Loretta Lynn Concert 2

I'll try to upload these videos on a new post. The one I wanted to post was too long a video and wouldn't post. Poor Loretta was freezing on stage as was everyone else and she had a runny nose. She was dressed to the nine's, but I think I'd have been wearing an overcoat. At age 82 her voice was still great and she was belting them out one after the other. Probably wanted to get it done so she could go warm up. I know I would. What a trooper and a great lady. We really enjoyed it.

Here she is singing with her sisters, Peggy Sue, who has quite  a great voice herself and Crystal. Terrific show.

Loretta Lynn Concert

The concert was held in the outdoor arena on the ranch. It was all outdoors, but it did have a roof over head. We had no car, so we had to walk there. It was a bit of a walk, but we took the shortcut down a trail. Due to the previous days rain a cold front had come through and it was to be 40 degrees during the concert. Yikes. Neither of us were prepared for cold weather and being outside for 3+ hours. The only thing I could do was layer-- 2 shirts and 2 pair of pants and a sweatshirt. It was cold!

The performers were supposed to be Loretta, Crystal Gayle and Peggy Sue (their sister) as the Van Lear Girls. It took us a while to figure how who the Van Lear Girls were. Van Lear was where Loretta, Crystal and Peggy Sue) were from in Kentucky. When we arrived we walked over to the store at the campground and there was a sign saying that Sheryl Crowe was also performing. Wow, we hadn't realized that.

The concert started at 8 pm and we arrived by 7 pm. The longer we sat there, the colder it got. It was packed with fans. Patsy,(Loretta's daughter) came out first and told everyone that there would be a lot of camera and video people there as they were filming a PBS documentary. Boy, she was right. They were right up in Loretta's face while she was signing, but I'm sure she is used to that.
I have a few video, although they are not great. I had to zoom in and they are a bit shaky.

Crystal Gayle

Sheryl Crowe. Couldn't believe she showed up in a thin sleeveless outfit in 40 degree weather. She must have been freezing.  The man behind her is Ernie Lynn, Loretta's son. He is in their band The Coal Miners and he is an excellent singer. Lost of talent in that family.

Hurricane Mills & Loretta Lynn

Our last night we stayed at Loretta Lynn's Ranch in Hurricane Mills, TN. We have never had the opportunity to stop here before, but in July I noticed she had a concert scheduled for Oct 4th, the very day we would be coming by there on our way home. So we made reservations for the 4th at the campground and were fortunate to be able to get tickets to the concert.

Her ranch is about an hour west of Nashville. The ranch has a campground, outdoor concert area, motor track course, horseback riding, her plantation home, museum, a replica of her Butcher Hollow home and a coal mine and numerous gift shops. They had tours of the various places, but we didn't take any of them since we wanted to get home before it was too late in the day. The property there was just beautiful with lots of pastures, woods, shady areas and also a river ran through it. The campground was very shaded, although the sites were a little tight and the hook ups were in strange places. It was a very nice stay.

I have lots of  short videos from the concert which I'll post on another blog post.

Rollin on the River

The Mississippi that is. We had a 2 night stay at the Tom Sawyer RV Park on the Mississippi River in West Memphis. We have stayed here before and enjoyed it so much we wanted to come back if we ever passed through this area again. We could have stayed another day, but we were scheduled to be at our next stop, so we couldn't do it this time. This is a no frills RV park except for the fact that you can park right on the Mississippi (provided there has not been an overflow of the river). The barges go up and down the river all day and night, so you can just sit and watch them go by.

As I mentioned in my last post there was a terrible thunderstorm the first night we were there. They predicted 70 mph winds and tornadoes which did occur just north of us. We had it pretty bad, but luckily no damage.for us.We were just glad to be able to go to bed without worrying about being blown into the Mississippi.

We did enjoy our time there and the kitties enjoyed it too. The next day was beautiful and Finnegan and Bentley had a nice stroll around the CG.When we travel, they each have their favorite place to ride. Nicky likes it under my seat or in our laps, Finny on the back of the couch or in our laps and Bentley likes to ride under the quilt on the bed or on the couch.They really love it when we stop. They all run to the door to smell the fresh air and try and figure out where we are. At night they are either in bed with us, in their bunk or on the dashboard looking out. What a kitty life.
I'll post a few pictures of them just being kitties.

Finnegan on the back of the couch.

Bentley on the table.

Bentley on the dashboard looking for squirrels.

Nicky on the couch.

Finnegan on the bed. 

Bentley in the ottoman.

Nicky loves to get in the cabinets. He can't stand to see an open cabinet and not be able to get in, so he just stands there staring at it and us until we pick him up and put him in. Then he's the happiest kitty you ever saw. Oh to be a kitty in our house.

Last Day in Branson

We had a nice time here except for the driving  Every road here was hilly and curvy and not fun to drive on. We noticed you didn't see anyone walking around on the sidewalks like you do in Pigeon Forge. 'm sure this was due to the unlevel streets and sidewalks. Certainly a handicapped person would have a very hard time getting around here.

We went to Dick's 5 & 10 cent store downtown which was a lot of fun to walk through and see all the old type items you used to find in the 5 & dime. We also drove all around the area to Table Rock Lake which was a beautiful lake resort area.Gorgeous views and a wonderful recreation area.

Our last night in Branson was spent seeing one of the live shows. It was Yakov Smirnoff who we had met at the Enterprise care rental office. His show was a dinner show and he has his own theater here. He had performed here for 20 years and left 2 years ago and now is returning for a couple of months. The show started at 4:30. We thought since this was his first show after coming back it wouldn't be well attended, but there were several large tour groups of mostly elderly here. It was a theater setting and we couldn't quite figure out how they were going to do dinner, but they did.

The show opened with a very talented lady coming out to sing America's National Anthem. The entire show was very patriotic. I must say I have never seen a performer like Yakov so proud and grateful to be an American.

I remember him from the 1980s when he was on TV a lot as a comedian and actor. He appeared often  on Johnny Carson, Night Court, was in The Money Pit, Moscow on the Hudson, Brewster's Millions and several TV shows. His catch line was "What a country". Having immigrated from USSR with his parents and speaking no English he was able to develop a career as an artist and comedian. He now has a masters degree in psychology and is a well known artist and writer. We really enjoyed the show. It was so nice the see someone who is so happy to be in the country and give something back every day to his country and the people in it.The dinner was quite good too. The theater seats had a little table in between your seats like on an airplane. It swings up in front of you & has magnets on it so when your tray of food is delivered it holds you food securely. The tray of food was huge. We had creamy veg soup, roast chicken, pulled pork, vegetables, mashed potatoes, a very large corn muffin and pie. A lot of food and very tasty as well. 

Thursday we left for West Memphis

The roads between Branson and I-40 were small and lots of traffic, but we made it without any problems.We checked in to the Tom Sawyer RV Park which sits right on the Mississippi River. Little did we know not only was it going to rain, but there was a major thunderstorm and tornado warnings.

They predicted 70 mph winds, hail and major rain between 9 pm to 2 am. They were telling everyone with mobile homes to move to shelter. YIKES, we weren't even a mobile home, but there was no where to go. We took out all the kitty carriers and got them ready just in case. At 9 PM the wind was pretty bad, you could really feel the wind hitting the back of the motor home. It was pretty scary, but by 11 it had calmed down to just a heavy rain and we felt safe enough to go to bed.

More tomorrow,