HELLO AGAIN - Miss Us?

I stopped posting to our Blog, where and what we were doing, to keep our whereabouts a secret from some of my family!! As we were progressing north through Kentucky and Indiana everyone thought that we were still in Tennessee. Especially my sister from Oregon. So when we walked in where she was staying in Indiana, she was very surprised and excited! I love surprises!!

We are now in Loudonville, OH without any cell reception for our phones or computer. So I found a Library where I can at least get on the Internet. We will be near Salem on Monday and are looking forward to seeing everyone!

We spent a little more than two weeks traveling north through Kentucky and I will do separate Blogs to show you what we saw in Kentucky. We left Louisville, KY via the bridge over the Ohio River into Jeffersonville, IN . It was like old home week for us as we had lived in Louisville for a year in 1970, where our oldest son was born.

This son traveled from Ohio to join us in Indiana for the surprise and visit there. He stayed with us in the motorhome and we had a good visit. We got to visit with other relatives in Muncie and also go to a Friends church in Greentown, IN to worship and say "Hello" to a former Salem pastor's wife who had resettled in Greentown years ago. She had just celebrated her 89th birthday that week!! Sorry that we forgot to take any pictures, but she and her husband both look good and are doing well!

Now I will show you the fun that we had while in Indiana! The event began with a wish of my sister to celebrate with her daughter and son-in-law in Indiana for their monumental birthdays. So the preparations began with plans beginning with these two happy ladies via many long distance phone calls and e-mails. And the surprise extended to bringing in her daughter and son-in-law's children and grandchildren from N. Carolina, Florida, and Texas.

Then the food preparation begins and the tasting of the homemade ice cream by guess who ? Yep, you guessed it, my sister!

In the mean time all of the family is gathering outside with the birthday couple. Everyone sitting around amidst all of the lovely landscaping with a son showing off his loud potato gun . A nephew playing with the yard golf and another nephew up in a tree to get the golf balls down!

Grandma plays with one grandson who was a preemie this year. Can you believe it? Look at those cheeks! And she passes him on for entertainment. Everyone enjoys talking to him while others visit in the yard . We capped off the evening with a picnic! Yum!

Memorial Day is here, now let the party begin!! Though the party did have a slight glitch -- the restaurant lost the order for 120 pieces of chicken, we finally were able to let the birthday couple begin the lunch line after the restaurant fixed their mistake!

The party continues with a lot of visiting and playing with the little children , one of Great Grandma's greatest joys !

On Saturday before the party, we went to Muncie to visit with my youngest brother and his two sons. But the fun did not end there!! Tuesday after the party, we went back to Muncie and met up with my sister and joined our brother and his one son and family at Mac's local restaurant for another long visit. And to our surprise, our nephew brought his new found sister and niece to meet us! We had known of this sister, but had never met her so this was a real joy and we visited for almost three hours. They almost had to boot us out as they were closing. But we really needed to get home to rest to be ready to move on into Ohio the next day. We regretted that our son had left for home and did not get to meet the extended family. But I guarantee there will be a next time! We told them we will be back in Indiana on our way west in the fall!

The Tennessee Parthenon - Nashville, TENNESSEE

The only replica of the Parthenon of Greece which was built by the city of Nashville for the 1897 Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition, houses a re-creation of the 42-foot statue of Athena which was the Goddess of wisdom of the city of Athens. The Parthenon housed the art exhibition during the centennial, which consisted of more than 1170 pieces of art from all over the world. In 1920 the structure was crumbling and decaying because it had only been built of brick, wood lath and plaster originally. Therefore, the city authorized the reconstruction of the landmark with permanent materials. It was decided rather than duplicate what had been built in 1897, they would rebuild it as a complete full scale replica of the original Greek temple. What had been basement in 1897, became gallery space in order to continue the Nashville's history of exhibiting fine art. In 1931 the Parthenon reopened to the public attracting over 10,000 visitors during it's first month. The Goddess Athena replica stands 42' 10" to the top of her helmet and was unveiled in 1990. She was gilded and painted in 2002 with 8 pounds of 23.75 carat gold. Nike, the goddess of victory, perches on Athena's right hand and stands 6'4" tall. The Parthenon now houses a permanent collection of a group of 63 paintings by 19th and 20th century American artists. These paintings were donated by James M. Cowan after a very successful sixteen day exhibit in Nashville in 1925. When he died in December of 1930, it was found that his Frank Lloyd Wright style house was filled with 500 paintings which he had collected over the years. Seventy one of these paintings were painted by artists represented in the Parthenon's collection. I found the collection to be very interesting. His collection of American art was much more vast than this 63 piece collection in Nashville, but he died before he could have donated any more of his collection. This Parthenon was created with exact attention paid to detail of it's massive columns and dimensions. The double bronze doors in the front are each 7.5 feet wide and 24 foot tall and 1 foot thick . They were built with the circular tracks in the floor which is duplicate of the one in Greece. However, the doors are so well balanced, being constructed of bronze, that the doors here do not need the tracks. This is the outside of the door in the rear of the building . The structure attracts thousands of visitors each year. These are close-up photos of the top of the building in front and in the back, as well as the side view. Educators once considered Nashville to be "Athens of the West" in the 1840's about fifty years before they considered building the replica of the Parthenon. They believed in a classical education and continued it's center of learning with the building of Fisk University in 1866 and Vanderbilt University in 1873 as well as others. However, as the United States expanded west, Nashville became known as the "Athens of the South". Other than the Parthenon, few of the other buildings of the Centennial remain. One exception of this, the Knights of Pythias building, was moved to Franklin, TN where it is a private residence. Before we toured Nashville by Greyline, I was not aware of The Parthenon. I am always excited to learn of something new when sight seeing! However, I am sure that we missed many other things in Nashville and will have to hunt for them the next time we are through here. See you on down the road!

Ryman Auditorium - Nashville, TENNESSEE

I started this a couple nights ago, but have been having so much problem with my back that I have not wanted to sit at the computer. At first I did not realize that it was my back, but have settled on that now and am using ice packs. It is helping. We just came back from a drive through the park today and I will go outside to sit in the sun, if it stays with us, when I finish this Blog. Upon entering the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, we were greeted with this statue of Minnie Pearl and Roy Acuff . The life size figures rest on an original 1892 oak pew in the Ryman's main lobby. The history of the Ryman dates back to the 1880's when Thomas Ryman, a riverboat captain and Nashville businessman, attended a revival by famed traveling evangelist, Sam Jones. Legend has it that Captain Ryman planned to heckle the preacher, but instead was converted on the spot and decided to raise money for a permanent place for Jones to preach. It took seven years to build and cost approximately $100,000 and housed the Union Gospel Tabernacle. It was renamed the Ryman Auditorium upon Captain Ryman's death in 1904. From 1904 until the Opry came in 1943, it served for many varied events including religious revivals, jazz recitals, operas, political debates, boxing matches and even livestock sales. During the time the Grand Ole Opry was held there, from 1943 to 1974, the Ryman seldom had a vacant seat for Saturday night's Opry and the lines for the box office went around the building. The Ryman was one of the south's premier performance halls because of it's lineup of talent and the amazing acoustics. When it was rented to the Grand Ole Opry, it changed the course of history for country music and the Ryman. After the Grand Ole Opry moved to their "new" location, the Ryman remained empty and talk of razing the building brought a huge public outcry including the owner, Lula Naff, Dollie Parton, and Millie Pearl. The Ryman reopened in 1994 after a major renovation and is used to this day as a museum and to present the best of entertainment to a new generation . This side of the auditorium has replacement stained glass windows that were donated by Johnny Cash for the renovation. The story behind this donation is that Johnny was banned from the auditorium because of his behavior during his last performance there, when he smashed up things around the stage including the stage lights. The Ryman had a hard fast rule about behavior in the building as well as about any tardiness or absence from a performance. You could be tardy once, but the second time would cause your banishment from the hall permanently. There was also a story about Elvis' one and only showing there. He was told that they did not like the suit that he wore, even though it was just a black tux with ruffled white shirt and black bow tie. They say that they thought the comment was made by other men who were jealous of his popularity. Anyway, of his own choosing, he never performed there again. We also went through the different dressing rooms, one of the least favored was the one nearest the stage. However, this was Minnie Pearl's favorite! The guide also told us how the price tag hanging from her hat came about. It seems that when she bought a new flower for her hat and put it on, she was unable to remove the tag. So she just tucked it up under the flowers. However, upon finishing her performance the tag was hanging as you remember it and she gave up and wore it that way from that day forward. I would have liked to have attended a musical in memory of Patsy Cline while there, but we opted for just having our picture taken on stage instead. Next time we will see a show there. The acoustics were wonderful and all tourists were granted the opportunity to sing and/or play a guitar there while on the stage. As I said we just opted for the photo!! The pocket doors from the original building were hung on the wall in the second floor lobby for show. They were made from a beautiful exotic wood. When the renovation took place they were not permitted to use them because of the fire laws, so they were just displayed on the wall. The vestibules and the 5th Avenue Galleries feature rotating exhibits of photographs, paintings, and artifacts that are changed throughout the year. The second floor also has a Hatch Show Print Gallery which shows unique posters made in one of the oldest working letterpress print shops in America. You can also visit Ryman's own recording studio to cut your own CD and visit their gift shop for a piece of history. Our tour guide also told the story of famous Ryman Alley where the Everly Brothers were discovered sitting and singing on the back steps in the doorway on the left of this photo. While other wanabees hung out in Tootsie's Violet Lounge across the alley , where it is rumored that Roger Miller wrote "Dang Me". The unruly lounge patrons were kept under control by the owner, Tootsie Bess, using the jeweled hat pin that Charley Pride gave her. She was also known to slip a $5. or $10 into the pickets of luckless writers and pickers. It was said that she had a cigar box behind the counter full of IOU's from drinks and food that she had given to hungry pickers and writers also. Willie Nelson was also to have slept on the roof of Tootsies when he was down and out. Many of the success stories began in this lounge as is shown in photos on the walls in Tootsies. As our tour continued on the streets, the guide pointed out the name Patsy painted on the roof of the auditorium as a joke . I think that the joke was on him as it is said that the employee who did this was fired! It was all very interesting and we really enjoyed it. Of course, our memories of music began during this era!