Dear anyone who is reading this, Sunday was a lovely day.
The highlight of the day was our visit to the Carter House in Franklin, TN. We have a guide that was bi-polar, highly excited about the battle of Franklin during the civil war, Nov. 30th to be exact. At 4 p.m. to be more precise. This guy was quite the tour guide. At one point he threw down a map onto the porch of the place, stomped his foot with great authority, donned a confederate hat, and generally marched from place to place on the property. He lead us under trees, he threw his keys at bullet holes in buildings…all the while reciting an hour long script at a very high decibel level. What a hoot. Does duck and run mean anything to you? That’s was I was tempted to do a few times. Susie and I imagine he is into civil war re-enactments (no Nazi SS here). And we are sure that he has a whole miniature battleground set up in the parlor of his home.
Earlier in the day we visited General and former President Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage estate in Nashville. But I digress. First we had to rent the car.
Lorie drove us to the airport to pick up our rental car. Our rental car lady was filling out the paperwork (on the computer…filling out of computer work?) and a man behind us wanted to know about a rental for a week. And then he asked about a second driver. Our lady replied that if they were married, there would be no additional charge for her to drive. So, I put my arm around Susie, and said, “oh, good, we’re married”. Well, that man headed for the Enterprise rental station before you could say ‘Jack Robinson’. Too funny. The car clerk, laughed and we got along great. We even took her picture. A great time was had by all.
So, because we aren’t married, Susie drove and I did the map reading. And we didn’t get lost once. We were amazed.
Back to the Hermitage. A good location to visit. It was self guided with tapes. I really liked the kitchen. It was detached from the main building for two reasons. One reason was that it kept the house cooler and the odors were also separated. The other is that if the kitchen burned down, the house might not. Anyway, the kitchen had two big hallowed out tree trunks that was used to preserve the meat (salt). Then the meat was hung on hooks and smoked for days using hickory. There were other things but I found that very interesting.
President Jackson and his wife are both buried there. They had no children. He outlived her (tough old buzzard?). He was 6’2” and 140 pounds. Wow. A string bean. His wife was stout. They owned slaves, a lot of them. They had an outhouse. At night they used chamber pots. Is this too much information?
Oh, well. We both enjoyed it. Then we left and went to Franklin to visit the Carter House with the wacked out guide. Truly unforgettable.
This is a picture of Jackson’s Hermitage.
Okay, so it was time to eat lunch somewhere there. Susie wanted a bean burrito and a beef taco and a coke (just like the other day). Now I’m now saying she is in a rut, but she’s kinda in a rut. Well, Oscars was closed on Sundays. Oh, dear. I don’t remember eating lunch. Anyway, she wanted tacos even though she knew we were having homemade tacos for dinner at our cousin’s house. On Sunday.
Speaking of dinner. It was great. Apparently, Walt’s parents used to have taco night dinners and he has not let the tradition die. It was a very fun night. Walt invited a couple over to dine with us. He was a tennis play, Chris, from CA that has lived in Nashville for two years. He is moving back to CA. He also graduated from USC with a guitar degree? Who knew? And he was a tennis instructor. Sweet guy. Oh, and his neighbor in Brentwood, CA was the Schwartzenneger’s. And his girlfriend worked at the same company as Walt. It was fun to hear the young people discuss music, marijuana and other interesting topics.
The climax of the evening, however, was a thunder and lightening storm. I tried to photograph it but to no avail. So, I laid in bed and listened to the roar of the thunder until I dropped off to sleep.
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