September 6, 2006 - Clermont, FL - Including some from TN, GA, and NC
Well, my guilty conscience got the better of me and here we are doing an update again. Actually I don't have any lame excuses why it's been so long, so I'll just say I'm sorry and get with the program.
As the title says, we're in Clermont, FL, at the 1000trails park here. Pulled in on Thursday last week and plan tentatively to stay until the 21st, then head down to Wauchula, FL, to the 1000trails park there for a week or so before heading further down to Lovers Key State Park where we hope to work for the winter. I say all this in a rather tentative way because with the coach price lowered yet again (now at $149,000) we've begun to get some interest, and we may sell the Road Abode after all.
But to catch up on what's been going on: First, I'll finish up our time in TN at the 1000trails park near the Naches Trace.
Bugs and birds. This green guy sure looked like a leaf when he was in the trees, and on this black bucket (on our picnic table) you can actually see his body through the wings.
Whenever we can, we enjoy putting out bird feeders and watching the action. Since we'd planned on being here for a while, we put them out hoping for some action. Usually takes a few days for the birds to find us, but in this case it was less than an hour. These bright yellow and black finches (American goldfinch) are great fun, and really enjoy the Niger thistle in that "sock" hanging from a tall shepherds hook.
Hummingbirds are perhaps among our favorites to watch. Got her "landing gear" out and then instantly starts lowering the level of food in the bottle.
Son Doug claims that if these little guys weighed 50 pounds, it would be unsafe in the woods because of their aggressive territorial behavior. We agree. This little lady is showing all the signs of "You get the heck out of here" with her spread wings and flared tail. Even after the interloper is gone, the tail stayed flared. Notice in the background that another hummer came in to feed while all this was going on.
This guy would just sit on the faucet and wait until the action in the next picture settled down, and then he'd take that fourth spot without any fussing. Seemed to us that most the birds were female, and the most aggressive ones were female for sure. And I'll not make any more comments about that!! What, you think I'm stupid?
There, all four feeding stations are occupied, and for a split second all's calm. Until the 5th one arrives, and then with much chirping and displaying and chasing, the action starts up all over again. In the second picture, there's 6 of the little girls engaged in various activities.
There's at least nine in this shot, and at times we could only guess at as many as 20. Most activity we've ever had with a feeder. Barb was kept busy filling it three times a day!
That's enough of the hummers. Drove me nuts trying to get decent shots of them. The turkeys trotting across the road (doing the Turkey Trot?) and through the fence were much easier to catch. Well, maybe not. The backsides are all you get of these colorful birds. Two adults and six chicks. Whenever we were on the Trace we kept a watchful eye out for these guys. Never did see any as road kill, and glad of it too.
One thing we particularly enjoyed about the Naches Trace was its wide shoulders, all nicely mowed. There are plenty of signs pointing out things of interest, many regarding the fact that Meriwether Lewis (of the Lewis & Clark pair) died along this route quite near the Thousand Trails park where we were staying.
As we hiked into this area, it got real hot real quick, so it was a short hike, but not without its interesting plants. Pretty big leaves for such a short plant, and all leaves are flat on the end, even the baby ones (below). Curious.
And Paul and Carla, our neighbors. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner they'd cooked and some fun times. Paul even got out his keyboard with some prodding. In a past life he was quite involved in the music industry. They're supposed to be here at the Clermont Thousand Trails park someplace, but we've not found them yet.
HA! Welcome to Nashville! And I'll bet you thought the town was all about Country & Western music. Didn't know about all the naked people myself either.
We'd taken one of those little bus tours of the city (I needed to get to some kind of A/C as the heat/humidity had gotten to me), and the driver was full of good stories as they usually are. He said this statue had caused quite a stir when it was first unveiled. Easy to see why when you understand that the health/medical industry is the #1 revenue generator for the city (there are 19 hospitals in Nashville), and the Christian publishing industry is either 2nd or 3rd. Number 4 on that list is the music industry. That was quite a surprise to us and may be to you too. The center photo is of the Nashville Convention Center (green) and Bellsouth tower (blue). As we were taking the tour, we decided that we really liked Nashville, and could have spent several days poking around. Since it's about 80 miles from the 1000trails campground, Nashville is on our "gotta do again" list, but from a closer campground next time.
The Bicentennial Park really wasn't as negative as that sign would lead you to believe. It was actually quite expansive and interesting.
These stone monuments stretched out for nearly 1/4 of a mile end to end documenting the history of the area (note the pillar above left with the year 1886 and the one on the right with 1906). It was obvious to Barb and I that Nashville is a proud city and still working hard to keep clean and not fall into disrepair. Of course, with millions and millions of dollars being donated to restore the old buildings, stuff happens. The tour bus driver was full of good stories about how grateful people who had found wealth as a result of living in Nashville had donated money generously to fix things up.
The Ryman Auditorium is famous for the Grand Ol Opry. It got its name from a sternwheeler riverboat owner. Seems the town was having a Christian Revival and the preaching was about the sins of drinking, gambling, etc. Captain Ryman was the owner of one of the riverboat sternwheelers whose existence depended on customers coming aboard to drink and gamble, and he was going to cause a ruckus and drive the revivalists out of town. Instead, he heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ from evangelist Samuel Porter Jones and was converted on the spot. Decided to build a big building so more people could hear the truth about Jesus. This was in 1885 or so, and the Grand Ol Opry moved into the building in 1943, and the fame of the place has, of course, spread since then.
Churches abound, often close together like this. And the railroad station/hotel called Union Station. How unique is that, eh? Even got Mercury up there on the top. I suppose to encourage speed on the part of the trains.
The sign says what's happening. But why an apostrophe at the end of the word "its"? This restoration is incredible classy, so let's get the English right folks! Anyway, as you can see, if this is what the original looked like, how marvelously elegant it was--and is now! Wow! The stained glass in the lower photos is looking straight up to the ceiling, on zoom of course. Gorgeous.
Across the street was a Christian Life Center, which we believe was a church. Also a beautiful building. Seems to me they even had a big book store there too.
Nice quiet clean driveway into a huge park. Yup, that's the Parthenon, but not in Greece. It is within a 1/4 inch of an exact replica of the real one. It was originally built for Tennessee's 1897 Centennial Exposition. It is the only full-scale replica is existence. Some craftsmen went to Greece, took exact measurements, and came back to built it. Only it was just for the expo, and it wasn't built to last. So when it started deteriorating, some wanted to raze it. But others wanted it restored as it was a good tourist attraction. So, eventually, the decision was made to restore it (after much debate). So, it was then made out of cement, using the plaster one as a model. Like I inferred earlier, this city isn't lacking for funds for projects like this.
Well, wouldn't you know it. I unwittingly tried to get in through the back door. So around the building we went so we could enter at the entrance. And before going inside, I'm already impressed, but anxious to get inside where I know it'll be air-conditioned.
Ahhhhhhh.......cool at last. Only now we're up on the 3rd floor, and it's pretty wimpy A/C by my standards, but just fine for Barb. We know that if you're married you probably know about the comfort level "discussions" between spouses, eh? I like A/C and Barb's a "fresh air" fan in the summer, and in winter I like it hot and, again, she's a fresh air freak. Brrrrrrr.
I'm standing alongside plaster replicas of busts and parts of busts, the originals of which were once displayed in the Greek Parthenon dating back to 438 B.C. The original sculptures are now housed in the British Museum in London. This building also houses one of Nashville's prime art museums.
This is one big golden lady! 42 feet tall. Nobody knows for sure how she's supposed to look, as all we have are written descriptions of her. The people building this building did their best to replicate what was written about her. Athena is her name. Goddess of war, wisdom, and crafts. Interesting combination of titles, eh? The gold dress is just that 24 caret gold leaf. That's about 8 pounds of almost pure gold. The original statue had 8,000 lbs. of gold.
No clue who she's holding in her hand there. I'm not up on Greek mythology.
And now some details of that beautiful shield:
Sort of an interesting story, all told. As a kid I remember enjoying reading about the mythology, but it's pretty faded in my memory now.
And that's it for the Nashville area, and our stay at Naches Trace Thousand Trails Preserve. Next is the FMCA rally in Concord, NC. Needed to get the AquaHot worked on and the factory technicians suggested we meet them there. Hooray! We both enjoy rallies, and having an excuse like this is a good one.
We close with one of son Doug's latest projects. The customer wanted reliable power, so that rag-top will have better than 600 HP with a 1 year warranty! Doug buys them direct from GM. Check out his shop here.