Chasing Turkeys

This week was Thanksgiving - on Thursday. Many places have a public holiday on the Friday, or people take the long weekend to travel and be with family and friends. It is an absolutely wonderful time in this country. It's been explained to me that it's bigger than Xmas and far more special as it's ALL about family and friends -  not the presents, not the shopping, not the hype, not religion. And from what I saw and heard, American's love Thanksgiving and value its importance on 'giving thanks' and being together. 

Our day started like many Americans with a traditional Turkey trot or Turkey chase. We chose the 10k run around our local area with about 10,000 other keen folks running to work up an appetite for their day of eating. It was pretty cold in the morning and a warm sleep-in would have been smarter but, I couldn't believe all the people out running, volunteering and supporting all us Turkey Chasers. So, we don't literally chase a turkey but we had to get a pic taken with the race mascot. I was doing my best attempt at the chicken dance but nobody seemed to work that out - not even Deb? There were several costume runners - turkeys, chefs and a bunch of girls with matching t-shirts saying Young, scrappy and Goosie. I asked them what it meant - Young and Scrappy comes from Hamilton, the current theatre musical about the former President Hamilton and Goosie was their girl group name. Fair enough. I gave them my best turkey gobble gobble gobble sound as I passed them. The run was hard, little rolling hills and I have to say I couldn't wait to finish. 

Interesting thing, you know I'm always up try something 'local'. So I had a hot apple cider before the race. Sounds crazy. But it was cold and it was kinda like warm apple juice. But, the crazy bit was being asked to add the caramel topping and whipped cream on top. Oh god, I could see that coming back up along the race. So no, I didn't brave that sweet little addition. The apple flavour was a bit tart on the toothpaste flavour in my mouth having just brushed my teeth before we came. Anyway, it was nice and warm and I sipped it down. Thankfully I didn't need a toilet stop along the run.

It was a long 10k but it was an experience to partake in. We went with a few running friends but the speedy girls got ahead and we ran with our good friend for the race. Not much conversation was had, it seemed harder than that Chesapeake Bay bridge run the other week.

I was so glad to finish and you can tell by the look on my pretty little face.

We didn't get adopted for Thanksgiving despite all my attempts. A lot of people were travelling away so that made it hard. So we joined some good Aussie friends at a hotel in the city for a buffet lunch. It was super lovely...turkey, ham, mac n cheese, sweet potato with marshmallow stuff on top, mashed potato, corn bread stuffing just to name a few. It was a lovely long lunch with good friends and feeling pretty weary from a big feed and that turkey chase, I came home and slept for 3 hours. We have since learned that Thanksgiving tradition is about watching the Thanksgiving parade in New York, followed the by the International Dog Show (yes, you read that right) and then the football. We missed all three but we still enjoyed our first Thanksgiving.

The rest of the week was tame, no action to report. We worked the Friday after Thanksgiving so no long weekend for us. The Xmas lights and decorations are slowly going up and it's very exciting to see. I LOVE Xmas lights so I'm just going have to get something sorted out the front - there are hooks and a power point so I have to do something. Everyone, and I mean everyone, gets a real Xmas tree. They are on sale everywhere. I'm not sure about putting up a tree cause we'll have to buy decorations as we left them all at home. Maybe something small and simple will suffice - not sure what we're doing Xmas day yet but best start thinking about that. 

I mentioned earlier that Thanksgiving was not about shopping and presents. Well it's not really but they do call day after Thanksgiving - Black Friday (nothing to do with the 13th). This is like Boxing Day sales at home. The stores and shops are flooded with people fighting for the big sales. It's pretty serious here. And Saturday is Small Business Saturday to help the little guys get some business too. And now that online shopping is so popular, they have Cyber Monday just after Black Friday. So it's a long weekend of sales. I've been trawling online for a few things myself but it's like a frenzy here...but then so is Boxing Day and New Year sales at home I guess.

I cooked some new things this week. We've decided to have a 'meat-free Monday' in order to try cut back our meat intake. So my first vege dinner was a black bean and rice quesadilla thing. It was pretty nice actually. Not as tasty as the mexican restaurants but still tasty. Given the cold weather is upon us, I pulled out the crock pot (slow cooker) and cooked up a pot roast with some dumplings. Wow, that was quite a success. I also had a crack at making lamingtons - I've never made them before and I've heard they're simple to make. It was a bit fiddly with the choc dipping and coconut rolling but I'll get better with more practice. And yes, they turned out fantastic. So Deb will have some happy workmates tomorrow as they try my new experiments. Next time I might put jam and cream in the middle - yum.

 

I keep saying it's getting cold and I've taken to wearing a beanie outside when we go out to the shops. My head gets pretty cold and having a rude short haircut at the moment doesn't help things. I can wear any beanie I like cause nobody notices or looks, except Deb.

I sent this picture to our dog sitter who sadly had to say goodbye to their old Lab this week. He was a lovely old boy and our dogs loved playing with him. It was so sad to hear he had passed. I sent this photo to our dog sitters who are keen to get some cuddles from Macey and Cricket very soon. I thought this picture might put a smile on their face. It did apparently.  They are wearing the little scarves that Deb's niece brought a few months ago. Very cute indeed.  

Broken Week

This week saw a flurry of things break. First to go was Deb's crown which fell out two weeks ago. She had to get the ol' root canal treatment and then an interim crown. But it fell out a few days later. She saw the dentist again (note that two different dentist do the work in this process) and they stuck it back on, took the mould for the new crown and she's been fine for the time being. Mind you, the Visa took a nice $5000 hit. 

Next to break was the trash (garbage) disposal unit in the sink. It just stopped. Ok, no hurry but then I noticed it leaking everywhere underneath so it then became a hurry to get fixed. I managed to get a plumber 'on the day' I called (miracle there). Have to say he was a funny dude, he was Asian and when he checked my name as he arrived, he quickly said, 'no no, you a QUEEN' (if you know my name you'll get his joke). The Chinese shop at home says this everytime I pick up takeaway.  After discussing a few repair options and costs I opted for the less expensive repair to save the landlord some money. But we discovered the disposal unit had a long crack in it so it was not repairable. So a new disposal was fitted. Thankfully we don't pay for that $500. 

And then the car. Bit crapped off that the front brake pads need replacement. It certainly sounded pretty rough but the car is not even 2 years old. Deb reckons I drive like this picture. The forest area near home is very windy and narrow and I guess I think I'm Peter Brock on my good days and James Bond on my better days. Maybe my driving is a bit brake heavy? So ching ching $620 later and the brakes are good and my driving has not improved.

I thought they could have washed the car for me after that much money. Last time I just had a service for $44 and they washed and vac'd the car for free. I might mention this in the feedback survey.


And next was my phone. I only got it in Feb!!  The battery has been losing charge way too quick so a visit to the Apple store saw them replacing the phone completely. Apparently the battery was swelling so they don't replace the battery - too dangerous - so a whole new phone for free under warranty. Thankfully I backed everything up the night before and could easily download my info on the new phone in a jiffy. All good.  I wish they could do the same for my waistline as it's been swelling since Feb too :o 

Ah lets see, what was next. The house at home. Apparently...the bathroom and ensuite sinks are both leaking underneath again or maybe still. This first started when we left (I've never had problems in 12 years) and despite a plumber replacing all washers before we left, the leaks started. So a plumber came and fixed them (again). But it started leaking again in both bathrooms. Hmm, sounds a bit strange. So after an email rocket to the real estate advising their plumber may not have done a good job, I told them to use my plumber and talk to the tenants about hand-pressure on taps.

We enjoyed a relaxing weekend and caught up on washing, ironing, sleeping and paperwork. I had a pile of paperwork to file and sort out and I managed to find some new recipes to try out. Deb has decided she wants to do meat-free Mondays. This is her putting her little toe in the vegetarian ring. I certainly won't go vego but I guess a little less meat won't hurt. The cold weather is coming so I'm going to get the crock pot (slow cooker) out and cook some meals during the day. 

Work is keeping me busy. I have organised a monster Xmas raffle to be run. I did one at home few years ago. It's basically a no-profit raffle where all ticket sales go into prizes so the more tickets sold means more prizes are bought. The social club started with $2000 prize pool and I'm sure we'll get that easily. After that is raised, we buy more prizes. We started selling tickets on Friday and it was a smashing success. Nobody gets away without getting a ticket or 5 from me !!

The weekend has been cool but today was a shocker - really windy and cold. The dogs were restless so we had to walk them. I pulled out my wooly beanie that my sister gave me for Xmas. It was freakin' warm as toast. A guy at her work knits so he made us two beanies and my sister gave them to us for xmas last year. So here's a few pics to finish with showing us walking through the forest with all the leaves falling. 

 

Election and School Day

We have seen our last visitor leave on Monday and life returns to normal - or as normal as can be here in hotdog land. I'll get the bad news done with first but you all know how the election turned out. We had some friends over to watch the results come in and it was seriously a very sad night - we kept flicking the 200 channels to find one with good news but unfortunately, the writing was on the wall by midnight. We all finished up and went to bed in a numb shock. Needless to say, the next day was quite sombre in DC - it's a democrat town and people took the day off work or came in late and just sat there looking like zombies. We felt like we backed the losing horse in an un-losable race. But, Hillary isn't Phar Lap and Trump romped in with a big win albeit controversial. Although Hillary got more 'popular' votes overall than Trump, Trump won more seats across the states. You win all seats in the state if you have the majority votes in the state. The states are weighted differently so he won the high numbered seat states while she only one the small numbered seat states. The same outcome saw Bush beat Al Gore in 2000. It's similar in Australia, some states have more/less members in the House of Reps and Beasley got more votes than Howard in the 1998 election but still lost the election due to the seat counting and coalition. But you have to note that both Trump and Hillary got about 50 million votes each so it was close. And only half the country voted so overall, it's a pretty shitty outcome for the US and the world.

Moving on to nicer things, I went on a city lights tour with a friend who stayed overnight on Sunday. It was really pretty and I took note so that we can do drive around ourselves and see the memorials and sights at night. It was a clear night, a bloody cold night and the tour was pretty good. The tour guide was called Mr. Holiday - got to be a joke. I always learn something new on tours. This night it was about the President's plane - Air Force One which it's called (One) when the current president is onboard. When he's not on board, it goes by it's tail number 28,000 or 29,000 (as there are two aircraft in the fleet). After a presidential inauguration resulting in a change in office, the outgoing president is provided transport on a VC-25 aircraft to their home destination. The aircraft for this flight does not use the Air Force One call sign because it is not carrying the president in office. For both Presidents Clinton and GW Bush the flight was known as Special Air Mission 28000, where the number represents the aircraft's tail number. Same happened when plane flew deceased Reagan and Ford to Washington for their state funerals.

I have come to greatly admire both President Abe Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr during my time here. The tour stopped at both their memorials and I was able to recognise more features of the memorial given our travels to Gettysburg and the South where both of these men have played a significant role in history. We also went to the US Marine Corp Memorial or often referred to as the Iowa Jima Memorial. I never knew the story of Iowa Jima but now I do. I might watch the movie now but suffice to say, I can appreciate why this memorial is so important.

 

This week I was asked to do a presentation to a school class on Australia. Each year, the Embassies are allocated a school to work with in an effort to teach them about a foreign country. I went to the final presentation by a school in May but we now have a new school. So I put on my Aussie shirt, an Akubra-like hat, RM Williams boots and my best Aussie slang accent and talked to the kids about Australia's features, climate, history, money, cities and animals. It was a great morning. I had a cricket bat and ball and found myself thinking I was Steve Irwin. So after jumping around like I was chasing crocodiles, the kids tell me they don't know Steve Irwin - uh oh. They were probably not born when he died back in 2006. Never mind, I made up for it by doing my best cockatoo screech, kookaburra laugh and emu bob walk. I was entertaining to say the least, a bit of an idiot but at least I held their young attention spans. I taught them to say G'day mate and See ya later mate. Very cute. 

They asked lots and lots of questions - I was surprised how many given they have only just started learning about Australia. The funniest question I got was 'How long did it take you to learn that accent?'. Another kid yells out 'I really love your accent' in his best little US drawl. He could listen to it all the time apparently !! I taught them Crikey and told them what a 'dunny' was. They were shocked how old Queen Elizabeth was and asked 'how long will she be Queen?'. Good question I thought - if only we knew the answer also. One kid asked me if I had a computer - I must have looked bloody old to him. They loved the cricket bat and ball, kangaroos and joey's and koalas (which I had to remind them are NOT in fact bears). I told them crocodiles were dangerous, man eaters and would kill them. So one kid had to clarify what would happen if he stood on one - run fast I said. And then they asked if crocodiles really run and how fast. The questions kept coming. And this one stumped me when we talked about the little Tassie Devil....'is the devil's neck really thick so that animals can't bite it?' Hmm, that's one for that little kid to research for her assignment.  Google just tells me that the Tasmanian devil's large head and neck allow it to generate among the strongest bites per unit body mass of any extant mammal land predator. Apparently they can bite through thick wire. I will be sure to tell the little girl next time I see her (in Dec at the morning tea with them).

Well the weather has quickly become cold, down to about 3 degrees (celsius) overnight and cool during the days. Cricket now wears his coat and the leaves are falling heavily in the forest - really pretty. I can see the dogs better now the trees are thinning and I can hear them rustling through the leaves. We crossed the creek the other day and I thought it was too cold to swim but no, not too cold for them. But they didn't swim and we just kept walking.

A friend told us about a TV show called 11.22.63 which is date format for 22 Nov 63 which is the day JFK was assassinated. It's about a guy who finds a time portal in the back of diner that takes him back to the same day in 1960. The story is based on a Stephen King novel and is about this guy who goes back to prevent the assassination of JFK as he believes the world would be a better place if he lives. Anyway, can't say anymore but we had a binge session and watched the eight episodes. It was great - so look it up and watch it.

We are now catching up with Blacklist, The Americans and Elementary as the previous seasons are on Netflix or whatever cyber thing Deb's got us connected to.

Thanksgiving is next week and we are yet to be adopted - I'm working on it though

Capitol Hill and Chesapeake Bay Bridge Run

It has been a very busy 5 weeks with visitors from home. But we continued to put in big days and see and do a whole bunch of things. I spent the weekend catching up on sleep and managed to get 15 hours on Friday and Saturday. It was greatly needed. We ended daylight savings this weekend too so we got an extra hour sleep - just awesome. The weather is cooling, the leaves are falling and things look quite pretty around the place.

Despite being tired through the week, I managed to watch the baseball world series finals. They play the best of 7 games and the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians were battling for a long overdue world series title. The Indians were up 3-1 games and then the Cubs got on a winning streak taking the series to 3 all. So it came down to a deciding 7th game on Wed night. It was a fantastic game - I've never seen such great baseball. I couldn't go to bed so at midnight they were 6 all after 9 innings. This means extra time until until someone scores a run. There was a rain delay and I couldn't risk staying up any later so went to bed. I woke in the morning to see the Cubs had won, breaking a 106 year drought. I was pretty happy and had been backing the cubbies.

Onto more serious things, a few weeks back we were treated to a personal tour of the Capitol Building by a friend we have met here. The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol Building or Capitol Hill, is the seat of the US Congress, the legislative branch of the US Federal Government. It sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall.

The original building was completed in 1800 and was subsequently expanded, particularly with the addition of the massive dome. Like the principal buildings of the executive and judicial branches, the Capitol is built in a distinctive neoclassical style and has a white exterior. Both its east and west elevations are formally referred to as fronts, though only the east front was intended for the reception of visitors and dignitaries.

It was really interesting, we asked 578 questions, and we got to see things behind the scenes. Two things of great interest were the balcony (picture with me and Deb) which overlooks where the inauguration will take place in January for the new President. Such a great view. The other cool thing was underneath the various floors is the crypt (I think this features in the latest movie Inferno by Dan Brown). It was intended to be the burial place of George Washington, with a ringed balustrade at the center of the Rotunda above looking down to his tomb. However, under the stipulations of his last will, Washington was buried at Mt. Vernon (just outside DC). The Crypt houses exhibits on the history of the Capitol. A compass star inlaid in the floor marks the point at which Washington, D.C. is divided into its four quadrants; however, the geographic center of the city lies near the White House.

 
 

The other highlight was running the Chesapeake Bay Bridge 10km fun run. One of our local running friends had wanted to do this run so we decided to register a few months ago with her. While our running had been going well, the past 5 weeks or so with travelling and visitors gave us little chance for exercise. So the run was going to be a tough struggle, particularly since the bridge has a very long climb. 

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge (commonly known as the "Bay Bridge") is a major dual span bridge in the state of Maryland at Annapolis (about an hour from DC). Spanning the Chesapeake Bay, it connects the state's Eastern shore region with the urban Western shore.The original span opened in 1952 and with a length of 4.3 miles (6.9 km), was the world's longest continuous over-water steel structure; the parallel span was added in 1973. The incline was a nice 3% and the highest point of the bridge is about 56m above water.

The run is capped at 25,000 people and it's very popular with both walkers and runners. We all decided to just do our best and walk if we had to. We stood there in the 'Start Corrall' and I looked at that beastly bridge, wondering if it actually got to the other side. It was so bloody long that I couldn't see it. I could see people running up the start and kept telling myself this would be over in an hour or so, gulp !!  This seemed like a good idea over breakfast sometime ago?

We headed off amongst the mass of feet and as always, there's a range of dress styles. I quite enjoyed a t-shirt that had this on the back 'IF YOU'RE BEHIND ME THEN YOU DIDN'T TRAIN EITHER'. Yep, that was kinda me.  Deb pulled away early and didn't look back. She says she did but I said nope, I saw ya' just trot off. 

So our friend and I jogged together as we are similar pace. It was quite frustrating to dodge walkers - you think they would walk on the side but no, they were all over the road making this physical challenge a real obstacle course. We chatted along the way about a range of things and I explained how in Australia, a sausage sizzle would be at the end of the race - how I would miss this at the end. And then a moron ran past quite fast at some stage trying to save 6 seconds off his race time and I commented that he was running for sheep stations. I had to explain that term to my friend also. We made it to the top of the bridge without stopping and it was literally all downhill from there. The last few km's were flat after the bridge and the legs were getting pretty tired. But we ran all the way and crossed the finish line to receive a serious chunk of bling (race medal).

The logistics for this race was outstanding. There were parking places away from the race start and school buses were ferrying runners to the start and back from the finish. It was highly organised and took away a lot of stress. 

 

While finishing was a great relief, the most exciting part was getting to ride on an a yellow American school bus. Wow, this is an icon of all things American. Our friend was surprised that we didn't have such buses in Australia. Wow, so another box ticked by taking a ride on a school bus. I was quite excited and waiting for everyone to burst into song with '10 green bottles, sitting on the wall, 10 green bottles....". 

So we came home quite tired and I had another few hours sleep. We have another busy week ahead but I'm glad to start the week feeling quite refreshed...I might rethink that tomorrow morning when the legs won't work.

Well the weekend draws to a close but this coming week will see Election day on Tuesday. It has been absolutely frantic here with trash, slander, bullshit, hype, promises and just a little bit of policy. Early voting has finished and I think this is the biggest turnout ever so I wonder how many will vote on Tuesday - note it is not mandatory to vote in the US. We are having a little election party on election night with some friends coming over to watch the results come in. I figure it will either be historical or hysterical, depending on who wins !!

And check out the bumper sticker. It's fair to know voters are fairly unhappy with both candidates and consider this election picking the best of the worst. Sound familiar??

Memphis and Nashville

The second week of our road trip was chock full of adventure, famous landmarks, good music, yummy food and good ol’ southern hospitality. We drove from New Orleans up to Jackson, Memphis and Nashville before a long push home on the last day. I covered Jackson in my last post so I’ve got plenty to write about Memphis and Nashville.

Here's a short video with all the best pics from this stage of the trip so make sure you watch it. 

ROUTE MAP

MEMPHIS

On the way to Memphis we drove through the small city (town?) of Tupelo which is where Elvis was born. We saw the little house and that’s about it. I guess this is their claim to fame because the Presley family moved to Memphis when he was a young boy and Memphis is better known for Elvis.

We arrived into Memphis in the afternoon and first stop was to the famous Peabody Hotel where we watched the ‘march of the Peabody ducks’. How damn cute were these ducks !!! The story goes…The Peabody is a luxury hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. The hotel is known for the "Peabody Ducks" that live on the hotel rooftop and make daily treks to the lobby, a custom dating back to the 1930s. The General Manager of the time, had just returned from a weekend hunting trip in Arkansas. He and his friends found it amusing to leave three of their live English ‘call duck’ decoys in the hotel fountain. The guests loved the idea, and since then, five Mallard ducks (one drake and four hens) have played in the fountain every day.

In 1940, a bellman by the name of Edward Pembroke volunteered to care for the ducks. Pembroke was given the position of "Duckmaster" and served in that position until 1991. As a former circus animal trainer, he taught the ducks to march into the hotel lobby, which started the famous Peabody Duck March. Every day at 11am the Peabody Ducks are escorted from their penthouse home, on the Plantation Roof, to the lobby via elevator. The ducks, accompanied by the duckmaster and proceed across a red carpet to the hotel fountain, made of a solid block of Italian travertine marble. The ducks are then ceremoniously led back to their penthouse at 5pm. You can google this and see many videos of the ducks marching – it’s very cute and apparently their penthouse is $200,000+.

The next day we went early to Graceland and took the tour through Elvis’ mansion and many of his side museums such as his cars and photo gallery. Graceland is definitely a place of worship for any Elvis fan. I’m not a big Elvis fan but the memorabilia and computer guided audio tour was excellent. I learnt a lot about Elvis and never knew how kind, generous and family oriented he was. He was clearly a good looking bloke and a superstar of enormous proportion in the day. Graceland was old given it’s dated in the 70s but he certainly enjoyed the good life. However, it was nice to hear many kind comments around the many tours in Memphis about Elvis’ humbleness and generosity. Having travelled from New Orleans where Jazz was the music flavor and one that the African Americans developed from their strong gospel sounds, it was interesting to learn that Elvis played a big role in bring gospel into ‘white’ peoples music.

 

Memphis was the place of Blues music. I saw a sign somewhere along the way that said ‘if country music had a baby it would be called the blues’. It was Saturday night and we took ourselves to Beale Street where all the Blues music action is. It’s amazing how nighttime and lights can ramp up the atmosphere of any city. There were many bars with live blues music playing and the street is closed to traffic thank god. We went to the very famous and original BB King’s Blues Club and oh my god, that place was rocking. The band was the BB King All Stars and they were bloody fantastic, really loud but fantastic. This place has live entertainment every night of the week – from authentic blues to classic soul and rock and roll – and a menu full of Southern favorites, the club is a popular destination spot on Memphis’ historic Beale Street. The club offers a full menu comprised of a variety of the South’s most delicious comfort foods influenced by flavors from New Orleans all the way to the Mississippi Delta, including authentic Memphis-style barbecue.

We also visited the Rock n Soul museum that was small but quite interesting. I’m a music lover so anything that covers good music is always good for me. There was plenty of Elvis and a good history of how blues music was formed, developed and grown into the good sound it is today.

A somber experience was the visit to the National Civil Rights Museum. The museum traces the history of civil rights in the US from the 17th century to today. It is built around the former Lorraine Motel which is where Martin Luther King (MLK) Jnr was assassinated on 4 April 1968. This was an incredible museum – it was loaded with interesting history but it was deeply saddening to read about the cruelty dealt to the African Americans from slavery through to segregation to their battles today. This is probably the best civil rights museum I’ve seen so far and probably may be because Memphis is fairly central to the civil rights movement. I noticed a few older African American women with tears as they read some of the exhibits. It really was heartbreaking to read but also uplifting to see good people come together to fight for humanity back in the day knowing that they would face beatings and even death to stand up for what was right.

The museum includes the actual hotel and rooms where MLK Jr was assassinated. The rooms are preserved as they were on the day. Terrible, just a terrible loss of a remarkable man – he was only 39. Across the road the museum includes the hostel where the gunman fired his weapon. We viewed that room also and it was full of artifacts on the capture and case against the gunman. It was like the JFK shooting in that it has conspiracy surrounding it. I get goose bumps every time I hear his ‘I have a dream speech’ and the more I learn, the more I understand his purpose behind those great words.

Thanks to wiki, here’s a here’s a short bio. King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president. With the SCLC, King led an unsuccessful 1962 struggle against segregation in Albany, and helped organize the 1963 nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama. King also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington where he delivered his famous “I have a Dream” speech. There, he established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history.

On October 14, 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through non-violent resistance. In 1965, he helped to organize the Selma to Montgomery marches and the following year he and SCLC took the movement north to Chicago to work on segregated housing. In the final years of his life, King expanded his focus to include opposition towards poverty and the Vietnam War, alienating many of his liberal allies with a 1967 speech titled Beyond Vietnam. In 1968, King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D.C., to be called the Poor People’s Campaign when he was assassinated on April 4 in Memphis, Tennessee. His death was followed by riots in many US cities.

This was a big museum with an enormous amount to read and see. I would dearly love to go back and spend more time there. I recommend you visit this museum, as it’s important to understand the danger we face by not treating people equally.

NASHVILLE

I was quite excited to visit Nashville which is the capital of Tennessee, home to Vanderbilt University and the land of honky tonks. My mum raised me on a variety of music flavors and country music was a big part of that education. Famous names like Charley Pride, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, Glen Campbell…among many many more. We started our visit with a hop on/off bus tour and did the full loop to get our bearings. It’s a beautiful city and had a nice feel to it. They have their own football and ice hockey team so things are good. There are legendary country music venues including the Grand Ole Opry House, home of the famous “Grand Ole Opry” stage and radio show.

We put in a full day starting with the Country Music Hall of Fame which was pretty impressive – I thought of mum a lot and know how much she would have loved to have seen this. There were lots of memorabilia and people I’ve never heard of so the world of country music if much bigger than my small childhood education gave me. It went from the early days through to the current stars of today. Nice to see Keith Urban in there but didn’t notice any other Australian singers. Every display cabinet had a pair of cowboy boots, a guitar and maybe a hat. The clothes were amazing, full of sparkles and dangly bits that would be great for any mardi gras in Sydney.

We then toured the historic RCA Studio B which was once the recording home of popular music titans such as Elvis Presley, Chet Atkins, Eddy Arnold, and the Everly Brothers. From the website….Built by Dan Maddox in 1957, RCA Studio B first became known as one of the cradles of the “Nashville Sound” in the 1960s. A sophisticated style characterized by background vocals and strings, the Nashville Sound both revived the popularity of country music and helped establish Nashville as an international recording center. For many years, Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Chet Atkins managed RCA’s Nashville operation and produced hundreds of hits in Studio B. Studio B has also been home to numerous innovations in recording practices, including the development of the “Nashville number system,” a musician’s shorthand for notating a song’s chord structure, which facilitates the creation of individual parts while retaining the integrity of the song. We sat at the piano where many stars have played for their hit songs. I enjoyed the tour but have to say the Motown museum in Detroit was much better.

Another icon in Nashville is the historic Ryman Auditorium. This was formerly the home of the Grand Ole Opry House (1943 to 1974) an is/was a 2362 seat live performance venue.

Since debuting in 1925, a local country music program known as the Grand Ole Opry had become a Nashville institution. Though not originally a stage show, the Opry began to attract listeners from around the area who would come to the WSM studio to see it live. When crowds got too large for the studio, WSM moved the show to various auditoriums around the city that could accommodate the following. However, the Opry was asked to other venues due to its sometimes-uncivilized crowds, which often resulted in upholstery damage. With its wooden pews and central location, Lulu Naff and the other Ryman leaders thought the auditorium would be a perfect venue for such an audience, and began renting the venue to WSM for its shows. The Grand Ole Opry was first broadcast from the Ryman on June 5, 1943, and originated there every week for nearly 31 years thereafter. Every show sold out, and hundreds were often turned away. Reading about Lulu Naff and how she took a huge chance to start managing the Ryman was amazing – she is a celebrated legend.

During its tenure at Ryman Auditorium, the Opry hosted the biggest country music stars of the day, and the show became known around the world. The entire show was broadcast clear channel station WSM, where it could be heard in 30 states across the eastern part of the nation. Portions of the show were also broadcast on network radio and television to a wider audience. Melding its then-current usage with the building's origins as a house of worship, the Ryman earned the nickname "The Mother Church of Country Music", which it still holds to this day. The Grand Ole Opry is now at another venue and we did not get a chance to check it out. The Ryman was a beautiful place – they say the acoustics are excellent and many singers preferred to sing here for that reason and because of the history and atmosphere. We got a photo on stage but I realize this will be the closest I will ever get to performing at the Ryman. Apparently they do some filming here for the TV show Nashville.

THIS has got to be a highlight – there is a building that they call the ‘Batman’ building. One look at it will tell you why. How cool is that !!

I desperately wanted to go boot-scooting (or line dancing) but Deb and our friend were not having any part of it. So we walked the streets and looked at the hat and boot shops – I wanted a cowboy hat. It just seemed the thing to buy! After a few shops, and very little encouragement all three of us ended up with a pair of cowboy boots each. And after all that, I didn’t get my cowboy hat. I will wait for Texas next year and get one there. So with our new cowboy boots, I still couldn’t convince them to go boot scooting. Bloody sheilas.

We made a last minute decision to go to the ice hockey as the Nashville Predators were playing the Texas Stars. This was the first ever hockey game for our friend and the game was awesome. It was full of action and the crowd was rowdy with some very colorful chants. Nashville has a lot to see and do. We didn’t get to see the Johnny Cash museum or the musicians hall of fame but we managed to see some of the best things and experience the friendly hospitality on offer.


ROADTRIP

We covered a fair bit of ground on this road trip and drove mostly on the interstate highways. There were so many trucks that it was like the slow (right) lane was only for trucks. We experienced some of the road stops with there own special personalities serving us. The southern accents were very strong and I thought they were quite friendly and warm. We were all exhausted after going flat strap for 12 days and with lots of driving in between. Overall we enjoyed the trip, the southern states and the food and people that we experienced along the way. Na be shaw y’all come bak now !!