From Deep Creeks to Moon Rivers

Friday, August 3 - Sunday August 5 - Deep Creek Bound!

Friday, August 3 - We headed out today for a long weekend in the mountains of North Carolina with the intention of tubing on Deep Creek on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  Unfortunately, a lot of rain the week before had the creek at flood stage and we were unable to tube it, but we still had a great weekend with beautiful weather and some wonderful friends.

The four-hour drive in was at least interesting for the most part.  After getting off the interstate at Lenoir City, we wound along the Little Tennessee River gorge on Highway 129.  We saw this cool motorized glider following the river upstream not far off the water at times.  

Our biggest surprise of the trip was that Highway 129, once you approached the Great Smoky Mountains National Park's southern edge, turns into the famous "Tail of the Dragon" with 318 curves in an 11-mile stretch.  This challenging road is a mecca for motorcyclists and sports car drivers.  This weekend drew in Mazda Miata owners of which we saw a ton of on the road.  We are happy to say our new Subaru Outback was up to the challenge!

The best (and really only) overlook along The Tail of the Dragon is early on when coming from the west.  Looking out over Calderwood Dam and Lake on the Little Tennessee River is a sight to behold for sure.

At the end of The Dragon's Tail we took a two-mile detour from our  designated route to check out the top of the massive 225' Cheoah Dam (built in1919) which was used in the filming of The Fugitive back in 1993.  It is still one of my favorite movies. 

Another great surprise was the beautiful patio and bar along the Cheoah River at the Tapoco Historic Lodge and Tavern where we stopped and had a break from driving with a much-deserved libation.

The historic Tapoco Lodge was built in 1930 and is still a beauty today.  We have already made plans to return here and stay a couple nights for my birthday next April!  

We also took a quick pit-stop in Deal's Gap at the end of The Tail of the Dragon to get a photo op with this cool steel dragon and our "Sue-bee" who just completed the run.

Our rental house in Bryson City. NC, could not have been nicer.  The cabin with it's two king-size bedrooms was outstanding, but the extra "house" on the property, a vintage train caboose, put it over the top.  Our friend, Charly, is a train nut, so we let him and his wife, Wendy, stay in it, but maybe next time we sleep in there!   And there will be a next time since we didn't get to tube here, but loved the town. the surrounding area and this rental.

We were able to walk from our rental house(s) to Mountain Layers Brewing for some beers up on the roof of their place with a great views of the town, the surrounding mountains and the sunset.  We ordered some top-notch Italian food from up the street at Pasqualino's also and reveled til deep into the night.  Welcome to Bryson City!  

Saturday, August 4 - Besides Wendy and Charly, the other couple joining us for the weekend was our long-time friends, Michelle and Patrick, from Chattanooga.  Patrick graciously offers to cook breakfast during our trips together and he did great again today.  I have to give Charly credit for this "breakfast burger" idea of pancake "buns", sausage patties, scrambled egg trimmings and Velveeta slices with a little maple syrup for dipping.  Charly, in turn, admitted he stole the idea from a restaurant near their home in Nashville.  

Since tubing was out due to all the rain the previous week, we made alternate plans including a hike to work off our huge, late breakfast to Juney Wank Falls just inside the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and just a couple miles from our rental house.  Here's the whole crew after the short, but steep, hike to the base of the roaring falls.  (L to R, Patrick, Michelle, Ashlee, Charly, Wendy and yours truly).

Bryson City is a railroad town and is in fact the base for The Great Smoky Mountain Railway which we took an excursion on back in 2014 (https://collagebarrage.blogspot.com/2014/11/octoberings.html).  As I mentioned, Charly is our resident train-nut and it was his suggestion to next check out the model train museum in town.  It was great with huge displays of model train layouts and tons of vintage train cars of all scales for sale and display.  I especially liked the one shown above since a waterfall was incorporated into it.  

It was back to the real waterfalls this afternoon and we checked two more off our list that are in the area.  Tom's Branch Falls drops directly into Deep Creek.  The picture above also shows the swollen state of Deep Creek and why tubing it was ruled out of the question for safety's sake.

Just before sunset we reached beautiful Indian Creek Falls.  While the rain earlier in the week ruled out tubing, it certainly helped with the roar of all the falls and our weather throughout the weekend could not have been better. 

We took a drive this afternoon westward about 20 miles to the town of Sylva, NC, to check out a quirky cat museum that was unfortunately closed due to a power outage.  While in the area we did also find the wreckage  site from the famous train vs. bus scene in the 1993 classic film The Fugitive starring Harrison Ford.  Ashlee and I had seen this site before from the previously mentioned Great Smoky Mountain Railway excursion, but it was fun to show the others who had no idea it was here.  No green screens and CGI here, baby!.  This was the real thing and they did it in one amazing take!
 We closed out the day back at the house with some tasty take-out food from CJ's Grille  in town; some "Live PD" on the TV(our collective guilty pleasure); and a roaring fire, s'mores and cigars around the outdoor fireplace at the rental house.  A perfect ending to a perfect couple of days in Bryson City.

Sunday, August 5 - We sadly had to head home today, but we did have all day to get there and some more beautiful weather, so we all headed back to tackle the Tail of the Dragon again (Ashlee even let me drive most of it!!).  We stopped back at Deal's Gap and got some souvenir stickers and found this awesome metal sign that we had to have.  We are sure this was made for more the performance class of Subarus, but  we felt it was for us and our Outback!  

Also at Deal's Gap is the hilarious Tree of Shame where parts from wrecks all along the Tail of the Dragon over the years have been collected.  I am happy to report that none of our three vehicles contributed to the tree!  We also stopped again at the Tapoco Tavern for another libation and showed off the place to the rest of the group who all agreed it would be fun to stay here in the future.  

Before splitting ways, we all gathered once more in front of the Calderwood Dam and Lake overlook for a group pic.  We stopped in Lenoir City for a tasty late lunch at Aubrey's along with Charly and Wendy, and then headed home with another great little trip under our belts.

Sunday, August 12 - It was beautiful weather with low humidity tonight as we saw three musical legends: Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle and Dwight Yoakam - on their collective "LSD" Tour at the Ascend Amphitheater in downtown Nashville with our friends, Wendy and Charly.  It was nice to hear some outlaw country echo through Music City knowing it wasn't always accepted here and still isn't as popular as the puke-inducing bro-country is currently.  This was our first time seeing the distinctly-voiced Williams and our first time seeing Earle together (I have seen him several times, but Ashlee isn't a big fan) and we've seen Dwight several times including a meet-n-greet back in 2016.

Tuesday, August 14 - Ashlee and her mom, Evelyn, tricked me into going shopping tonight, but they did make me an offer I couldn't refuse: a delicious dinner  (and 2 for 1 half-pints of beer for me!) at Homegrown Taproom over in Donelson.

Saturday, August 18- Ashlee's old friend and work colleague, Scott, was in Nashville on business, so we took him out on the town tonight and had a fun night.  We started with dinner at the always-delicious high-end Chinese restaurant, Tansuo.  Afterwards, we Ubered over to the unique Bobby Hotel to check out their cool roof-top bar with the centerpiece being this large bus that they've turned into a cocktail lounge.  

The Bobby Hotel rooftop bar was super-crowded, so we walked a couple doors down to the Noelle Hotel which also has a nice roof-top bar that we've been to before called the Rare Bird.  We were able to get a drink here, but the muggy night made it more enjoyable to sit inside and downstairs in their ultra-cool lobby bar area and enjoy the A/C with our libations.  We finished the night back in The Gulch at the excellent bar at The Mockingbird next door to Tansuo.

Sunday, August 19 - We saw the solid romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians tonight at The Roxy Theaters (recliners!) here in town.  

Friday, September 7 - We were headed to Chattanooga this afternoon for a music festival and a family visit, and decided to return to The Bat Cave on Nickajack Lake with our friends, Danny and Brenda, who had not been before.  It was a beautiful night and the 100K bats did not disappoint!

So small and so fast, the gray bats streaming out of Nickajack Cave at near dark appear merely as smudges on film.

Saturday, September 8 -  We were very excited to attend the first-ever SOLD OUT Moon River Festival in downtown Chattanooga this weekend.  Hosted by one of our favorite Nashville-based musicians, Drew Holcomb, this young festival moved from Memphis this year to the Scenic City.  The set up in the riverside Coolidge Park was just about perfect and the line-up was stellar.

The weather was a concern all weekend, but it didn't stop us and the throngs of  other people from attending.  That's Ashlee's sister, Paige, in the foreground and her daughter and our niece, Ella.   They were both rookies at music festivals. Our friends, Danny and Brenda, are farther up in line near the left support of the entry sign.  That's Danny waving like the goof he is...hard to believe he's a doctor!    We got to hear a little of the band I'm with Her play before lightning in  the area suspended the festival temporarily.  We ducked into the Brewhaus up on Frazier Avenue to wait out the weather with some tasty food and adult beverages.  Cheers!

One of the biggest thrills of the day happened as we were going back into the festival after the weather cleared and there stood, James Trimble, the lead singer of one of our favorite regional bands, The Dirty Guv'nahs.  James really liked my custom UT jersey and wanted a picture with it and thanks to Ashlee I got a picture with James!   The band even retweeted my message on Twitter. See you on stage tomorrow, brother! 

The afternoon and evening was filled with great sets by The Secret Sisters,  the progressive bluegrass band, Trampled With Turtles (song memory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hicQqueoEIQ),

and festival organizer, Drew Holcomb, and his band the Neighbors (including his very pregnant - due next week - wife, Ellie for several songs).
After a long, humidly hot day, we called it a night after Drew's set with the all-girl band, Joseph, and then head-liner, The Head and the Heart, playing in the background as we climbed hilly Forest Avenue back up to Ashlee's mom's house which was very close to the festival and gave us a perfect and free place to stay.

I stole this great drone pic from the Moon River Festival Facebook page, but figured they wouldn't mind since we were among the huge crowd listening to Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors as the sun set on a great first day of this event.
 (song memory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX2quBDZX0k)

Sunday, September 9 - Moon River Festival - Day 2 

Another stolen pic from the Moon River Instagram Account, but I just had to have it because I just love it.   Since we got to the festival a little late today due to family obligations and more iffy weather, we were very fortunate to catch the end of the early afternoon set by the fabulous, Mavis Staples, who is 79-years-young and still getting it done in a grand  and soulful fashion.  Since we missed out seeing the now-late and great Aretha Franklin (RIP) earlier this year down at the  New Orleans Jazz Fest, this was a pretty darn good consolation prize. 
Rain set in again after allowing Ms. Staples to finish up, so we headed over to Totto Sushi on Frazier Avenue from some delicious food and more adult beverages.  Cheers!

One of the most crowded and enthusiastic sets we saw at the Moon River Festival this weekend was from the Nashville-based millennial sensation, Judah and the Lion.  They put on a great show and even brought Drew Holcomb up on stage for a rockin' cover of "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers.
(song memory:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oomkO5nHxnY)

When The Dirty Guv'nahs announced last year they were getting back together for a few shows, we knew we had to catch one ASAP.  That happened tonight as they were added to the bill for the Moon River Festival. 
(song memory:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt1aRPYL7xA)

We closed out this great little music festival with their excellent set and walked back up Forrest Avenue again headliner and festival closer, The Avett Brothers, serenading us in the distance.   What a great weekend and a fun, fun festival.  We sure hope its found a permanent home here.

A jewel of a July

Wednesday, July 4 - With the Independence Day holiday falling in the middle of the week this year, we keep it pretty quiet by staying at home and enjoying our pool,  some tasty grilled steaks and corn on the cob, some really good craft beer (Moo-tella 2017 Reserve) and a legal Cuban cigar (thanks Prez Obama!) while our neighbors put on a pretty good fireworks show for us.   Not a bad way to celebrate!  

Friday, July 6 - It was definitely all about Music City tonight for us as we showed our friend, Eileen, and her daughter, Meghan, around our Nashville this weekend during their visit.

We had to dodge some off and on rain showers during our night on the town, but the view of downtown Nashville from Eileen and Meghan's room at the beautiful Omni Hotel did not disappoint.  Although finding out they didn't have a secret guests-only roof-top bar at this location was a pretty big disappointment.  We ambled over to Broadway and stepped into Robert's Western World to give young Meghan her first taste of a real honky-tonk and her first taste of a PBR!  

We did a fun and unique tour of downtown later on at the Off the Wagon Tractor-Pull Tour.  Ashlee had done this tour before with some friends visiting Nashville, but it was our first time taking it together and I have to admit it was a lot of fun.

Broadway on a tractor....only in Nashville!! 
 (Memory Song:  "Better Now" by Post Malone)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yHoa4MR0W4

Saturday, July 7 - We threw a Mermaid/Merman Pool Party today which also served as a 50th Birthday Party for our good friend, Ginny.  Happy birthday, Ginny with a G!!   It was a fun day of dress up and hi-jinks that went deep into the night.  Thanks to all our friends who came from near and far to attend.  

Ashlee took this "mermaid" thing to a new level with this awesome swim-fin that really gives you a good workout.

Sunday (FUN DAY!!) July 8 - We had a nice day back in Nashville showing Eileen and Meghan more of our city, along with our friend, Rex, visiting from Atlanta.  We started with a tasty brunch at 5th And Taylor in Germantown.  We walked off some of our big meal with a short walk to the lovely Kindness Mural.  We moved on to visits to the 12th Avenue South area including some great beer at The Filling Station, then on to Marathon Village for more drinks at Corsair Brewing and Distillery.

Next up was a visit high up on the top of the new Westin Hotel to the L27 Bar for a drink with amazing views of downtown Nashville including the  "Stix" art  sculpture at the Korean Veterans /8th Avenue Roundabout.   Rex had to head back for the long drive to Atlanta afterwards, but since Eileen and Meghan's flight was still a few hours away we headed over to the west side of Nashville and the neighborhood known as The Nations where we had a great dinner there at their Frothy Monkey location.  Thanks for our friends visiting and giving us another excuse for a Sunday Funday in our beloved home of Nashville.

Monday, July 9 - We took in a showing of the delightful, funny and action-packed  Marvel Universe sequel, Ant-Man and The Wasp. tonight at our local Roxy All-Recliners Theater.  

Look up in the sky more, folks.  Clouds are one of the best free things on Earth to enjoy.  Downtown Nashville 7/16/18.

Monday, July 16 -  We met our friends that we made on the Galapagos trip a few years back, Joe and LA, for dinner in Nashville at The George Jones as they were passing through town.  Our pal, Wayne, joined us since he went on that trip also.  We had a great time catching up that went much too late for a "school night."  This new restaurant/museum dedicated to "The Possum" was a pretty cool too.  Good food, large space and a great location down on Second Avenue.  I think we will be back, especially since we didn't get to check out the roof-top bar.

Saturday, July 21 - We saw one of our favorite singer/songwriters (our 10th time by my count), Scott Miller,  today at a non-televised "Bluegrass Underground" show in their new location, The Caverns. in Pelham, TN, at the base of Monteagle Mountain.  It was a co-headlining show with another good singer/songwriter, John Moreland.  We've been to Bluegrass Underground a couple of times including to see Scott and his other long-time band, The Commonwealth, back in 2012 when it was held at Cumberland Caverns near McMinnville: (https://collagebarrage.blogspot.com/2012/02/bluegrass-underground.html).  This time he was backed by the Ladies Auxillary, an (almost) all-female band.  

Here's a cool reverse panoramic view of Scott and the band performing in the huge room in The Caverns.  It was a great show and the sight lines and acoustics in this place are excellent.

We were very impressed with the new locale for "Bluegrass Underground" they are calling The Caverns.  Someone'has sunk a lot of money in this place.  I would say this won't be the last show we see here.  It's not as deep underground as the room at Cumberland Caverns, but the entrance (photo above) is big and easy to manage.  And they can now sell beer!  Just remember to bring a jacket and close-toed shoes...it's cold in the cave, even in mid-July!!

We had some time to kill before the show in Pelham, so we made a few interesting stops beforehand around the area.  First up was a delicious lunch at the Murfreesboro location of Jack Brown's Beer and Burger Joint.  We then stopped by Rutledge Falls in Manchester and agreed we need to come for a swim here sometime.  Finally, we made a stop at the second gate entrance to Arnold Air Force Base in Tullahoma to check out some of the cool old retired jets they have on display there.  Not only are they interesting displays that you can walk right up to and even touch, they are also each set as memorials to fallen soldiers throughout U.S. military history.

Sunday, July 22 - We drove up to Hendersonville today to the Streets of Indian Lake Theaters (all recliners!) to catch an early showing of the Fred Rogers of  "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" documentary, Won't You Be My Neighbor?.  It was interesting, funny and very moving.  Warm up the Best Documentary Oscar for this one, we think.  We had a tasty lunch afterwards at Crowler USA in the same shopping complex.

Wednesday, July 25 - We saw another one of our favorite musical acts for the umpteenth time tonight as the band, O/A/R, took to the famous Ryman Auditorium stage in downtown Nashville.  Ashlee flew home from a business trip in time for us to the catch a few songs of the second opener, Matt Nathanson, who we've seen and enjoyed once before.  Matt worked the crowd and the room superbly, even channeling Michael Franti with a jaunt upstairs into the balcony during my favorite song of his, "Headphones."    O/A/R started pretty late after two openers, so we stayed for about an hour before the late night and the annoying drunk people around us made us need to head home.   (Editor's Note:  It might be our age, but  the live music scene that we've enjoyed for so many years now has really become a chore recently with later and later shows, and more and more (not always drunk) rude people talking loudly during shows and/or creating other distractions around us.  We seem to be a real magnet for these people, but I am sure it's not just us and it's everywhere.  I think the number of live shows we attend will start to decline sharply in the future, if it hasn't already. What a sad reality...)

Thursday,  July 26 - We were there for opening night of Mission: Impossible - Fallout in IMAX at Opry Mills with our pal, Wayne tonight. We thought the movie was excellent.  Just another hit for Mr. Hollywood, Tom Cruise, who is still doing most of his own stunts at the age of 56.  He broke his leg filming this one, learned to fly a helicopter and completed a halo skydiving jump from 25,000 feet.  Someone really earning his millions in Tinsel Town!   

Saturday, July 29 - We had a fun and active Saturday today that started with a visit to the Madison Model Train Show where our friend, Charly, had a table set up selling some of his collection.  We are just starting to get into the hobby and are planning an outdoor garden train.  We found a nice G-scale starter set and bought some extra track for it from Charly.  Ashlee even won a couple of cool door prizes.

Our next stop was St. Thomas Sports Park where the Tennessee Titans were holding their second open practice for the upcoming season.  They were in full pads today and it was pretty hot, so a lot of breaks were given.  It was cool see # 77, Taylor Lewan, on the field, fresh from his signing of a new 5-year contract.  We met our friends, Danny and Wayne, there and we all had a good time checking out the goings-on.

We got the thrill of getting the autograph of new Titans Head Coach, Mike Vrabel, as practice ended.  Seems like a good dude and he was a helluva player. Let's hope that all translates to success for our boys come this fall.

Our Titans foursome headed to lunch after the practice ended to the nearby Old School Farm to Table Restaurant (and Farm).  We had a delicious lunch in the old converted schoolhouse that consisted mostly of products grown right outside on the farm.  We will definitely have to get back here for dinner soon.

It was time for some work next as we headed home to start trimming tree limbs from around our house (and saving ourselves the $1500 quote we got from our local tree service company).  Ashlee ordered a little electric chain saw off Amazon mounted on a telescoping handle that actually worked pretty well.  With the help of our friends, the aforementioned, Charly,  and his wife, Wendy, we got everything done in a short amount of time.  I borrowed some hard-hats from work for safety and even though the girls looked cute in them, they actually did a lot of work dragging limbs to the back of our property after Charly, who bravely climbed on our roof, had sawed them off and I pulled them down to the ground.   It was a good team-effort and we celebrated our accomplishment with a cook-out and libations the rest of the evening.

Some, some summertime is here!

Saturday, June 2 - So, there's no replacing the amazing Mabel, but the next best thing is not a new kitten BUT TWO NEW KITTENS!!  Holy crap, I hope this works out OK!   Meet Doris Lemon (being held by me) and Byron Finch (posing for the camera) who we adopted from the Chattanooga Humane Society (the same place where we got Mabel 17+ years ago).  I gave the OK for Doris, but Ashlee in her wisdom (hmm?) decided to go for two instead of one.  Her reasoning is actually pretty solid.  We figure they can play with each other and maybe not harass 15-year-old Ms. Bea in the house too much.  We shall see, I guess.  I do have to admit they are both great little cats.  Doris is a little purr-factory and Byron does have markings similar to Mabel and a very sweet personality.  I think we will be better for it in the long run, and their cuteness and cuddlyness sure takes a lot of the sting out of losing our precious Mabel.

We saw an amazingly good show from Fitz and the Tantrums tonight at the new venue, The Signal, in Chattanooga.  Great sight lines and excellent acoustics make this place an easy choice to come back to whenever we can.  We've seen these guys before and love them, but never from this close up.  Their energy and positive vibes are quite enjoyable.  The confetti storm during their closing number, "The Walker," was a hoot!  They had a great opener also: a young band called Spirit Animal with a very unique sound and style.  Before the show, we had a tasty dinner at the fairly new Edley's Bar-b-cue in North Chatt.  We've actually never been to an Edley's before even though it started in Nashville and has three locations there.

Tweeting the love for Chatt-town

Sunday, June 3 -  We visited the new American Draft beer hall set up in a rail car at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo today with our friend, Chris.  It is such a neat place with an excellent selection of craft beer that you pour yourself.  What a cool concept.  We will definitely be back to see place again and again!   Beforehand, we liked Edley's Bar-b-cue so much from last night that we went again for an excellent brunch.  

Wednesday, June 6 - We went to see the Broadway musical, Waitress tonight at TPAC in downtown Nashville with Ashlee's mom, Evelyn.  It was better than any of us thought it would be with great songs, hilarious comedy and a good story all around.

Fun photo op before the show tonight.

Tuesday, June 12 - We attended the SOLD OUT show of Al Stewart at The City Winery in downtown Nashville tonight.   Ashlee hadn't really ever heard of him, but was a good sport to  go for my sake and enjoyed the show.  Honestly, I only knew a few of his songs including his biggest hit "Year of the Cat" which came out way back in 1976.  His show was very good, and  at 72 years old, this living legend Scottish folk balladeer, is amazingly spry and sharp in voice and guitar playing dexterity.  It was an acoustic show, but his accompaniment by  an amazing musician named, Dave Nachmanoff , who played flute, harmonica, bongos and sax throughout the night.  On his signature "Year of the Cat" song, the memorably cool piano part was played by his opener, Nashville native singer/songwriter, Jude Johstone, who is very talented despite her original songs as an opener that were a bit of downer.  We had a tasty dinner as well during the show and this was our first time sitting in balcony seats which were nice and roomy with a great view of the stage.

Thursday, June 14 - Our friend, Bethany, bought us dinner tonight at our local Speedy Burrito followed by some great homemade Mexican ice cream for dessert a few doors down at Adelita's (our first visit), and in turn we treated her to a showing of Oceans 8 at the Roxy Theaters with their awesome recliner seats.  The movie was well-done and enjoyable.

Saturday, June 23 - We went and checked out the hilarious Tag movie tonight at the Roxy Theaters here in Lebanon.  We laughed our butts off as we kicked back in the recliner chairs to enjoy this amazingly true and funny story.  

Thursday, June 28 - We saw the entertaining Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom tonight in the recliners at our local Roxy Theaters.  A pretty good sequel if we do say so ourselves.