Log 36
Day 123
Sunday, September 21, 2008
6:25 AM CDT
Location: Rock Harbor Marina M175 on the Cumberland River
Weather: 66* with calm winds and foggy; forecast is for 80* and a 40% chance or rain today
It’s a little foggy this morning. It rained some last night and the isinglass are wet and steamed up. Had to turn on the heater in the helm area...but it will warm up to a little over 80 later. The internet connection is operating very slow...so I hope this goes through ok.
Yesterday...We said good by to Ted and Billie on Main Course about 8:00 as they left the dock and headed back down river. We were going to just relax and take our time at the dock before heading out, but decided to untie and take off as well. So at 8:30 we fired up the boat and took off. It was a short 17 miles from the municipal dock to Rock Harbor Marina and we arrived about 10:30. Can’t say it was much of an arrival though...I could not raise anyone on the radio or on any of their phone numbers, so we just pulled up to the fuel dock and tied up. Two things we noticed...1) the fuel dock was closed on a Saturday and that seemed strange to us...2) diesel fuel was $5.75 @ gallon...maybe that is why they were closed. No one wanted pay those prices. When I called a couple of times I left a message on the owners cell phone, and about 45 minutes later he called me back telling me he was on his way to the marina and would be there in about 15 minutes and show us where we could tie up...which he did. The owner did indeed turn out to be the X husband of Wynona Judd and it did not take him long to let us know that, and the fact that he had 2 kids with her. Nice enough guy and was very helpful...and that was the last we saw of him. At 3 we had arranged for a taxi to pick us up and take us to Opry Land to get our tickets for the show. After getting the tickets we walked about 10 minutes to the Opry Land Hotel...part of the Gaylord Hotel chain and the biggest and most expansive hotel and convention center I have ever been in (I have stayed there before so I had a little idea how to get around...but it is very easy to get lost...and we did). We decided to eat at Tony Romas Steak House in the mall which was just across from the Grand Ole Opry...and then go over to the show which started at 7. All of these type of shows are about personal preference...but Deb and I loved every minute of it. The Grand Ole Opry itself is a great facility, and it is very obvious that each performer was thrilled to be there (all of them said so...and you knew they meant it). The show was 2 hours of back to back groups and singers. Some would sing 1 song and leave and maybe come out later and sing another one. Others would sing 2 or 3 songs (Alan Jackson was the only one to sing 3). So every 10 minutes or so you would see a lot of things happing on stage as new band members would come on stage and plug in there instruments and stage hands would rearrange the stage and set up new microphones. I was amazed at how fast this would happen and then the next group would just walk out...step up to the mic (without any sound checks or tuning of their guitars) and start playing a new song. It was awesome. We probably saw 10 different acts, including: Little Big Town; Jimmie Dickens; The Whites; Charlie Daniels (yes he sang The Devil went down to Georgia); Kathie Mattea; Darius Rucker (who used to be lead singer for Hootie and the Blowfish...and was fantastic) and the final singer was Alan Jackson who brought the house down. All in all, it was an expensive day with tickets and dinner and about $90 worth of cab rides...but worth it.
Today...we’re back to cruising. Our plan is to head down river to Clarksville where we stopped on our way up river. It’s about a 50 mile run with 1 lock, so we may not be there until late afternoon and not sure we’ll go in to town. We blew our weekly operating budget in Nashville over the last few days...so it’s back to eating on the boat.
I hope everyone is doing well...I’ll keep you posted.
BK.
Day 123
Sunday, September 21, 2008
6:25 AM CDT
Location: Rock Harbor Marina M175 on the Cumberland River
Weather: 66* with calm winds and foggy; forecast is for 80* and a 40% chance or rain today
It’s a little foggy this morning. It rained some last night and the isinglass are wet and steamed up. Had to turn on the heater in the helm area...but it will warm up to a little over 80 later. The internet connection is operating very slow...so I hope this goes through ok.
Yesterday...We said good by to Ted and Billie on Main Course about 8:00 as they left the dock and headed back down river. We were going to just relax and take our time at the dock before heading out, but decided to untie and take off as well. So at 8:30 we fired up the boat and took off. It was a short 17 miles from the municipal dock to Rock Harbor Marina and we arrived about 10:30. Can’t say it was much of an arrival though...I could not raise anyone on the radio or on any of their phone numbers, so we just pulled up to the fuel dock and tied up. Two things we noticed...1) the fuel dock was closed on a Saturday and that seemed strange to us...2) diesel fuel was $5.75 @ gallon...maybe that is why they were closed. No one wanted pay those prices. When I called a couple of times I left a message on the owners cell phone, and about 45 minutes later he called me back telling me he was on his way to the marina and would be there in about 15 minutes and show us where we could tie up...which he did. The owner did indeed turn out to be the X husband of Wynona Judd and it did not take him long to let us know that, and the fact that he had 2 kids with her. Nice enough guy and was very helpful...and that was the last we saw of him. At 3 we had arranged for a taxi to pick us up and take us to Opry Land to get our tickets for the show. After getting the tickets we walked about 10 minutes to the Opry Land Hotel...part of the Gaylord Hotel chain and the biggest and most expansive hotel and convention center I have ever been in (I have stayed there before so I had a little idea how to get around...but it is very easy to get lost...and we did). We decided to eat at Tony Romas Steak House in the mall which was just across from the Grand Ole Opry...and then go over to the show which started at 7. All of these type of shows are about personal preference...but Deb and I loved every minute of it. The Grand Ole Opry itself is a great facility, and it is very obvious that each performer was thrilled to be there (all of them said so...and you knew they meant it). The show was 2 hours of back to back groups and singers. Some would sing 1 song and leave and maybe come out later and sing another one. Others would sing 2 or 3 songs (Alan Jackson was the only one to sing 3). So every 10 minutes or so you would see a lot of things happing on stage as new band members would come on stage and plug in there instruments and stage hands would rearrange the stage and set up new microphones. I was amazed at how fast this would happen and then the next group would just walk out...step up to the mic (without any sound checks or tuning of their guitars) and start playing a new song. It was awesome. We probably saw 10 different acts, including: Little Big Town; Jimmie Dickens; The Whites; Charlie Daniels (yes he sang The Devil went down to Georgia); Kathie Mattea; Darius Rucker (who used to be lead singer for Hootie and the Blowfish...and was fantastic) and the final singer was Alan Jackson who brought the house down. All in all, it was an expensive day with tickets and dinner and about $90 worth of cab rides...but worth it.
Today...we’re back to cruising. Our plan is to head down river to Clarksville where we stopped on our way up river. It’s about a 50 mile run with 1 lock, so we may not be there until late afternoon and not sure we’ll go in to town. We blew our weekly operating budget in Nashville over the last few days...so it’s back to eating on the boat.
I hope everyone is doing well...I’ll keep you posted.
BK.
Here is Arch...Wynona's X...I guess this is what you do after you are married to a celebrity.
Charlie Daniels on stage at the Grand Ole Opry. You can see our seats were up in the nose bleed section...still great to be there.
This is a better shot of how far we were away from the stage. But they had large monitors so we did not miss a thing
Alan Jackson...a folk hero in Nashville...Deb took this shot from the large monitors they had
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