Grand Ole Opry

Wow, what a night!! We had a great time at the Grand Ole Opry. I felt like royalty the way they treated us (in my wheelchair). We had 4th row center seats and they were fantastic for taking pictures and seeing all of the activity taking place on stage. The Grand Ole Opry is the longest running live radio show in the world. This makes the experience so unique.

There were several of the older performers there last night, Jimmie Dickens, The Whites, Jim Ed Brown, Ray Pillow and Connie Smith. And also several new, up and coming groups that I am sure we will hear more about in the months and years to come. Three were especially good – Dailey & Vincent, Foster & Lloyd and Frankie Ballard. The show started at 7:00PM and was over at about 9:30.

I was amazed that Jimmie Dickens is still performing. He is 90 years old and he did some jokes (very funny I might add) and sang two songs. He can still carry a tune very well.
We did our tourist thing and visited the gift shop and purchased Opry coffee mugs and t-shirts. Gotta have those souvenirs!!

We are planning to relax today and then get out tomorrow and Tuesday for some day trips. Charley wants to visit the Jim Beam distillery and a couple of other distilleries in the area. We also want to tour Nashville and see how much has changed since we were last here.

Below are a few of the many pictures that we took at the Opry. Hope you enjoy them!!

 The entrance to the Opry

 The Minnie Pearl look-a-like that was greeting everyone at the entrance

Little Jimmie Dickens – yes, that is him (standing up) behind the podium – shows you how short he really is!!

Frankie Ballard

The Whites (part of them)

Charley – oops – he didn’t perform!!

Foster & Lloyd

Jim Ed Brown

Connie Smith

 Dailey & Vincent (they were really great)

Click on the picture below to see all of our Opry pictures.

Jun 25, 2011

It’s Friday!!

We took the day off yesterday and just lounged around the campground. Al and Jeanne Ross stopped by to visit. This is a couple that we just met in the campground in Pigeon Forge. It is so nice to meet new people and make new friends. We learned that they live near Crystal River Florida which is where we will be snow-birding January – March 2012. So we know that we will be seeing them again! Jeanne and I have something very much in common. We both have COPD so we shared stories about how this is affecting us and our daily routines.

Got up this morning and after having a couple of cups of coffee started packing up the 5er to head for Nashville. We left Pigeon Forge at 9:30AM and arrived in Nashville around 12:30 Central time.

We are staying at the Nashville Country RV Park in Goodlettsville, TN. This seems to be a very nice park and is not very far from all the excitement of the Nashville area. The campsites are nice with lots of grass and trees. Our satellite did not like these trees so we are using cable for the first time since we had the new dish installed up top. But the cable channel selections here are better than we usually see.

Charley and I just came in from walking the fur babies, Charley on foot and me in my Power Chair (good name for it don’t you think – POWER)…….

We took a few pictures on the drive here but none are worthy enough for posting.

We will be going out to dinner tomorrow night and going to the Grand Ole Opry!! Cannot wait! It has been quite a few years since we have been there and it was then still being held in the Ryman Auditorium. This one will be in Opryland. We have 4th row seats on the floor!! I am sure we will get some good pictures of this and we will share a few.

Later!!

The Smoky Mountains

We have had a good time touring the Gatlinburg, Sevierville and Pigeon Forge areas the last couple of days. These are very much tourist attractions with loads of shops, hotels/motels, restaurants and amusement parks/activities.

We also drove the Cades Cove Loop today which was a nice, scenic 11 mile drive after we reached the loop. This area has a lot of history associated with it and many of the sites are historical homes, churches and other buildings from as long ago as the early 1800’s.

We have included several pictures and hope you enjoy them.

 Downtown Gatlinburg

The Skylift that takes you to Ober Gatlinburg

 An example of the architecture of Gatlinburg

The Rhododendron is in full bloom – beautiful!!

Wild turkey

All of these are historical buildings on the Cades Cove Loop

 Nice, cool mountain stream – some were swimming in it!!

 This is the closest we got to seeing Dolly or Dollywood

Really on the road again!!

We can honestly say we are back on the road again!! We left Blythewood, SC at 8:00AM this morning and arrived in Pigeon Forge, TN at about 2:15PM. Took us about 30-45 minutes to get set up so that we could relax and give our two fur babies some exercise after their long nap during the ride here.

We are at Creekside RV Park in Pigeon Forge. Seems to be a nice park with lots of amenities. We will know more about that after we are here a little longer and have a chance to check it out. Cheyenne has already dragged Charley and Sadie through the first walk around the campground. They almost had to run to keep up. Cheyenne seems to be as glad as we are to be back into travelling. Sadie will get there eventually too. She (Sadie) was really funny this morning when we closed our home up while she watched. You could tell she was concerned!!

No pictures yet but I am sure we will have plenty starting tomorrow. Stay tuned!!

We are almost ready to go!! Update on the BBQ.

We are almost packed and ready to go. All that is left is the final packing that has to be done at the last minute before closing up the 5er.

We will be heading out as early as possible tomorrow morning headed for Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. We will be staying at Creekside RV Park for 4 nights, with plans to see the sights of Sevierville, Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge in addition to getting some much needed rest! We are excited about getting back on the road again. This leg of our trip will take about 4 1/2 hours so we expect to arrive by early to mid-afternoon (depending on how many fur baby stops we have to make along the way). And people stops too I might add……

We had a wonderful time at the BBQ for Charley’s Dad Friday night and Saturday. Saw a lot of family that we had not seen in a while. Jason (our son) was in charge of cooking the BBQ and everyone raved about how good it was. He and his Dad and sister stayed up until around 2:00AM, took the meat off the fire and wrapped it for cooling and then they went for breakfast at the local Waffle House before going home for a few hours of sleep. Then back working on the meat at 11:00 Saturday morning getting it ready to eat. The BBQ was hosted by Charley’s brother Bob and his wife Betty at their home on Lake Murray. Our estimate is that about 70-80 people attended. Charley’s Dad (remember he is 94) seemed to have a really good time.

Below are some pictures that we hope you enjoy.

 Charley says Hi

Getting set up to get started cooking

Our grandkids having fun in the lake

 Preparing the Boston Butts

Cooking!!

Sadie with Molly (our daughter’s cream dapple dachshund)

Cheyenne with Duppy (our nephew’s Lab puppy)

Me with son-in-law Lee

Me and my super daughter Stacey

Our youngest grandchild Kaydee (4) watching Cheyenne enjoy the boat ride

The Dilworth Boys

Feeding our faces!!

 Chef Jason and his wife

The chef and his family

 Part of the crowd

The oldest to the youngest

Almost There!!

We have our route mapped out and we are very close to being ready to hit the road!! We are going to the family BBQ that is being held on 6/18 for Charley’s 94 year old Dad for Father’s Day. Our son is in charge of cooking the BBQ. Should be a lot of fun.

We will be leaving SC on Monday, 6/20, with our first stop planned for Knoxville, TN. Then on to Nashville where we hope to go to the Grand Ole Opry. Then we are planning to go through Louisville, Kentucky and Kansas City, Missouri and then up to Sioux Falls, South Dakota (all places we have been before)!! We are hoping to find some cooler weather, can you tell?

We then plan to make our way across South Dakota and see some of the sites again that we have already visited and hopefully some new ones as well. We do plan a stop in Spearfish to visit our new friends, Duane and Debbie Rowe, as we make our way to Gillette, Wyoming for the Escapades Rally.

Everyone keep their fingers crossed for us to actually get going this time!!

Be back soon…..

A Quick Update

We will be departing SC on June 20 for our next adventure. We have decided not to go to Utah and Colorado since we are getting such a late start and it will be way too hot now. So we will postpone that trip until maybe Spring of 2012?

We are now in the process of deciding where we will be going as we make our way to Gillette, WY for the Escapades Rally in late August. Will update the blog as soon as we finalize. May even make it back to South Dakota (we love it there!!).

So stay tuned….. We are going to get on our way this time!!