Back by popular demand

So we have had a great couple of days...

Stella has been the topic of many of our recent conversations, such was her wisdom. Stella was a 70 something year old widow, on a bus trip with a group of 16 OAP christians. We met her in the line queuing to board the titanic.! By the time we got to the top of the queue... both her 15 friends and the rest of the line knew that we were from Ireland. Stella talked a lot... She was highly concerned about us, and for our welfare and gave us advice such as, the need to marry someone educated and not to marry a "dummy", don't stay out past 9pm, marry someone with money - then make sure he is a christian and much more! We got more hugs from her than either of us has ever had from anybody! As can be imagined... Rebekah said very little, but smiled! To be honest Stella did most of the talking but got highly excited with lines such as, "you are full of great advice", "you are full of wisdom", "there is no way you are an OAP"... It was highly entertaining but Rebekah spent the time smiling, until she asked her name and I had to slap rebekah out of her trance! She is an awful wee girl! Stella told us we were very lovely and pretty girls.. I tell ye something, there was nothing wrong with Stella's sight! So that was stella!!

Dollywood was a slight disappointment. Like it was good, and cool to see and plenty to be doing and the way it was laid out was like an old town from yonder year but it was mostly shops and a few rides. A very good place for children though and young families and the like. We did think the tickets were a little on the wild side for the value... rebekah said it could have bought her at least two more hoodies.!!! But it was good to see, and we enjoyed the little train ride and we purchased some souvenirs and overall a good day was had by all.

The next day we went for a drive up the Smoky mountains. This was highly exciting. Stella had give us some top advice about this and so we followed it. We drove up and it was very good. When you get to the top you are above the clouds, as it was early in the morning it was not yet very sunny. I told my friend rebekah (who to be honest, stella probably referred to as a dummy), that when you are above the clouds like this you can actually touch the sun...! Wow was she astounded... She talked about it the whole way down the mountains until I broke the news to her that I was just kidding!!

We then went to the dixie stampede - well it was delightful! First we met the horses - who rebekah picked up an allergic reaction to and came out in boils all over her face! To say the least it was a little embarrassing when people were telling me that you shouldn't stand so close to people with leprosy! We went on to the show anyway... after me showing my great lasoo-ing skills... Rebekah at this point was quite embarrassed when I got myself a horse on a stick, whipped it between my legs and galloped after her trying to lasoo her around the neck... We were just asked to leave the shop, not the show!

So, the dixie stampede - well firstly we got sat beside a great big horse of a woman - who had already been to the show three times, and felt the need to scream in my ear and spit her corn in my eye! The show was great. There was an arena on the ground, then rows in a circle - like the odyssey! Well in front of you was a bench like in school with a table top! Here you had a waiter - so the show started and we got fed. But you had to eat with your hands, and it was lots of fun! We had soup and a scone, a whole chicken each (stella told us it was going to be just bout the size of our hand, turned out to be the size of a small child), some pork, some potatoes, some corn ears, an apple turnover and unlimited drinks... The show was good fun... Lots of horses and stuff!

We then left pigeon forge, sieverville and gatlinburg, with the intent to return at christmas for a ski holiday (we will be taking tracts - so all missionary aid will be appreciated)! We made our way back up to Nashville, of course stopping off for some shopping on the way. We treated ourselves to some clothing materials and drove around town.

This morning, we went to the Nashville governors mansion - we had some trouble singling it out as all the houses in the area were fit to be the governors house.! The we went to the state capitol and eventually on to the Country Music Walk and Hall of Fame and Museum. This was just super! We then went on a tour of the Ryman auditorium. Had a little walk down Music Row and were serenaded by Darby - who wants to make it big in Europe this year but to be honest by the sounds of him, he will get as far as his front porch!

We had a little visit to wal-mart to stock up on some rations for our big bus journey tomorrow. We then came back to the hotel, lay at the pool for an hour to soak up a little sun and then got dressed for our big night out!

We had to leave the car back - what a weight off our minds to get it back in one piece! We did 2300 miles with only 2-3 near death experiences! Quite an achievement for Lefty Virgins! (that is to mean driving on the left hand side of the road). We then got a very expensive taxi ride back to our concert... me being my fathers daughter was certainly not for tipping the thieving little bugger and he was a bit amused.. but i am a girl of principle.! The same man later mugged us!! He got that one dollar the little jammy git!

So the concert was a country gospel number... highly enjoyable and for you dear kirsten we recorded most of it on our phones and we do hope you received our picture messages! We then came back to the hotel and ordered some pizza!

Tomorrow, we are getting the greyhound... This will be an experience to say the least. Our bags weigh about the size of a growing family... each! It is likely we will be offline for a night or two at least to we get to new york! So we are checking out for now!!






The above is not necessarily 100% compliant with the truth.