Tag Archives: Nashville

Our 2005 Road Trip, Part 1 of 10: Southern Fried Greece

April 6, 2017 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment
Parthenon!

You won’t believe how we drove from Indiana to Greece in just six easy steps!

Welcome to the first installment of another special MCC miniseries, representing the original travelogue from our 2005 drive from Indianapolis to San Antonio, Texas, and back again in far too short a time. Some hindsight editing will be included along the way as part of the “special edition” processing.

Prior to 2006 all our amateur photography depended on cheap 35m cameras, which were an improvement over the camera I grew up with that used 110 film, or my grandma’s old 126. 2006 was also notable in that we took far fewer photos than usual by our standards today. Sometimes we preferred to enjoy the sights as a family and leave the cameras pocketed. At other points we simply didn’t give ourselves enough time to stop, think, and shoot. At least one site is nearly pictureless in our scrapbooks because we were disappointed with the exhibits.

As a result, you’ll notice most of these ten entries will contain more words than pictures. If that’s a drawback, stay tuned because we’ll have some awesome new convention cosplay photos coming in the next 2-3 weeks, we swear.

Enjoy!

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2015 Road Trip Photos #48: Noontime in Nashville

April 14, 2016 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Nashville State Capitol!

Twelve American state capitals have State Capitols without domes. Tennessee’s 1859 version is one of them.

When last we left Nashville, we’d stopped there for lunch on the first day of our 2005 road trip to San Antonio. We ate at our first Jack in the Box nearly a decade before they finally came to Indianapolis; we saw their version of the Parthenon, a World’s Fair tribute to their old nickname “the Athens of the South”; and then we moved on. Ten years later, we returned once again for lunch and spent slightly longer there this time than last time.

One last state capital before returning home to our own. One last Presidential burial site. One last sign of Confederacy fandom. One last pretty garden. One last Andrew Jackson statue. One last official Southern meal. Our midday stroll around downtown Nashville was like a symbolic highlight reel of our entire road trip.

Right this way for the final city walkabout of the series!

2015 Road Trip Photos #47: The Dukes of Hazzard Confederate History Month Holiday Special

April 8, 2016 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment
Dukes Memorabilia!

Back in the ’80s, this vintage merchandise used to make the perfect Christmas gifts, stocking stuffers, birthday presents, and Hannukah surprises.

We’d seen a lot of moving, emotionally charged sites throughout our trip through Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana — remembrances of Hurricane Katrina, souvenirs from world wars, paths where civil rights protestors once marched, places where people were beaten or died senselessly, tributes to immigrants, signposts of American progress, and new sides to areas we knew only from their embarrassing stereotypes. It was a week we found at turns educational, sobering, revelatory, alarming, grievous, yet uplifting at a number of key points when recounting the victories against racism and oppression wherever we found them.

Meanwhile in Nashville, on July 17, 2015, exactly one month after the senseless tragedy at Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina, y’all could still come on down to Cooter’s Place, take a gander through the Dukes of Hazzard Museum, and then head to the backroom and stock up on all the Confederate flag accessories you’ll ever need to celebrate all your favorite Confederate States of America holidays. If you plan ahead, you’ll be all set to celebrate April as Confederate History Month, which is a very real thing in several southern states. Yee-haw!

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2015 Road Trip Photos #45: The Twenty Dollar Man

March 29, 2016 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments
$20 Bill Y'all!

Anne takes her rightful place in the American economy just as soon as I’m appointed Secretary of All the Monies. But we’re cool with Hamilton keeping the $10 bill.

Day 7. The grand finale of our 2015 road trip. All that stood between us and home was five hours and a handful of stops. We woke up in Nashville with one last to-do list before we’d let I-65 guide us home.

We’d hoped to see a thing or two the evening before, but traffic coming into Tennessee on Day 6 had been stop-‘n’-go most of the way, made all the more disconcerting as we listened to radio reports of that day’s tragic shootings in Chattanooga, just a couple hours southeast of us. So we weren’t at our best on Friday morning. That buzz to keep seeking out new experiences was playing tug-‘o’-war with our yearning to return home to comfort and familiarity.

First stop: following in the footsteps of President Andrew Jackson. Old Hickory. King Mob. The Hero of New Orleans. He tied our week together nicely.

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MCC Home Video Scorecard #5: Oscars Warm-Up

February 22, 2015 By in Movies/Films/Flicks Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Virunga!

Cute baby gorilla For Your Oscar Consideration, from Virunga.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: the recurring feature that’s me jotting down capsule-sized notes about Stuff I Recently Watched at home. In this batch: one of this year’s nominees in one of the less ballyhooed categories; two past Best Picture nominees that should’ve been contenders; and two Best Picture winners with little in common except racism and car crashes.

Right this way for five movies somebody out there really liked!

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