Back From Nashville . . .

Last weekend we charged over to Nashville, TN for Amanda Louise's wedding.  The wedding was conducted in Franklin, a town a few miles south of Nashville.  It is an old town with tons of new development.

We stayed in the Garden Hilton in Franklin, a nice hotel nestled in the suburbs surrounding by all kinds of new development.  New stores, shops and restaurants abounded.  Lots of twisty roads but all located along Interstate 65 which runs north and south through the area.

We ran up and down I-65 to Nashville, to Alf Lester's home.  He is Amanda's grandfather and was a great host.  While he spent the greater part of his life in New York City, he is a true southern gentleman.  And he has a grand family and beautiful old home that was first his grandfather's house, then his father's house and it is now his house.

Amanda and her husband, Mike, planned out the wedding and it was held in a nice old civic building in Franklin.  Actually it is a restored place that was a jail complete with a gallows inside.  Much of that is gone except a few artifacts like barred windows and an old cell door bolted on the wall.  It is a cater's place now, with many floors, nooks and crannies and a couple of large dining areas complete with a bar.

The affair was first a wedding, then a sit down brunch.  We had Bloody Marys, champagne, and prime rib with eggs for brunch.  It was all nicely done, serve hot or cold as maybe required and quite delicious,  Amanda planned it all out and did a lot of the decorating etc.  It was her day and she truly enjoyed it.  James gave Amanda away at the wedding.  He was in his element at that time.  All of his and Joan's children were there too.

It was cool weather but we may one trip down town and saw the music city in operation.  It was booming town.  New construction all over the place.  It is also an insurance industry town along with publishing.  Of course, music, country music, reigns supreme.  But the city has a lot going for it and is clearly on the ascendancy.  Lots of folks rolling around down town.  Even a pedal bar, that is a vehicle that the patrons sit around a bar and must move the vehicle by pedaling it.  There is a driver/bar keep and so the participants are all happy as can be pumping that machine around down town.

At Alf's we watched local down town university, Vanderbilt, beat Missouri.  Alf is big fan and has a huge TV set, so we enjoyed the game.  Later, we were at Amanda and Mike's apartment house, and attended a pre-marriage party.  Mike and Amanda did the cooking and we had a few beers.  Unfortunately we could not get the LSU game on local TV but did end up watching the first half on a telephone.  We left early enough so that I saw the last quarter in the hotel.

Then Monday we had a long trip back to Weatherford.  We drove all the way.  It rained on us from Franklin to Littlerock, AR.  We broke out somewhere after Littlerock but before Texarkana.  It was over cast until we got into the eastern outskirts of Dallas.  We hit Dallas about 6:30 and into a traffic jam getting through the downtown octopus where I-30 (our route), I-35 and I-45, US 75 North and South and the toll road all interchange along with major reconstruction going on.  It was a mess but we eased through and on to Fort Worth then Weatherford.

We were tired but happy to be home again.  It was a long trip, about 900 miles one way give or take a few miles here and there.  The fall foliage in Tennessee was very pretty, traffic was not to bad though I found trucks in Tennessee traveled at or above the speed limit of 75.  That made some of the driving a bit harry along with the constant rain.