Panama Canal Trip-Day 1 ~ Getting There

We left home at 5am towards our first stop (Ocala, FL) on this journey through the Panama Canal onboard the Coral Princess.  The sunrise was beautiful.  We stopped at Cracker Barrel in Pensacola for a hot breakfast, it's our first stop whenever we head to South Florida.

Although we could certainly have driven to Ft. Lauderdale in one day, we decided to stay at Country Inn & Suites in Ocala Florida.  We are retired and there is no need to rush.  Especially when we get free rooms!  We pleasantly surprised when we were offered an opportunity to upgrade to a suite due to our Gold Status. 

We rested a bit then headed out for supper.  We found the perfect spot, named Mojo Grill.  It was a fun, casual place decorated in a fun style.  It bustling with friendly waitstaff & even offers live music.

Ron had pulled pork nachos and I had " to die for" Cuban sandwich. It was far too much food, we ended up bringing half back to the hote for later to munch on during the LSU game.

August2014 Road Trip: Days 23 & 24 -Nashville TN

Our new home for the next two days in Nashville is the Country Inn & Suites.  The hotel is conveniently located near the Grand Ole Opry.  We were greeted like VIP's by the staff, with our name on a plague by the front desk, a gift bag and they upgraded our FREE room to a suite!  WOW!

Our suite has king size bed, fridge and microwave along with a living area, very nice.  The staff are great, from the front desk to the breakfast crew, everyone has been super nice.

We arrived later than we expected, we had just enough time to get unpacked before getting ready for our first time at the Opry. When  I purchased our Opry tickets months ago they didn't even have anyone scheduled yet, I bought the tickets for the night that we would arrive and hoped for the best.  I was thrilled when we found out Little Big Town

and Craig Campbell would be appearing and we had great seats.  I love both of them.  The Opry Show was a great mixture of new & old country music, bluegrass & new, upcoming artists.

We visited four different film locations from the Nashville TV Show:

Rayna James' home was far out in the country behind gates so I really couldn't get good pictures.  From the front of the house you can't really get a sense of how massive this house is...

Deacon Claybourne's house, looked exactly as it does on the show:

Scarlett's house is actually located right next door to Deacon (not on the show):

The famous BlueBird was disappointing, definitely NOT what I expected it to look like.  It's a tiny little place in a strip mall.

We spent 3 hours at the Country Music Hall of Fame.  It was worth every minute.  The exhibits are amazing.

The newly added Kenny Rogers exhibit

Hubby and The King

Smoky & The Bandit

We walked to middle of the Shelby Pedestrian bridge.

 This bridge is the scene where Rayna James decides to discuss the upcoming tour with her lead guitarist Deacon Claybourne in episode 1. It is also here, where she is quoted as saying: "I need a drink…wanna walk me to Tootsies?" Great views also!

We had lunch at a small dive named Arnolds Meats and it turned out to be a great choice.

Supper was an Irish place called McNamara's Irish Pub.  Ron had his usual Sheppards Pie(he said it was just ok) and I had Bangers & Mash which I loved.

Afterwards we went to The District.  Every place had live music.  They even broadcast music on the streets via corner speakers.  We found a place we liked and stopped to listen to a singer named Kevin Denny who was really good.

Even The King was there :)

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All in All, I managed to do most of the things on my bucket list for Nashville.  I really appreciated my husband who tolerated two days of country music, he is not a fan lol.

August2014 Road Trip: Days 21 & 22 -Tell City IN & Louisville KY

It cooled to 68 when we woke so After breakfast we walked a trail that ran along the Ohio River. You can walk right up to the water in places.

Next we explored downtown Tell City.  I really liked it.  We walked the length of Main Street.

Tell City is named for William Tell & they have this huge monument in center of town in his honor.

I loved how they repurposed old buildings.

This old firehouse is now Firehouse Printing:

This old post office is now The Post restaurant :

This old bank is now a The Vault, a pub:

What a great little at&t office to work in if I wasn't retired lol:

Here's a Frostop still in business!

On the way to Louisville, we drove east along Ohio Scenic Byway Route 66.

Our first stop when we reached Louisville, the Louisville the Slugger Factory to take a photo with the Worlds Biggest Baseball Bat.

Babe Ruth memorial

We stopped at the Frazier History Museum to see Custer's revolver.

We checked into our FREE hotel later in the day.  We are spending two nights at the Country Inn & Suites-South Louisville.  I'm not really impressed with the pool but otherwise it's fine, especially for the price!

The next morning we went hiking after breakfast in Jefferson Memorial Forest.

The trail was listed as moderate but I would consider it an Easy trail, there was a mud puddle here & there otherwise it was a well cleared trail.

 It's free to the public and we saw long tailed deer right away.

Racing season has not opened yet so we did a tour of Churchill.

Paddock area

 Watched the horses workout and toured the grounds, very neat.

Twinspired, ran in the 2011 Kentucky Derby
he is so majestic!

 We stopped inside the Churchill Museum so Hubby could get in touch with his inner kid.

 I loved all the hats!

Restaurants we tried in Louisville were:

Havana Rumba, Cuban cuisine.

The guacamole was yummy & served with plantain chips.

This one was recommended by a friend & was wonderful.    We shared a house special called Parrilla Habanera, it was steak, 1/2 chicken, sausage, 2 black bean soups, fried corn & plantains.  We had enough leftover for lunch the next day. $30

Mark's Feed Store, BBQ, it was really good.  The unusual item on my plate was fried corn on the cob.  I have got to admit that I have really had my fill of restaurant foodby now & would love some home cooking.  It's all been really wonderful but......too much of a good thing I guess !