Father's Day Weekend Surprise for Jerry... WINTHROP

And we're off again.... This time Jillian, Oliver and Darren are with us.  A trip to Winthop, Wa over the North Cascades Hwy..... gorgeous.... Picked Jillian and Darren up after they worked half day at their offices and then we were on the road. 
The North Cascades Hwy has been open for about a month, and the mountain cliff streams and waterfalls... gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. Hey, looks like I might even be in a few pictures... Darren's pretty good about that!  Thanks D!....Got to our little house about 6ish... settle our stuff in and then decided to go into town for dinner.... Look at Oliver in the window... you can kinda see him... He really wanted to go with us, but, alas, he really is just our dog... not a person...  Had a yummy meal at Three Finger Jack's, a couple drinks, some pool and then back to the house.  I swear, even the air smells better here... so peaceful!

Tennessee....truly a beautiful place!

All the way home I was reflecting on our visit to this beautiful state.  I don't know if it's just cuz it's spring, but it was so green.  Yet, often folks would say all their rivers are down... go figure...  I learned that folks with money have 'farms'.... which are gorgeous, but not necessarily where they live full time.  Like we would consider having a beach house here or a mountain cabin for getaways.  Trace Adkins home burned down while we were there... so the family was gonna live on the farm.... Blessed they had another place to go. 
Many, many homes, away further away from Franklin... each has acres and acres of property, all nicely mowed lawns surrounded by low white fences... the topography is a lot of rolling hills... can you imagine the picture in your mind?
The heat was intense, but, we simply walked slower and weren't in a hurry.  The Cicada's..... now those are the loudest darn bugs... sounds like there are hundreds of weedeaters running....  By the time we left, the shear volume (in both numbers of and sounds of) had greatly diminished.  Don't know if that meant they were all going back underground or what.  This particular group of Cicada's comes out every 13 years.  They actually track different groups of them. 
Michael W Smith is not only a gifted musician, but is also a very real person.  He likes to showcase those around him, not himself.  His wife is also very sweet; they both are very, very gracious.
Again, I was surprised at how little I ever really knew about the Civil War.  By that I mean, I understood the reasons, etc... but the devastation, the numbers killed, the way in which they fought.... I just shook my head and shed tears.  I got to hold a cannon ball... just 6lbs.. and thought, well what they heck would that do?  Just punch a hole in the wall or something... Then I found out how they really worked... flying through a group of soldiers... and it would keep on going, and going, and going, injuring and maiming these men as it went....
ALSO.... The average height back then was 5'6 or so... everyone was much smaller... interesting... and the clothes the women had to wear.  Just having the heat we were having then, and thinking of those poor gals... ugh!
Okay... back at home... and it's good to be here.  We are truly blessed!

From brekky at the Loveless Cafe to downtown Nashville

So we ate our breakfast at the Loveless Cafe, an extremely popular spot with the locals and made famous on the Food Network... focusing on their biscuits and the "biscuit Lady"....Alas she passed a year ago and must have been quite the personality.  Biscuits were tasty and the meal was great.  Came back to the hotel for a bit... Jerry had some business to attend to and that gave me an opportounity to take a snooze since my sleep the night before wasn't the greatest!

Later in the afternoon we headed back into downtown Nashville.  Temperature, 95 !  Yup, warm.... just posted a couple different pics for your viewing pleasure.  Many of the streets were being shut down in preparation for FanFest... A huge Country Music celebration.  Lots of loud folks all around getting all hyped.  Lots of artists performing in the local venues.... I must admit, I'm pretty uninformed about Country Music... So this place hasn't really been a must see for me!

To the caves!

So, Monday we decided to go caving! And boy, glad we did. We traveled about 2 hours to McMinnville via Murfreesboro (where stopped at "Maple Street Grill" for our lunch... right across from the City Hall... which made for super photo ops! sorry, none in this post). We finally made it to the Cumberland Caverns.

Very, very cool.... in more ways than one. We were approx 350 feet underground and walked a bit more than a mile into the cave system. Temperature was a constant 56... 99% humidity.... didn't feel chilly at all cuz of the humidity plus, it was a great escape from the 90+ degrees outside.

The actualy cave system is 32 miles... with lots and lots of caves. We were only in the commercial part, ie touristville. Small group of us went through. When we got to the end, they turned off the lights... sooooooooo dark and soooooo quiet... If your interested in more, the web site is
http://www.cumberlandcaverns.com/

Awesome old barns along the way!

Thank You MWS and Friends.... then we're off to be tourists again!

Sunday morning arrived and we attended a worship service here in the Hotel.  Pretty cool having folks from all over the country and 5 other countries all tied together worshipping the Lord... Michael delivered the message... very uplifting.... It was the end of a great weekend.... but the start of us becoming tourists again... We headed off to another home, this one about a half mile from the other home we visited... It was smack dab in the middle of the Battle of Franklin (whereas the other one was used as a 'hospital').  The family that lived there, plus a few others, huddle in the basement during the fight... Again, when you think of what war was like back then... so heartbreaking and scary.  On the side of the home, you see the bullet holes... also, on the out buildings.. I have a couple pics, but they don't do it justice here on the web... here's more info on the home and battle

http://www.carnton.org/carterhouse_history.htm

The hole on the right, was from a cannonball... the little holes all over, which are hard to see, are the bullet holes.  Standing there, I imagined what it would be like at that time while all this was going on....

That's a huge water trough in front of this building under the porch... made from one log...

This is the backside of the building... yup, the bricks are scared with bullets holes.... same with the red building next in line...

Starting your day with devo's then an evening BBQ at Smitty's farm....

Our morning started out nice and early.... After brekky and cleaning up, they had a morning devotional with Michael, his own pastor and then, after a message, told a little about Michael's family.... 5 kids and 5 grandkids! His second youngest daughter has written a muscial about orphans and believing in your goals and presented snippets of it. A great way to start the day!

 

That evening, we left for the farm... Remember it's 90 degrees here... was warm is an understatement... They had great airconditioned buses that drove us out there. Once off, we were greeted with a table of ice cold water AND bug wipes and bug sprays. Then, we had a half mile walk down the driveway to the farm... It all was beautiful. And, I'm happy to report, I escaped with NO bites... that's a good day for me!

 

The Farm is not where the family actually lives... but it does have a home that runs the length of the barn. I think it's like we would think of as a mountain or ocean vacation place. In the back, they had, I think, the larget tent I have ever seen set up.  As Jerry and I were walking around, we ran in to Michael and Debbie... Down to earth, great people!

 

We were treated to a fabulous Cajun Band.... L'ANGELEUS...super group!

 

Michael then explained an unexpected guest dropped by... Matthew West...Matthew ended up singing a song of his I love "The Motions"
 

 

I don’t wanna go through the motions

I don’t wanna go one more day

Without Your all consuming passion inside of me

I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking

What if I had given everything?

Instead of going through the motions

The rest of the evening was spent with composers participating in a

music in the round: Cindy Morgan, Gordon Kennedy & Wayne Kirkpatrick. Great songs!!!!!!  Often song writers/artist get together like this for impromptu jam... It was great.  And some of the songs these folks wrote... ie, Kennedy and Kirkpatrick wrote and won a grammy for "Change the World" made popular by Eric Clapton... Can you feel how wonderful that warm evening was???? What a wonderful experience! 

 

Rocketown!

Well, our evening last night was so much fun…. Rocketown is quite the place… Smitty was the founder when it was located in Franklin…. A few years back it moved to Nashville…after a huge building campaign… The evening started out with a meal… tour the facility and then a time of music… and wow… it just flowed! It was not a worship service, but he played sooooo many songs… started out with some of the more classic songs and then morphed into a really jamming event! We were all singing and moving with the music…. So cool! Can’t wait till tonight when we get to go to the farm.
Earlier today, we had morning devo’s… learned about his family… one daughter and son even performed… Now… in our room resting up before the night tonight… one bummer… you know.. farm… bugs… not looking forward to the bugs.. the biting kind… but, if Smitty is any thing like he was last night… who cares!

Cicadas, MWS and Tennessee

So, here we are in Tennessee… Franklin to be exact… right outside of Nashville. We’re spending a weekend with Michael W Smith (aka Smitty) and then taking some time to be tourists. Come along with us…. Like you have any choice if you’re reading this!

When we first landed in Nashville, there were these humongous flying bugs… as we ventured forth, we learned “Cicadas.” They come forth every 13 years after living in the ground… They a big, they are noisy and they are harmless… but it’s gross and no one likes gross.

Today we drove into the town of Franklin… Big goings on this weekend… Their theater has had an eight million dollar facelift… so Main Street is closed and getting ready for the big celebration. Did a bit of a walking tour in the 90+ weather… not a lot of energy to say for sure.

Decided to go to the Carnton Plantation which has a place in our Civil War History…  http://www.carnton.org/carnton_history.htm   .... check this site for more info!
As we toured the home and the grounds, all I could think of all the men that were killed and wounded… right in this area… The blood stains were still on the floors upstairs which was turned in operating rooms. Four generals had died and their bodies were lined up on the back porch so soldiers could give their respect. Protocol was a big thing back then… Later next week we will be checking some more stuff… The family that owned the home were pretty awesome… Helped with all the wounded… then donated two of their acres next to their private cemetery for a cemetery for those who died…. But that didn’t happen till about 2 years after the war…. Too long to write about… but something.
This is actually the back of the home.... The generals were placed to the right of the door ...

 That's me on the front porch....

So sad when you think what was going on here... in this spot... so many many years ago

Tonight we will be going to Rocketown in Nashville for one of our functions with Smitty… lol… There will be quite a few of us… couple couple hundred… heehee… Are we considered groupies… gee I hope not.. Will fill you in later….