play pool in the gameroom
Downtown Nashville in the morning fog
The Tennessee Titans Stadium
                                                                                                           
                                                                              



Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Atlanta, Georgia


We are staying in the woods at the beautiful and very large Corps of Engineers McKinney campground on Lake Allatoona in Acworth, Georgia.  We are just north of Atlanta and we are visiting friends and family nearby.  On our second day in the area, we visited with Donna Jackson in Canton, Georgia.  Donna and Debbie worked together in the '70's and  early '80's and they have been lifelong friends.  They call themselves "twins" and argue as to which is the "evil twin."  Donna bought Debbie the new shirt that you see in the photo below.   We had a nice day with Donna and we had lunch at Red Lobster.
McKinney Campground, site # 77
            Donna Jackson and Debbie   Which is the evil twin?           
                                          
 Tuesday we dined in Kennesaw with Debbie's Sister and Brother-in-Law, Laurie and Lou Bottino.  We had a great Rigatoni and Sausage Italian feast.  On Friday night we went out with Laurie and Lou to the Trackside Restaurant in Kennesaw.  Debbie had Salmon and I had Shrimp and Grits.  Yummy!  Saturday we watched TV and Lou and Debbie's Alma mater, USF, got destroyed by the Louisville football team.  Then a great barbequed chicken dinner before we headed back to the RV.  We had a great time with Laurie and Lou.
                                                                   
Debbie and sister Laurie
 Vince, Lou, Laurie and Debbie
                                                                              
 While in Atlanta, we went to the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum and learned a lot about his presidency, numerous accomplishments and his charitable works.  He accomplished quite a lot during his 4 years as president.  We also toured the Georgia Capitol building in Atlanta.  We got to even go into the Governor's office and look around.

The Jimmy Carter Presidential Center and Museum
Debbie gives a speech from Mr. Carter's podium
Debbie in the Oval Office
Jimmy Carter's Nobel Peace Prize
The Georgia Capitol
Debbie and I in the Georgia Governor's office
The Senate floor in the Georgia Capitol