Nostalgic

I didn't have a reason, but last night I was feeling a little nostalgic. That doesn't happen to me very often. Perhaps I was thinking about the grand baby and Saturday morning cartoons. Yep, that must have been it.

I loved Saturday morning cartoons! Especially these;

Hey Boo Boo! And that park ranger was such a clown!

Tom and Jerry were so funny. Jerry always out smarted Tom.

And the Jetsons showed us what the future was going to be like! Pretty cool. I'm still waiting...

Quick Draw had the best dog.

The George of my youth was much better looking than today's George.

Johnny was the best! Always getting into trouble.

And Bandit was so cute.

Tooter and Mr. Wizard were so adventurous. "Time for this one to come home"

Right up there with Underdog as an 'unlikely' hero was this little guy ~ do you remember him?

Then there were these truly awesome TV shows!

Here Come the Brides. Starring Bobby Sherman!!!! My first crush. Mom took me to see him in concert when I was 13. Ahhhhhhhhh. Seriously, Justin Timberlake had NOTHING over Bobby!!

You must remember this one?

And THE BEST TARZAN EVER was Ron Ely, of course! Man he was a cutie!!! And 1/2 naked all the time! What could be better for a young girls dreams? :-)

Good day sunshine...

Today is summer solstice, the longest day of the year. Here in Indiana, the Midwest, where we are in the Eastern time zone, it won't get dark until about 11:00. My official start of summer comes with the first lighting bug sighting. That was last week!

It's toad season again. Little tee tiny toads are all over the place.

Also...

Vacation conclusion...

Thursday morning we headed to Bowling Green Kentucky. It was about 4 hours away. We ran into some pretty heavy rain on the way, but by the time we got to Mammoth Caves it was sunny and steamy. Mammoth Caves are the largest in the US. 300+ miles have been mapped so far. It took us 2 hours to do 2 miles. And our guide really only stopped a couple times. It was fascinating. I didn't know that there was a difference between wet caves and dry caves. Wet caves have decor...you know, stalactites and stalagmites and other fancy formations. Dry caves are just rocky. The history of these caves is very interesting. Lots of people would NOT like this tour though. There were some very tight spaces and super low spots. We liked it though, it was kind of an adventure!



After all that, we just went and checked into our hotel and pooped out. Until the tornado warning that is...
This was a doozey of a storm and it lasted for hours! The tornado warning was only about 20 minutes though. Whew.

Everything was bright and sunny the next morning. We went downstairs and had breakfast, checked out and drove across the street to the National Corvette Museum. I'm sorry I don't have a real appreciation for cars but here are some pictures :-)

This was just a concept car, but it looked cool,

This was his fav. I like the sting ray body style best too,

This is just like the one he had when he was a young man,

We were only there a couple hours. Then we headed home. We pulled in the driveway about 3:00 and boy were the girls excited to see us! We even got the little "hurry up and pet me" howl from Pepper. She does that a lot though :-) It's funny as hell.


We pretty much just lazed around all weekend. We were both suffering from vacation hangovers.

Now we're back to work, trying to catch up. Mom's bee day is Friday and Father's Day is Sunday. We aren't going to do anything though. Stay in, watch a movie, take Mom out for Chineese. It'll be a nice weekend.

Gatlinburg

The only mountains Bill and I have ever seen are the Rockies. The Smoky mountains are very different. They are a lot more dense, with trees. And the trees go all the way to the tops of the mountains. It was really nice to be in the mountains. We saw a Golden Eagle outside of our cabin, a deer and a coyote. But Gatlinburg in general is all about the black bear. Black bear stuff is everywhere! Our cabin was even full of black bears...

There were little bears sitting in the potpourri... There were little bears on the kitchen window sill...

This little guy was stuffed in the bottom of the coat rack...

This was one of several bear decorations on the fireplace mantle...

And this guy sat by and watched as you played pool...

There was even a list of do's and don'ts in the cabin. You know, DON'T FEED THE BEARS! Don't put your trash outside, etc.

It all made me so excited about SEEING a real black bear!!! I was disappointed to say the least, when we left Gatlinburg I had not seen one single bear. And we were staying in a cabin...in the woods!

Anyway...Wednesday, we went to the aquarium. It was a truly, unexpectedly nice aquarium too. I especially loved the underwater tunnel. There was a giant saw fish laying across the top of it. I didn't know they just lounged around like that.

And these were the funniest looking fish. They were called Cuttle fish.

And this guy had his dukes up the whole time we were there. He looks mad doesn't' he?
But not nearly as mad as this creature! Ewwwwww...check out those teeth.
I even got to go deep sea diving! Man that suit is heavy ;-)

We walked a lot downtown, went into a lot of shops. It was hot and humid, not a good combo for Sister Mary Menopause! I was so desperate for some cool air and a seat that I went into McDonald's and actually ate a burger! My first McDonald's burger in over a decade. Even Bill was shocked. They are just a yucky as they've always been.

Then we did a really fun cheesy thing and went to the Ripley's Believe or Not Museum. We laughed out loud several times!

We both had the same favorite part though. There was this big round tunnel, with a bridge through it. The top 1/2 of the tunnel was painted like the sky and the bottom 1/2 was painted like a ravine ~ that a bridge might go over. The tunnel moved, a little clockwise and then a little counter clockwise. When you walked through it, on the bridge (which was stationary mind you) you had to hold on to the rails because you might fall! We had to walk through it 3 times because it was so wild. I mean, even though you know you aren't moving, you still start to tip over when the tunnel moves. I LOVE that!

Here's Bill in Robert Wadlow's chair. Robert was a big dude!

(Don't you love that face??)

All in all, we had a fun time in Gatlinburg but we wouldn't go back. It's a terrific place for families though. It's like a ginormous carnival. Lots and lots of things to do for kids. It's a little too commercial for us old folks though. One day downtown was plenty.

The next day we drove around the Arts and Crafts Community. That was much nicer. All about real artisans and craftsmen. I'm always amazed by the talent some people have. Being an arts and crafts dabbler, I can appreciate the work that goes into some art. I like that.

Then we went back to the cabin and just hung out. We've been pretty busy so far so it was good to have some down time.

For our anniversary dinner, we went to a fancy place called The Park Grill. It was awesome. Our waiter, Dave, was top notch and the food was scrumptious. Bill had prime rib and I had fillet Mignon! We felt like we were being so extravagant! It was perfect. They even put a candle on our table for the occasion. Ahhhhhhh, life is good.

Travelin'

Before I go any further...all this stress free, don't need no stinkin' map, travelin' was brought to us by G.G. That's our Garmin GPS, an anniversary gift from Mom. G.G. ROCKS! She knows everything! I have twinges of "Big Brother", but the convenience far outweighs the personal I know where you are creepiness. We love G.G. Who says women don't know directions? I am a little curious as to the research that was done to determine why a GPS should have a female voice. I think that's kind of curious. Anyway, G.G. is the greatest invention. And when we stopped and were hungry, I said, "let's ask G.G. where to eat!" And she listed dozens of places near us. And when we were low on gas, I said, "let's ask G.G. where the next station is!" I'll never get lost again! WOOHOO!

After Nashville, we drove 3 hours to Birmingham to go to the Barber Motor Sports Museum. In case you didn't know, it is the largest collection of motorcycles in the world...clear back to the dawn of time. Bill has always wanted to go there and I wanted our vacation to be fun for both of us ~ since he was a good husband about all my county music stuff, I was a good wife about Barber.

He was totally ecstatic!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FIVE floors of 1100 motorcycles!!!! It really was a beautiful facility. We walked them all...TWICE. Over 300 pictures were snapped. Now he has the best screen saver ever :-) I had no idea there were so many different kinds of motorcycles...and scooters. Let alone so many makers. I wish I could write more about it, but I am NOT a gear head so what do I know?! OK, I know that Bill was super duper happy, so that made it all worth it.


Check out this side car! It's like an RV for motorcycles. It had 2 bench seats in it...one for me and one for the dogs :-)

After that, we drove 5 1/2 hours to Gatlinburg. We didn't get there until about 8:30. We were pretty pooped. Plus, the cabin was hard to find in the dark. It was great though, just like the pictures!

First stop...

Nashville Tennessee. Actually, it was the Wild Horse Saloon for lunch.

Then we walked up and down 2nd Ave. and checked out a couple shops and the Charlie Daniels store/museum. That was fun, I think he's a hoot. Then we checked into our hotel, which was GR8 because it was smack downtown Nashville, so we could walk to almost everything. Saturday night we walked up and down Broadway. It was fantastic! There's 4 or 5 bars or honky tonks on every block, all of them with live music and the doors open. I loved all the music and neon! And I got to go in the Ernest Tubb's Record Shop. It was pretty cool for me :-)

Sunday, we were super busy. First stop, The Country Music Hall of Fame.

The history of country music is down right inspiring! BUT…Garth Brooks is not in the County Music Hall of Fame? What's up with that????? No bronze plaque for him! Humph. Contrary to what some people say, I am observant about some things...like the floor. It was pretty neat. Made out of end cut wood.

Then we went to The Lane Motor Museum. It's full of wacky cars. It was fun but I didn't enjoy it as much as Bill did. Go figure.

After that, we went to the Parthenon. Yup, Nashville has the worlds only full scale replica of the Parthenon. It's one of those "why" things. You know, like the biggest ball of string or the world's largest non-stick frying pan…why? I still don't know.
After that we drove out to the Grand Ole Opry ~ which by the way, is nowhere near downtown Nashville. I think that’s silly. But for a country music fan ~ me ~ it was awesome just to be there!!!! Same for the Ryman Auditorium. Lots of great history.

I loved Nashville! It's full of wonderfully kept old buildings full of memories.

Yippee! Hooray!! Woohoo!!

In a couple hours I'll be off work and heading home to finish up things before we leave tomorrow morning! I still have to pack. I don't usually wait until the last second but for some unknown reason, I did this time.

Mom is coming over for dinner and house sitting/dog sitting instructions. I think everything is in order and ready for her :-)

I have all my directions and hotel confirmations. Oh, and I'M EXCITED!!!!

And NO computer! I hope I don't have withdrawals.

Be back in a week!

20 years ago...

On June 10th, 1989, I became a wife! 20 years ago! Whoa. Our honeymoon was the last vacation just the TWO of us went on. All of our vacations have been centered around family, which is the best kind of time to spend. But just us, man and woman, husband and wife, haven't been on a vacation for 20 years. It's going to be kinda weird~no obligations. Hmmmm. Maybe that's part of why I've packed so much to do into a weeks time! It's been so much fun to plan that I've already decided what we're going to do for our 25th....AUSTRALIA!

There's;

~Nashville~

The Country Music Hall of Fame
Lane Motor Museum
Wild Horse Saloon
Grand Ole Opry
Belle Meade Plantation
General Jackson's Showboat

~Birmingham AL~
Barber Motor Sports Museum

~Gatlinburg~
Horse back riding
Ripley's Aquarium
Pigeon Forge
The Smokey Mountains!

~Bowling Green KY ~
Corvette Museum
Mammoth Caves

Geesh! I'm glad we'll be home on Friday, so we can recuperate!!
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holy contusion batgirl !

Remember a few months ago when I ran into the wall with my head. Well, Mom did it REALLY right! She ran into a door jam! At least the wall caved in. A door jam? Nope, pretty solid. I guess now I know for certain that I get my hard head from my Mom!!!

Mom

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OUCH!

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So much to do, so little time

Sometimes it's nice to come to work on Monday just so I can sit on my butt. There was so much to do over the weekend, I feel like I never sat down.

Greta had the worst matting ever! And she doesn't like to be brushed, so I decided to shave her whole body. Man does she look funny!! Like one of those greeting cards with the dog on it with the giant head and tiny little body! Bill said to stop laughing at her or I was going to give her a complex. yeah, he made that up.
I got new tires on my car. I need a new battery too. Grrrrr.

While we were waiting for my car to be done, we went to the local Farmers Market. It was a little bit of a disappointment. It was the first one of the season though. I guess I'll have to go again to find the big red ripe tomatoes I was hoping for.

Then we went up to the Mazda dealer and I test drove a Mazda CX7. I was ready to trade in my PT Cruiser!!! But then when we got home and I looked it up, it's not rated very high by Consumer Guide. It was fun though!

Then we went grocery shopping, which isn't normally a big deal. But they are in the process of changing where EVERYTHING is. I HATE THAT! I make my grocery list by isle because I know where everything is. Nothing makes sense now. I hope it's done by the next time I go so I can start figuring out the layout again. Why do they that? WHY????? I was really pissed off. Humph.

Plus, there was all the extra cleaning around the house. Since Mom and Bud are coming over to house sit for the week.

I'm pooped.