Hwy 59 is rough on tires!

We woke up to a beautiful day and were on the road by 9:30.  We were making such good time that we decided to see if we could make this trip in one day instead of our normal two.  The trip was uneventful until we got on 59 S just right outside of Houston.  In fact we were within 8 miles of the exact spot we blew a tire on the motorhome last year.  Or was it year before last.  Anyway.  Our tire monitor went off suddenly and I looked at it and it said we had 1 psi on the drivers front tire of our car.  This part of 59 is rough and they are working on it.  I think they must always be working on it but we had just passed through a pretty rough area with lots of construction.  I don't know if we ran over some debris or what happened but this tire is toast.

                                             Not a lot of room between him and the traffic.

Doug pulled over as quick as he could.  It wasn't a great place to be stopped and there wasn't a lot of room to change a tire, but Doug got busy and I stood watch.  I don't know what I was suppose to do other than yell, but I watched.

You have to look real close.  Can you see the jagged tear in the tire, just below the light ray.

It didn't take but around 25 min. and we were back on the road.  Of course that put us on Beltway 8 at 5:30.  Not a great place to be, but it wasn't as bad as I-10 at 6.  LOL  Our arrival time before the flat was suppose to be at 6:09.  We pulled into the campground at 7:00.

Mike and Kaitlyn brought Lucas to see us and we all went to eat at our favorite Chinese restaurant.
This being a work night, they dropped us off afterwards and went home.  We needed the rest anyway.  It will be a busy day tomorrow.  I guess first on the list, a new tire!
Later

We were home...LOL

We have been home since late Monday afternoon.  It has rained everyday since we got here.  How boring is that.  We didn't get anything done outside that we wanted to do while home because of the rain.  It stopped this afternoon but it was too wet to rake the leaves or mow the grass. Bummer...
Our first night home my sister, Melody, invited us over for supper.  She made chicken spaghetti and it was wonderful. The first time I had chicken spaghetti it was Melody's.  This was about 30 years ago.  Her recipe is the one that calls for all the dicing and slicing.  It takes a long time to make but it sure is worth it. Mmmmm good.  It was nice to see my sister too.  She didn't have to feed me, I would have liked to have seen her without the dinner invitation.  But it sure was nice after a long drive home to not have to worry about supper.  Thanks, Melody!
I got to spend a little bit of time with my sister, Debbie.  She is the one that takes care of everything at the house while we are gone.  She gets my mail and anything that comes up that needs attention, she does it.  Thanks Debbie!
Only sister left, Phyllis, I didn't get to see her but I did talk to her.  She is busy planning a trip to England, Scotland, Ireland and remodeling her kitchen.  It looks real good Phyllis!  Catch you next trip home.  LOL
That's all I had time to do while home this time.  We leave in the morning heading for Houston.  Doug and I both have doctor appointments almost everyday next week.    I had all my blood work done here on Tuesday and it should be in doctors hands for my appt.  Best of all, I get to see my youngest grandson.  He is seven months old now and needs some grandmama kisses.
Rain is suppose to move back in on friday and saturday so hopefully we will be in Houston and set up before it hits.  I called and made our reservations at Katy Lake RV in Katy so we are set to go.  Plans are to stay in Katy for a few weeks and then head to Amarillo to see other two grandchildren and have Thanksgiving (and maybe early Christmas).  Weather permitting, we will stay in Amarillo a few weeks and then head home.  Home, where is that exactly????   I think it's wherever the motorhome is parked!
Later!

Parkers Crossroads RV Park in Yuma TN

We left Nashville on Oct. 20th heading west towards tunica.  We stopped for the night at Parkers Crossroads RV Campground in Yuma, TN.  This was a nice stop.  Easy off and on the interstate.  The sites were concrete and level.  I took pictures of the site and grounds but a camera fairy came and got them.  They are not on my card.  This is a first for me.  Haven't had this happen before.  Hope it doesn't ever happen again.  Since I have no pictures, note to self, this is a good place for a stop over, with a pond for the guys to fish if they want to.
We arrived at Hollywood Casino on Wednesday, the 21st.  We like to stay in their campground and it's my favorite place to hit the slots.  Doug likes the "all you can eat" crab legs on friday and saturday.  We have been here a lot so there isn't any reason to take pictures again.  We will stay here until Monday, when we head home.  We should be home by early afternoon.
When we get home, I will post my spreadsheet of our travels.
For now we are relaxing and working on motorhome some.  We gave it a good washing today. I found out that the Mr. clean sponges do a real good job of taking oxidation off the bus.   It needs a good waxing now.  I don't know if we will get that done.  The weather probably won't hold out for us to do it.  It might get too hot, or cold.  That sounds like a lot of hard work.  Anyone want to wax my motorhome?
Later

A trip to Bowling Green for the guys and Grand Ole Opry for girls

Today we separated, the guys went to Bowling Green, KY. to the Corvette Museum and toured the Corvette plant and us girls visited a couple of places we didn't get around to and did some shopping.

First off, we went to see the Grand Ole Opry.  It is a very large complex.  There is a huge convention center, hotel, showboat and even a mall all right there together.

                                               Everything is beautifully decorated for fall.

No pictures on the inside.  They wouldn't allow them and we were too cheap to pay $22.00 just to go inside to look at it.  It would have made more sense to me to spend $60 and get to see a concert.  We didn't do that because I didn't recognize  any of the people playing tonight.  LOL

 We went to see the General Jackson Showboat.  It is right there in that big complex.  It sits on the Cumberland River.

 They were closed and this was as close as we could get to the boat.  They are open for dinner cruises.

Next we went to see the Two Rivers Mansion.  It was built in 1859.  This house is huge.  To see just how big it is, I took pictures of the left and right sides so you could see just how large this house is.

This is the left side of the house.

This is the right side.

Another front view.  (The sun was shining right behind the house and gave this silly shadow.  I must learn more about my camera to stop these ugly mistakes.)  The house was built in the Italianate style.

 This federal style house on the property was built in 1802.  The original owners built and lived in this house until their deaths.  Their only child, a daughter married her cousin,  David McGavock in 1850.  She inherited the 1802 house and 1100 acres.  They lived here until 1859, when the Italianate style house was completed.  The last family member to live in the house was Mary Louise Bransford McGavock.  She was the wife of Spence McGavock,  David McGavock's grandson.  She died in the house in 1965.  I guess you can tell that I love to read about the history of old homes and families.

While we were sightseeing and shopping, Doug and Jim went to the Corvette Museum and Plant.  This one was Doug's favorite.

I don't know if you remember, but several years ago the museum had a collapse of the flooring.  It turned out that there was a huge, like 60' deep in places, cavern under the building.  There are several caves in the area, I guess this was one they didn't know about.  This collapse caused millions of dollars of damage to Corvettes that were on loan to the museum.

Some they have restored, some are in the process, and some just couldn't be helped.  Unfortunately, this particular Corvette, was one of a kind.  It just "ain't no more".

You can't tell what this was.  Such a shame.  such a waste.  Oh well, I am sure they had lots and lots of insurance.
I hope you weren't bored with all the "history of the house" stuff.  Tomorrow is a travel day, I better get to bed.  I am still disappointed that we have traveled all over some of the northern states and haven't seen very much in the way of fall colors.  Maybe I will see some when we get home.  LOL
Later

Nashville day 3, The Hermitage

                         Today we took a tour of the Hermitage, Andrew Jacksons home place.

They don't let you take pictures inside the home.  The furniture and all the pieces of artwork and personal items are all original to the home.  This home has been operated as a museum for 126 years!

This is his presidential carriage.  His limousine of sort.  Don't guess it's bulletproof.  LOL

His life story is quite interesting.   His father died shortly before he was born and his mother died when he was 14.  He fought in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.  He was the only President to balance the budget.  The love of his life, his wife, Rachel, died right before he was to go live at the White House.

                                                        Slaves quarters on the plantation.

The first home they built on the plantation, was this log home.  But it was two stories when they lived in it.  After building the larger, Hermitage home, this one was converted for slaves.  The second story was removed.  As plain as it looks now, while the Jackson's were living in it, it was large with painted walls inside with french wallpaper in some of the rooms.  Rachel spent 17 years in this home.  They loved this home, but knew it wasn't large enough for a President and all the visitors they would have. So they built the larger, Hermitage.

 Jackson had this built for Rachel's final resting place.  He is also buried there beside her.

                                    A lot of their family members are also buried on the grounds.
Andrew Jackson, Jr. was actually their nephew.  They never had any biological children.  Rachel's sister had twins and gave one of them to Rachel to raise.  Sounds weird, but it was a common practice in those days.

 The japanese tree, Ginkgo.  One of the oldest trees on earth.  Trees were brought from all the battlegrounds and planted here.  Don't know why or what the story is on the ginkgo tree here on the grounds.

With its fan shaped lives.

I wish I could have taken pictures inside the Hermitage.  It is a beautiful home.

Another great day!

Later

Day two exploring Nashville

Downtown Nashville is bar after bar after bar.  This one was 3 floors of noise.  Honky Tonk Central!  No, really that was it's name.  It's claim to fame was 3 floors of bars, bands and fun.  Just was a lot of noise to me.

They even had rolling bars.  You peddle and he gives you beer, well, you buy it.  Let's see, you pay the guy to pedal his bar cart around town and you buy the beer.  Someone is winning....LOL

                                             There were lots of those rolling/pedaling bars.

People everywhere and hard to find parking places.  They have shuttles from the campground.  We didn't take them.  We should have.  Parking was $7.00 hour, $21.00 for 6 hours or $30 for 12 hours.  They are tricky too.  One lot had two different pay pods.  If you parked in the yellow stripped, it was one and white stripped another.  Of course you don't know this until you go to the pods to pay.  The white (where we parked) were the prices listed above.  One row over, the yellow, your choices were, 1 hour for $7.00 or $30 for 6 hours.  You can make good money just letting people park on your empty lot.  LOL

 The AT&T building.  Mixed in with all these old buildings are new ones.  Love the architecture.

 We ate lunch here.  It was pretty good.  Not near as good as the BBQ outside of Bristol.

                                                             This is their huge smoker.

                          Of course, we have to have a picture of Elvis.  I was photo bombed!  LOL

Tootsies's is suppose to be famous.  I never heard of it.  But here she is!  

                            The walk of Fame.  Poor Vince Gill, his plaque is covered in bird poop.

                                           Of course, they put Garth and Trisha together.

One of the last ones put down was, Miranda Lambert.  I was very disappointed there wasn't one for my man George Strait.

                                            A couple of people picking and a grinning.

                                          Of course, a trip to the Hall of Fame and Museum.

Don't know if this was Doug's Elvis impersonation, or showing how he felt about going in to "see a bunch of dead people".  His words, not mine.  LOL

                                              Trisha Yearwoods wedding dress.  Ugly isn't it?

 Just some shots from inside.  You couldn't use flash, so they aren't good pictures.

                        Can you guess who's dress this belonged too?   Yep, Dolly Parton!

                                                                           Bandit!

                                          The acoustics were wonderful in here!

                                                                     There is George!

                             We left the CM Hall of Fame and walked around a little more.

                                                      Lots of horse and carriage's too.

Another great day!
Later