Mother Nature roared last evening; nearby Ripley County in Indiana had 100mph winds. When the rains came they blew through horizontally. Finally I gave up watching the lightning display all around us and lay down. That’s the moment the weather alarm sounded on my phone. It was shrill, not pleasant.

With that, a happy Saturday morning to you – and yes, it’s still raining. Were we dependent on Hydro1 for our power (as we will be later on this week) I would have expected power outages. With all of the goings-on nothing was blinking this morning. So, this morning I’ll raise my morning coffee mug to our power company, Duke Energy.

” Electricity is really just organized lightning.” ~ George Carlin

And, I am certain that Carlin got his insight from a sign I spotted near a bar in Nashville [best Bloody Mary I’ve had in years] located in what had been an  old-time Pharmacy; “a bartender is just a Pharmacists with limited inventory”.

Nashville, TN – Daredevil that I am, Marcia (complaining) and I made a quick stop at the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY. Remember this is the same place where the ground gave way and six of their collection’s ‘jewels’ piled into the resultant hole. All was fine this time. However, it was at this point that the rains began, and 6” later on Tuesday morning as we were leaving Nashville was the first time the sun came through.

We caught up with brother Pieter and promptly proceeded to have a blast. It really didn’t matter that we trudged through many a puddle and failed to dodge most of the falling rain.

Of course we did tour the original home of the Grand Ole Opry, thw historic Ryman Hall (it also gave a respite from the rains). Then, we poked in and out of probably a dozen or so Honky-tonk joints on Broadway. Yup, some we stayed longer; I even think we helped some gals celebrate their (barely legal) bachelorette party.

The Station Inn – is most likely the defacto home (mecca?) to Bluegrass music. Apparently we missed by a few days Steven Tyler (formerly of Aerosmith and now moving into Country) spending some time in the place. Sunday evening we were the first in the place for the “Sunday Evening Bluegrass Jam”. Eventually about 25 musicians had gathered and the walls, floor, and ceiling of this tiny venue began to throb with some most excellent music – nonstop and into the night.

Some of you will be asking; “but Dirk, didn’t you go to the Bluebird Café?” Yes we did. We were at this 90-seat powerhouse of acoustic music venue about 45-minutes before the start of ‘Open Mike’ night. We were also probably somewhere close to the 300th folk in line. I did get a lovely picture of Pieter, Marcia, and the security guy. Our, non-entry translated into the best dining experience of the weekend.

Heading North – humming the music of Herb Alpert and his wife, Lani Hall (at one time she was the lead vocalist for Sérgio Mendes & Brasil ’66) – let me explain. Some of the packing has begun, the odd – and heavy stuff is already in the truck. At about this time I received a text from Pieter – now back home – and beginning to go through his ‘important’ stuff; “Herb Alpert and Lani Hall performing at the Taft”.

Long story short, Tuesday evening at 8, Marcia (against her better judgment) and I will be at the Taft. Alpert, now 82, I’ve followed since his beginning The Lonely Bull with The Tijuana Brass days back in 1962. BTW, did you know that he’s now known as much for his visual art which is displayed in museums, galleries, and private collections?

All the details have been worked out. The truck will be fully loaded. It’ll be parked in Adrianne and Tevita’s fenced-in yard. I’ll drive her car to the show and return it in the early morning. Then drive the truck home to pick Marcia up and load refrigerated stuff, pick up breakfast egg sliders and coffee at White Castle and we’re off! Northern Comfort, here we come!

Finis – This year we’re spending the night in St. Ignace, MI. Originally the plan was for me to be interviewed by the Border Control Thursday morning as a final step to getting a NEXUS pass. Now, 6-weeks since the Feds have had all my application documentation I still don’t have final approval for the interview. So, now we’re stopping in St. Ignace just to make the trip a little easier – and give us more daylight to open up the cabin.

Sunday evening we’re getting together with the Cinci gang to celebrate Jason’s birthday (last weekend). Also, it’ll be near the end of June before we’ll see everyone as they come north.

Make it a great week everyone.

Cheers.

Dirk