I've added some additional "albums" to Wrangler Dave's Picassa Wed Site. If you "sort" the albums by "upload date" (top right corner), the first 4 albums will be the last ones that were uploaded...
http://picasaweb.google.com/DaveTole
Enjoy & Happy Trails!
Thursday, April 9, 2009
4/6/2009 - 4/9/2009
This will be my final Tally Book update for a while as Biker Arda and I are back in GR where we will stay for about 6 weeks while the dentist earns a few bucks. We will go Canada for a couple of weeks in May to help my Dad open the cottage. I will add a link to some additional pictures within the next week.
On Monday we spent the day sightseeing at the Grand Ol Opry Mall and the Opry Land Hotel & Convention Center. The Mall is huge with several large “anchor stores” but what was really interesting was the Aquarium Restaurant. In the center of the restaurant and along the walls were several huge aquariums filled with many unique fish such as sharks, stingrays, huge catfish, and many colored fish. We did enjoy more BBQ for lunch.
After lunch we went to the Opry Land Hotel which has 2881 rooms, a “river” with water that was brought in from many lakes all over the US, Canada and Europe all under 14 acres of glass. We wandered through each of the 4 – 5 specific areas which contained restaurants, souvenir shops, swimming pools, etc. etc… only took about 4 hours which included a stop for some very good ice cream cones.
We also found a couple of horses for Biker Arda and our friend Painter Sidne. These are the perfect horses for these 2 ladies. They do not require feeding, brushing (maybe a little dusting sometimes), training (they are house broken), really mind their manners. Not sure what the ladies will name them but here is a picture of them.
On Tuesday we woke up to 38 degree, rainy weather – at least it wasn’t snow! We packed up and headed north towards GR. The weather soon gave way to sunny, dry periods with lots of wind. At least it wasn’t a head-wind. As we were in no hurry to get back to the cold, we only drove about 5 hours before stopping at our favorite campground ~ Wally-Mart Kokomo, IN.
It was windy and cold all night but we were determined to get home on Wednesday… like 3.5 hours is a long day – HA! We were on the road by 8:00 AM and arrived in GR just after lunch (remember we lost an hour). We dropped our trailer off at Veurinks RV so they could put an estimate together for the damage done when we blew a tire and when the roof kissed a tree. So for about $1100 and a week later, Biker Arda and I will be back in our home. We are hoping to stay at the Woodchip Campground in Wyoming providing they answer their phone.
On Monday we spent the day sightseeing at the Grand Ol Opry Mall and the Opry Land Hotel & Convention Center. The Mall is huge with several large “anchor stores” but what was really interesting was the Aquarium Restaurant. In the center of the restaurant and along the walls were several huge aquariums filled with many unique fish such as sharks, stingrays, huge catfish, and many colored fish. We did enjoy more BBQ for lunch.
After lunch we went to the Opry Land Hotel which has 2881 rooms, a “river” with water that was brought in from many lakes all over the US, Canada and Europe all under 14 acres of glass. We wandered through each of the 4 – 5 specific areas which contained restaurants, souvenir shops, swimming pools, etc. etc… only took about 4 hours which included a stop for some very good ice cream cones.
We also found a couple of horses for Biker Arda and our friend Painter Sidne. These are the perfect horses for these 2 ladies. They do not require feeding, brushing (maybe a little dusting sometimes), training (they are house broken), really mind their manners. Not sure what the ladies will name them but here is a picture of them.
On Tuesday we woke up to 38 degree, rainy weather – at least it wasn’t snow! We packed up and headed north towards GR. The weather soon gave way to sunny, dry periods with lots of wind. At least it wasn’t a head-wind. As we were in no hurry to get back to the cold, we only drove about 5 hours before stopping at our favorite campground ~ Wally-Mart Kokomo, IN.
It was windy and cold all night but we were determined to get home on Wednesday… like 3.5 hours is a long day – HA! We were on the road by 8:00 AM and arrived in GR just after lunch (remember we lost an hour). We dropped our trailer off at Veurinks RV so they could put an estimate together for the damage done when we blew a tire and when the roof kissed a tree. So for about $1100 and a week later, Biker Arda and I will be back in our home. We are hoping to stay at the Woodchip Campground in Wyoming providing they answer their phone.
Well that is about it for this trip. A new Tally Book will be created for our trip out west to the Red Lodge Montana branding and then north to Alaska… Gee that would be a great title for a song… “North to Alaska” .
Happy trails and be safe until next time.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
3/30/2009 - 4/5/2009
A lot has transpired since I last wrote in my Tally Book. Monday Arda and I “toured” some of the areas in Arlington that we were familiar with and some we weren’t. Most of the places were in the latter category as it has been 20 years since we were last in Arlington. We drove past our first house in TX (in fact our first house together) and it wasn’t in too bad shape although the neighborhood has declined over the years especially when one considers the amount of new houses in the area which are considerable larger and more expensive than our house.
Next we drove past the 2nd and last house we owned in Texas. This house and neighborhood is pretty much as we remembered it.
We did enjoy the company of Fred and Lynda (Freemonski) Weekly and also Lynda’s daughter Leslie and son Joe. We all had Nachos in our trailer on Sunday. Since all of us enjoyed the Spring Creek BBQ, we went back there for dinner Monday night… you just don’t get good BBQ like that up north (as in MI).
Tuesday started out beautiful after we had rain and wind most of the night. We hooked up and head to Mesquite TX (the east end of Dallas) to visit our good friend Marguerite Kelly. She and Norm, who passed away 4 years ago, stayed at the same Lexington Apartments (A day or a life time) when we first moved to Texas in 1979. They have a beautiful daughter, Heather-Ann who lives in NY and is getting married in Oct. We had a very good time visiting Marguerite with one exception… Wrangler Dave kissed a tree in front of her house with the top of the trailer. We will see what the final cost is… can’t wait!
Thursday morning saw us on the road again headed towards Nashville TN. As we have chosen not to drive long days when we don’t have to, we decided to stop in Hazen AR which was a real treat. We pulled in, hooked up the electrical and water and just got inside before the heaven’s opened up. We were under a severe thunderstorm warning with a tornado watch. Fortunately we just had the rain and wind as the tornados did not materialize – this is one time we were happy the weatherman was wrong.
Here is a picture for one of our favorite relatives who shall remain nameless but know that “Jack” is a good friend of hers… HA! We are in his neighborhood!
Friday morning we hit the road again to Nashville – about a 5 hour drive. We looked at the weather forecast for GR and decided there was still too much snow and cold so we decided to spend 4 days instead of 2 in Nashville where it is supposed to be warmer. Guess what the weather forecast is… you guessed it colder and possible snow although not as bad as GR.
Saturday Arda and I just goofed off catching up on some reading, internet stuff, and a little shopping. That evening we went to the Grand Ole Opry where we saw Bill Anderson, Jim Ed Brown, Joe Diffie and others. It was a 2 hour show that we really enjoyed.
Sunday we woke up to another beautiful day. We drove to the other side of Nashville to visit with friends, the Barrys, who moved back to Nashville from GR about 8 years ago. We went to church with the Barrys and then returned to their house where Kats and Mark served a great lunch… it was more like a dinner. Needless to say we did not go hungry. It was good to see them again and catch up on old times. Petra used to baby sit Joe, their son, but he has grown so much I’ll bet she wouldn’t recognize him.
.JPG)
Kats also looked up several places to visit on the way home to our trailer… we did get to see the Loveless Café and General Store but we were still full from lunch so decided to pass on the pies. We also got to see the Belle Meade Plantation, at least for a minute and they were in the process of closing when we got there.
Our luck held as the Parthenon was closed when we got there.
Oh well it gives us something to see next time.
Tomorrow we will do some more sightseeing, like the 14 acre hotel under glass and other places.
Happy Trails to next time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)