Life, The Universe & Everything

Well. my trip is basically over. I’m on the first of 3 flights home (Orlando – LA). Let’s see how much of this I can bring up to date before I actually get home!

Friday was the big day, Country Music Hall of Fame and then as Rayna calls it ‘The Mecca’, the Bluebird Cafe. It looked like parking was going to be complex is some of these places so I made use of some Uber’s today.

The Country Music Hall of Fames was excellent. It was interesting and there was a lot of stuff to see. I did spend about the two hours recommended there. I think the main stand outs were how long country music has been around and how when it’s struggled they’ve changed it up a bit and it keeps on going. Lots of very big names have had at least some hits on country charts as well as others. If you’re in Nashville, I would definitely recommend spending some time there.

I bundled the RCA Studio B tour with my Country Music Hall of Fame tour. This is the studio on music row where Dolly Parton recorded Jolene, Elvis recorded 20+ of his songs and many more. It was interesting and informative and cool to see the piano Elvis played, the spot he stood on to hear recorded songs and the like.

(Location Update: Well, I’m currently on the plane from LA to Melbourne, less that an hour out now, but that does mean I’m writing this offline. Ugh. Bring internet onto international flights already!)

So without the benefit of past entries I’ll have to remember where I’m up to. I think I just finished writing about the Country Music Hall of Fame and was about to post some pictures. I decided to save some money and take public transport back to my hotel. I had to walk about a km to the bus stop which wasn’t that far, but it was about 33 degrees so I was starting to regret it. But I got back without any incident, though as I have done in the past I put too much money on the travel app system they use.

I had the best intentions to pack when I got back so I would be organised for my earlyish flight in the morning and wouldn’t have to do it when I got back from the Bluebird. However, what I ended up doing was going for a swim and lying out by the pool before I got ready to leave!

Then it was the Bluebird. I once again took an Uber there, as apparently parking is very difficult and I was hoping to have a drink or two. When I got there the lady at the door said she was hoping to give me a better seat than the pews, so she moved me to the bar which was great. The bluebird was setup slightly differently to the way you usually see it in the show – the stage was there, but it just had tables on it – the four muso’s were sitting in a circle in the middle of the room. 

As a side note, I did a bit of research in the early days of the show Nashville, they shot at the real Bluebird but as they did more there they built a replica on a sound stage so they had more freedom. The musicians did mention that it’s a great place to play and mentioned its fame from the show. They also joked that people will often come in and ask when Deacon is playing next! I think they did say Charles has played there once or twice.

The musos prefaced their set by saying that it was their own music they were playing. The show went for about 90 minutes, and they did about 4 songs each though a few of them were groups or duets. It was definitely my favourite show. It was original, acoustic country music and I really enjoyed it. I would definitely love to go back! I couldn’t resist the time that Maddie ordered chicken fingers on the show, I didn’t get root beer, but I had a couple of Corona’s and the bluebird basket which was chicken fingers and fries!

After that it was an Uber back to the hotel and then packing. This is always the hardest part of these trips when I move from having a car to flying so I have to get rid of all of my extra stuff. This time I think I had more than ever after the almost 3 weeks I’d had my car for. The Ale 8 was way heavier than expected but I tried to distribute things across my bags, my best estimate was that I should just sneak it under the weight allowance. (AA is limited to 23kg, not the 32kg I get on Qantas). Then bed – I knew I wasn’t going to get enough sleep… My ears tell me we’re starting to descend and this was a long post, so I’ll finish there and pickup in a new post.

Edit:- there’s something I just remembered that I forgot to put in this post. Once I got back from The Bluebird I headed off to a carwash place. Primarily because after all the driving my car was pretty dirty on the outside. I’m not sure you’re required to clean them, but I felt like I should. It also let me use the change machine to get 40 quarters! (that what $10 gives you) Not only did I need them for the car wash, but I knew I’d need there for the washing machine in Fort Lauderdale and my quarter for the trolley if I shopped at Aldi (thanks It’s R Life!)

I’m starting this post at a Starbucks again (I’m nothing if not predictable), near West Palm Beach. This is stop one to get a snack and kill some time on my way up to Universal (I can’t check in until 4 pm).

So this is state 5, TN. I made it to my hotel, and it had everything I needed, including a microwave and mini fridge. I have missed baths so far, but I’m holding out for Universal! Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of this one, I reminded myself to several times and kept forgetting. I went to Nashville to see the country music scene so that was my main focus. I had booked shows for all of the 3 nights I was there. I was umming and ahhing over whether I wanted to do the Opry & the Ryman. However, when I saw that Charles Esten was one of the players at the Opry it was settled. So that was Wednesday night – the Grand Ole Opry radio show, live at Opry House. I pre-booked parking – as a side note parking is really expensive in the US – I’ve spend a lot of money on parking so far! However, this parking was probably worth it as it was a nice easy walk over a bridge to the theatre.

The Opry was great. I think it was 8 different performers, who did or 2 or 3 songs each. Except one who was a comedian, who in general was very funny! I really enjoyed all of the performers and am glad I decided to go. Charles sadly didn’t reprise his role as Deacon or sing any Nashville songs, but he did talk a little bit about the show. I definitely like his original music too. An interesting fact was that he doesn’t do all of his guitar work on the show. He does all of Deacon’s vocals, but apparently a lot of the guitar playing is done by somebody else, which I didn’t realise!

After this it was back to the hotel, some food and then sleep. My throat was definitely hurting now and I was hoping this cold would hurry up and go away. (So I’m at Starbucks again, Fort Pierce this time. What!?! It’s a good place to kill time and while I’ll probably get one at Universal I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss out on my Stawberry Açai Refresher. Although with the new Starbucks coming to Perth I may not need to travel for these anymore! I digress.) Thursday morning woke up and I definitely knew a had a cold – cue the incredibly annoying cough that I’ll probably have for the next 6 weeks 😠. I decided rest was in order, so I spent most of the morning and some of the afternoon in bed. I spend a good deal of that time trying to prioritise. The things definitely on my list were the Johnny Cash Museum and the Country Music Hall of Fame (as well as the Bluebird Cafe, but it was already booked). Thursday night I had booked a show at the Ryman and when I found the Johnny Cash museum was a short walk away and open late I thought it made sense to do both together.

So I once again paid a decent amount for parking, just across from the Ryman and went down to the Cash museum. In short it was great. I knew some of the story from seeing the Cash movie, but the memorabilia and extra info was really interesting. I took a lot of photos! A lot of the may need zoom to ready – I wanted to commemorate some of the info.

Then it was back to the Ryman to see the Del McCoutry band. This was a bit of a let down. No that it wasn’t good, but I think a combination of now knowing their background, not knowing their music, it being country music that I like less (a bit more honky tonk) and the fact that I was coughing a lot didn’t make is a super enjoyable performance. It was my leasts favourite of the three I went to. Also, the pews in the Ryman are not comfortable! One of the highlights was before the show started, one of the background music songs was I Saw the Light which David Crowder played back when we went to Passion in Sydney circa 2009. I appreciated the close parking and headed back to the hotel, stopping to pick up dinner. I decided I should probably try American Taco Bell so that’s what I got this time, a Chicken Quesadilla and Nacho Fries – they were good! Bed Time.

This post has got long, especially with the photos so I’ll end here and do Friday in a new post.

Well I’m in Florida. As the next few days are the relaxing part of my trip let’s see if I can bring this back up to date!

So IC is over for another year and I’m off to Kentucky. I’m pretty sure that takes me up to 4 states, if we go with the US acronyms that’s CA, IL, IN and now KY. I’m not 100% sure that CA counts as it was only a layover – I didn’t actually leave the airport. But I’ll run with it, on my way back I’ll leave the airport.

The drive to Louisville was uneventful, although I did time it fairly well. I arrived just after check-in time so no need to divert to a Starbucks beforehand this time. The hotel was pretty nice it was only for one night. I had a bit of a nap (still recovering from IC) and then tried another American fast food chain – Chipotle. The food itself was pretty good, but they forgot to add my sour cream and tomato salsa and I only got my rice which didn’t make me super happy. Then it was time for bed.

The next morning I had a nice relaxing start (in fact I probably slept in too long) but I got out of there by check out at 11am and headed south-east to Irvine. After a stop for Gas and McDonalds for lunch I made it to the Smith’s at a bit before 2, fairly close to my anticipated ETA of about 1pm. It was great to see Dianne again, unfortunately Jerry had to leave that morning for a work trip, so I didn’t get to catch up with him. I settle in an caught up on a bit of admin while Dianne took her grandson James, who I met for the first time, back to his parents.

Once she got back we headed off so we could go the scenic route before we went and met Phillip, Julie & James as well as Matthew for dinner at Texas Roadhouse. It’s been 19 years since I’ve seen them, so they’ve all grown up a lot and of course I hadn’t met Julie or James before. It was great to catch up and see what people are doing. Despite it being a steak house I chose to go for the salmon, which was very yummy. (In fact, of the 5 of us only 2 had steak!) After that we went down to the park so James could play and on the way Matthew stopped and picked up some Ale8 for us, so the boys could have a cold one! It was a nice gesture and we had a good time, even if it was cold – glad I brought my jacket! After that, it was back to Dianne’s house and pretty quickly to bed!

The next day I had a nice long sleep in, I didn’t get up until about 10.30. One of the things I wanted to do was to pick up some Ale8 (as this can only be bought in Kentucky and a few other surround states near the border.) I have very fond memories of this drink, both my introduction to it and the taste as well as the many fun nights we shared at IC drinking Ale8 with others from all around the world. On the way, Dianne showed me some more sights and we picked her friend nicknames ‘Bestie’ to come with us. Sadly, the factory usually runs tours, but they’re currently paused. However, we did visit the shops and bought some merch. As the story goes, there is a vault at the headquarters with the Ale8 recipe in it, and only two people have access. We also asked at the factory about shipping some to Australia and she said you could it online. Turns out, international shipping is only available to active US military serving overseas.

We went to lunch at a family run pizza bar, very much like the old Pizza Hut’s in Australia. They had Ale8 on tap. so I got to have even more! It’s feeling like I might be over it at this point. After that we went to the shops to buy Ale8 and got a good buy 2 get 2 free (thanks to Jennifers store membership). Then it was to UPS – they quotes about $800 to ship the 4 cartons of cans to Australia. That wasn’t happening. They did say the post office would be cheaper so we tried that, it was cheaper but only down to $400. I mean I like Ale8 and all, but not that much! In the end I worked out that there’s no liquid limit on checked baggage, so I decided I’d probably have to buy another suitcase (to replace my small bag). I get two free checked bags, so that should work OK. After that adventure it was off to the park with James & Bestie. The park had water, so James had lots of fun with that. Then we dropped off Bestie, dropped off James and haded home.

A few hours later, Philip, Julie & James came over and we decided to get take out for dinner, so Dianne went and picked up Mexican. It was nice to have a meal together and I thoroughly enjoyed my Chimichanga. It was really great to catch up with the Smiths and especially to share the encouragement with them about my journey towards knowing Christ. It really was a God thing, because Dianne was sharing that she didn’t even know how they ended up hosting homestay for FPS! Then it was bedtime. I got up, got organised, hung out for a little while and then headed off, down to Nashville. On my way I stopped at Walmart and found a new large suitcase as well as some strepsil equivalent for my throat which was starting to tickle. Then I made it to my Nashville hotel – but that’s a new post…