Headin' to Nashville tonight.

Denise and I are driving her car to Nashville tonight, loaded with stuff for her daughter. Her eldest daughter is getting divorced and has had to leave her house with the two boys and needs lots of stuff, so we're gonna take her a load of household items. Of course, Denise wants to see her kid, and her grand kids, and let them know she's there to help. It tears her up to be here in Texas while this stuff is goin' on in Kentucky. You can imagine.

We'll leave late tomorrow night after I give a test and then drive all night, like we did last August on that last road trip. We left here at 9PM then, drove all night and got to Memphis by the time the sun came up, so we should easily be in Nashville by noon on Friday. We might drive till some time like one in the morning and get a room somewhere. There's no real urgency, since I can't get into my room Friday till 2PM.

Denise will take the wheel then, leave me there at the Holiday Inn Express on the south side and drive on about another hour North to her kids in Kentucky. I'll drive all night while she sleeps, so she'll be OK on the road. No worries. She lived up there for over twenty years, so she knows her way around.

My friend Dave and his reenactor buddies, the Civil War nuts, are gonna drive to Little Rock Thursday and spend the night, then drive to Nashville Friday. They're gonna pay a big fee to get into this huge (he tells me) Civil War Gun Show early, dealers badges or somethin', and they'll wander the show Friday night while the tables are being set up. Then they'll spend all day, and I do mean ALL DAY Saturday wanderin' around the place, arguin' about whether the buttons on a coat are correct, and shit like that. I've been down that road with them before, so I'm not interested in doin' that.

I figure I'll sleep some Friday afternoon, recover a bit, and then try to talk them into hittin' the town in the evening. I've looked online and there are Blues places with live bands all over, including a B.B. King place (He's playin' there next week, by the way - too bad it's not on this Friday or Saturday!). We'll find somethin' to do, somewhere. There's gotta be some place the in town that has Yuengling on tap and that'll let me smoke a cigar while I eat a good meal and listen to music.

Saturday, my buddy Mushy is supposed to drive West from Harriman and join me. He and I are gonna hook up and go to a that Gun Show. It's an annual thing there, on the South side of town at the State Fair grounds, so it should be easy for us to find. As I said, it's all Civil War stuff, which should be cool, but my buddy Dave says there's supposed to be another gun show next door that has more modern stuff. I figure each show should probably take an hour or two to walk through.

Anyway, after that, Mushy and I'll be looking for something else to do. Food to eat. A museum or somethin'. They have several there in town. Then we'll try to have a night of good music, food and fun. The two of us should be able to find somethin' fun to do in "Music City". He's reserved himself a room there in the same hotel as me, so when Denise and I hook back up again Sunday morning, when she drives back down from Kentucky, the three of us will go out and find a Cracker Barrel, or somewhere good where we can have a big breakfast. He and I will say our goodbyes then and head off in different directions towards home. I love that man to death, so it will have been great to have been able to hang out with him again, even if it's just for a short time.

My other buddies are gonna drive back to Little Rock Saturday night and take two days to get back to Gatesville, but Denise and I will take most of the day Sunday to drive home. We've both got Monday morning off, so we can both recover a bit after the day on the road. I won't have to be in San Saba till noon.

Anyway, it's nuts, granted, but I wanted to see this Gun Show that Dave's been tellin' me about for years, and I also wanted to try to get a chance to see my buddy Mushy again. It should all be fun.

You guys take care and we'll reconnect next week. Knowing Mushy and I, we'll probably both have lots of good pictures to share. Cheers!