Travels with The Rayman

Well, that was it.  We flew home yesterday as the weather went crazy.   Extreme perhaps.  I was scared.  But we made it out alive, I’m happy to report.

The game plan was interrupted because of the weather.  We were late taking off and so missed our connection in Phoenix.  Southwest was going to route us to San Diego and then to San Jose.  Susie and I had a different idea.  When we arrived in Phoenix, we persuaded them to put us on a flight to San Francisco and it left almost immediately.  The only problem was that our suitcases were not rerouted.

That necessitated us going to the San Jose airport last night to pick them up.  Oh, well.

I fell asleep on the couch watching Sherlock Holmes on the new Masterpiece.  It was good…really.  I was just dog tired.

Go up this a.m. and came home.  Oh, home sweet home!!

One last story.  Above, you see a picture of the pit master at the Loveless Cafe.  He let us come into his workplace and he showed us the pork that he had smoking.  He had never heard of Santa Maria barbecue.  So, I’m going to send him something to introduce him to it.  Of course, he will not steal the idea.  Hickory is indigenous to Tennessee and that is the wood of choice for smoking.  Still, it was fun to get to talk with him about food.  He also made the house meatloaf.  Said he didn’t have to go to the gym.  Slinging pounds and pounds of meat around provided all the exercise he needed, thank you very much.

Oh, and when I ate at Puckett’s the day before, I ordered a piece of chess pie, a southern favorite.  So sweet it made my teeth ache.  But it was good.

So that’s the deal.  Had a great time and glad to be home!!

Today, we got up and went to Starbucks for breakfast.  We were sitting there enjoying the coffee when we started discussing my blog.  Susie gave me a lot of ribbing about my writing.  Just as I was eating the foam from my latte with a spoon, she said, “Yes, I’ll introduce myself like this…Hi, I’m Susie and I’m damaged”, and about that time I spit the foam a over the place (no on purpose) and we laughed with great gusto.

We left the coffee house and found our way to the Natchez Trace Parkway.  This is a two lane road that is uninterrupted by on and off ramps or anything else.  We drove about an hour and two and only saw about 10 cars.  It is a fabulous always curving road (gentle curves, I might add) the weaves through the hills of Tennessee.  On the radio, we found a great rock station and listened to the Rolling Stones, Dire Straits, Dylan.  And we stopped a lot.  We pulled over to the grass side of the road and would take pictures.  Often times, we stood in the middle of the road for pictures.  No problemo.  No one was there.  And the road was in perfect condition.  How do they manage that?  Anyway, the road ends up in Mississippi on the gulf.  Would be a fun drive to go all the way.  Oh, well, we didn’t have that kind of time, so we drove a while and turned around and ended up in Franklin again.

We visited a house that was used after the battle of Franklin as a hospital for confederate soldiers.  Four of their generals died there.  We had a much more in control tour guide.  He showed us the blood stains on the floors throughout the house.  The home was well restored and the tour very interesting.  At the end, we ended up on the front porch and discovered that two of the people on the tour were from Sacramento.  When the tour guide discovered we were all from CA, he asked us who the first gov of CA was.  I said it was a Mexican whose name I couldn’t remember.  No one else had a guess.  Well, we were told that it was Mr. Burnett.  About that time, Susie said that she was going to guess that the first governor was Jerry Brown.  And then a southern woman said, “Too bad it wasn’t Jerry Brown because he would be dead now”.  Uhm.

We then went into Franklin because we were starving.  Well, I wanted southern food.  And guess what Susie wanted?  Tacos and burritos.  Say what?  She is definitely in a rut.  No beating around the bush.  She was kind enough to sit at the table with me in Puckett’s Grocery and Deli.

I ordered pulled pork, cole slaw, squash casserole, hot sauce and iced tea.  I would have enjoyed it more but Susie forgot to secure our seats on Southwest for our return home.  She had her reser number.  I didn’t have mine.  So, between bites, I was trying to get my number.  First I searched my emails.  Then I decided to call.  Then I got a really dense Southwest employee.  First she told me there was no flight from nashville to Phoenix and on to San Jose.  So I referred her to my cousin’s reser number to prove that there was such a flight.  I had to repeat the reser number at least 3 times.  This only confused the lady.  Finally, she finally emailed me the reser number because she couldn’t verify the last four digits of my credit card.  We think she was looking at Susie’s reser.  And all this was happening as I was eating pulled pork, cole slaw and squash casserole.

The waiter brought the check and it was wrong….they didn’t charge me enough.  So, of course, Susie was starving to death as it was about 3 p.m.  So she went out- side to the car.  In the meantime, I spotted chocolate chip cookies, tee shirts and a good place for a picture.  That took time.  Poor Susie.  As soon as I jumped in the car, she was off like a flash to Oscar’s.  I’m pretty sure we broke the speed limit racing to that joint.

Susie ate her Mexican food and we left for the civil war house.  When we arrived, we walked to the place to pay for admission when Susie noticed that she had a big glob off refried beans in the middle of her blouse.  She accused me to not tell her!!  She was mortified as she scooped it up and ate it!!!  Too funny.  Then as I went to  pay for my ticket, I realized that I didn’t have my credit card.  Eeekkkk.  Left it at Puckett’s.  Long of short of it is that I did get it back.  Phew.

Here’s a picture of the confederate hospital place.  Susie on the back porch were four confederate generals lay dying after the battle of Franklin.

And the front of the house.

We went home and had home made soup for dinner.  After dinner we read old family letters and looked at old pictures.  The highlight of the trip!!!  Saw a portrait picture of my grandmother on my father’s side.  We never knew her because she died of pernicious anemia before they figured out that it was a vitamin B deficiency.  And we read letters from her to her children (our parents) when she was being hospitalized.  And I had never seen anything more than a snapshot before.  So this was a very big deal.

Then we packed up to leave.

Update:  we went to the Bluebird last night.   On the way home we got pulled over by the police.  Too funny.  Walt had a light out in front.  He knew about it.  It is a short.  After about 15 minutes, the policeman let us go.  It was 12:15 a.m.   Took this picture of Walt and Susie at the bar at the Bluebird.  We had so much fun.

We listened to  Gary Burr and Victoria Shaw.   Very talented songwriters and singers.  Google them for more info.

We also heard Victoria’s 11-year old daughter, Ruby, sing.  She was fabulous.  And we heard Gunnar Nelson, Ricky Nelson’s son.  And another guest singer.  It was too cool.

Here’s a picture of my cousins at the bar of the Blue Bird.  Note:  they are teetotalers.

This a.m. we took off to take in downtown Nashville.  It is really only a few blocks but it is packed with action.

We fought a parking machine.  The machine won.  Thing is, you couldn’t see the machine because the screen faced the sun.  And then it wouldn’t take the credit card…and it had confusing instructions.  But it was funny because there were plenty of people standing in line to crack the code.  That wasn’t us.  After an attempt, we vamanosed.   Reminded me of France in a way!!!  (see picture earlier)

We visited a country bar, the Hard Rock Cafe (for the bathroom), a world renowned  poster shop, a huge record store with old stuff (vinyl).  And the guitar store.

And the Batman building…see above.

We elected not to eat downtown.  Too touristy.  So cousin Walt took us to a greasy spoon.  Brown’s Diner.  Cheeseburgers, cokes, fries!!!  Yummy!!  I snapped a picture of Walt there.  And then the two of them.

And then we drove here and there.  I was Switzerland in the car.  Walt and Susie continued their heartfelt discourse about driving and texting,  driving and talking on the phone.

Then we went shopping for groceries and came home and made spaghetti!!!  Fun!!  Fun!!  Fun!!  Spaghetti, salad, garlic bread, red wine from CA and the Quinn family.  Oh, and Baxter the doggie, under the table!!!

After dinner Susie and I watched the Giants beat the Phillies.  The Giants are going to the world series.  They have not won a world series since they were moved from New York.  Go Giants!!!

Great day again south of the Mason-Dixon line.

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.

Amazingly, we arrived in Nashville.

Nashville is surrounded by rolling hills with trees that are turning colors.  Still a bit early but we have seen orange, bright yellow etc.  Their infrastructure (roads) is in fine condition and downtown is very interesting with joints to go to to listen to music.  Music is huge.  Publishing is the biggest industry in Nashville followed by the medical sector.   Home to the HMO, hospital chains etc.  Music must be third.

After a drive thru the downtown, we headed to Walt’s home.  There, Lorie, his wife and Caitlin, his daughter were there to greet us.  And we jumped in the car and headed for The Loveless Cafe.  Oh, my.  So southern.  First thing out of the kitchen was a plate covered with a dozen biscuits to die for.  I couldn’t restrain myself.  I ordered fried chicken, greens in pot liquor, caramel sweet potatoes.  Yummy.  Passed on dessert.  Cousin Susie lost her purse, but happily it was turned in.  And everyone had a very good time and so much to eat we waddled out of the place.

This a.m. mom and daughter had to get up really early to go to work at Starbucks.  Walter and Sue and I talked about our days growing up.  It was so much fun.  Then we went to Starbucks for breakfast and then on a ride to Lieper’s Fork.  Cute little berg not far from Nashville.  Susie bought stuff.  I left my purse in the car…but then I saw a piece of red velvet cake that beckoned my name.  She bought if for me.  Still haven’t eaten but one bite.  Yummy!!

We drove thru the country side and ended up at John Hiatt’s house.  John is a recording artist who is good friends with my cousin and Lorie.  John’s wife, Nancy,  greeted us.  We went there to pick up ice hockey tickets.  John left yesterday to tour Europe so we missed him.  Their home in on acreage and is is both very old and new.  They went to great pains to refurbish it.  It was fabulous.  We had a tour of part of the home.  Oh, could I live there or what?!!

As we were leaving, Walt informed us that she had given us each four CD’s of John’s.  How fabulous was that?  Can’t wait to listen to all of them when we return home to CA.

In the meantime, while driving around we discussed family secrets.  It’s interesting.  Everyone had their issues and everyone is damaged in some way.  We laughed about much of it…stepmom’s running with knives to Susie having cousin envy because Walt go to go to Rollingstone concerts way back when while Sue was consigned to church youth groups.  What a hoot.

We also had lunch at Oscar’s in Franklin.  A Mexican haunt.  Walt and Susie agreed that it was authentic So. CA-Mex food.  Walt ran into some people he knew and his phone just kept ringing.  He is quite popular.  And big names too.  He’s carved out a very good life here in Nashville.

So, tonight we are going to the BlueBird after dinner at some nouvelle cuisine restaurant.  Or is it Blue Bell?  I don’t know.  There is a great group playing there so that’s where we’re off to.

This should be an interesting trip.  My cousin Sue and myself are traveling via Southwest Airlines from San Jose to Las Vegas to Nashville to visit our cousin, Walt.  He and his family live there and since we had never visited him there, we decided to go take a look-see.

I left the coast on Tuesday, traveled to Concord to buy some material for a curtain that we’re going to install (long story so I’ll skip it).  Met Pat Silva for lunch at Memo’s Cuisine (Mexican food) in Concord and then went to San Ramon to visit Ada Myers.  She’s was our neighbor.  And she invited several old friends that also live or lived in San Ramon.  Had a blast catching up.

Yesterday I drove from San Ramon to Sunnyvale and spent the night at Susie’s.  This a.m. we headed out on our trip.

Rule number one.  Keep your bag light.  I had so much in my suitcase, it was almost impossible to maneuver.  So I offloaded several articles and it was a good move.

We arrived at an all new terminal in San Jose.  It was beautiful and came complete with a giant robot that looked like a 4 legged spider( at least 2 stories tall, probably 3.  Susie sez it moves around.  Unfortunately, that didn’t happen while we were around it.  The new terminal is very nice and clean.  And I got checked out by one of those new x-ray machines.  Ooh, la la.  The airport security people really seem to like it.  They, by the way, were very well organized.  And we moved thru quickly.  We sat down.  She played scrabble with a far away friend.  I read the NY Times.

The way you move thru the airport is quite different from the last time I flew domestically.  And I don’t know if all airlines do this, but we checked in at a kiosk,  got our baggage claim receipts all in a flash.  We proceeded to our gate and when the time was right we stood in line for our boarding using a number that printed out on the boarding pass.  Sue was 39 and I was 50.  Lines were formed based on our number.  Very slick.

We took a very bumpy ride to Vegas.  They never turned off the fasten seat belt signs.  Needless to say I wasn’t happy but I endured.  Worked a cross word puzzle to keep my mind active.  It seemed to work.  At least I didn’t yell or scream or anything!!

Rule number two.  Perhaps you should pack a lunch.  When we arrived in Vegas we had to walk about 2 miles to the other terminal to catch our plane.  And we only had 50 minutes…and we needed to get something to eat.  Not easy to do.  And find something that isn’t hard to chew (I just got a root canal on Monday) and I am forbidden to eat nuts or anything hard).  So I ended up with yogurt and a banana.  Not much health food in an airport.

And so I sail thru the air typing my missile.

The second leg of the trip left me completely traumatized.   We flew thru a storm, apparently.  It was super bumpy.  Most of the trip, they had the seat belt sign lit.  I hated it.

When we arrived at our cousin’s house and we were talking about the trip, Susie said the flight wasn’t turbulent.  I exclaimed, “what”?  So, had a running joke about the flight.  My tooth hurt because of turbulence, my hearing was bad because it was turbulent.  You get the picture.  Finally, Susie decided that maybe it was because she had new noise canceling earphones.  She was unfazed by the turbulence because she couldn’t hear it????  Say what?  We laughed so much we cried!!