If It's Thursday, It Must Be The Motor City

In the past week and a half, I have gone to Nashville and back twice. The first leg of my odyssey was driving to Music City, via Louisville, with Lesley. She was (and still is as I type) a vendor at the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (formerly known as the Future Homemakers of America) conference. We went a few days early for a little vacation.

We were both pleasantly surprised at how nice a city it is. Of course, part of our appreciation comes from our being big country music fans. As apparently every Nashville visitor must do, we toured the Country Music Hall of Fame, which was especially cool with its special exhibit on Ray Charles. Being the fan that I am, there was little about the Genius that I didn't already know, but it was still pretty neat to see some of the photos, artifacts, videos, and especially his tuxedos. For anybody who questions whether Ray Charles was actually blind, they only need look at some of the clothing he wore to cast aside any doubts.

In the evenings, we went downtown and just walked. Most of the bars had their doors open so you could hear the live bands playing inside. The bars into which we stopped had some really great music. The country karaoke bar was, however, a mixed bag. After hearing some typical karaoke (in other words, bad), I was about to volunteer my singing services (I was leaning towards "Friends In Low Places", which I assume is a very cliched selection in that part of the country, but what the heck), but hearing some singers who were actually good nixed that notion. The drunk redneck girl who seethed with Morrissette-like angst while singing "Jolene" was another story. We also went white water rafting on the Ocoee River, which served as the course for the 1996 Olympics kayak races. It was a lot of fun, even if I did take an unintentional dive into the water.

After a nice Shabbat and getting Lesley settled in at the Opryland Resort & Convention Center (it's really nice but, if you ever go there, take rations and some bread crumbs to leave a trail-you will get lost), I flew back home. Having a ton of frequent flyer miles and some slow time at work, I decided to fly back on Tuesday evening and so I could spend more time with Lesley and help her sell chocholate at the convention. I flew back again this morning.

Two other things. First, we went to nearby mall yesterday and saw "Superman Returns". It was very good, with Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor being the best comic book bad guy I've seen since Jack played the Joker. Of course, I'm sure that Noah Daddy can give a much more detailed analysis of the subject.

Second, this sign, which we once again passed on our way to Louisville, will always make me laugh.