Our Long Trip Home

We left the Eastern Shore of Virginia for our home in Palm Springs on August 25. Our route took us up through Washington, D.C. and then west to the Shenandoah Valley. We then turned southwest until we reached the I-40 for the long trek across the Southern Midsection of the country. Our first major stop was Nashville, TN.

One of our favorite KOA campgrounds is in Nashville. Only a mile from the OpryMills Hotel, The Grand Old Opry, and the Opryland Mall, it is a perfect location, and a wonderful place to stay. An old college friend drove up from Birmingham, AL to visit with us.

I have known Tom Donovan for more than 35 years. We attended Rochester Institute together in the early 1960s. We lost touch for some years, but started communicating once again while I was working in Hollywood. A graphic artist, Tom is currently working in the Cellular Phone industry. We spent most of our three days together catching up on old times. Tom is one of the few persons that I still communicate with that was in my class of 1968.

We obtained tickets to the Grand Old Opry for the Saturday night performances. The Grand Old Opry is not only the home of Country Music, its shows are live broadcasts on cable and of course WSM radio in Nashville. The two-hour show consisted of two live radio shows, and one live television performance. Live radio streaming is available from their web site.

Since live radio on this scale is indeed rare these days, I found the whole process most interesting. With over 4,000 people in the audience, the shows moved along fast with excellent talent. Even if you are not a fan of Country Music, the Grand Old Opry would hold you spellbound for the duration. The evening culminated in the unscheduled appearance of Loretta Lynn. She held the audience (mostly VFW conventioneers) in the palm of her hand as she sang “Coal Miner’s Daughter”.

On Monday morning, we started west once again with stops in Little Rock, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, and Ehrenberg. We arrived back in Palm Springs Sunday Morning of Labor Day Weekend. All and all it was a successful trip lasting more than three months. We enjoyed seeing all of our old friends and relatives once again. A quick note, while in Virginia, Jim’s mom had a bout in the hospital. I am happy to report that Hazel Price made it through with flying colors.
Our thanks to all that put up with our travels, and looked in on the Blog from time to time to monitor our progress. It was a great experience. We dodged three Hurricanes, a few tropical storms, high humidity, one of the wettest years on record, and 100+ temperatures in the southwest. Gotta’ love summer in the US.