Well, I had a wonderful visit with daughter #2’s little family–the weather was perfect and we had quite an extended gabfest. We went to all the parks: green, red and blue. We went to the pumpkin patch.
I had a wonderful time.
My travel, though stressful (heightened security!) and exhausting, was incident-free and (relatively) easy-peasy. Daughter #1 was waiting for me at the airport when I returned and the OM did not burn the house down while I was gone. ☑️
On Sunday everything was back to normal and we went to church and watched the wee bud play soccer. But it was a lot colder this weekend and we had to dig out some hats and gloves!
Are we having fun yet?
Even so, it is good to be back in flyover country!
Lead me, Lord, lead me in thy righteousness, make thy way plain before my face. For it is thou, Lord, thou, Lord only, that makest me dwell in safety.
Teach me, Lord, teach me truly how to live, that I may come to know thee, and in thy presence serve thee with gladness, and sing songs of praise to thy glory.
I am traveling today to see darling daughter #2 and her sweet family, so I will be mostly off the internet for the rest of the week. Prayers for traveling mercies are much appreciated!
In the meantime, here are some good reads to keep you occupied.
Dear friends, we know that souls are not to be won by music. Heh heh.
10 things to know about the most famous blessing in the Bible.
The OM and I have joined a group at church that is reading The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. I have not read it in awhile, so I am really enjoying re-visiting it.
The Crown is before you, and it is an incorruptible one; so run that you may obtain it. Some there be that set out for this Crown, and after they have gone far for it, another comes in, and takes it from them; hold fast therefore that you have, let no man take your Crown; you are not yet out of reach of the gunshot of the Devil. You have not yet resisted unto death in your striving against sin. Let the Kingdom be always before you, and believe with certainty and consistency the things that are yet unseen. Let nothing that is on this side of eternal life get inside you. Above all, take care of your own hearts, and resist the lusts that tempt you, for your hearts are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Set your faces like a flint; you have all the power of Heaven and earth on your side.
(Evangelist to Christian and Faithful)
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Nashville sure has changed since we first went in 1996! And even in the five years since we last went in 2018–wow! So many tall glass buildings, so many tourists, so much partying and traffic and noise. You used to be able to walk around in the two square blocks where everything was, but now you really can’t. It is a real scene. Yes, Uber was a real good idea and daughter #1 is a whiz at getting around.
On Friday, after checking in to the very swanky Omni Hotel, we went to dinner at Bakersfield, then Uber’d to the Opry, which has not changed. We saw Ricky Skaggs, Deana Carter, Jeannie Seely, and Vince Gill, along with some up-and-comers.
It was a treat to hear good live music. However the Uber/taxi scene after the show was what I imagine Saturday night in Calcutta is like, but we managed.
On Saturday morning, we walked over to the Diner on 3rd Avenue that is 5 stories high.
We walked around on Broadway…
…and then went back to the hotel and to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum which is actually attached to the Omni. We saw the new Patty Loveless exhibit (and the Whispering Bill Anderson Exhibit) and then walked through the rest of the multi-level museum. It was full of great stuff!
We had tickets for the Patty Loveless sold-out concert/interview and daughter #1 got in line where she stood with Patty’s most devoted fans for good seats when the doors opened at 2:30–about an hour and a half. I came down after taking a quick nap in our room.
I was really surprised by my emotional reaction to seeing Patty.
The tears sprang to my eyes when she walked out (and they played a few notes of “How Can I Help You Say Goodbye”) and I literally did not stop crying as she sang through four songs. It didn’t help when a man yelled “We love you, Patty!”–reminding me of the boy in a similar moment back in the day. Thankfully I had aKleenex in my purse. Why am I never prepared? Why do I bother to wear mascara?
Patty was crying during “Too Many Memories” and there weren’t a lot of dry eyes in the house. She is my age and she still looks great and sounds terrific. Quelle lady. After the mini-concert she was “interviewed” by one of the museum curators and talked for an hour and a half about growing up in Pikeville and her journey to stardom.
We thought about trying to shake her hand at the end, but I didn’t want to make a spectacle of myself, so we left.
We went to Husk, which is super hip, for a drink.
Then, exhausted, we went back to the Omni where we got a glass of wine for the room and watched The Fate of the Furious (2017). I really enjoyed it–Vin Diesel, the Rock, Jason Statham, Ludicris, Kurt Russell, Scott Eastwood, Tyrese Gibson, et al–over-the-top ridiculousness, but fun.
On Sunday we drove home (during a series of fierce rainstorms) and listened to the playlist of the “Western Edge: the Roots and Reverberations of Los Angles Country-Rock”, which was great too.
Love those Kentucky rest stops!
We had a great time in Nashville, but, boy, was Mr. Smith glad to see daughter #1 when we got home!
Thankfully, the OM did not burn the house down but Mr. Smith did chew up my vintage bicentennial rug in the kitchen. C’est la vie.
Mount McGregor is a mountain in Saratoga County, New York. It is one of the principal peaks of the Palmertown Range.
“The Palmertown range is the most easterly of the five great mountain-chains which traverse the great wilderness. The Palmertown range begins on Lake Champlain, near Ticonderoga, and running down on both sides of Lake George, crosses the Hudson above Glen’s Falls, and running through the town of Wilton, ends in the high ground of North Broadway, in Saratoga Springs.”
(History of Saratoga County, New York)
The mountain was renamed after Duncan McGregor purchased it for back taxes and built a hotel called the Mountain House in 1876. In 1881 McGregor sold the mountain to the Saratoga, Mount McGregor and Lake George Railroad, owned by Joseph Drexel who constructed a narrow-guage railroad from Saratoga Springs and built the Hotel Balmoral at the summit with accommodation for 300 guests.
In 1885 Drexel loaned his friend, seriously ill former president Ulysses S. Grant, the use of his personal cottage on the mountain. Here Grant spent the last six weeks of his life struggling valiantly to finish his memoirs before he died. Grant succeeded, put down his pencil and died three days later.
The cottage, preserved exactly as it was at his death, is now the Grant Cottage State Historic Site and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. We toured the house (after waiting for a DAR chapter to go through) and hiked down to the lookout spot where Grant enjoyed the spectacular view.
It was very cool. You can see Mt. Greylock in Massachusetts!
The hour and a half tour was given by a volunteer docent who really knew his stuff and was obviously an aficionado and admirer of Grant. It was really one of the best tours I have ever had–and I do not as a rule like tours, usually given by amateurs who do not know history or understand context and resort to telling “amusing” stories and making cracks about the olden days. This tour was also devoid of politics and or opinions. It was, however, an hour and a half long and as we were standing the whole time, I was about to die at the end of it.
Luckily, I was able to take a seat in exactly the spot where the Great Man himself sat on the front porch. (Not in the same chair, however, which is inside.)
You know how I love U.S. Grant, so this was a special place to be. Here are a few more pictures of the cottage.
By the way, the floral arrangements from his funeral are still intact 137 years later!
I feel that we are on the eve of a new era, when there is to be great harmony between the Federal and Confederate. I cannot stay to be a living witness to the correctness of this prophesy; but I feel it within me that it is so. The universally kind feeling expressed for me at a time when it was supposed that each day would prove my last, seemed to me the beginning of the answer to “let us have peace.” (Personal Memoirs)
Thanks to the boy who drove the rented Expedition like a fighter pilot to our various destinations and to daughter #1 who took all of these pictures!
This was the view out the window of our Uber as we drove home from the STL airport Sunday night–amazing cloud formations which were in fact much cooler and awe-inspiring than could be captured on my iPhone in a speeding car.
Likewise our long weekend in Glens Falls, New York flew by in a blur of socializing–something I, as a deeply introverted person, find exhausting–but I had a super-fun time with my DP’s extended family and it was a wonderful occasion to rally my own small family in a mini-reunion.
Everyone loved getting (for some a first) chance to hold baby Ida…
…and to dance with Katiebelle who partied like it was 1999…
Perhaps the sign of a great weekend/party is that no good pictures are taken–which would be the case this weekend. Suffice it to say, the bride was very beautiful, the groom dashing…
…everyone was dressed up, especially these lucky babes…
(Couture by Aunt Mary)
…and everyone had a great time.
I only cried once and that was during the groom’s dance with his mother when they played “Slave to Love” and I sobbed remembering how my DP used to dance to this song with my own baby Mary back in 1985. The years have flown by.
I love my DP and it was a rare treat to spend time with her and her family.
All too soon we had to pack up and start the arduous trek back to flyover country.
But stay tuned for tomorrow’s post about our one outing to a historic site–the U.S. Grant Cottage National Historic Site in Wilton, New York!
Well, (almost) the whole fam made it to New York for the wedding and back again. Tune in tomorrow for a full recap. In the meantime, be sure to check out DN’s blogpost from Friday in case you missed it!
On August 2nd, 1923–100 years ago–Vice President Calvin Coolidge and his wife Grace were on vacation at Coolidge’s family farm near Plymouth Notch, Vermont in the Green Mountains.
The farm house had no electricity and a phone that only occasionally worked. The couple went to bed early, but a little before midnight, they were awakened by a loud knock at the front door. A moment later, Coolidge’s father called up to Calvin to come down. President Warren Harding was dead.
Coolidge got dressed. He prayed with his wife. And in the early morning hours of August 3rd, he was sworn into office by his father John Calvin Coolidge Sr. who was a Vermont notary public and justice of the peace. By the light of a kerosene lamp, Calvin Coolidge became the 30th President of the United States. Since it was 2:47 in the morning, President Coolidge went back to bed.
With the 1924 election just around the corner, many expected Coolidge to be a lame duck President, but on his train ride back to Washington he began immediately to plan how to build upon Harding’s most important policies. His first order of business…limiting the government itself.
We could use old Silent Cal these days, don’t you think?
Well, it is August now and we are well into the Dog Days of Summer. We are finally getting out of town tomorrow–heading to Saratoga, NY to attend the wedding of my nephew Tim and Abbie.
We are very much looking forward to the festivities and to seeing our DP and her family, but the air travel will no doubt be arduous. Please pray for travel mercies for the OM and me, the boy, daughter #1, and daughter #2 and her petite famille.
In the meantime, here are some good links to worthwhile things:
August on TCM is Summer Under the Stars month with a different star celebrated every day. At first glance it’s not a great selection, but there are some good days in there!
This is the Introduction to the graphic novel, The Grand Inquisitor, but it serves as an excellent overview of Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. This novel is very relevant today in view of our culture’s desire to find technological/scientific solutions to the problem of Evil. “This way of thinking appalled Dostoyevsky. With his profound grasp of psychology, he regarded the materialists’ view of human nature as hopelessly simplistic. Deeply suspicious of what intellectuals would do if they ever gained the power they sought, he described in greater detail than any other nineteenth-century thinker what we have come to call totalitarianism. Even in its less terrifying forms, rule by supposedly benevolent experts was, he thought, more dangerous than people understood.”
Also, I read recently that the New York Times is disbanding its sports department. Oh really? If our local paper got rid of its sports department, there would be (literally) nothing left to read. Another nail in the coffin of print journalism I guess.
We are looking forward to a guest post from DN on Friday, so stay tuned!
The painting is “The Swearing In of Calvin Coolidge by His Father” by Arthur I. Keller, 1923.
How was your weekend? We had lovely weather here in flyover country. Daughter #1 had a TV thing on Friday afternoon here in town, so she stayed over and on Saturday we went adventuring to St. Genevieve, Missouri, a town neither of us had ever been.
Ste. Genevieve was established in the 1750s by French colonists, when the territory west of the Mississippi River was part of French Louisiana. It became the principle civic center of the region, and continued to be so when the area passed into Spanish control with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The original site of Ste. Genevieve, about 3 miles south of the present city, was severely damaged by major flooding in 1785. The city was relocated to its present site on higher ground over the next ten years.
Ste. Genevieve is home to one of the highest concentrations of French colonial architecture known as poteaux en terre, or post in ground, and Poteaux-sur-sol, or post on sill. Both of these styles involve construction of walls consisting of vertical logs.
We visited the Felix Valle State Historic Site…
…and several interesting new museums…
…where we learned about dinosaurs in the region (!) and the Revolutionary War battle of Fort San Carlos in St. Louis, a battle about which I knew nothing. (The Spanish Militia and some local Frenchmen marched the 50 miles up to St. Louis to fight off the mercenary Indians. It was really not much of a battle.) The fort was right about where Busch Stadium is now.
It was beautiful and the lunch was delicious! This dog came and sat with us. We didn’t mind.
We also enjoyed the musical stylings of Brian Tobin whom we had heard at our other favorite winery–Wild Sun. He provided the seventies playlist that we love.
All in all we spent a lovely day and we were reminded once again that Missouri is a very beautiful state. Why would anyone want to live anywhere else?
Os Guinness, who was in town for a conference, was supposed to preach on Sunday, but he didn’t feel well so some Covenant Seminary professor pinch hit. It was disappointing, but the large congregation shook the building with their singing.
Speaking of pinch-hitting, Albert Pujols hit his 699th and 700th homerun in Friday’s game, becoming the fourth player in MLB history to reach that mark. Pujols hit his first career home run in April of 2001 as a Cardinal rookie. I am not much of a baseball fan anymore, but I am happy and proud for Albert.
And high fives to the Chick-fil-A employee who foiled a carjacking at a restaurant in Florida. As John Crist says, “Chick-fil-A employees are next level…the Lord has their back.”
Daughter #1 and I had a terrific time in Norfolk and on the Outer Banks with daughter #2, DN and Katiebelle, although the trips to and from were arduous, to say the least. (The less said about air travel in the 21st century, the better.) It was well worth it, of course.
I got to see my oldest BFF in her natural habitat in a quick overnight on our way to North Carolina and we talked and talked for hours. It was such a treat.
We got up early on Sunday and drove to the Outer Banks which was lovely.
“Say cheese!”
DN kept us hydrated…
…and we had a couple of dance parties.
We even saw dolphins! Heavenly. And the OM didn’t burn down the house while we were gone.
dual personalities 