Jelly Belly creator sour over lost legacy but sees sweet future

Jelly Belly creator sour over lost legacy but sees sweet future

Yogi Bear at Jellystone RV Park and the Grand Ole Opry.

OK it was BooBoo bear that the girls went on a "Hey Ride" (Because you yell, "hey" to everyone you pass.

Little Jimmy Dickens (90) is in the picture I took...on the jumbo tron next to us....the next picture shows how he looked from our seats.

There is also a picture with a pink highlighted area...that was our seat Section 24 B #3-7. One picture show a straight on from the highest point ...the nose bleed section...dead center. But we were far left.

Notice in the picture of Olivia that she has chocolate pudding on her....it's chocolate pudding from the pudding filled water balloon fight.

The Grand Ole Opry Show

Today held the threat of really bad lightening storms and the huge cell that was aligned to hit Nashville looked pretty severe on the radar. But strangely it split in two and one went north and the other south of the area. We had nothing more than a few sprinkles. I even had the older kids put the tents away and moved them into a hotel for the night. Well, at least they will appreciate the air con.

We went shopping for necessities and for things for the show this morning. One of the things for the show is the decorative masks I wanted to get to put on the platform for our new bamboo illusion. Hobby Lobby is a high endish hobby and craft store and they had the perfect African masks that we are going to use in our Polynesian design. Who will know? Except anyone who reads this.

As a special treat I bought tickets for the older kids to go to the Grand Ole Opry Show. I through the budget out the window for it but since everyone is working hard and we are in Nashville I splurged. We had near nosebleed seats off to the far left side of the stage but the jumbo trons were nice and we had a great side view allowing us looks further back stage and off stage. The opry lets you take pictures, and they serve refreshments and liquor. The seats are plush benches or pews like at a church.

The music was good. I liked the stuff from the earlier days. And the older performers really knew how to work a stage. John Connolly opened the show (I'm Just a Workin' Man). A Mini-Pearl impersonator did a opening speech and routine. Then there was a modern singer (name escapes me) and then a Patsy Cline cover singer (who is also starring int he play "Simply Patsy". 90 year old Little Jimmy Dickens sang and had us in stitches. He was a riot and really worked the crowd. There were two other modern singers who drew a bunch of teeny poppers to the stage apron (allowed at the Opry). There was also the woman who sang the "Ode to Billy Joe" song. She is in her late 60s but boy could she belt it out.

I wasn't originally going to go, though I wanted to. I got the ticket so either Mami or CC could go but they both really didn't want to so I went with Jim, Lukas, Nick and Midori. It was a great time.

This week the whole east of Nebraska area has storm watches and warnings. It is supposed to be wet a while. Oh well

We did other things today. The little ones did a drawing contest, took another "hey" ride, swam and played a lot.

OPRY---and other photos By Jim kent (2 of 2 blogs today)

For those of you who don't want to read here are some pictures that Jim took today and yesterday.

OPRY and the Parthanon

95 degrees and the same in humidity. But we are in Nashville and a cool breeze kept it from becoming to intolerable.

Naturally we had to visit Opryland, new home of the Grand Ole Opry. (Below you will see a picture of a brick building...that is the original home of the Opry right in the middle of downtown Nashville.

The Opry and the mall, hotels, and attractions around it were flooded out last year and all but the Opry and hotel are still closed. There isn't much to do at the Opry except take a tour at $17 per person to basically see a stage and theater without a show. For me...not worth it. Thinking of sending the older ones over tomorrow night to see a show. They are only on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday.

At Centennial Park the kids dance and sung on the amphitheater and we saw the Parthenon replica. It was big and why it was in the middle of Nashville is a mystery to us...maybe look it up later. By this time the heat and humidity hit us and we decided to get cold drinks before our next planned part of the trip...walking tour of downtown. We got the drinks but it was too late...no one wanted to walk any more. So we did a fast driving tour of the state capitol then we searched for the original theater that housed the Opry. We found it, snapped a picture...from the van and bee-lined it to the RV park.

At the park the kids hit the hay ride and then the pool.

When everyone was adequately cooled off we went out for a late dinner at a Bob Evans and then back to the RV.....we are pooped.

I think the crazy schedule of this past week is still weighing on us. We will probably sleep late tomorrow too. OK, maybe not that late since the older kids are in tents and the morning sun can warm the tent up fast.

Last Day in TN!

Last day at the Clarksville Fair at the Speedway started off as though it may not start at all. The weather, like almost everyday this week, was wet. I was awakened by a powerful shaking of my motorhome and a frightening sound. I thought I was in a small tornado at first. The sound was like that of everything banging and whooshing, and screaming at the same time. The night before was a late night since it was a Friday night at the fair. But it was made later when the track opened up for public drag racing at Mind-night. (I think that is a very clever idea...it gives the hot shot kid a place to race his buddies, or foes, in a controlled atmosphere.) But it kept me up very very late. I think the motorcycles were the loudest. (I didn't see any Prius'...but I would've laughed my butt off watching is buzz down the track as a mean sounding Ford blew it's doors off.)

(On another tangent Friday was truck pull night. Stock truck pull night. Anyone could enter. The idea is to pull a very heavy sleigh ( a weighted semi truck flat bed that lowers onto the ground so it is dragged.) with your truck. The audience is basically waiting for one of the trucks to blow out an engine or transmission. Really, that is when you get the good applause. The speedway boss told me one man actually called in and asked how much the sleigh weighed because he didn't want to exceed his GVW for towing. The boss said, "If you are worried about that you shouldn't enter." The idea is to go balls out and pull the sleigh as far as you can until your wheels are spinning and you aren't moving or you blow out something. )

Back to the Saturday. (Most fairs in Ky and TN end on a Saturday respecting Sunday. ) That crazy morning storm would last until 2:30PM. Vendors and management were disappointed for the late start...it meant less money to be made.

We did our first show at 4:30 and our last at 9:30. Every audience was fabulous. We didn't have a bad one all day and, in spite of the late start, we go all the shows we promised and exceeded expectations.

On a side note, again, on the 8th I ordered several pennant style banners for the top of the BMT and the banner line. It was the 18th and they finally came. But it took a phone call on Thursday to get them to get their butts in gear to mail them. They are yellow and red and look pretty good.

Back to the main thread here: the journalists who came to take photos of us and document our family and show story stopped by the fair to say goodbye as they head back to New Orleans and then on to other stories an projects. We really had fun with them. They were very professional and very personable at the same time.

At the end of the night the little ones were taken back to the hotel at midnight and the big kids spent until 1:30Am packing in the show. Midori was impressed at how fast the carnival packed up and was out of there. Most of it was down by the time we were packed up.

Finally in bed at 2AM I slept but only until 5am when another storm swept in. The one from the night before had yanked a wood stake from the ground and broke a metal one that held part of the banner line. (The banners were fine). It had also bent part of one of our cabana tents that housed the costumes and animals. But this early Saturday morning storm only made a lot of noise and sprinkled a bit.

Below are some random pix from the last day as well as pictures from Dunbar Caves from the day before. (The spider is a cave spider we found that was already dead.