Mule Day, Columbia, TN (by Lori...)

Been there, done that...and bought the T shirt....that would be Mule Day in Columbia, TN. Actually, Billy has the T shirt, but we agreed it was worth doing. More people than mules, but basically No golf carts....that, is certainly a good thing. If there was a parade today, we missed it, though we were arrived by 11AM. The parking for the event totally filled the lawns of both the elementary school and the high school....a good thing we'd done our daily two miles of walking! And this was a good day for wearing my Sharon straw hat.   We saw mule pulling...that was impressive, those animals moved several thousands of lbs. Dead weight, no wheels. Shared a catfish sandwich for lunch, and watched the storm clouds building. Only 20% chance of rain, that's what Diane said....so we ignored the lightning, etc. explored, found some amplified gospel singing...good harmonies, too loud. And I heard one lonely fiddler while we watched mules working.    Then...on the front of a shed porch, there it was. Banjo & bass, guitars, three lady harmony singers....perfect! Played a waltz for us to dance to, with crocs, on grass...but we did. Convicts brought us some bales of hay to sit on...this was getting Good! They even sang 4 of the songs we often do...that was Neat.     That's about the time the Deluge happened...but we weren't leaving unless the music stopped, nope! Then they invited us to crowd up on the porch with them...and watched it Hail for a half hour. Big bouncey hail, about covered the ground, then More rain. May be why we missed the parade? I stood on the porch, while Billy was inside talking to the musicians. Soooo....we got invited to go get guitar & fiddle....and play along! Got sort of soaked while walking that 2 miles again....but, worth doing! See us smile. Found out that we knew some musical friends in common....a guy named Terry whom we saw at jams in Florida. This group was from Alabama....Billy got one of their cards...so perhaps a future time. Not coming to any summertime things in the South. Nope.     Kind of tired now....guess we'll hitch up the camper in the morning. Shouldn't take long....Diane is outside, taking sunset pictures....she had a good day, with her girls....hardly noticed the stormy weather. We rather did! Oh well...ttyl....Lori

Way behind Again!

So now I'll play catch up...Tuesday we did the visiting thing with Don and Diane. Diane had errands to run, she took her friend Jan to the Doctor and such. She was home earlier than we expected. That was good. Lori and I walked around the big field. We went back to the river (possibly the Harpeth) to check on the Bluebells. We found them just where they were last year. Again they are beautiful. We took pictures, as usual. Unusually, Lori took pictures of me in the Bluebells. She also deleted the pictures I took of her. I don't know why. Diane is doing her very best cooking for us! That is Special. She baked the apple pie Jan had made for us (Jonathan Apples from Cotants in MI). Excellent! Wednesday we did some more hanging around the place with the Woerners. Lori and I drove to Eagleville. Lori wanted to walk where there was no hills and smooth ground. We covered a couple of miles. Ordinarily, when in Eagleville we eat at La Fiesta a very good Mexican Restaurant. We discovered the Eagleville Cafe in our walk so tried that. We had catfish fillets dinner with 3 sides. Meat and 3 is a staple in Southern Restaurants. We had a broccoli rice casserole, French fries, and baked apples with our catfish. We did split the dinner. Even then, we are definitely eating Well this trip! Probably too well! Well, not even probably. We played music after Lori's Essential Nap. We decided on the songs to do at Leipers Fork on Thursday. We are working on 'Last Cheaters Waltz' as an instrumentalalso. Lori is getting it down. We listened to that song a dozen times Tuesday night, by various groups and musicians. More walking Thursday, but no driving to where we would walk, just around the field here. Diane has seen 'her' Albino Deer a couple of times lately, but the only wildlife we had any contact with was Wild Turkey. We did not see any on Thursday but we heard them every circuit of the field. We did see a couple on our walk Tuesday. Then with directions from both Don and Diane we headed on our own to Lieper's Fork to Pucketts Grocery for their open mic night. We arrived just before 6 (starting time) and were act 17. We sat outside. Inside was crowded full, and we could hear the music just fine out there. Before long Lori unpacked her fiddle to play along. Of course that meant getting Bernice out of her case also. Soon we were playing music outside...jammin for whoever wanted to listen. On fellow came over and videoed us doing Storms Never Last. Pretty cool! We were well received. We learned some things. I need to learn how to adjust the sound on Bernice whe she is amped. I did not like the sound we had. Lori sounded real good. She always does! I just ignored the unusual sound of my guitar and sang. Another thing...perhaps 'the wreck of old 97' is not a good choice at open mic nights. We found our way home without a hitch arriving about 10 CDST...11 in our old world, where our bodies have remained. So exhausted, to bed...

On the Road Again!

Happy Birthday Andrew! 26 on the 26th. Lori called him and wished him Happy Birthday yesterday. Her thought was that it would be more of a surprise a day early. They had a good conversation. GRRR! Once again our McMuffin Sandwiches were translated in to Biscuits. If you want to make me all pissed off all day just screw up my breakfast! In order to make a better beginning to the day, I went next door and bought a cappuccino! That was a help. Notice the spelling of Biscuits...still I feel that Bisquits should be the proper way.The editor on this program likes either way. There was not too much dew last night, but still we needed to wait a spell for the canvas to dry. We packed up and left about 11:30. We hopped on I59, took it to 65 and followed that to 840 in TN. Lori drove for nearly two hours, so I got a rest... We arrived here just fine. It is great to see Don and Diane again. There is always a lot happening here! Somehow Lori and I seem to be about tired out, so to bed early (CDST). Even though we have been on Central time most of the time here in the South, our bodies still are on Eastern time, it seems.

Slowed down Sunday

Another 'Lyle' breakfast...but this McDonalds is not at all like the MickeyD's back in Hastings. I have ordered Sausage McMuffins twice and got Sausage Bisquits instead. Probably the buttons are close together on the screen...or the cashier is just not paying attention. Personally, I think the problem is the latter. We decided to walk around more in the State Park. We walked up to the Pioneer Frarm Village. The only place happening was the blacksmith shop. There was a young fellow there banging away on a piece of iron under the watchful eyes of the 'Master' blacksmith. I remember doing that while my Dad taught me some of the tenents of working metal. Then we hunted until we found the Grist Mill. Lori finds Grist to be a difficult word to pronounce. She is getting educated on it though. I found the Grist Mill much more interesting than anything else in the park. Most likely because I have used Grist mills before, while I have never made iron ore into pig iron. I would not want to actuallyo. That ranks right up there with being a coal miner to me! Then we returned to camp. Our last quarter of a Subway sandwich was waiting. After Lori's essential nap, we got out our fiddle and guitar and made music. The campground is getting more and more deserted. A young fellow came over, a mandolin player who Did Not bring his mandolin, and listened for a spell. He played us a song he had written,of the Christian Variety. He has a good voice, and the song was pretty good as well. He sang harmony on 'Peace in the Valley' with me. Too soon,he had to go to supper. We played for about 2 hours, working on our new songs. They are coming along. MickeyD screwed up again on our supper...No Southwest Salad. We had to make do with a Bacon Chicken Ranch salad instead. The more I try to use that store the less I like it! Well, tomorrow's breakfast will be the last we will see of that! Monday we will head to TN and Don and Diane.... BTW, Lori says Bisquits should be Biscuits....I however, am not so sure! She laughed until tears flowed....oh, well!

Satisfying Satuday

We did some more exploring Sat morning. We checked out the Ironworks Museum. It is Serious about the ancient Furnaces hereabouts. ( Stole that word from Diane!). Lori found it interesting, I was mostly not. I see faster than most people, so the tour was Way Too Slow! I cam see that they are proud of the industry...and a historical Civil War Battle was Fought here, 18 days before Lee surrendered! Which would be a Total waste of Lives and Resourses, We had been invited to a jam starting at 10, so we got Fiddle and Guitar and headed to the 'instrument makers' craft cabin. We were welcomed warmly. There were 8 musicians counting us. I know because Lori counted them up. We played music until about One, then took a lunch break about a half hour. We then played until nearly 4. I was impressed by the Psaltries Dave made. They really get the sound out! We added our music to theirs, so we all played 'new' songs. We had a wonderful time! We attended the Tannehill Oprey after another fantastic McDonalds Salad. They had two bands. The first featured a 94 year old singer-guitar player, and a teen aged fiddle player. Both were real good! Lori loved Brandon's Double Stops. The music they performed was Old Country, and really really slow! The second band, in which Brandon played electric guitar ( very well, very loudly, played newer country music, and more lively, were also very good. We stayed until after 9:30. There was no mention of Open Mic. We have new neighbors in a tent in the lot next to ours, young people, both girls and boys. There were so many campfires that the air looked foggy. It made my eyes burn as well. Still no Internet at the campground! So all our on line time is thbks to MickeyD!

A Fine Friday!

Friday! Sleeping last night was easier than the night before.  Lori did awaken plenty early anyway.  She had been thinking all night about a 'Lyle' Breakfast, a sausage Mcmuffin, no egg.  By 730 MI time, we were on our way to McDonalds for that breakfast. We decided that it had been long enough without making music.  We gathered up our instruments and headed for a pavilion, called 'shed' here in AL.  We made it before the sky opened up and the rain poured down!  We were dry and happy there.  We played music for an hour or more.  We practiced several new to us songs.   Then we packed up and headed sort of back to camp.  There were little houses there, crafters places.  One of the crafters was there getting ready for tomorrow.  He builds mountain dulcimers and psaltries.  We struck up a conversation with the woman of the duo.  She invited us to the jam tomorrow beginning at 10 AM.  Lori's 'trolling' for music paid off!   We had lunch and I decided that an ice cream Snickers would make a great dessert.  We headed to the store to get one.  We were near the forge site.  We thought that would be a worthy thing to see.  It is up the hill a little.  We found out that the 'hill' is the Southern most part of the Appalachian Mountains.  It is not high really here. The Forge is interesting, but it looks like a Lot of Work!  There was a trail leading away from it to...who knows where.  We decided to follow it.  As usual, we were following the trail in reverse.  By the time we had made it back to camp we had walked about three miles.  My hip was Sure that was Plenty Far Enough!  Lori was feeling the effects of such a walk as well. Our rug had dried considerably by the time we arrived back at camp.  Weut it back in place.  Lori went in to take a nap.  I just sat in my 'easy' chair and rested...well, I did wake up a time or two, so perhaps I slept as well.  I mostly just rested there what was left of the afternoon. MickeyD's for supper again tonight...Southwest Salad is our present favorite supper.  We decided that it made sense to park the truck outside of the campground.  Many new campers have arrived for the weekend and there is much congestion!   Lori says she caught me 'tree staring'. I don't believe that could be true.  We did however sit outside and watch the sky get dark and the stars come out!  It is 8:30 here, 9:30 MI time...Lori is in bed!  I can almost guarantee an early start tomorrow!

Lori, on Tannehill

  Counted up all of the places we've set up our camper on this trip....five different locations. This is probably the last, until May? Some places we will definitely return to, Florala is one of those...some we won't. Lake Rousseau, not...and probably Fort Meade, not. We will return to Sebring, but might stay at the nearby State Park instead of Buttonwood Bay. Just be 'back door visitors' with Kim and Joe. Plan to stay at the Three Flags campground near Wildwood....and will time those two weeks to include the nearby tractor show at the Paquette Museum. That location has Possibilities! Next year will still be towing camper and exploring. But eventually, we will rent, for a month or two, at a couple places. Leave our camper in MI for our summer fun stuff! And might get a smaller traveling vehicle.   Tannehill? So far, hasn't earned any points with us. As might be expected, with so many kids....very noisy last night! Eventually, it quieted down so that we could hear the waterfall...and it's of course, quieter this morning. But...an even bigger hassle....the bathrooms are Locked Up at night...poor Billy had a half mile search at 2 AM. It seems that 'registered campers' are given a key? We weren't. Something we need to discuss with the officials today.   Tannehill is a pleasant place, otherwise. Interesting historical features...its the location of an ironworks foundry, actually 3 of them that predates the Civil War. Seems that all of the raw materials necessary for smelting iron are in these 'mountains' this is the very tail end of the Appalachians. There are a cluster of old cabins, a farm site, church, cemetery that date back to the 1850's or earlier. We plan to walk around those areas today....not sprinkling yet! T storms predicted, but not the windy sort, we hope. Cooler this morning.  Drove to an Iron Skillet for breakfast this morning...tomorrow we're going to drive just a bit farther...better value at McDs! Music? Sigh...nothing, so far. We found the location of the Tannehill Opry House, but nothing advertised until Saturday. We'll be there, then....and tell you all about it! Ttyl....Lori