Barbara and I went to the Grand Old Opry on Saturday night to celebrate her birthday which was earlier in the week. We had a wonderful time and saw a fabulous show. The picture above shows the background for the Opry stage. The show was two hours long and composed of three segments.

The opening segment had Jim Ed Brown, Connie Smith, Jimmy C Newman, and The Whites. I am not a great fan of country music and know mostly the current singers. This group of singers was wonderful and sang some songs I was familiar with.

The second segment showcased Riders in the Sky, Jan Howard, and George Hamiliton IV (and V). The Riders in the Sky dress as the old time cowboys with fancy clothes and ten gallon hats. They sang several old time cowboy songs. George Hamiliton IV sang a parody of the song "Abilene" but about "Gasoline" and its high price. The song was very entertaining.

The final segment was absolutely FABULOUS. Trace Adkins was the first performer and sang 4 songs including 2 brand new songs that will be released on his next album. Martina McBride sang several songs including a duet with Connie Smith. Next Wynonna rocked the house with her voice and some very moving songs. The last act was Lee Greenwood who sang his well known hit song "I'm Proud to be an American" and it brought everyone to their feet.

Barbar got her money's worth for her birthday!!!

Hard Time on the Rock Pile

If you look on the left of the house photo, you will see a pile of rocks. Those rocks were removed from the front lawn before the sod was laid. Last summer the front yard was a mass of rocks, a whole bunch of weeds, and a lot of dirt. This week I started moving the rocks to the back yard where they are being used as a border for a future flower garden. I an moving them one or two at a time and walking them to the back. The yard is too steep to load up a wheel barrow and move a bunch at a time, particularly since the new location is up hill from the current pile ( at least I am too weak to push it). Thus I take them one at a time.

Haulin' on Old Hickory Lake

VFW Post 9851 and the Music City Powerboat Association (MCPA) held their 4th annual Haulin' on Old Hickory Poker Run on 2 August. The MCPA donates part of the proceeds from the event to the Relief Fund at the Post. As a member of the VFW Post, I joined several other Post and MCPA members on a lunch run to downtown Nashville on Friday, 1 August. The Post members road on a 31 foot pontoon boat with a 350 HP motor (note my pontoon has 40HP). I road on the upper level and had a great view of the Cumberland River. To get to downtown Nashville we had to go down the Cumberland River and through the lock at Old Hickory Dam. The upper left picture shows some of the MCPA boats getting ready to enter the lock. A large number of these boats are over 30 feet long, have 2 huge engines (454 cubic inches each) and go close to 100 MPH. The upper right picture shows the approach to the lock at the dam. The lower left picture shows the lock doors opening. Once in the lock , the doors were closed, and we were lowered 60 ft. The dock door opened and out we roared. The pontoon boat was doing 30MPH and we were rocked by the wakes from the MCPA boats as they passed us doing 50 to 70 MPH on the river. It was a grand 25 mile trip to Nashville and the lower right picture shows our approach to downtown. We tied up at the end of Broadway Street and about 50 of us went to lunch at Joe's Crab Shack. After lunch we headed back to Old Hickory Lake

When we got back to our host, Anchor High Marina and Grill, I was able to get a ride on a boat owned by Tim Baldwin. Tim is the President of MCPA and also a member of the Post. We roared up and down the lake at over 70 MPH. That is at least twice as fast as I have ever gone on the water.

On Saturday was the Poker Run. About 40 of these high speed powerboats registered for the run. The boats had to stop a 5 locations and pick up a sealed envelope with a card inside. It was 36 miles from the start to the furthermost point and then back, so they probably ran for about 10o miles. I was stationed at Cherokee Marina and was tasked with handing out the cards as each boat passed my station. I had a long pole with a heavy duty clamp on the end. I extended the pole out so some one on the boat could grab the card. I got a close up view of all the boats as they came in for their cards.

A big banquet was held Saturday night at the VFW Post and a great time was had by all. The poker hand was won with 4 kings which was worth $500. All I got was a T-shirt and free meal.

Emerson's 3rd Birthday Party

The first photo shows Emerson and mom arriving at the Kid's Party Jump location. Dad was busy getting Carly out of the car so they could all go in for the BIG party. Emerson had invited about 14 friends to the party.

The second photo shows Emerson coming down the big slide. He managed to come down any way you could think of - feet first, head first, on his belly, and even rolling. He even solved how to climb up the slide. He and all his friends had a great time running and jumping on all the inflatable slides and bounce rooms.

Of course no birthday is complete unless there is a birthday cake. Emerson's showed his favorite Superhero friends Spiderman and Wolverine. Emerson really enjoyed his cake and ice cream



Finally Emerson was in the Birthday King chair and opened some of his presents.

Good Time with Old Friends

On Wednesday evening Pierre and Sandi Granger stopped by for a visit. They were our next door neighbors in Virginia Beach. Pierre had been in Millington TN at the Naval Personnel Command for 5 weeks. He was on the selection board for new Chief Petty Officers in the Navy. Sandi had made a visit to Kentucky to visit family members and then went to be with Pierre for a few days til the selection board completed its work. They stopped here on their way back to Virginia Beach. I had a great time visiting with them and catching up on news about the old neighborhood. Barbara is in Las Vegas at the national bridge tournament so she missed the opportunity to visit. Pierre and Sandi showed up just as I was sitting down for dinner with Pat and Jerry, our neighbors across the street. They were kind enough to invite Pierre and Sandi in for dinner so our old friends got to meet our new friends. Many thanks to Pat and Jerry for their hospitality and kindness. After a tour of the house, I took Pierre and Sandi down to see Emerson and Carly. After a short visit their, Pierre and Sandi continued the trip to Viriginia Beach.

Michigan Wins!!

Its offical!!! The Michigan Solar Car Team has won its 5th North American Solar Car Challenge. The team had almost a 10 hour lead over the second place team, Principia College. There were 15 teams in the race from Plano, TX to Calgary, Alberta, Canada including teams from Germany and Canada.

Golf Status

As all retirees seem to do, I took up golf this year. Above is a scorecard for the Country Hills Golf Course. This card should be filled in with 3's, 4's, and 5's if you are a good golfer. Mine typically gets filled in with 8', 9's, and 10's. I stop counting at 10 because it is uncool to take your shoes off while on the course. Besides my playing partners are getting tired standing around waiting for me to finish. I have been taking golf lessons, my dear wife gave them to me as a Christmas present. The lessons are are improving my game. Some of my drives from the tee actually land in the fairway at a reasonable distance from the tee (<>