Vacation, in Little Doses

I have been waiting for a chance to sit down and type up a vacay post about our recent fun trip, but I cannot get seem to eek out the time.  Right now I am supposed to be mowing but I have to want to do this instead.  Ok, so here’s just a little start. 

Actually Day 1 was the Day of Disaster at the Walton House.  I removed the post at Gary’s request since we hadn’t yet closed on the house, but now I figure I can repost and include it since it is How I Spent My Summer Vacation, page 1.  Everything turned out fine from the flooding, so yippee.  Hope the new family is loving that place.  We did.  

So, here we are heading off in the van the day after the disaster, not getting to leave until the afternoon since there were still all kinds of loose ends hanging.    

But finally!

 

I think maybe Miss C was mad because she was only allowed to bring one boa and it was a ten day trip?!

 

 

 

 

 

Sam’s quiet for hours with a Lego magazine.

 

Yes, Gary’s gotta work out even while he drives.  I sit there and enjoy my maple nut goodies and creamy bulls eye caramels.  (So puzzled... do you put it as bull’s eye or just bulls eye or is it bulls’ eyes?? I don’t know!)

We made it to Nashville just in time to walk in for the 7 pm show at the Opry.  Here’s Dan the Opry Man, and I gotta say, he’s the closest thing I ever had to a brother.  Little guy from Xenia has done very well in Nashville.  Thanks to him, we had VIP parking and got to go in through the artists’ entrance.  The kids got to each pick their own dressing room to go pee. Yep, that’s some special treatment.

The black line here at the top of the stairs shows how high the water was in the Opry building during last year’s flood.  The nearby mall is still closed even more than a  year later, but they’d done well reopening the Opry itself.

This is Little Jimmie Dickens’ truck, with a band-aid on the door. ??  He’s 90 now and still drives himself.  Danny told us Little Jimmie had worked all that afternoon with him and then we saw him perform that night.  Every time we’ve gone to the Opry he’s performed, so I’m thinking he is there probably most every show.    Some of his jokes are so good and some so …aren’t.  Gotta admire his longevity, though, and he’s obviously loved by the country music community.  Caroline took this picture of him.  She said she loves his sparkles.

We watched a huge, shiny black tour bus pull in right by us and was so curious just who was gonna step out.  It turned out it was Steve Holy!!  Yeah, we didn’t know him either.  Danny apologized that we didn’t really hit a night of big names but hey, that was ok.  It’s still fun to go.

 

Grant was determined to sleep here on our balcony once we made it to the hotel.  Sure, it’s only a four story drop, kid. 

     

 

See how vacation agrees with me?  Looking perky and relaxed, I must say.

 

 

 

We all pretty much were having a good time by this point.

Jack was, too;  he just wants no pictures around to prove it.

Gary’s wearing his mood ring and I will say he wasn’t totally to the relaxed state at this time even though I’m thinking green means happy?  Maybe, or is it tense?   I think his expression was actually saying:

Would you just quit playing around with that camera?