October 26, 2009

Tuesday morning dawned clear and--you guessed it, cold.  I won’t be whining about the weather forever, but will mention that this week there was one day of warm sunshine!  We loved it.  Actually, the crisp sunny fall is exhilerating, as well.   And it was a  very good week in the Music City.

For me, Nashville was the Apple City.  In my efffort to learn to effectively use the iMac laptop I spent 6 hours of one on one time at the Apple Store.  A rental car came in very handy--made possible the trips to the Mall as well as to meet up with family and friends.

So Tuesday we spent the day bustling about locating things and from 9-10 a.m. and from 1-4 p.m. I was poring over my keyboard with Jarrett (and his brain) at my side.  What was fun about that was that others were at the same table, and we’d in turn hoot “You can do THAT?  And it is that easy???The Apple guys spend two weeks in the home office--Cupertino, CA-- learning, not the machines, but how to work with adults in a meaningful way.   Lots of laughter was involved, and I’m hoping my notes will be decipherable!  

At 5 p.m. we boarded the shuttle heading for the Grand Ole Opry.  Even if you have a car a bus ride is the best for this trip!  Well, maybe.   Plan A was that we’d catch the early shuttle so we’d have time to wander about and do our tourist thing.  Turns out 5 p.m. just meant we were the first to be picked up, and we got to ride for an hour and a half--from hotel to hotel to hotel.  The last hotel stop was 5 minutes from the boat--our car was in the parking garage.. Sigh.

The bus was crowded with Sweet Adeline singers---there are 8000 of them in Nashville  this week.  Our busmates were mostly from Montana.  We hoped they’d burst into song, but, no such luck....

In 1974 the Opry (the longest continuously runnning radio show in America) moved from down town Nashville--the Ryman Auditorium--(located  5 minutes from our boat dock) out of town to a huge complex with the Opryland Hotel and massive theater for the show, and of, course, a Mall next door.  Hey, it’s America.   The plan was to retain the flavor of the Ryman, and they did it well with tabernacle seating (pews) a circular floor plan and wide deep stage.  The center circle of floor on the stage was literally lifted from the Ryman, so all new Opry singers could stand on the exact piece of wood where Patsy Cline, Chet Atkins, Johnny Cash and all the great (and not so great) country singers have stood. 

A 21st Century Minnie Pearl (with hat but no price tag) greeted us with a lusty “Howdy”, and the show began promptly at 7--as it’s a radio broadcast, timing is important.  When the curtain went up, the first person we saw was Kenny Reis--lead fiddler for the Time Jumpers!  He was accompanying  Jimmy C. Newman, the first performer of the evening.  We felt right at home!

Other 15 minute segments were performed by Opry standards June Shepard, Bill Anderson and Little Jimmy Dickens, all well into their 70’s or more.  Membership in the Opry is by invitation only.  According to Wikipedia, the obligation to appear onstage in Nashville 26 times/year that is implicit in membership, has been relaxed in recent years.  Each show is a combination of members and guests--one guest said he had been there 84 times.  Wonder if the invitation to join will ever come....The final performer on Tuesday evening was guest Darryl Worley, who currently has a Top Ten Hit--"Seems like life to me".  He also sang his latest, which he hopes will follow to the Top Ten--"the Best of both worlds".

All in all, it was a hoot! Actually, a literal hoot--Li’l Jimmy Dickens finished his set with a song from Hee Haw!! Remember that one?

Wednesday morning at 8 I was back at the Apple Store, and after my session we grocery shopped at the Whole Food Store (for produce) and Harris Teeter (for everything else)   While I got my not so curly locks curled at the Hair Beauty place, Fred lugged bags of groceries from the parking lot, through the train station, and down the long ramp to the short ramp to the dock to the boat at the base of the bridge.  Multiple trips.  He gets a gold star!

We spent the afternoon with Fred’s cousin Ann Soderquist, who’d just flown in from a trip to Chicago and picked her dogs up from the kennel.  We met at  the Parthenon.  In Nashville, not Athens.  Due to the large number of institutions of higher learning consolidated in Nashville, the city is called the Athens of America.  So when Tennessee celebrated 100 years of statehood, an exact replica of the Parthenon (except it has a roof) was built as the centerpiece of the event.   We found the history of the Greco-Persian conflicts to be sadly familiar---when will they ever learn??? In any case the statue of Athena (added in 1970) and plaster replicas of the Parthenon Marbles, the remains of the sculptures that adorned the pediments that were mutilated (used for target practice, actuallly) around 430 BC were amazing to see.

Back to Apple at 7, and from there we dashed across town to meet Mike Borum for dinner.  Had such a good time we closed the restaurant--and brought home a coconut custard pie. They “were just going to throw it away....”  It was dee-lish.

Friday was a great day.  I stayed hame and puttered, practiced Mac-ing, rescued a land turtle from the solid mass of debris that had tucked itself in between the boat and dock (I put two large grocery bags of bottles etc. into the trash! As soon as the turtle was safely out of rest of the heap, all the debris swooshed away downstream), Fred an Mike returned the car, (ask Fred about that interesting trip sometime...) visited all the boat stores and then toured Chromatics, Mike’s photo lab company.  At six we went off to meet Crystal and Merwin, friends of Mike’s from their Virgin Island sailing days.  Had a great dinner in a floating restaurant near the Hermitage, home of that famous Tennesseean, Andrew Jackson.

Saturday we were underway, the southbound vessel heading north (remember the current thing) at a dizzying 9.4 knots!  We were in Clarksville by 5 and had the dock to ourselves--well, except for the townsfolk who come there for a walk. Sunday we spent the beautiful sunny morning in the engine room, doing diagnostics on the Generator--the real culprit in the ‘water on the engine room floor’ saga.  Port engine has been getting the rap, and it is nearly innocent.  Generator seal to be repaired at the earliest convenience.

Sunday afternoon we hied us hence to Bumpus Mills--we love that place!   Arrived with enough daylight left to scrub and power wash YA’s decks, and to visit with the fishermen who came in to clean theri catch.  Rewarded ourselves for our hard work with a yummy dinner--butternut squash ssoup and shrimp scampi.   MMMMMmmmmmmm.

Today we’re returning to Green Turtle Bay, and the end of the Cumberland trip.  Net week we’ll visit from the Tennessee River!  Until then, be well, laugh a lot, and dance from time to time.

Fred and Linda