I'm back. Honest.

Man, life has been crazy the last couple of weeks. I've been MIA here on Blogger, but it couldn't be avoided. I'll try to catch up this week. I'll start with the vacation that J and I took at the end of May/first of June.

Originally, it was supposed to just be a road trip anywhere. I just wanted to get away for a bit - have no real set agenda and be able to stop and look and historical markers, eat at roadside diners - just hit the road. I asked J which direction he wanted to go, and he said East. He asked if we could make Nashville part of the trip. I said sure!

He proceeded to find a showcase he wanted to attend and to set up meetings with three of his contacts there so that before I knew it, we were on a schedule. We had to be there by a certain date and we had appointments the whole time, and on top of that, we ended up landing a gig the weekend before we left, and it cost a day or two of road time, so we ended up on a tight schedule to get to Nashville.

Not that But the visit there was a lot of fun. We had a chance to play a set while we were there, which was great, and I really enjoyed the folks I met. But I've decided that our next vacation will involve no work, no schedules and relaxing downtime only!

I did get validation of one thing that I learned last year when we took our vacation to Utah, though - J and I really travel well together! We can spend surprising amounts of time together, even couped up in a car, and not want to kill each other. I honestly never get tired of spending time with that man. It must be love. ;)

Anyway, here's how the week played out:

Day 1: Drive to Dallas. Visit Dealey Plaza, find a bathroom, get back on the road. Have dinner at Wendy's in Texarkana. See the most amazing sunset ever. Get back on the road. Arrive in Little Rock, Arkansas and spend the night.

Day 2: Drive through Arkansas to Memphis on really bad roads but with really pretty scenery. Stop in Memphis and enjoy several hours exploring Beale Street. Lunch at the Hard Rock, which had a big Elvis theme and was quite inspiring as a musician. We find out Lil Rounds is supposed to perform at the Hard Rock at 3:30. We stick around, but by 4:15, still no Lil, and we had to get on the road to Nashville to make the showcase J wanted to see, so we leave, just in time to see Lil coming down the road in a convertible, escorted by a marching band. Seriously.

We manage a quick stop at Graceland before leaving Memphis. We found it quite depressing, though, because the entire rock fence and sidewalk outside are covered with graffiti from "fans." If you're a real fan, I'm not sure you vandalize the man's home. Why not just piss on his grave while you're at it? Back on the road and off to Nashville.

Arrive in Nashville in time to find a hotel room, get changed and get to showcase. The showcase was cool. We saw three bands before deciding we were tired and ready to go to bed.

Day 3: Get up in time for the free breakfast at the hotel. Discover that "breakfast" is a relative term, since the Indian proprieters of our hotel defined it as 2 ripe bananas, 2 overripe bananas, powdered sugar donuts, apple and orange juices and saltines. You read that right. Saltines. For breakfast.

Lunch with an old friend of J's, who was quite fun. A visit to a guitar store in downtown Nashville, which had some really cool instruments. An afternoon meeting with his old entertainment lawyer. Back to the hotel to rest for a couple of hours, then out for an evening visit with another old friend of his - a fascinating musician and sculptor. Then on to the lunch friend's gig and an open mike where we got to play a set.

Day 4: Don't bother with breakfast at hotel (see Day 3's entry about breakfast). Check out and head to lunch friend's house for a last visit before we head east for Asheville, NC. After the visit, get back on road. An hour out of town, remember that we left our tempurpedic pillows at hotel. Return to Nashville. Now starving. Eat lunch and decide that to scrap Asheville from plans. Maybe Savannah? Visit Charlie Daniel's Museum, then discover that Savannah is 8 hours away. Scrap Savannah. Atlanta? Sure, let's go to Atlanta! I book room, and we head out on highway.

1.5 hours later, we see a sign that says, "Welcome to Alabama!" J cautiously asks, "Why are we in Alabama?" Umm...I don't know. Answer: we have taken wrong highway out of Nashville. We replot course for Atlanta, but 3 hours later, we abandon Atlanta. I eat the cost of the Atlanta hotel and we stop in Oxford, Alabama. We're just too tired to keep driving.

Day 5: We start heading back west. We stop in Birmingham, AL for lunch and I have my second taste of sweet tea (the first was in Nashville). I feel myself become momentarily diabetic and decide I will avoid sweet tea for the rest of my life. We make it to Jackson, Mississippi (commence singing Johnny Cash/June Carter song).

Day 6: We leave Jackson and continue west. We dance a little jig in the car when we see the "Welcome to Texas" sign. We are home! We stop in Tyler for the night and have a nice visit in the hotel pool with some guys from Houston. They're in Tyler for a croquet tournament. Who knew there even WERE croquet tournaments, much less in Tyler, Texas?

Day 7: We visit the Tyler Rose Garden before leaving town. It's spectactular, and I declare that if I'm ever forced to live in Tyler, I will spend all my time at the garden. We get on the road to head for Austin. J has plotted a course, and two hours in we discover that yet again, we have taken the wrong highway out of town. Fortunately, this time it works to our advantage. It's actually going to save us time, and the drive is much prettier than our original course would have been. I personally think these little unexepected routes make things more interesting. :)

We make it home, happy to have had our adventure and happy to be home! I luckily had another day before I had to go back to work so I could unpack and decompress before starting back to the grind. All in all, a great trip!