Play On

Keep on playing.  “We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing.” -Charles Schaefer
“Play keeps us vital and alive. It gives us an enthusiasm for life that is irreplaceable.  Without it, life just doesn’t taste good” -Lucia Capocchione.

I agree we should let the music play on and dance the night away.  Lionel Richie's song - All Night Long.

Jim and Debbie were here over the weekend for three days of playing.  My family starts rolling in anytime now, this afternoon.  And Joe's sister and friend will also be here soon, staying in a house on Lake St. George.  There will be lots more playing happening.

Jim and Debbie arrived Thursday while I was at work.  Joe was sitting in the SUV at the time, trying to get it started, but the battery was dead.

Once they got settled in to our guest room, they came to the pool, bringing Joe who was unable to drive.  They bought burgers and hot dogs at the Dorchester Club house and we dined together at pool side.  Then the three swam and played basketball in the water and visited with other guests while I did my evening cleaning and closing chores.

Once I got home and showered, we played bridge out on the back porch until midnight, way past my bedtime.  We just wanted to play on, late into the night.


Friday morning, while the guys went to get a new battery and replace the dead one, Debbie and I took Maggie on a little hike, going up library trail and down the paved path to Cromwell and then home.



Once the SUV was up and running we loaded up the dog and went to the stables to see Amiga and Zorro.


















Zorro was too far out in the pasture, so Amiga got all of our attention.
Just before leaving, we watched the livery horses come into the barn (video).



Next we went to Overlook trail and hiked that.  Maggie loved leading the way.







The day was heating up, and so were we.

We got home, packed our lunch, and then went to St. George Marina and pontooned for two hours.   It was a relaxing time as we looked at houses around the lake.  We also saw a martin house full of purple martins and were lucky enough to see the resident bald eagle later on.

We anchored and swam off the boat and enjoyed our lunch and a few beers.  We probably floated around on our noodles, in the water for 30 minutes.

















Jim was our designated 'selfie stick' because he has such long arms and takes good group selfies.

On the way home we went to the adult pool where we all swam and played a fun game of water volleyball.  I was able to play and enjoy an adult beverage at the pool, something I don't get to do while working there.  It was fun.

We had some down time at home, including showers, a picture slide show on the TV of Joe's travel adventures, and even played a few hands of bridge.

Dinner was at Reds and then it was Karaoke time.








We played bean bag toss, enjoyed listening to singers, sang along to some songs and there was even a little dancing as well.  We wanted to play all night long.








More bridge was played once we got home and we stayed up until almost midnight again.


I did not get up Saturday morning until 6:45.  Sitting out on the back porch together, the four of us enjoyed coffee (well, tea for me).  After I did some chores and Joe took Maggie to the kennel, we headed down the road for Nashville, and more playing.

At Gaylord Opryland Hotel

Our first stop was the Tree House in Crosville, but it has now become nearly impossible to get onto the property to see the structure.  But a nice man who was mowing out front let us drive back to look from where the gate was.










We arrived at Gaylord Opryland Hotel about 11 am and started our indoor 'hike' of the garden conservatories.





After 90 minutes, we stopped in at the Build Your Own Burger place and each of us had a fantastic sandwich.  Then we finished walking nearly every path of the three indoor gardens.





















We could check into our AIR B&B at 3 pm, so arrived there mid-afternoon.  It was a tiny camper trailer with barely enough space to maneuver inside so we fondly called it The Love Shack.  But it was clean and comfy, and we made it work.






We relaxed with a few beers and played bridge in the hot living room.  The air conditioner was in the hallway where the double bed was located and the cool air didn't really make it past the little kitchen into the living room.




Also the tin box trailer was in the sun and like a little oven.

We finally left the Love Shack hot box and made our way down town to do a little honkie ton-kin.  Legends Corner had a great band we really enjoyed, but they finished a little after 5 pm so we moved on.  Our second choice, The Tequila Cowboy is where we ended up eating, but the band wasn't very good.







We finished the evening with the Moody Blues concert. They are not my style of music so I only recognized a few songs.  I enjoyed the second set better because they played more orchestra style music, like from their Days of Future Passed album, including Nights In White Satin and Tuesday Afternoon. 

We were quick to hit the hay once back at the Love Shack.  The air conditioning was blowing right on the double bed, so I slept on the futon in the living room.  It was nearly perfect.

We all were up by 6:30 Sunday morning, and moved our 8 am meeting with Courtney to 7:30, since she too was up and could be ready.  We met at the IHOP in Brentwood.  Service was slow, but the food good.  And it gave us a chance to chat with Courtney more.

Burgess Falls was our next stop after saying goodbye to Courtney.  It was a hot, humid, hike, but we enjoyed the scenery and wore off some of our bacon, eggs, hash browns, and pancakes.



























There was a little over an hour of down time when we got home.  We packed a cooler and snacks,  got on our swim suits, and even had time to play a few hands of bridge before it was time to go to Dartmoor Marina.  We rented the pontoon boat for two hours and didn't take long to get out on the lake, and start our cocktail party.  It was 5:00 somewhere.  We had the radio playing, anchored and went for a swim, and discovered life jackets make better flotation devices than noodles. 

A lot of wildlife was spotted while we motored around.  Two snakes, an osprey with a fish in it's beak, two blue herons, an egret, a deer, and several purple martin.  We even saw one scoop a butterfly out of the air.

After dropping us off at home, Joe went to get Maggie at the 5 pm kennel pick up time and the rest of us started getting cleaned up for dinner.  There was time for a rubber of Bridge and then we went to Stonehenge Bar and Grill.



We shared wonderful brownie sundaes after eating our yummy meals.
Once home, Maggie got to go with us on a walk.  We did five holes of Druid, but had to cut through a yard and skip two holes because a little thunder storm was rolling in.  We only played one rubber of bridge before bed because it was going to be an early morning, and we were tired from the busy three day weekend visit.

We were all up around 5:30 Monday morning and Jim and Debbie were on the road for Texas by 6:30.  This lady golfer was a little off course, but lucky for her I keep the 'rough' mowed at the bottom of the hill and she had an easy shot up to the green.  Play on Mam.








It was a day of rest and recuperation for Joe and I, and preparation for the next wave of guests we were expecting to start arriving in a few days.  I did get four loads of laundry done -> Stevie testing towel dryness.  I also got a good start on this blog post, but there were so many pictures to sort through.

I got tables set up to accommodate up to 18 for lunches and dinners.  Joe helped me add a leaf to the table.  I did take nearly an hour nap... just too tired after all our playing.  Then, deciding to skip Mirror Lake, (not enough time, and it wasn't a very good band), I had an early dinner and went into town to shop.   I had a long list and bought lots of groceries, but made pretty good time.  Getting it all put away was the time consuming task.




By 6:30 am Tuesday, Joe was off to Knoxville for his flight to Florida to get Mama.  I had an invite to ride with my saddle buddies, but just had too much on my to do list.  There was no time for playing at the moment.

The deer have been coming more regularly.  This one came while I was watering.   I hadn't noticed it and got within 20 feet before seeing it.


Mom's rental bed arrived at 11:00.  I was out back watering lots of the plantings at the time, but Maggie let be know there was a truck in the driveway.  After the bed was set up I continued watering.  It has gotten quite dry.

I ate a quick lunch, packed a dinner, and got the rental bed made, and then locked Maggie in the Mancave from 1:30 - 7:30 while I was at work.  I was glad to see when I got home that she had not gotten up on Mom's bed.  After feeding the cat and dog, I took Maggie on a long walk, since she had been cooped up for so long.  A shower immediately followed and soon I was in bed.


Wednesday I worked hard to get this blog posted.  I took time to make another run to the store, pick up guest cards at the Conference Center, do a little more cleaning, walk the dog several times, and start dinner.

At noon, Joe sent this photo of Mom on the airplane (with him), heading this way.  Now, as lamb stew simmers in the crock pot, I anticipate the arrival of everybody and playing (eating, drinking, & joking around) on, and on, and on over the next week.