Country Music Hall of Fame

We spent most of the day at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Here are outside views from across the street and at the entrance.

Interior first floor from the entrance,
and looking back at the entrance from the second floor exit from the hall. Foreground is a restaurant.

The museum included a mind-numbing number of exhibits of things such as clothing, guitars,

Elvis' gold piano,
Webb Pierce's Pontiac (silver bullet),
and acres of gold and platinum records.

There were also many audio and video exhibits.

Current special exhibits focused on Tammy Wynette (no pictures) and Hank Williams and his family.

The Hall of Fame itself has plaques for each of its inductees, and there are many.

The visit was well worth the time; more on Nashville later. Must sleep.

Nashville

As we arrived at our motel this afternoon, we discovered that it is right next to a free outdoor country music concert this evening. Assuming that we'd never get out again this evening, or, if we did, that we'd never get back, we selected a restaurant within walking distance. On the way we happened to encounter this statue along the sidewalk. No idea who it is; it was too dark to read anything.

After dinner we dropped by the concert briefly. While we enjoy the old, classic country music, we're not very enthusiastic about the new stuff. We hung around long enough to get a few pictures. This one happens to be of Luke Bryan, whoever he is.

Smoky Mountains to Nashville

We started off this morning for the Tail of the Dragon; on the way we drove through Sevierville and stopped to admire the Dolly Parton statue in front of the courthouse.

Then we drove through the edge of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and took a few pictures along the way.

There are no Dragon pictures. It's 318 hilly curves in 11 miles. In theory one could drop off a passenger who could take pictures of the driver returning after turning around at the end. Or a very stable passenger could shoot a video through the windshield. Alas, not for us. I had a wonderful time on the twisties until CL got extremely carsick; then my joy was tempered by guilt.

Late Virginia Entries

I found the first two images on CL's camera and the third on mine when we got to the motel tonight.

We're in Tennessee!

We left Bumpass this a.m.; our first stop was in Lexington, VA. We had a great lunch with Carolyn Jean, and a good visit with CL's brother, George. The next images are looking up his driveway and looking the opposite direction at Hogback Mountain.

On the way out of town, I couldn't resist stopping at this coffee shop. It was closed for the day, but at least I got a shot of Mr. Toad in front of it.

Here's Mr. Toad in the Tennessee Welcome Center parking lot.
We're spending the night in Kodak, TN. We had never heard of it, and it appears that its main claim to fame is that it's the next town to Sevierville, which is Dolly Parton's birthplace.

Family Time

Day after the wedding -- time to sit around and relax and take a few family pictures.

Our only regret was that Jo wasn't able to share this weekend with us and be in this picture.

After Angstrom and Maggie (and their parents) left, we went on a sunset cruise on Lake Anna (with Anna).

The Wedding

Wedding Prep

We spent Friday getting ready for Jeff & Emily's wedding. Jeff is clearly ready, as indicated by his shirt.

We went to Sweely Estate Winery, where the wedding and reception are to be held. We put out tables and chairs, tablecloths, and a painting by Bev in the hall,

and also arranged chairs outside for the ceremony.

Back at J&B's both Angstrom
and Maggie (and their parents) had arrived.

The rehearsal was held,

and bocce was played.
Then John grilled four beef tenderloins for the rehearsal dinner.

Needless to say, they were wonderful.

Virginia

We're in Bumpass, VA (yes, it actually exists) for Jeff & Emily's wedding. While CL and Bev stayed home doing prep work for tomorrow's rehearsal dinner, John and I visited three local wineries. The two worth mentioning are Byrd Cellars and Weston Farm Vineyard and Winery. Both opened this year, Byrd just last week. Both also have wines made from the Norton grape, my favorite East coast grape. The middle picture includes left to right, the winemaker, one of the owners, and John at Byrd.

The Big E

Since we had been given free passes to The Big E for donating a pint of blood each back in August, we felt that we ought to use them. Food options that we didn't take advantage of are in the previous post. We did each get a baked potato at the Maine Building; a Long Trail beer each at the Vermont Building; and we split an order of clam cakes and I had a bowl of seafood stew at the Rhode Island Building.

This post just includes images of a few things we saw along the way.

First, this is just a small piece of a sculpture that supposedly used 600 lbs of butter.

A pair of alpacas.

Quilts on display (very poorly, according to CL).

A very tall guy, or she's shrinking faster than ever.

Me & a cow mural.

Since this is supposedly Mr. Toad's blog, it should have a car now and then.

Missing from last month's museum show?

And this one's for you, Rob.