BILL BLOG
Monday May 8, 2023
Monday morning and I’m back home in my own bed…but it was quite the long adventure getting home to my bed. Details coming up. 86 for a high in Nashville today with more wind more severe weather tonight it looks like.
THE WEEKEND
After our Thursday night show last week in Culpeper (details in Friday’s blog) our “Hits & Grins” trio had an off day. So the first thing we had to do was find a way to get my guitar case unlocked. We found a local music store and the owner Debbie was so nice and called a locksmith she knew. $137 later my case was unlocked. The locksmith told me that TSA at the airports have keys to lock and unlock guitar cases. Something I did not know. When I checked my case in Nashville for the trip, the case was UN-locked. I never lock it. But TSA apparently did. I had taken the key out (I guess) and hopefully I’ll be able to find it as the case has to fly back Nashville and I have no idea if they will inspect it again and possibly lock it again or not. Here’s hoping. Lesson learned.
One of the great things about traveling is finding local places to eat. And we found a terrific diner in Culpeper called the “Frost Café”.
Great food…and check out the long counter. Very cool.
And Culpeper is just a cool quaint town with a lot of character as well. We accidentally found the boyhood home of southpaw pitcher Eppa Rixey who played for my Reds team way back in the day. So that was kind of cool as well.
WILLIAMSBURG
Then we headed for Williamsburg for two nights, and on the drive down you could not help but notice you were in Civil War country. A lot of battles all in one region including a huge one in Chancellorsville. We stopped at the historical center and did the tour.
They were holding a re-enactment the next day, and a couple of guys in outfit were there in the museum and I got this picture of my friends Steve & Victoria with them.
For me there’s just a feeling of sadness when I visit Civil War sites like this one. And you just wonder how incredible horror like this could even happen.
FRIDAY NIGHT
My sister Vicky lives in Newport News, Virginia which was just a few miles from Williamsburg so she came over an took me Old City Barbecue along with my “Hits & Grins” partners Steve and Victoria. Incredible brisket…some of the best I’ve had. And afterwards we had Breuster’s Ice Cream. Lord, I am NOT looking at a bathroom scale anytime soon. It was great spending time with her, and she brought along some black and white photos of my late Mom and Dad that I brought home with me.
SATURDAY NIGHT SHOW
After touring old Williamsburg earlier in the day (which was great)…heck…I even ate a healthy salad there, we made our way to West Point, for our second show on this little Virginia run.
This show, like the one we did in Culpeper Thursday night was cancelled because I had COVID so it was so nice to have them reschedule our show here at their beautiful Civic Auditorium in West Point.
The entire staff, sound and light crew could not have been better. They just made what we do easier, and better so thank you to all of them.
Just a great two-show-run in the beautiful state of Virginia.
AND THEN…
Getting home to Nashville turned out to be an adventure. I got to Charlotte from Richmond, got to the gate for Nashville, got close to boarding time and then we got word that the Nashville Airport had stopped all planes from landing because of the storms. Not once, but twice. We were supposed to be home by 11 pm. We got to Nashville sometime after 3 AM and my head hit the pillow after 4 AM this morning. We spent at least two hours on the runway in Charlotte and another hour on the ground in Nashville because we could not get to a gate from all the stacked-up planes that had the same fate as we had.
A long wait for baggage that was pointless as I found out our bags had arrived early but I didn’t know it. So we stood at a carousel for another 45 minutes waiting for my guitar that was already there. Sigh.
Then trying to get an Uber ride home took a while too as there was a stack of folks all trying to get home by Uber as well.
A great trip to Virginia with a long exhausting ending. Have I ever mentioned that I’d rather drive than fly?
SPEAKING OF DRIVING
I’ll be riding along with Linda Davis and Lang Scott to Bucyrus, Ohio this Thursday for an “Evening in the Round” show at the Bucyrus Elementary School Auditorium for a 7 pm show.
And then I’ll be in another car come next Monday May 15 for a show with “Hits & Grins” at the Canton High School Auditorium in Canton, Illinois.
NICE SURPRISE
The husband-and-wife team of Adam and Amy Pope sent both me and my friend Steve Dean a copy of two different songs they just recorded. One of those they wrote with Steve, the other they wrote with me. Mine is a beach song, their first recorded beach song titled “Alabama Coast” and they just slayed it with the help of another talented friend Darin Aldridge who produced and played mandolin on it. So thank you to Adam and Amy for the little gift while I was on the road in Virginia.
And if you haven’t heard of them yet, check out this first song that Adam and I wrote that they recorded and released as a single “TonightI’m Playing Patsy”.
HEALTH NOTES
A UK study suggest that eating green bananas can help prevent and reduce cancers by more than 60%.
New research is showing that internet surfing may help protect against dementia.
Dieticians agree that there is one salty snack that can help on lose weight. Roasted edamame. (It’s green…that just doesn’t work for me)
OPEN AND SHUT CASE
Google now has a home app for your phone that will allow most of us to open and shut our garage doors. I’m pretty sure there’s nothing we can’t do with a danged phone. I’m waiting for them to adapt that so one can raise or lower the toilet lid with the app.
WEIRD STUFF SOLD
They do sell some weird stuff at auctions some time. For instance:
A vampire killing set sold at auction for $15,736. Come to think of it, I have not seen a vampire for longest time now. So whomever bought the set? Thanks! You did a great job.
Virgin Mary on a piece of toast sold for $28,000. A partially eaten grilled cheese sandwich had that image on it…they say.
And Winston Churchill’s dentures were auctioned off for $28,700. Apparently his Polydent did not come with the choppers.
HUSBAND JOKE
Jerry was on his deathbed and said to his wife Karen, “I have one last request dear”.
“Of course”, his wife said. “What is it”?
“Six months after I die, I want you to marry Bob”.
His wife said, “I thought you didn’t like Bob”?!
The husband said, “I don’t.”
BIKE RIDING
Philadelphia announced that they will hold their “naked” bike ride again this August for those of you willing to throw caution and other things to the wind. Oddly as I’m typing this, my butt hurts.
TODAY
I’m writing with a young and very talented Emily Ann Roberts today who was one of Blake Shelton’s girl on “The Voice”. She’s also a member of the group “High Road”, four girls that sing gospel songs and they just got back from a tour of Israel and the Holy Land that I can’t wait to ask her about.
AND…Emily just released this very FUN video of a new song of hers “He Set Her Off”.
We’ll have fun talking about that too.
Have a great Monday!
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