An Evening With Heather & Ray

Hello everyone. With Thanksgiving on the horizon it's time for me to finish up telling you about my month of October. I'm going to start with a story that began in August. 

On Monday, August 26, I drove both of my daughters in law to Nashville. I was dropping them off to attend the Back Street Boys concert at Bridgestone Arena. Paula and I had given them the tickets last Christmas.

On the way down I-65, just outside of Music City, we saw a billboard advertising singer Ray Stevens' show at his nearby theater. 

Heather saw the sign and mentioned that she liked Ray Stevens. I was a bit surprised.  He's not exactly from her generation. She said her grandfather was a Ray Stevens fan and that's how she knew him. 

I asked her if she would be interested in going to see the show sometime. She said she would. 

Now before I go on with this story let me give you a little bit of personal history. 

I have been a fan of Ray Stevens since I was a kid. I was introduced to him by my dad. He thought "Ahab The Arab" was hilarious. 

In the summer of 1971, when I was 10, I entered a talent show sponsored by the parks & recreation program in my town. 

At the time my favorite song was a Ray Stevens single on Monument Records. The A side of the 45 was a cover of the Leiber & Stoller song, Along Came Jones. 

With a girl who lived in my neighborhood as my partner, I created a pantomimed skit to the Ray Stevens song. 

The kids we performed in front of at the local youth center loved us. We came in 2nd place and I won my very first award for a public performance. I still have the plaque. 

The next summer, with my cousin, Shelly, as my partner, I did the same type of act to the "B" side of that 45, another Leiber & Stoller composition, Yakety Yak. Got my 2nd plaque. The music of Ray Stevens was a big part of both shows. 

Throughout the 70s and 80s I followed Ray Stevens' career. I bought his albums and singles. I loved everyone of them from "The Streak" to "I Need Your Help Barry Manilow". 

Now let me fast forward to December 5. 2014. While listening to the radio, I found out that Ray Stevens was coming to Bowling Green for a signing of his new book entitled, Ray Stevens' Nashville. It's both an autobiography and a love letter to his adopted hometown. 

I hadn't seen or heard anything from him for quite a few years, but that didn't matter. I took advantage of the opportunity. I met him in the middle of my local Barnes & Noble. Here's my You Tube video from that night.  
Meeting Ray Stevens

In 2016, I discovered that Ray Stevens was back on TV. This time on our local public television station.  The show was called "Ray Stevens Cabaray".  

It was through this show that I found out about the Cabaray showroom.  

I wanted to go see this show from the time it opened. But my wife wasn't all that interested in it and I didn't want to go by myself. To say that I was excited that my daughter in law really wanted to go see it with me is an under statement. 
On October 25, Heather and I went to the show. 

On the drive there we realized that even though she's been married to my son for 11 years, this was the first time we had ever gone or done anything with just the two of us. 

I have to admit, the conversation and laughs we had on the ride down to Nashville would have been worth the trip by itself. We talked about things I don't think we ever had before. My daughter in law has such a positive "can do" approach to her life. 

For her, 2019 has been very difficult. She's dealt with a life changing physical issue and other hardships. But she continues to look to the future and is always moving forward. I find it very encouraging and an inspiration. I really mean that. 

The CabaRay building is on River Road, in the southwest section of Nashville. Its directly behind a Walmart. 

 The building kinda looks out of place among a bunch of commercial businesses. It would blend in much better along the parkway of Pigeon Forge, in the Smokies or on Country Blvd in Branson, MO. 

From the moment we walked in the door you could tell that this place was all about Ray Stevens and his career. 

To the left is the gift shop, which is full of everything from Cabaray t-shirts to Ray Stevens CDs. 

Also, mounted on the wall along the left side of the main corridor is a large display case that's filled with gold records and awards that Ray has earned over the course of his long career. 

We had our picture taken in front of it. 

There was a piano bar at the end of the hall. Sitting at the keyboard playing and singing a wide variety of songs was John Jonethis. He was a pretty good singer. We went back there to look around and find a place to sit and wait until we could go into the showroom.  But there weren't any empty seats. We sat on a bench in the lobby for about 20 minutes. 

The first thing you notice when you walk into the showroom, other than the stage, is the centerpiece of the room's decore, a crystal chandelier. 

There were 3 levels of tables and a balcony filled with just seats surrounded the room on 3 sides. 

The outer walls are filled with a continuous collage of vintage pictures of the performers, song writers, musicians, producers, and music publishers who helped make the history that is Music City USA. 

We were shown to a table on the left side of the lower level. 
(in the yellow circle). 

This was our view of the stage. 

This was a dinner & a show experience.  Two plates of salads were already on the table when we sat down. Soon, our server came and took our drink orders. We had already selected our entree choices at the time I bought the tickets. 
I passed on the salad but Heather had some of hers.  

Dinner for me was beef tenderloin medallions, roasted potatoes, and roasted asparagus. Heather got the same but with chicken. Each of us got a single dinner roll, which was obviously a Mrs. Shubert's roll available in any grocery store, nothing special. 

In comparison to everything else we experienced, the food left a lot to be desired. It wasn't very hot and really didn't have much flavor. The best thing you can say about it was that it was edible.

If I had to guess, because we had to choose our entree ahead of time, I'd say that the food was brought in from an outside caterer. If it's not and it's made right on the premises they really need to work on improving it. I've had truck stop diner food that was better.

There's no way the dinner is worth the extra $30 per person. Enough about that, I don't want to detract from the great time we had. 

We finished dinner about 6:30. The show didn't start until an hour later. We basically sat around, talked and just waited. 

When the lights went down and the show started I was delighted. I couldn't believe I was actually going to see Ray Stevens perform live. 

What was great about being there on this night, is that it was his first show since he was inducted into the Country Music Hall Of Fame. An honor, I think, was way over due. 

He opened up with the song "CC Rider". 
Then he went into the song "Nashville". 

It's the one that serves as the theme for his Cabaray TV show. While introducing it he mentioned how he wrote it when he was in Australia and a bit homesick. I was glad I got to hear the entire song for the first time. 

Over the next couple of hours he sang some of his favorite songs and told stories about his life and career. He also told a lot of old jokes. 

From time to time he'd sit at his piano and sing too. 

As I mentioned, he sang a lot of his hits: 
Ahab The Arab, Mr. Business Man, Guitarzan, Shriner's Convention, Mississippi Squirrel Revival, The Streak and Everything Is Beautiful.  

Most of them were short versions; just 1 or 2 verses. I can't complain though. I mean he's still performing three 2 hour shows almost every week, at age 80, he deserves to take it as easy as he wants.  

He told the story of how a bit of musical spontaneity in the studio led to recording a country music style version of the Erroll Garner/Johnny Burke song, Misty. It was released as a single in 1975 and won a Grammy award for "Best Arrangement of The Year."  

I was happy to hear that story because I think the record should have done better on the Top 40 chart than it did, only getting to #14. 

After the show we stood in a long line to meet and get our picture taken with Ray.
This was one of the things I had been looking forward to. 

I had thought of a couple interesting questions to ask him. At the very least, I was looking to get another memorable video clip. 

But the lobby after the show was a crowded combination of people leaving the building, those taking pictures with Ray's back up singers, and those waiting to meet Ray. We waited in the line about 10 minutes for our turn.  

We said "hello" and got our picture taken with him. Heather got Ray to sign her show ticket. Because there were so many people waiting behind us, the guy managing the line ushered us away rather quickly. Other than some polite pleasantries we didn't really get the chance to talk with him. After the meet & greet we headed to the car and drove home. 

Our night at Ray Stevens Cabaray was not only one of the best experiences for the month of October but, for me, one of the highlights of the year. Thanks Heather for accompanying me on a memorable night. 

There is one more thing that happened in October that was a lot of fun. 

On the morning of Halloween, I went to Oakland Elementary School and performed a short ventriloquist program about "trick or treat" safety for the kindergarten class. 

I sang them a song...

...and drew them a talking jack-o-lantern. The kids were amazed at how my magic drawing board brought him "to life". 

Also, it was the first time Cecil, my turtle, got to wear his pumpkin costume. 

I really enjoyed having fun with and teaching the kids. After the show several of them came up to me and gave me a hug. Now that's what it's all about. I have been invited back around Thanksgiving. I can't wait to do it again. 

So this wraps up my review of the things I did during the month of October. 

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog. I will be back again next week with some more about living life as a Yankee Near Nashville. See you then. 

Papa's October

Hello Everyone. It's almost the middle of November so I figure it might be time to put the finishing touches on telling you about my very busy October. I promise I'll be doing that in these next two posts. 

I know I've already shared with you some great memory making moments with my grand children during our time in the Smokies. 

But I got to spend even more time with them throughout the entire month. 


Early on the morning of Friday the 18th, I found myself at Jackson's Orchard, the area's most popular fruit growers. 

I was there to meet my grand daughter and accompany her during a school field trip. 

Her Richardsville Elementary School 2nd grade class was there to take the fall harvest tour, have an outdoor lunch, and play in the playground. 

The first thing we did was get on a wagon for a hay ride to the corn maze. 

The children's excitement and enthusiasm was expressed in cheers and laughter as we crossed the orchard. We got off at the cornfield and started walking through the maze. 

I brought up the rear of the group as they walked along the path. 

Aria was so sweet in that she chose to stay with me instead of running ahead with her classmates. 

By the time we got halfway into the maze, we saw her teacher, Ms. Mohon, leading the class back the other way. 

Next on our tour was a stroll through the apple orchard. Each student was allowed to pick their own apple. They were told to get it off the tree and not from the ground. 

Because quite a few kids from other schools had been through the orchard, all the lower branches were pretty bare. So the kids had to do their best to reach the upper limbs. 

I did my best to help them, using the curved handle of my cane to knock down the fruit that was out of reach. I did get some pretty nice sized apples to come down but they fell to the ground. 

Finally, I helped Aria get hers and I picked mine. 

Upon exiting the rows of the apple trees we found ourselves in a pumpkin patch. 

Once again the kids got to wander around and choose a small pumpkin to take home. This was her choice.

After all that walking and choosing it was time to take a seat on a nearby bench and enjoy our new produce treasures. 

Soon we were on our way to the educational part of the tour. 

The class was led through the farm to the building where the cider production equipment was housed. 

We watched a short film that showed the process of making apple cider. Then we went to the picnic pavilion next to the playground. A delicious cup of frozen apple cider was served for a snack. 

Once snack time was over the kids were given free time to go play in the playground for about 45 minutes. 

Soon they were called back to the pavilion for lunch. A bagged lunch and a container of milk was given to each student. But they had to wait until everyone was served to start eating. 

Here's Aria patiently waiting to feast on the Smucker's crustable, Yogurt coated cranberries and raw baby carrots.  

The only thing she liked was the sandwich. Following the midday meal, there was more playground time. 

My granddaughter played in the sandbox and climbed on the pirate ship. 

All too soon it was time for the class to board their bus and head back to the school. 

Aria was sad that we had to say "good-bye". I told her that I would see her later that night at the school's Fall Festival.  

The very next day, the 19th was my grandson, Gabriel's birthday. That afternoon we went to his 3rd birthday party at a new place in town called "Oh What Fun".  

This is a wonderful place to have a kid's party. It is a large open space that is filled with several themed play areas with plenty of interactive toys. 

There's a barn, medical office, produce stand, a firetruck, a house with a slide, and a police station. Also there's a special area for toddler's 2 and under. It's a kid's play time paradise. 

The kids can play as much as they want, wherever they want. The adults can play with them as well.

Gabriel and Aria played together in the diner area. 

I joined them and played "customer". It was a lot of fun. 

The kids were occupied and busy throughout the entire party. Nobody got hurt and there was no random running around, chasing or screaming. Just a relatively calm and quiet playtime together. 

The party's theme was "tractors". 

The cupcakes were grouped together to fit right in with the party's theme. And our little guy loved it. 

He also had a lot of fun opening his gift, which was a real family affair. 

Paula and I had gotten him a gift that needed to be assembled and he wouldn't have been able to play with at his party. So the next day I took it over to his house. 

James assembled it and in about 15 minutes Gabriel was riding around on his new Spiderman motorcycle. 

The fun from these special days in the middle of the month, along with our Smoky Mountain adventures gave me more time with my grandchildren in October than I thought I would. But the month was not over. 

On Sunday the 28th, the grand kids came to our house for a visit. I gave them their new helmets to wear while riding their scooters up and down our driveway on the cool fall afternoon. 

Aria didn't want her picture taken with her new helmet but Gabriel was proud to show off his helmet. 

They also sat on the couch in our living room watching Toy Story 4 and eating microwave popcorn. It was a fun visit. 

Early the next morning, I got a call from my daughter in law asking if I could watch Gabriel during the day. I like to help whenever I can, so I said "yes". 

This would be my first time ever taking care of my grandson by myself. I picked him up...

...and by 9 o'clock he was back at our house playing with his favorite Legos. 

We had a lot of fun together and by the next day he was back at his regular daycare. 

The last time we got to see the kids in October was Halloween night. 
As she is every year, Aria was  dressed in a really creative home-made costume. Gabriel, of course, was dressed as Spiderman. 

So there you have a whole bunch of pictures and stories from time Paula and I got to spend with our grandchildren in October. 

I know this post was slightly self indulgent. But hey, I'm "Papa" and if I can't write about my grandkids, who can? 

Next post, I'm going to wrap up the last of the October events I want share with you.

Thanks for reading the Yankee Near Nashville blog, I'll see you next time. 

   


  

PA Friends Come To Nashville

Hello everyone. I want to thank y'all for your kind comments and concerns about my well being that I wrote about in my last post. It's nice to know there are those who care. 

My review of my eventful October continues as I share with you how in the middle of the month I spent the day in Nashville with some longtime friends. 

On the morning of Wednesday the 13th, I met Larry & Tina Kester and Diane and Dan Reagle at the Opry Mills Mall. They were visiting Nashville for the week. 

The two couples, who live in the same town in Pennsylvania as my sisters. I used to go to church with them.  

Last time I saw Larry was when he and my friend, Gene came through Kentucky on a road trip back in September 2016.  

I don't remember the last time I'd seen Tina or Diane & Dan. But I've been friends with them for decades.

We were going to hang out for the day, so I wanted to show them some things in Music City they had never seen before. 

They had been to the downtown area the day before so I had to come up with something else. I decided that I'd take them to a place that I hadn't been since 2002. 

The five of us piled into Dan & Diane's SUV and headed to Centennial Park. 

The Parthenon is one of the "hidden" attractions Nashville has to offer. 

 It's a replica of the original structure in Athens, Greece. 

Along with the replica statue of the goddess, Athena, it is home to the city's art gallery. 

We spent time on the lower level of the building learning about it's history and observing the paintings. Then it was time to head up to see the statue. 

Even though it had been nearly 17 years since I'd seen her, Athena hadn't aged a day. My friends were impressed. 

By the time we left the Parthenon it was time to get something to eat. I took them to my favorite place to eat on the West End. 

  They had never been to Ted's Montana Grill before and I hadn't been there in at least 5 years. We sat together in a booth talking, reminiscing and catching up with each other. 

As I spent time with the 4 of them, I heard their stories of adventures from the past, and how they joked and reacted to each other.  I quickly realized that I was getting a glimpse into a dynamic between the 4 of them that can only be described as a close friendship. 

 After lunch, we headed to another place unique to Nashville. As fans of the TV show American Pickers,  I thought they might like to visit the Antique Archaeology store. 

The store is located on Clinton Street in the renovated Southern Motor Works factory. 

It's a very popular tourist shopping area filled with small specialty shops and wine tasting experiences. Tour trolleys stop there all throughout the day.  

I've been there several times because it's the home of the Third Coast Comedy club. 

We went into the American Pickers store and looked around. It was full of plenty of old unique items. They were nice to look at but are a little too old for me to appreciate. I had no connection with most of them. 

We walked through some of the other shops but there really wasn't anything that any of us were really excited about. 

After about an hour we left and headed back to Opry Mills. The ladies wanted to get coffee at a shop called "Tin Cup Cafe". 

We walked in the east end of the mall by Dave & Buster's and the movie theater. A check of the map told us we had to walk to the other end. 

Being the most familiar with the mall, I took the lead and headed toward what I thought was the shortest path to our destination. 

We walked up past the food court, around the Rain Forest Cafe restaurant and back down the other side of the mall. 

When we finally reached our destination and all who wanted coffee were sipping from their cups, it was time to head back to the car. 

I decided to show off my mall expertise and led everyone through a side door that led to the "authorized personnel only" area of the building. 

Now I had taken a short cut from the Lego store to the other side of the mall several times before. But I had always started at the Lego store. But this time I was going in the opposite direction. 

As I proudly walked them through this behind-the-scenes area I quickly realized that I had no idea where we were going to come out. I reluctantly admitted this to them.  Then I took the first door that looked like it led back out to the store fronts. After walking for about 10 minutes we came out only about 10 stores down from where we started. 

My friends were all gracious. We all had a laugh and they didn't tease me too much about it. 

Eventually, we made our return to the east exit and headed back to our cars. 

They had plans for the evening and the guys wanted to go back to their hotel and take a nap. I could understand that. We had done a lot of walking and I was tired too.  

We said our "good-byes" and I headed back to Kentucky. 

In all the time I've lived in the South one of my favorite things is when friends or family come to visit me in my little corner of the world. 

The combination of being with people I've known most of my life and the place where I live the life I love is a recipe that always makes me smile. 

It was a fun hanging out with the Kesters and Reagles. I have a reminder of the day on my fridge. They are the latest additions to my souvenir magnet collection. 

And there you have the day I spent with my friends from Pennsylvania. Hope you enjoyed hearing about our day. Come back next time for more about my October. See you then. 

On The Rebound

Hey Everybody, I'm writing this on Wednesday November 6 and for the first time in a little over 3 weeks, I am starting the day not feeling weak, sick, or tired. A "one-two" punch of the effects from a flu shot and a sinus infection has had me down and out since October 21st. I haven't been totally out of the game.

During this time I made a trip to Nashville to see a show, provided daycare for my grandson, picked my granddaughter up from school, had both of them visit us at our house 3 times, gave my son and daughter-in-law a ride to pick up their car from the Kia dealership, and even did some grocery shopping.

But there were quite a few days where I slept most of the time and, other than going out to get the mail, did not even leave the house. As my wife will tell you, that's not me.

Yesterday, in the midst of my "not any getting better" sinus issues and not wanting to develop Pneumonia like I did last spring, I finally decided to go see a doctor at the Graves Gilbert Walk In Clinic.

I was given a prescription of a pretty strong antibiotic. I've taken it twice and this morning I am feeling a lot better. Not going to give details but I can tell that the medicine is already working.

I'm glad because coming up later this month, I've got to help my wife with a couple of Color Street vendor events and got some organization and holiday decorating to do here at the house. We've got a fun weekend getaway in St. Louis with our friends, Mark & Patty scheduled for mid month, and, of course, there's Thanksgiving at the end of November.

Because there have been times where I've felt better over the last 3 weeks, I'm not going to rush to get back to my "normal" routine. Just going to rest and take it easy till the start of next week. Then it's back to business.

But I just wanted to put up this post, to get out into the universe my optimism about feeling better and getting back to being me. I got too much to do to waste time being sick.

Thanks for taking the time to read this relatively short post. I'll be back on Friday with the story of the day I spent in Nashville with some friends from Pennsylvania. See you then.

Fall Break GetAway: Part 4

Welcome back to the blog. This is the final entry in this post series. It tells how Paula and I spent the time we were by ourselves at the end of our Smoky Mountains trip in early October. 

Once James & Brandi drove away, Paula & I did a little bit of a reset to change from being with a group to being by ourselves. 

We went back to our condo and relaxed for a couple of hours. Then it was time to visit the places we like to go when its just us.

We went and looked around in the Old Mill shopping area. We didn't find anything very interesting at any of the shops we stopped in. We even came up empty at the kitchen store, where we usually find something we like. 

In the Old Mill candy store, for the first time this trip, I considered buying some fudge. But when I saw that the price of one of my favorite Smoky Mountain treats had gone up to $20 a pound, I decided to pass. 

Once the sun went down it was time go get some supper. We had a 2 for 1 coupon for Mama's Farmhouse. 

Mama's is one of the Pigeon Forge restaurants owned by The Johnson Family. The Alamo and Bennett's  

Bar-B-Que are as well. Those two are among our favorite places to eat in the Smokies. 

Mama's is an "all you care to eat" restaurant specializing in "home cooking" and "comfort foods" which are served family style. 

We arrived at there after dark but here's what the building looks like in daylight. 

The atmosphere in the place was very similar to that of the Applewood restaurant. 

The way the food is made and served is very similar to Paula Deen's at The Island. But the whole Mama's experience is a little more authentic and relaxed than the very commercialized Paula Deen's.

From the menu we had a choice of 3 entrees and 4 side dishes. We got Fried Chicken, Meatloaf, and ham. The sides we chose were Chicken & dumplins, mac & cheese, cole slaw, & fried okra.

While waiting for our meal we were served biscuits and jam. They were delicious. 

This isn't exactly what we were served but it will give you and idea of the aesthetic of the presentation. 

 The food was pretty good. But for the amount of food my wife and I can eat at one time, it was way too much. 

For desert, Paula got banana pudding, which she said was ok but she's had better. I had a peach cobbler but only had a couple of spoons full because I didn't want to over eat and get indigestion. 

Our bill, with the 2 for 1 coupon, was a little over $25 plus tip. This included 2 soft drinks. That was not that bad given what we had. Had we had to pay full price, for us it would have been, a little bit expensive.

If you are someone who can really fill up on a good amount of food then the price for the meal may not be bad at all. Kids under 5 eat for free. 

The food was pretty good and I like the atmosphere. But just like a buffet, this type of restaurant just isn't cost effective for us. 

I am curious as to what their breakfast is like. Maybe if we go back it will be for that. 

You can check out the details and make the choice for yourself. Here's there's website. Mama's Farmhouse

After dinner we were pretty tired from the last couple of days. So we went back to the condo, got some preliminary packing done and watched TV the rest of the night. 

By 10:30 on Tuesday we had checked out of our resort and headed to breakfast. 

We wanted to try out a new place called Brick & Spoon. It serves breakfast and lunch. It reminded me a lot of Another Broken Egg, a place we found in Destin, FL a few years ago. At least the building and interior decor reminded me of it. 

I could tell as soon we walked in that there was something not quite right about the place. We waited about 5 minutes to be seated. There were only 2 young ladies working the dining room. 

Once we were seated it took about 10 minutes for a server to even take our drink orders. 

We each ordered a 3 egg omelet. Paula's was supposed to have crab meat in it. It was not chunks but shredded pieces. She said you could taste it but it was very sparse throughout. 

My ham & cheese omelet had diced ham and not very much cheese. Diced ham is something you find on the salad bar at a cheap buffet. But I'd expect more in an omelet in a place like this. 

Our bill came to over $35. For that price point the food was very low quality.

Now, I know every place can have a bad day but they only get one chance to make a good impression with us and they didn't.  

Because it's a great place to get some bargains we went to the Carter clothing store in a strip mall along the parkway, to get my grandson some winter clothes.

Before heading back to Kentucky we had to make one more trip back to The Island. 

There was one thing we hadn't done this trip that we always do. We had a game to play at the arcade. 

Our favorite video game anywhere is Harpoon Lagoon. Here's a video of Paula playing the game. This video was shot mainly to spotlight her Color Street nails against the colors of the game. 

 After playing video games in the arcade, (mostly Harpoon Lagoon) for about 45 minutes and bringing our coupon total to over 11,000, we went next door to the Timberwood Grill. 

We each got a club sandwich, which wasn't the best choice at what is mainly a steak house. But we needed something to hold us over after our disappointing breakfast. 

On the way out of the restaurant Paula met a "friend" in entrance and they compared their nails. 

 At this point in the day it was time to start heading back to our old Kentucky home.  

We had a busy but fun 3 days in our favorite get away spot with our family. Our 13th trip to the Smokies was very different for us but we were taking home a lot of memories. 

It was a good start to what was going to be an event filled month.

Thanks for reading this Fall Break trip report post series. I hope you enjoyed reading about our time in the Great Smoky Mountains. 

If you have ever been to the Smokies and would like to share your memories or experiences please feel free to send me a DM on Facebook. I look forward to hearing from you. 

Still to come in my review of October, I will be sharing with you the places my wife's Color Street business took us, a day spent in Nashville with some friends from Pennsylvania, and a special night enjoying one of my all time favorite entertainers.  Come back next time for more of the Yankee Near Nashville review of the month of October.   

My review of October events continues next time. Please come back to