Tuesday, May 1, 2007

The Road Trip

As promised (is anyone reading?), the tale of our road trip to see Loreena McKennitt in concert. This could get lengthy, so sit back and enjoy.


Day 0.5 - Wednesday:

We left Wednesday evening, and drove down to my parents' house to drop off El Burrito for a weekend of fun with Grandma and Grandpa. We intended to leave here by 7:00 and be there by 9, but we left about 90 minutes later than expected. It didn't help that the weather was uncooperative. It was raining so hard at one point that we were only going about 15 mph. And since it was a small back road, pulling over wasn't an option - the shoulder on those roads is about 6 inches wide before you hit the ditch or the fencerow, so unless you find a driveway you can't get completely off the road. El Burrito proceeded to be a fussy-Gus until about 3 a.m., and would only sleep if DH was holding him. Not a good start, since we had a long drive to come.

Day 1 - Thursday

Left a bit later than planned, again, and drove in the rain until we were somewhere in Illinois. We ended up going up I-44 to St Louis, then out through Illinois, down through Kentucky, and into Nashville. Had lunch at a McDonalds in Mount Vernon IL, I think. I'm not crazy about McD's, but it was our best option. We had a bit of trouble twice with the Mapquest directions. Worst was in St Louis, when Mapquest gave us the right exit, but the wrong side, so we ended up going the wrong way. The other problem was getting to our hotel; the directions involved a u-turn, which was freakishly wrong. I think the problem there was that while the hotel's address was on one street, their entrance was on another street (which to my thinking, means their address should be on the entrance street). We got it on the second pass, though.

We ended up staying at the Best Western near the airport. There was a big marathon in Nashville last weekend, so everything downtown was booked, unless we wanted to pay $300 per night. Ha! The final price at Best Western was just over $50 per night. Now, granted, it's not the best hotel, but it worked. Their free breakfast was pretty sorry, and the light over the desk was pink and gave off about as much light as a firefly. And we forgot to ask for a non-smoking room, so you can imagine the odor. On the other hand, there were restaurants just across the street, and a Waffle House in the parking lot. And the route to the concert venue was impressively simple.

After we checked in, it was dinner time. There was a catfish restaurant just across the street that one of the guidebooks had talked up, saying it was local, good, and very popular. Well, not popular enough, I guess, because when we got there it was closed and out of business. We settled for the Cracker Barrel two doors down, so I still got to eat catfish, but I fail to see the point of driving 8 freaking hours across parts of 4 states, just to eat somewhere I could have eaten here.

Then it was time to figure out what to do the next day, and go to bed. This is where I had trouble. Too much to do, not enough time, and I am still in the habit of taking time estimates from guidebooks seriously. As if the mess in Ireland didn't show me the light there (because honestly, if Rick Steves can really accomplish everything on his sample itinerary in one day, he must drive like Earnhardt or have mastered time travel). We ended up planning to go to the Parthenon in the morning, the Hermitage in the afternoon, and probably Belle Meade in the morning as well since Frommers estimated 30 minutes for the Parthenon.

And after that little headache, we finally got to bed around 1 a.m.

Day 2 - Friday



After a weak breakfast thanks to the hotel freebie, we drove downtown to Nashville's Centennial Park to see the Parthenon. Frommers' 30 minute estimate was a joke. I think we spent at least 90 minutes there, and I took a lot of pictures. It's amazing. For the Tennessee Centennial in 1897, they built an exact life-size replica of the Parthenon, including replicating all the friezes for the facades outside. It was built mostly of plaster, so it was renovated with concrete in the 1920s. In the 1980's, they added a statue of Athena Parthenos. The original from Greece was lost in antiquity, so this one is based on the few descriptions that remain. It's 41 feet tall, and gilded with 8 pounds of gold leaf. "Wow" doesn't begin to cover it. There were a lot of schoolkids around that day, and the preschoolers were much better behaved than the junior-high kids.

After the Parthenon, we went to the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's home. DH picked this one over Belle Meade. I'd rather see Belle Meade, as it's a horse-breeding estate and I'm not Jackson's biggest fan (the whole Trail of Tears idea lost him any points he might have gotten from me). We had a little trouble getting there, as we were going by the free map from the hotel. Given that this map had the hotel's street on the wrong side of one arm of the lake, we should have known. The cross street we were looking for did cross the road we were on, but they didn't connect - it went under the parkway we were driving on. We could see the estate, but we couldn't get to it.

We ate lunch at the Hermitage cafe, which is probably the best cafeteria-style food I've had in a while. More catfish, yum! The visitors center was also hosting an art exhibit called the Spirit of Nashville, with scenes done as old-style posters. The estate is picturesque and interesting, though. The tour of the actual home wasn't as informative as it could have been. The main theme of the day seemed to be the antique hand-painted wallpaper, which told the story of some Greek myth that I can't remember. It wasn't the original wallpaper, either. The original was "lost" somehow about 20 years ago - that's all the docent said, "we lost it" but no details other than it wasn't lost in the fire that they had. Anyway, this wallpaper had been found at a summer home in France, and they bought it. Identical to the original, though.

Other than the house, the tour is a do-it-yourself thing most of the time, unless you're in time for the 4-per-day seasonal theme tours. There is a horse-drawn wagon tour that focuses on the slavery aspects, but there was an extra $7 charge for that, on top of the $14 each entrance fee.

While we were there, I got a phone call from an online-friend who was also going to the concert. We had talked before we left, and planned to get together for dinner and ride in to the concert together. As it turned out, we were at the same hotel, too, which made things even easier. We ate dinner at a little Italian place across from the hotel, and drove downtown. We had a bit of a time finding a parking garage - we could see a couple of garages, but thanks to some one-way streets, we had to circle them a few times before we could get to the entrance. The first one we tried was mostly empty (yay!) and only cost $5 (Yay! again).

We ended up at the Ryman about 90 minutes early. We were there to see Loreena McKennitt, who is known mostly to non-fans for a radio-mix version of "The Mummers' Dance" about ten years ago. This is her first tour in 9 years, and the last tour was very short, with only 5 dates in the U.S. and 3 in Canada. So, when I heard that she was touring with her latest album, I said we were going, hell or high water. Thanks to a listserv of Loreena fans, I was able to get tickets during the pre-sale, and we ended up in the front row. (!!!). Okay, actually, there were about a dozen folding chairs in front of us, but we were in the first row of permanent seats. They were worth every bit of the 8 hour drive and Ticketmaster's lousy fees.

Anyhow. We were early, so we used the facilities, checked out the Ryman gift shop (I didn't buy anything), and got our tour souvenirs before the show started. We splurged and came home with the CD/DVD set of the PBS special, a t-shirt, and two posters. One was the standard tour poster, and the other was a special print done for the Ryman concert by Hatch Print, just around the corner. Then we found our seats. The seats at the Ryman, by the way, are church pews, since it was originally a church. Uncushioned pews. Oddly enough, I must have the right size seat for old pews, because I was more comfortable there than most folding chairs I've sat on. DH did not have such luck, though. :)

The show started promptly at 8:00, and was awesome. There aren't enough words to describe the performance. Loreena was amazing, her accompanying musicians were stellar, and the music was phenomenal. The acoustics at the Ryman were great, and I wonder if it's not partially due to the wood - the stage is wood, the seats are all wood, and the main floor, at least (I'm not sure about the balcony) was also wood. You could feel the music vibrating through your feet. We own her first live album and have seen the live performance at the Alhambra on PBS, but even those didn't compare to the full live experience.

The show was a full two hours, plus 30 minutes intermission, including 2 encores. And then our luck got better. Jeanne, my online pal, had also gone to the concert in Asheville NC the previous night. As luck had it, she met another fan there who was a former roadie, and knew where to wait outside in hopes of meeting up with the performers. That information held for the Nashville show, and after waiting outside near the buses for half an hour, we got to meet briefly with Loreena McKennitt herself, and the band. (Yeeeeee!!) I got my Hatch print signed, DH got his program signed, and we got to shake her hand. One lucky guy was having a birthday, and she actually sang "Happy Birthday" to him. She's a very nice lady, although she doesn't seem to seek out the spotlight like some artists do.

Day 3 - Saturday

Not much of a day. We got up, loaded the car, and had breakfast at the Waffle House next door. We took a different route back home this time; we skipped most of Illinois and crossed the Mississippi south of Cape Girardeau instead. We had lunch at the Lambert's Cafe in Sikeston, which was an experience. Their food is good, but they're always busy-busy-busy. We got in line at 1:10 on a Saturday afternoon, and had a 45-minute wait. The parking lot was full of tour buses and church vans, and while we were waiting, they took in a group of 35, and another group of 48. Oy. And that didn't make a dent in the crowd waiting outside, which was noisy enough to really get on my nerves. The piano playing over the loudspeaker didn't help. They do throw the rolls, by the way. We only got one, while we were waiting for our order. I'm not a great catcher, so I got one as the roll wagon went by and didn't try to get one tossed at me. After that delay, we finally got back to my parents' house at 7:00. No one was home, because El Burrito and the grandparents were off at an anniversary dinner for a friend of theirs.


Day 4 - Sunday

Breakfast with the grandparents and my brother (and his girlfriend). El Burrito got to see Toby and Missy, the bottle calves, again, and pet the dog just a bit. Then we drove home, unloaded the car, relaxed for an hour or so, and drove out to the in-laws' place for a birthday dinner. We got home for good about 10:30. We spent at least 24 hours driving over the four days, but it was worth it.

The bad news we discovered when we got home was that the VCR had mutinied. It's been acting up lately, denying that it has a tape in it and such. That's what it did while we were gone, and I didn't notice the flashing "timer" light before we left. So, thanks to the mutiny, we had no tape of Stargate and Atlantis to watch last night. I managed to borrow a copy from someone online, but I'm looking for a new VCR this week. I can not wait until we move and can dump cable, sign up for satellite service, and get a Tivo-like device. We'll still need a VCR for the old archive, but a Tivo-ish job with a big hard drive will make things a lot easier. (Because, see, I have this habit of not labeling video tapes. Which causes problems when looking for an hour or so of tape to reuse, or trying to find something I taped last week.)

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