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,

Branson, MO

We arrived in Branson yesterday. We have never been here before and it is the hilliest place we have ever seen. There doesn't seem to be a singe square inch in this town that is level. David was not a happy camper driving the motorhome around this area, especially since he got off at the wrong exit and we were somewhat lost. As usual, we had reserved a rental car to use while staying in the area. One pass by the Enterprise rental agency told us we were just to big to try and drive in to that lot. Since David was already stressed out about driving in this area we to check in at the local KOA campground and call Enterprise to pick us up.The guy that picked us up was very friendly and was telling us all about his son being on the Undercover Boss TV show. I haven't seen the episode, but it had something to do with Silver Dollar City and his son designing roller coasters.I'll have to check it out later.

We went into the Enterprise office and there was a customer there chatting with the man at the counter. We were waiting for our turn and someone asked where we were from and were we going to any shows here. We said we were from Chattanooga and were only there for a few days. The man behind the counter said "this man is really funny" talking about the other customer. The customer said "you should come to my show: in a Russian accent. He said "My name is Yakov Smirnoff and I have a dinner show that opens Oct 1". We shook hands with him and said how nice to meet him. He said :if you come to my show, you'll laugh your Yak-off".  He was very nice. All around town we kept seeing signs that said "I'm back". I guess Yakov was performing here for 20 years and left a couple of years ago. He is back in Branson for a couple of months. Of course we had to get tickets to his show for tomorrow night. I remember him from years ago when he appeared on Johnny Carson and other programs and from the movie with Robin Williams, Moscow on the Hudson. He was a very funny guy,   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyxY_WUCj9c

We had a pretty lazy day here. Went for breakfast and then to the only local quilt shop. They had a lot of fabric, patterns and books, but nothing that appealed to me. We came back to the MH, did some laundry and Bentley kept us company in his stroller. Later we went to Landry's Seafood for an excellent dinner. The food was very fresh, New Orleans style and delicious. For sure, this place has some places to eat. It's hard to know where to go. So much for my diet.

Tomorrow we don't have much planned except the dinner show with Yakov. That should be fun.

Days at MQX

I had a terrific time at MQX. The instructors were fantastic. All the classes were great and the quilt show although rather small, was very good. I know I can' post all the pictures I took, but I'll try to highlight my week.

Wednesday I had 3 classes. I started at 7:15 in the morning and didn't finish until 6 pm. My first class was with Jamie Wallen on Mystical grids  http://jamiewallenworkshops.com/index.html
I had a class with Jamie before and he is one of my favorite teachers. It was a jam packed class  and kept us busy the entire time. Learned a lot of fun stuff.

I also had a class with Judy Woodworth  http://www.judywoodworth.com/  an award winning quilter and a super nice person.
By 4 pm I was out of steam, but still had on class to go with Mary. She is the developer of my Quilting Business software. I actually had two classes scheduled with Mary and this was the first. I've been using this SW for over a year, but it does so much more that I have done with it, It's wonderful SW and built for long arm quilting which is so much better than having to buy Quick books that is just  retail business sw.

We had a quiet night after dinner at Cheddar s and then I was up and at em early the next morning.
Thursday I had a 4 hr class with Nancy Wiecks on the new upgrades to my autopilot SW. The new version came out about 6 months ago is one I haven't played with it very much, but it has some great new features.
 In the afternoon I had a class with Sue Heinz on Fill Harmonics. What a great fun class. Sue has a fun teaching style and I learned a lot.

Friday, I had another class with Judy Wood worth on Negative Space. More fun!! And my other class with Mary. More advanced sw stuff.

Then Saturday my classes were with Karen McTavish  http://www.designerquilts.com/
I'd had classes before with Karen on learning McTavishing which I use a lot in the custom quilts I make. Also on whole cloth quilting. Karen is a good teacher and I always enjoy her classes and love looking at her work, This class is on Modern Quilting --the latest trend.

My last class was with Deloa Jones on border feathers. Another fun class, but I'm glad the week is over. I just want to go home and play with my machine now. But here we are in Springfield for another day and another week before we get home. I hope all this knowledge doesn't evaporate before I get there.

During the week I had time to shop for long arm gadgets, and view the quilt show. I did find a few rulers that will be helpful. I'll try to post some of the beautiful quilts although I didn't always get a picture of the quilter tag. Sorry.

These are all Janet Stone's quilts. All of her quilts had the Alphabet in then with a play on names. She also loves sheep, so many of them have sheep.. The first one is NO L and it has no letter L in it. This quilt is heavily quilted and won Best of Show.

 The one below is "Letters From a Broad" and each block was made and quilted separately and sewn together.

      "Mutton But Letters"

 The pattern for this one is offered on The Quilt Show so I am downloading this BOM pattern monthly.

Lots of whole cloths and modern quilts

 This one was made by Gina Perkes. I had a class with her earlier in the year.

More modern quilts

The one below was one of Judy's Lots of detail and beautiful.

                                               This is a modern quilt by Karen.

Springfield, IL Here We Come

Several months ago I registered to attend the MQX Longarm Quilt Meeting in Springfield, Il. The program was really appealing to me as there were 4, 3 and 2 hour classes offered which meant I could get a lot more information in a short time for a reasonable price. The classes I registered for were lecture, demo instead of hands on. Hands on classes cost twice as much and give you play time on a  machine. Usually it's not your brand of machine and not set up to your height and specs and you usually have to share with one or several people. Often the machine breaks or has issues and it takes a while to get the feel of a new machine. You usually waste a lot of time in class when you could be learning.You just don't get the bang for the buck in my opinion so I much prefer lecture, demo. I registered for 9 classes over 4 days.

In getting ready for the trip, I had lots of quilts to finish. In the middle of this was the AQS meeting in Chattanooga, the first time AQS has been held there. One of the quilts I needed to finish prior to the meeting was a Judy Niemeyer quilt pieced by Judy Wurm. Judy is teaching a class on this and wanted me to quilt it so she could display the sample for the class. Here's David hold this without the binding on.

The AQS show also accepted a quilt that Judy Pitts made a year ago that I quilted. She taught a class on this one also. Here we are at the show standing in front of her quilt.

We should have taken closer pictures of the quilt. I know I have some somewhere.Oh well.

I took a couple of classes with Barbara Burnham who made this quilt. It was spectacular. A beautiful Baltimore Album.

After AQS I had a weeks worth of quilting time and getting ready for our trip.

We decided not to bring the MH home to pack up, but to take items over to the MH in the storage facility. Since we were leaving early Sunday we decided to pack everything by Sat night, load up the kitties and spend the night in the storage facility heading out early Sunday for Paducah. This actually worked pretty well. Finnegan usually gets car sick so he has to have his ACE before we travel. We had plenty of time to give it to him before we left Sat night. He was pretty relaxed by the time we left and didn't barf at all. All the kitties were pretty content checking out the MH and spent a nice quiet night. Then in the morning we left early. This is the first time Finnegan hasn't barfed on the beginning of a trip. YEAH!

We spent Sunday night in Paducah at Duck Creek Campground. Nothing fancy, but a nice overnight stop. Monday morning we headed out and stopped by Hancock's of Paducah to check out their massive array off fabric. They flat have some fabric for sale. Unffortunately there was nothing I needed. I did buy a hera marker and a spool of Mettler thread and a little green fabric for my applique project I brought with me. Oh well, it was nice to fondle the fabric anyway.

On the road, even Finnegan  enjoyed riding in David's lap.

We arrived in Springfield and stopped to pick up the rental car before heading to the campground. What a nice CG. It's way our of town in a very nice quiet area in the corn fields. Couldn't be quieter and pitch black at night. Good sleeping. No trains, plans or traffic.

Tuesday I had no classes so we spent the day in Springfield. It is THE LAND OF LINCOLN. Everything is Lincoln related. He was not born here, but lived here and practiced law here. We took a tour of his family home which is run by the NPS. Very interesting.

                                                                            Parlor

                                                                 Family Parlor

                                                       Lincoln's Bedroom

Kitchen

After we got back to the CG we gave the kitties some go out time.

We had a great day. More adventures another day.