On the Road 8 x 30; 24 x 7

05-07-2005 Alison Krauss at The Grand Ole Opry

Saturday, May 7, what a beautiful morning. Even though I'm up early the neighbors on our streetside are already gone. The people on the other side of them let around 5:30 a.m. What early birds! That guy was too organized. He had slide-out storage bins along the bottom of his motor home. Inside the bins were stacked white, plastic drawers with a paper towel roll mounted on the side. We laughed because his entire storage area was stuffed with cleaning supplies. Where are his toys? You know, rod, reels, golf clubs, whatever he does for fun. Next, two huge dogs got in a Chinook (oversized van-conversion) and they all hit the road. Wow! That's a lot of hairy dog for a small van.

I worked on my journal for a bit. Bob went fishing at the pond around 11:00 and I went up to the office to try to get on-line. I thought I might not be able to as we had no local Lebanon Earthlink phone number. But the one for Mt. Juliet worked. There was a huge bumble bee that kept buzzing me on the porch where the modem hookup is. And of course I had a red shirt on. It looks like April 16 was the last time I was 'connected.' I have lots to catch up on. I got Patti in the chat room briefly but she went back outside to cut the grass.

I had an email with fun engagement pictures from my niece, Megan, and her fiancé, Casey. They are great photos. Her photographer has an on-line site where you can view a slide show. I was married in the dark ages when there was one mug shot of the bride only in the newspaper and mostly you used your senior picture. I guess it wasn’t' 'news' that the guy was getting married too. The times they are a changin'.

Two old guys on the porch who knew each other were camped here (one just pulled in for the Family Motorcoach Convention.) One of them has a portable oxygen tank with him and the other guy's wife is home sick in their RV. One said he planned to go to the airshow this weekend but it was $20.00 to get in. No way was he paying that much to see something he used to fly himself!

A guy who was about 60 came out of the office and asked if my laptop was running Windows XP. I said yes. He couldn't get his dial-up to work after he had used wireless at the last campground. I feel his pain but I make a poor tech-support rep. We talked about a few settings that could be wrong. I wished him luck. The little long-haired black dachshund came out of the office with his Corgi pal. He was very friendly so I got a dog fix. I spent about an hour and a half on-line but no one was waiting and the bee gave up on me.

Back home Bob was still off fishing so I walked to the pond with a Coke for him. It's 75 degrees or so; a glorious day. He was catching a bunch of small blue gill. Trees were growing around most of the perimeter of the pond so casting the fly rod was a challenge. The pond has dropped another foot. We think it has a leak.

We went back home and sat out in the lawn chairs for a bit and watched several more big rigs roll in. Then we got cleaned up and put on our best Country Western attire and headed to The Grand Ole Opry, stopping for gas and paper on the way. We found it easily; just took I-40 to Stewarts Ferry to Hwy 70 south to Briley, then exit 11. We parked at Opry Mills and ate at Alabama Grill in the Mall after we vetoed the prices at Aquarium. I had a Crab Cake Hoagie and Bob had grilled catfish with a seafood ettouffee sauce. There were great Country music stars' posters covering the walls. I was facing the George Strait wall. It was not very busy so we had time to browse the Mall for a bit. We bought 2 CD's at Tower Records; Sara Evans and Alison Krauss. We walked the length of the Mall and checked out The Golf Shop at Bass Pro but found nothing interesting.

The Rain Forest Restaurant was not quite as expensive as Aquarium but some little kid asked his Dad if they could go in and eat. His Dad said "No, that place rips you off in there." We walked back to The Opry House and joined the throngs heading in. Couples were doing the Texas Waltz out in front where a four piece ensemble was playing. We picked up our tickets, I took a photo of The Opry House and we filed in. We are on the Mezzanine, stage right, front row. Great seats! What began as a simple radio broadcast from Nashville, is today one of the true icons of American entertainment. They brought a round piece of the old Ryman stage and inserted in the center of the stage here at the new Opry House so the performers could stand on the same hallowed spot as all of the greats of the past. We really enjoyed tonight's list of performers including; Jimmy, Dickens, Connie Smith, John Anderson, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Jerry Douglas, The Whites, Sierra & Cody Hull, Larry Sparks, Ralph Stanley (of O' Brother Where Art Thou fame), Tony Rice, Patty Loveless, Porter Wagoner, George Hamilton IV, Jean Shepard (I'm old and I'm fat and I don't care!), Osborne Brothers, Jim Ed Brown, Bill Anderson, Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys, John Conlee, Radney Foster and Vince Gill.

Alison Krauss and Patti Loveless both had very strong voices and blew the place away. Patti returned for a duet with Vince Gill. Porter Wagoner was in a bright purple suit with lots of sequins and a bright red shirt. Bob and I laughed and said we thought he was 70 years old when we were in grade school! We got a kick out of the radio commercial for "Tootsie's Orchid Lounge" here in Nashville. 'Come by for a holler and a swaller!' It was a fun night. Traffic afterwards was a mess but we were still home just after 10:00. We listened to Alison Krauss on the way home. Back home we popped Sara Evans in to the CD player while we read the paper. I could barely stay awake and hit the sack.

It's 11:15 p.m. and 61 degrees.