Ahhh Nashville Tennessee!

Joss and I learned early in our courtship that we both shared a love of country music. We had in common such favorites as Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash and others. She introduced me to Randy Travis, the Judds, Dixie Chicks and others and I introduced her to the Kingston Trio, the Statler Bros. and more. We were looking forward to seeing Nashville the closer we got. The week before we were to hit town, Joss asked me to get tickets to the Grand Ole Opry, which I did online, and we were all set for the Tuesday night radio show performance.

As a young girl, Joss watched "A coal miner's daughter" and fell in love with Loretta Lynn's story and her songs. She would listen to a cassette tape over and over to learn the words. When were we dating, she made me watch it with her as a test of our compatiblity. I loved it too. I grew up listening to Hank Williams, Hank Snow, Johnny Paycheck, Dolly Parton and dozens more from my Dad's 8-track tape player in the car and country radio. Every weekend, Hee-Haw would be a staple in the Streett household and I would watch right along with my Dad and Mom (I don't remember my sisters being there, humm...) The very first thing I ever won on my own doing, was a 45 single of Johnny Cash's "One piece at a time". I won it from a Los Angeles country radio station, KLAC 570AM when I was about 12. Johnny Cash is still and always will be my favorite singer.

Anyway, back to the Gypsy travels. We found an Army Corp of Engineers campground about 8 miles East of Nashville and set up camp. I really wanted to see the Country Music Hall of Fame and the other's weren't as excited about it so I went alone one day. I liked the museum a lot but it didn't have enough of what I was looking for (very little on Johnny Cash or the Carter family!). But it was awesome in its design, lighting, movies and audio features. The Grand Ole Opry museum however, did have more of what I was looking for. More about that later.

Tuesday rolled around and we all got dressed up for the Grand Ole Opry. It struck us as quite funny that it was located adjacent to the parking lot of the Opry Mills shopping mall. (If you're from So Cal, think Ontario Mills and you'll have the picture of the Opry Mills). Well it turns out, the Opry moved to it's present location 30 some years ago and everything else built up around it. We were amazed at the size of the crowd as we parked Clyde (our truck) and headed to the performance. Wouldn't you know it, after 3 pictures outside, our camera battery went dead...and we had forgotten to bring the spare! Joss had to buy a disposable camera so the shots from that evening are still trapped on film, encased in plastic, sitting in a box, in the trailer.

We had mezzanine seats, or should I say bench seats (nicely padded however) and had a good view of the stage. In the center spotlight, there is a 6' circle of stage from the original Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium. The performers of today can stand on the same wood as the legends of yesteryear...pretty cool! During the performances (there were 8 acts of 15 minutes each) the audience was encouraged to come down front to take pictures. Joss took turns taking the boys down at different times and they loved it! The one left behind with me was thrilled to see his brother and mom "down there"!

We all came back to the city another day to eat lunch at the Hard Rock and take a trolley tour of the town. It is amazing how many song writers are working in Nashville today trying to pen that next big hit! I believe our guide said something like 30,000. Our trolley took us to Music Row and the Capital Building and the Parthenon. After that we went back to the Grand Ole Opry to visit the museum they have next door. The museum is free and very, very interesting. It goes in depth with all the main stars of the Opry; Minnie Pearl, Roy Acuff, Marty Robbins, Porter Wagoner and dozens of others. It's a Nashville must see!

Just before leaving, we drove down to Murfeesboro to meet up with a new friend, "Mike the bike" (as the kids call him). The day we were leaving Savannah GA, Mike pulled in on a shiny new motorcycle and proceeded to pitch his tent. The boys were attracted to him like iron dust to a magnet and we talked with him for what must have been an hour. Later we gave him our website and said our goodbyes. Down the road in our travels, Mike emailed and said when we get to Nashville to look him up...so we did! Never give a gypsy an open invitation if you don't want them to take it! We thought it a good opportunity to see another town around Nashville so we offered to meet him close to home instead of back in the big city. He and his friend Miche (pron. Mickie) went to an Italian dinner with us and we loved getting to know them better. After dinner, the boys loved hanging all over Mike's bike!

Joss and I both felt we could spend more time in Nashville and look forward to coming back.

Decompress in the Great Smokies

The RV park in Asheville, NC did not have space for us for the 4th of July holiday so Robert had made reservations just over the mountains in Tennessee near Gatlinburg. We were ready to leave by then anyway. We felt bad that while our friends were visiting we happened to be
staying at one of the worst RV Parks we'd stayed at. They were not kid or dog friendly and watched us like hawks. We felt like we had the Gestapo breathing down our necks at every turn. We were ready to leave and the Smokey Bear campground in Gatlinburg was exactly what we needed. It was kid friendly, dog friendly and adult friendly too. They had a great pool, great playground with a basketball court and all sorts of activities planned for the 4th of
July weekend.

From the earliest hours of arriving we knew this place was exactly what we needed. It had lots of big trees in between the campsites for a woodsy feel and privacy and it just felt good to be there. The first night they had a wonderful female duo, The Cinnamon Girls, giving us a private campground concert. We all pulled our chairs up in front of the main office and we listened and swayed to the music. I could feel the stress of the last few weeks just drip off of me with each song they sang. It was great. The Cinnamon Girls had two very distinct voices and had wonderful harmony together. We bought their CD and have been listening to it a lot. Their website is www.cinnamongirls.net check them out. The concert started the whole weekend out right.

The rest of the weekend was fabulous too. We spent a day driving through the Smokey Mountains National Park seeing the beautiful Smokey Mountains in their full smokey glory from a recent rain fall. We did a lot of hiking in beautiful natural settings, our favorite thing to
do. To celebrate the 4th of July, Robert found a firework show at a local fairgrounds and we went there with our chairs and tried to blend in with the locals to watch the fire works. They may not have even known we were from a whole other country, I mean state! This was the first place where we did feel like we were in a whole other country. The difference from Southern California to Eastern Tennessee is much bigger than we've felt yet.

The kids had all sorts of questions about where the fire works would be, why they needed the fire truck, where the bathrooms were, you know, they kept us busy answering their constant barrage of questions. You'd think we'd be used to it by now but it still always seems to surprise us with how much these kids can talk, NON-STOP!! But, it is also amazing how once the fire works start, the kids shut up and just watch. We always enjoy a good fire works show and this was no different.

After one pass up the main drag in Gatlinburg, we decided it was too much like Myrtle Beach or Las Vegas, lots of tourist trap! So we avoided it like the plague, taking the bypass road whenever possible.

We had to leave the Smokey Bear Campground early, just when we were making some new friends, to drive to Cookeville, TN to have some work done on our trailer. We had an appointment Monday morning after the 4th weekend. We had to keep the appointment and they are not always easy to get. Oh well, these things are important too. They have to be done I guess. We can't have fun all the time, Can we?

We drove to the Cookeville Wal-Mart and spent the night there. While the trailer was getting some attention there wasn't much to do in Cookeville. I wouldn't recommend going there unless you absolutely have to. Robby and I did a double feature at the movies while Robert and Baylee drove around keeping cool in the truck's A/C. We also found the one and only city park and read some Hardy Boys. Other than that once the trailer was finished we quickly made tracks for NASHVILLE, TN! Whoo Hoo! Now there is one great place. I'll write about that later. Joss

No Peeing in the Shower here

Written by Mama Gypsy, for a change of pace

We spent a week and a half in Asheville, NC. Countless people along
our travels have told us to go there and check it out for a possible
home, so, we did.

The first few days were spent getting ready for our friends from Chino
Hills, CA to come for a visit, Leanne and her daughter, Kendra. We
did grocery shopping galore, repairs, cleaning and a bit of left over
laundry. We got lost at every stop we made and that continued
throughout our stay there. We had to ask ourselves the deeper
question of, "why do we feel lost?" Asheville is set up in a strange
way with lots of turns and every street has three or four different
names. I think it's because the locals really don't want any more
people to move there but who knows. It got a little better once we
got our updated navigation disk in the mail. One local told me she would
rather not be in anyone's GPS at all. I get her on that, really I do,
but when you are traveling the country and in a different city every
week, the GPS is extremely helpful.

Our friends arrived and we were all so excited to see a friendly face
from HOME! We've been away from home almost a full year now and it
was so nice to see someone from our past. We love meeting new friends
but it's always nice to see a good "old" friend too.

I spent some time getting Leanne and Kendra acquainted with all the
special features of the trailer and all the things they would need to
know in order to survive a week living as GYPSY girls, such as; how to
flush the toilet, how to open the shades, how to know when the grey
tank is full, how to work the shower and how to conserve water while
showering, etc. Then I forgot one important thing, I yelled to them
in the living room, "OH YEAH, NO PEEING IN THE SHOWER!" We are not
allowed to pee in the shower because it has a separate tank and it
does not have chemicals in the tank. It is important to remember when you live
with little boys but Leanne assured me it would NOT be a problem as
she laughed out loud. I realized then for the first time in a year,
THE GIRLS AND THE BOYS WERE NOW EQUAL IN NUMBERS!! Actually, counting
Baylee, we out numbered the boys!! Whoo Hoo!! In hindsight, was that
a good thing, or a bad thing? Hmmmm.......

After getting them settled in we went over the itinerary for the week.
We had a lot of things we wanted to do. First on the list and I
think the most fun we had together as a group all week was Sliding
Rock. Sliding rock is a huge natural rock slide in the Pisgah
(Pizz-Gah) Mountains near Asheville. Yes, the water was cold but I
thought very refreshing. I discovered I like really cold water in warm
weather. Joss, Robert, Leanne and Robby all tried the natural slide
and Joss was the only one in the group to go more than once. You go
girl! (Good to cheer yourself on now and then) The river was
beautiful and we all had fun exploring and sliding. As we were
getting ready to leave Robby wanted me to so see the rock slide he'd
found down river. The others headed to the truck to change and Robby
and I went to "his" rock slide. Just as we did it started to rain. I
can honestly say there is something very beautiful about swimming in
the river while it is raining. I felt extremely free not having to
worry about getting wet and being naturally baptized by God
him/herself. It was truly beautiful.

We shopped in downtown Asheville and we shopped near by Hendersonville, a very cute
little town with a fabulous Indian Arts store called All Nations
Trading Co. and a wonderful old General Store like the old fashioned
General stores of yesteryear. Leanne and I got trapped in the store
during one of the rouge thunderstorms that they get here in the East.
Bummer, trapped in a store. Yes, we found plenty to do.
We again celebrated with our friends, Sawyer's fifth birthday at a
Chuck E Cheese type place called Fun Depot. We were thrilled that our
new friends who we had met in Charleston, SC were able to come and
play with us, Gail and her son Henry. We all had a blast on the
bumper cars and go carts.
Our week did not go without some hitches though. With so many people
in such a little space you are bound to have some issues. We had no
idea they'd be the issues we dealt with though. Leanne and I wanted
to call this little write up "The House of Hormones" but were out
voted by the men in the group. All week we battled with the many
people in the group and the hormones that governed their bodies and
emotions. Sawyer is going through his five year old hormones and now
and then gets quite angry and aggressive for no apparent reason. He
starts yelling, usually at me, that he hates me and I'm so mean.
Kendra is going through newly pre-pre-teen hormones and was very whiny
and moody much of the time going hours without talking a single
syllable that made any sense to anyone except to Baylee and certain
alien life forms. After days of this whiny talk both Leanne and I
thought we'd go crazy until our monthly hormones kicked in as well and
we both had hormone headaches that the only relief was retail therapy-
ALONE! We took a day to ourselves to go shopping, had lots of
caffeine and a whole bunch of Ibuprofin and it seemed to get better.

One thing I must talk about is that Leanne is a 1st grade teacher in
CA. She thankfully brought along the tests that she gives her class
so we could get an idea as to where Robby is with his road-schooling.
He marked a 96% on his math and a 94% on his reading test. Much
better than we thought. However, he is not quite up to par on his
speed. It took him three times longer to read then it did her class
so we will have to work all summer on sight words and decoding words
so he can read at 2nd grade level. His comprehension of what
he is reading is excellent. Overall we were quite happy with the
results knowing that he is not too far behind in the main subjects. I
feel confident with Leanne's help that we can get him fully caught up
by the time he starts school, whenever and where ever that is.

Our wonderful new friends from Asheville, Gail, Ben and their adorable
son, Henry, were generous enough to take all three kids for a full day
so that Leanne, Robert and I could go to the Biltmore Home by
ourselves. We relished in a full day with no kid worries or
interruptions and for the first time on the trip paid extra for the
headphone guided tour. We spent hours in the largest home in our
country and reveled at it's amazing architecture and gorgeous interior
and amazing renovations for the time. In the late 1800's it had full
electricity, an indoor pool with underwater lighting and it's own
bowling alley. I don't think I have to tell you but we had a fabulous
day. We spent some time in the garden where I got some of my best
flower shots of the whole year and then we headed to the winery for
Robert and Leanne to sample some of their wines. After a very full
day we met up with Ben and Gail to pick up the kids and find out what
they had done all day. The had taken the kids fishing at their
friends trout pond and caught a whole lot of fish. Kendra ended up
catching the most fish of any of them and was quite proud of it.
On our last day together we all drove about an hour outside of
Asheville to go see Chimney Rock. It is a large rock that extends up
and out and they have put stairs up to it so you can walk on it and
take photos of the surrounding beautiful countryside. Everyone was
tired and grumpy from a busy week and we had our challenges but also
managed to enjoy the beauty of North Carolina.

We said our sad good-byes as they left to drive to the airport in
Charlotte. It all seemed to pass so quickly as good times do. The
boys are still talking about missing their friend Kendra and wishing
she was still here to drive with in the back of the truck. We miss
our dear friends and hope to be back in Chino Hills for a visit before
too long.

After Asheville,NC we headed to Gatlinburg, TN to check out the famous
Smokey Mountains. Take a break from this long blog of mine and read
about our 4th of July in Gatlinburg next time.