Back home in Minneapolis.

We left Nashville on Tuesday the 7th and drove 450 miles to Elkhart, IN.

Here we are going north from Nashville to Bowling Green, KY. The purple trees are still in bloom.

This is on KY Highway 185 north out of Bowing Green. Sandy says this is a place where she could live and I agree. Remember you can double click on the pictures to enlarge them.

There was an area about half way between Bowling Green and Louisville, KY that had a severe ice storm go through this last January. There was a lot of damage done to the tree tops.

Still in Kentucky where Sandy loves those green pastures with white fences.

This bridge crosses the Ohio River at Maukport, OH, just west of Louisville.

The Ohio River. It was as muddy as it looks and was a little over it's banks.

While traveling through upper Indiana we drove through Kokomo. There were several Chrysler plants in town that we drove by and they looked like they only had maintenance crews on hand. I don't know if they were shutting them down permanently of if it was just a week or so shut down, but it sure was depressing to see. 

Here we are approaching Nappanee, IN, which is about 15 miles south of Elkhart. This whole area  is Amish country and also the Heart of the RV industry. Most of the plants we went by were shut down.

The purpose of our visit to Elkhart was to stop at the Brad & Hall showroom to pick up a couple of wall hugger recliners to use in the motorhome. We found what we wanted, but they weren't in stock so they will have to be shipped them to us later in the month.

Here we are crossing the Mighty Mississippi River on I-80 coming into Davenport, IA.

 

Here we are in northern Iowa and, as you can see, Spring has not yet sprung. One of the nice things about coming north at this time of year is you have the opportunity to see nature coming to life several times in a few weeks.

 

25 miles to St. Paul. This means we are getting close to home.

We pulled into Mystic Lake (Dakotah Meadows Campground) on Thursday the 9th. This will be home base for us for most of the summer.

Now we are back to the land of "Gottas", eye exams, dentist and doctor appointments. Also have to go to the garage and get the Moto Guzzi (motorcycle) ready, the 64 Chevelle going and get the Ranger boat running. Which meant Terry and I had to take it out fishing a couple of times. The Crappies are biting, but it may be another week before in really gets going. Guess that means we will have to get out a couple of times next week to make sure.

Here is a nice quite place we fished on Lake Minnetonka.

We heard from our friends, Ron and Jane, from Arizona and they will be coming to Minnesota during July. This was quite a pleasant surprise to us as Jane has this thing about taking their motorhome east of the Mississippi River. It has taken us many hours of going over maps to convince her that they can stay west of the Mississippi and still come visit us. So now we have some planning to do. Say Jane, you better work on Gil and Nancy to come at the same time.

Until next time

Dave and Sandy

Still in Nashville

The weather back home is not letting up, more snow passing through, so we have decided to spend another week here in the Nashville area.

The fruit trees are in full bloom here.

On Wednesday 4-1-2009 we went downtown and visited a couple of tourist sites. The first was the Parthenon which was originally built for Tennessee’s 1897 Centennial Exposition.

  

This is a full size replica of the original Parthenon in Athens, Greece. Look at that clear blue sky. That is something we have not seen much of during the last week.

Here is Sandy walking between the building and the columns.

This is the ceiling area above where Sandy was walking.

A Gargoyle located on one of the corners of the Parthenon.

This statue is a 42 foot re-creation of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, war, the arts, industry, justice and skill.

 

While in the park area, this bird was sitting in a Magnolia tree and just singing up a storm. I should have put my camera on the movie mode and captured a few minutes of it's joyful singing.

The park also had a large flower bed of tulips and pansies.

 

A two-tone Tulip.

After leaving the Parthenon we went to the downtown Nashville area.

I hope Sandy’s Mom doesn’t get too jealous, as she is a big Elvis fan.

We also visited the Ryman Auditorium which was the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1944 until 1975. This is the new entrance on the east side of the building.

This view is of the original west entrance when it was built as the Union Gospel Tabernacle in 1892.

Inside there were displays of entertainers that had performed there over the years. Here are a couple photos of one of our favorites, Marty Robbins. Sandy had the good fortune of seeing him perform at the old Carleton Theater in Bloomington, MN just two months before he passed away.

On Thursday we went on a trip to Bowling Green, KY to visit the National Corvette Museum (NCM). In the past we have owned 3 Corvettes, a new 1977, a new 1980 and a used 1985. We drove up US 31W rather then I-65. The nice part of driving on the back roads is that you can make a quick U-turn and go back and look at something you just passed. Like, in this case, Octagon Hall.

And on the back roads you still get to where you were going, maybe a little later, but there non-the-less.

  

The museum is going thru a major remodeling so things were a bit disorderly, but will look modernistic when done. Normally you can go on factory tours, but they were shut done for two weeks so there were no tours, maybe next year. The NCM is not part of GM, but rather a privately owned and funded organization. 

Even the ladies bathroom is decked out.

These cars are waiting for their buyers to pick them up. Corvette has a plan where for a mere $350 you can come to Bowling Green and pick up your car here at the NCM.

This was the start of the Corvette legacy.

And this is the latest Corvette available. This ZR1 costs about double the standard Corvette. This 2009 Corvette ZR1 starts at $103,300. It has a 6.2 liter engine that produces 638 HP. I can remember when we were ecstatic when the Chevy 283 CI engine made 283 HP in 1957. The ZR1 will hit 205mph. Other numbers include 0-60 in 3.4 seconds and a 1/4 mile time of 11.3 seconds at 131mph. This car is the second from this end of the cars waiting for their owners.

John, did Pat buy this for your retirement gift?

When we got back to Nashville there was a severe storm approaching. We ended up with 1.61 inches of rain in about 3 hours and one tornado that touched down about 15 miles SE of us. We have more rain approaching, but without the severe weather. We know which is the worst between blizzards and tornados, but we are having a hard time getting back to the cold.

Because we ended up staying longer, we were able to find a night that we could go to the Grand Ole Opry and see some entertainers that we liked. This was probably the best group we have seen here. Diamond Rio, Jimmy C. Newman (Cajun), Jean Shepard, Del McCoury Band (Bluegrass), Jimmy Dickens, Connie Smith, Suzy Bogguss, Mike Snider, Aaron Tippin, Ricky Scaggs, Riders In The Sky and the Whites.

Grand Ole Opry House.

The Diamond Rio Band.

Suzy Bogguss.

The Riders In The Sky. (Sons of the Pioneers type of music)

On Saturday , our friends Dale and Mary, and  Paul and Jane, stopped in Nashville to wait out the snow storms that are going through the Midwest. They have spent the last 3 months in Ft. Meyer's, FL. It looks like they are going to spend at least a couple of days here until the weather improves. They decided to take in the late, 9:30 PM, show at the Opry and they had some 2 for 1 coupons so we decided to go along. But first it was supper at the Santa Fe Steakhouse for food and talk. The steaks, pork chops and hamburgers were excellent but the ribs were mediocre.The , of course, conversation was also excellent. We had some time before the show started so we went through the Opry Museum. The museum was packed with memorabilia of many Opry stars. Too bad we didn't know about it sooner because we had to get to the show. Next time we'll have to finish touring it. Then it was off to the show. There were a few new entertainers from last night.  They were Stonewall Jackson, Jeannie Seely, Bobby Osborne & the Rocky Top X-Press (Bluegrass), the Opry Square Dancers, Bill Anderson, Jim Ed Brown and Michael Martin Murphey. The show was OK, but not as good as last night. I’m sure not used to being out that late and getting to bed after midnight.

Paul, Mary, Sandy, Jane, Dave and Dale

Joe Diffie

Bill Anderson

Today, Tuesday the 7th, we are leaving for Elkhart, IN to look at some recliners for the motorhome. The weather has finally cleared off enough for us to make a break for it. Hopefully we will be back home by the weekend.

Until next time,

Dave and Sandy