Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Road Trip With Mom! Day One: Glenview to Nashville

Um...have you all ever taken a road trip with your mom? I have. It rules.

We started early Saturday morning - 7 am - and made our way south. We stopped at a Bob Evans for a hearty breakfast. This is how adorable Mom is first thing in the morning:


And THIS is how adorable I am first thing in the morning:


Bob Evans was pretty great. Tasty and affordable breakfasts brought out real quick. Although, they did have this poster hanging in the entrance of the restaurant...I'm not sure what Apple Pie Fries are, but we did not stick around to find out. Barf!


We made amazing time; it took only eight hours from Chicago to Nashville! We arrived at our first hotel - The Grand Ole Opry Convention Center. Why stay there, you ask? Oh, no reason. Maybe just because we had tickets to see Crystal Gayle and Patty Loveless at the Grand Ole Opry that night! Whoa!!! More about that later...The hotel was incredible. It was sort of like Disneyland, minus the rides, and as if it was located inside a greenhouse. Does that make sense? Check it out:




This stuff is all inside the hotel. It's like a giant greenhouse with a billion plants and flowers and a zillion lanais and some nice restaurants. Fantastic.

The reason we went straight to Nashville Saturday night was, as mentioned before, so we could go see The Grand Ole Opry! It was amazing. I'll post a couple of pictures here, but if you want to see the whole mess of them, check out my Picasa album. Mom kept commenting on how it must be Geriatric Night - and she made a good point! At least half of the performers were definitely of the senior persuasion. And damn, were they amazing performers. Check out Little Jimmy Dickens, 88 years old and about 4'10"!


And here are the ladies themselves, Patty Loveless:


And Crystal Gayle. Her hair is still down to her ankles. Mom wondered how she dyes it all. Oh snap! Who said that?!


I loved The Grand Ole Opry - the hotel and the show! It was amazing. Oh, and I even got to play the piano at the Opry!!!!!
..........(hotel)


Coming Up! Day Two: Nashville to Memphis. Where did we stop on our long drive, you ask? Oh, just a little somewhere called Loretta Lynn's Ranch! Wait til you read about it...

6 comments:

SophisticatedBrew said...

Whooooh! Looks like fun. and LOLZ to the playing the piano at the opry...hotel. :)

Crystal Gayle looks different from when I remember seeing her on Sesame Street 25 years ago. She was imprinted in my head as a blond.

Reem Tara said...

Hmmm...I used to get her and Daryl Hannah mixed up for some reason. She's a blonde, isn't she?

Sara Ashes said...

hahaha! clearly DNA runs in our veins via Mom and her snarky hair dying humor!

jx said...

love this...all of it. i think the grand ole opry is pretty much geriatrics every night. did your mom do all the planning for the trip?

Genia the Queenia said...

Oh my Reem, it sounds like a blast. I love your mom's comment about how Crystal Gayle dyes all that hair!! Did I ever tell you she was my 1st record ever? What did you play on the Grand Ol' Opry...Hotel..piano?

Reem Tara said...

Jess, actually we both planned it! We were kind of both like "Meh, whatchu want to do?" and then we did it all. Seriously. It worked out great.

Genia - I played Für Elise because it's one of like 3 songs I have memorized...

Sister - Hell yes!