the Lady came from Baltimore

One of our last stops on the trip was to visit cuzzin Mary and her hubby in Baltimore.
It was my first time there.
Though our visit was brief (overnight) it was nice to get together, see their new apartment in a retirement community - Mary's a bit older than me - she tells everybody that she changed my diapers - (anyway - a very nice place); watched Dr Oz (first time for me) ate at a local diner (another great place) saw my cousin Dale (Mary's son) and his daughter, and just chilled.
We definitely will not take so long to visit again - probably haven't seen Mary in ten years.

So Mary was wondering what song I would mention regarding Baltimore...
How could I miss with the great Tim Hardin song...

Lady came from Baltimore,
All she wore was lace.
She didn't know that I was poor,
She never saw my place.

I was there to steal her money,

Take her rings and run.

Then I fell in love with the lady,

Got away with none.

Then I fell in love with the lady,

Got away with love...

This first link is Tim Hardin and TWIGGY!!!!!!

(god I'm old)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ3230eCcI4

This one is Ricky Nelson

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZZ-xDr-L_A&feature=related

Of course cuzzin Mary didn't come from Baltimore
she actually moved to Baltimore.

Then again, if you've lived somewhere for 1/2 of your life are you from that area?
She now roots for the Ravens and Orioles.

Sort of running into the same situation with my daughter Karen since she's lived in Rochester since college:
 I can't really say that visits to Massachusetts are coming home....

I want to read this book.
An American Classic.
Do we ever feel at home???


Maybe the next road trip can be visiting literary sites.

Meet me in St Louis, Louie

Meet me at the fair.
try singing along with Mitch...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ag_pSK5_3k&feature=related

or

could be we just listen to Louis Armstrong play some St Louis blues...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2TUlUwa3_o

Well, there's no fair in St Louis now, and we didn't have much time to look for blues, so we visited the Arch - quite an amazing structure - saw a movie about it's construction - 630 feet high - over 2 years to build - no fatalities during it's construction - amazing - I got dizzy just watching the movie - of course I don't like being more than a few feet off the ground unless I'm in a plane.

when you think about it many people have traveled great distances in much more difficult modes of transportation...

This sculpture (yes- this is an outdoor sculpture depicting river grass) reminded me of New Bedford's "Seaflower"

Hey it's good to be back home again...

Sometimes, this old house

feels like a long lost friend....

Hey it's good to be back home again...

So, we're home.

3,824 miles and 24 days later.

Thank the Lord and pass the biscuits.

John Denver got it right with that song. 

Regardless of how much fun you have on a vacation, it feels good to be back in familiar surroundings and back in your own bed.
One of the shows we saw in Branson was a morning - yes they have shows at 10am - John Denver tribute show. It was a good pick for a morning show - laid back - mellow - included some Gospel tunes (actually almost everything in Branson includes some Gospel tunes) - and a little country bluegrass.

The John Denver impersonator is the second from the right - he obviously doesn't look very much like John Denver - he joked that he gets mistaken for former governor Blagoyovich! Look again - strong resemblance there.

The Branson shows are all about 2 hours long - this one was 2 and 1/2 - include a 15 minute intermission during which you're encouraged to buy stuff and talk with the performers - and - one of the big big plusses - they all start on time! Marlene and I have been to so many concerts that start 15, 30, even 60 minutes late that this was a refreshing plus. I'm sure part of the reason is that there are so many concerts going on every day (usually at 10, 2, and 8) when you factor in time for meals and getting around (traffic can be brutal on "the strip" at the rush hours between shows) delays would not be tolerated by us impatient seniors!

Well, even though I'm back, there's lots of stuff that I never got around to posting, so keep watching!

Washington DC

It's hard finding a song about DC
This one's called "Welcome to DC"; by Mambo Sauce
It's a rap song played at every Wizards game.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001C3PB3K/?tag=amernois-20

We visited the White House and the Capital.

Had to get up at 5:30am while on vacation to be there for a 7:30 tour which didn't start till around 8:15.... stand outside in the cold.... fortunately no rain.

But it was worth it.

Had to be almost naked to get through security.

Not really....

but,

all you can bring is a wallet, keys, cell phone, umbrella (see the note above about being in line outside for over an hour).

No bags, purses, cameras etc.

Interesting since today all cell phones are cameras....

anyway, there are plenty of public domain pictures on the internet of what it looks like.

The blue room...

The red room....

The green room...

As I said though, it was worth the hassle....

The secret service guide was very personable and friendly.

If I ever go again it would be nice for it to be on a personal invite from the President!

(wouldn't have to stand in line so long)

Stormy weather

It could've been this way (apparently lots of storms back home)

Don't know why, there's no sun up in the sky

Stormy weather, since my man and I ain't together

Keeps raining all the time

Life is bare, gloom and misery everywhere

Stormy weather, just can't get my poor old self together

I'm weary all the time, the time, so weary all of the time

The Complete Billie Holiday

Instead, it was mostly this

I need to laugh, and when the sun is out 

I've got something I can laugh about
I feel good, in a special way
I'm in love and it's a sunny day

Good day sunshine
Good day sunshine
Good day sunshine 

It's been quite amazing when we think about it.

We've been traveling for 23 days and the only rain we had was when we left Cleveland for Chicago on September 28 and when we left Washington DC on October 14.

We traveled half way across the country and the weather has generally been sunny and in the mid 70s.

In Nashville and Memphis it was in the upper 80s and low 90s.

We head home tomorrow and the forecast is for sunny skies and temps in the 60s.

What a blessed trip!

Songs about Memphis

Last time I saw Marie

She was waving me goodbye....

Information please,

help me get in touch with her

in Memphis Tennessee....

"Memphis, Tennessee" by Chuck Berry

Memphis, Tennessee

So,what else did we do in Memphis?

After Graceland and Sun studio we went to the 
Memphis Rock n Soul Museum

It's a very interesting place that takes you through the evolution of the music from the farms and churches into the cities.

And...
there are some gorgeous guitars...
these belong to Tony Gentry of the Bar Kays and autographed by people he performed with.
The black guitar is signed by Bill Clinton.





We walked around some on Beale Street.
Had a beer at B B King's...

but didn't have enough time for everything we wanted to do....

Well, it's a reason to return!!!

I've re-designed the blog to make it easier to read.
Let me know what you think.

In keeping with the "educational" part of this blog...
the following is from "Teresa's Memphis Blog"

 http://memphis.about.com/b/2008/04/23/songs-about-memphis.htm

I recently learned an interesting bit of trivia that I thought I would share with you here. It turns out that Memphis has the distinction of being mentioned in the lyrics of more songs than any other city in the world. And these are recorded and distributed songs, not just the creations of wannabe songwriters. So just how many songs have "Memphis" somewhere in the lyrics? A whopping 899....
When I first read this statistic, I was dubious. Could there possibly be that many? And if there were, surely they were all really obscure songs sung by unknown artists. But then I saw the list and discovered that I knew far more of them that I would have guessed. With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to see how many you could come up with before I post a link to the complete list. So if you can think of a song with "Memphis" anywhere in the lyrics, post it in a comment below. I'll give you the link to all 899 next week. In the meantime, I'll get us started:
1. City of New Orleans by Arlo Guthrie (one of my all time favorite songs)
2. Walking in Memphis by Marc Cohn
3. Maybe It Was Memphis by Pam Tillis
Update: as of 9/20/2010, there were 971 songs on the list--you can read them all here.*

Things to add to a bucket list

Of course a vacation consists of a lot of eating.

During the first stop at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant I picked up their brochure (I love picking up brochures - one of the reasons that I need to retire to clean up the basement). Anyway, they have 532 locations... we've visited 4... 528 to go... maybe that could get me into the Guinness Book of world records!!!

Their food reminds me of my younger years....

canned stringbeans...

lots of mashed potatoes....

and gravy of course...

and each time you have to buy something from the store!

don't know the last time I ate a Sky Bar.