Springfield, Tennessee

Saturday morning, we arrived in Nashville after our short flight from Washington and were greeted by "the family".  Ivy (Gram), Judy and Jeff.

Craig picked up the hire car - a 7 seater Toyota Siena  It is great.  With Craig, Vara, Judy and Rhyanna in the hire car and Jeff taking, Ivy, Jane and Rhyanna we headed to Cross Plains where Jeff and Margot live.  They have a beautiful property called Oak Field - approx 25 acres with part of the property natural woodland.  Jake and his children Jackson, six and Savannah, three joined us.  There was lots of catching up and a great dinner of chilli and fritos, corn chips etc.

Y'all done there girl?

Craig and Vara are staying with Jeff and Margot and Jane, Candice and Rhyanna are staying with Judy.  Judy had a gorgeous home on 332 Walnut Street, Springfield.

Most of our time has been spent between Cross Plains and Springfield.  Cross Plains is only about 10 minutes from Springfield.  Springfield is a small country town and is the centre of the Robertson County, Tennessee.  Jeff and Margot and Judy all work in Springfield.  Jeff is a doctor with his practice located adjacent to the local hospital, Margot is executive director of the Robertson County Chamber of Commerce and Judy works at The Robertson County Times and sets out this local paper, proof reads it and does a myriad of other tasks by the sound of it.

Sunday we celebrated Judy's 60th birthday with a beautiful Italian dinner cooked by Margot and Vara.  A fantastic chocolate cake with fondant icing made by a local lady was a great dessert!  Margot, Jeff, Craig and Vara sneaked in a breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  I will explain Cracker Barrel later.

Monday, all the locals were off to work, so we amused ourselves by visiting Ivy at her Senior Citizens centre where she volunteers and then went to lunch with her and Margot at Tricia's in Springfield.  Jane will be bringing back the Broccoli Salad recipe.  Yum!  After lunch we went shopping.  The weather is very cold and drizzly, so not very conducive to sight seeing, although the surrounding countryside is quite nice in that winter sort of way.  Lots of the local homes and local businesses are decorated for Christmas.  Jane, Rhyanna and Candice cooked Judy a Shepherd's Pie for dinner, Craig and Vara created a lovely salmon meal out at Cross Plains.  We are quite happy to be cooking for them while they are hosting us.  We all like cooking anyway.

Tuesday, very foggy again, we headed off to Rivergate a very large shopping complex near Nashville.  We explored that for several hours, had a great lunch in the food court and had a bit more of a shop and a look around.  Baby back ribs and mash for dinner at 332 Walnut Street.  Catfish and savoury pudding at Cross Plains.

We spent the day in Springfield, Wednesday was another foggy, drizzly day.  We visited Judy at her office and met the staff.  We had been nicknamed "the foreigners".  We also visited Margot's office, just around the corner.  There is some great local artwork on the walls of the Chamber and they have recently had the office remodelled so it was great to see what they had done.  this time having lunch at Burdgett's Tea Room with Judy and Margot.  Ivy was having a rest day.  The local people are very friendly and helpful.

We went to the shops again for Vara to purchase a Tennessee item for her Pandora bracelet.  She found a great "guitar" link.  Many bargains were found at Belk's store.  Their dockets print out, not only showing what you have spent (a mere trifle), but what you have SAVED!!  What a concept.  We also got bonus vouchers to spend next week in the lead up to Christmas.  Jake has visited Monday and Tuesday night to enjoy leftovers and general round the table chats.

In the late afternoon it was off to Margot and Jeff's for a hamburger dinner and sorting out our photos etc, to make sure they had been saved on discs etc.  We couldn't view them on the TV, but will soon.  Judy carefully drove Jane, Rhyanna and Candice home through the thick fog.

On Thursday morning we headed off with Ivy to Memphis.  A straight forward drive down the highway with a stop at Cracker Barrel for Brunch.  Cracker Barrel is a restaurant which served down home type southern food.  One breakfast selection is eggs, thick cut bacon or sausage, casserole hash browns, biscuits (our scone), gravy and grits.  I tried it.  I prefer the biscuits with butter not the gravy and the grits here are eaten with butter and salt and pepper.  I would like them with cream and sugar.  Trying to keep this in the third person, but those who know me will know that after the cream and sugar bit tha Jane is writing this section of the blog!!   Others had eggs in a basket, which are eggs set in a whole in a slice of sourdough bread and bacon/sausage etc.  Vara had pancakes.We also had a quick shop at the gift shop.  Lots of lovely country Christmas things.  For your info - eggs over easy are where the shites are still a bit wobbly, runny yolk - eggs over medium are fully cooked whites and runny yolk and so on.  The very nice waitress at Cracker Barrel explained that mystery to us.  On to Memphis.

We checked in to the "Sleep In on Front Street" Hotel.  Very nice.  After some disccussion we headed out on to the streets of Memphis for a short ride in the trolley car to Beale Street.  We explored the street with a few "blues" souvenirs being purchased.  It is a very interesting place.  We had a drink in the "BB King's Club Bar".  We then went to the Peabody Hotel to view the ducks.  Every day, they bring five ducks (one male, 4 female) down from the roof of the hotel, in the elevator.  They then walk along the red carpet and into their pond at the base of a huge travertine marble fountain in the centre of the lobby.  At 5pm (the session we were at), they are ushered out of the pond, up the red carpet, in to the elevator and up to the roof to their duck palace.  It is a very charming tradition.  We went up to the roof and spoke with Jason, the current Duck Master.

We then went to Rendezvous for supposedly the best dry rub ribs in the city.  They were great, but Rhyanna thought she preferred the wet (sweet saucy) ribs to the dry rub variety.  We then got on the trolley car back to the hotel.  Opposite our hotel is Spring Hill Park which is all beautifully light up for Christmas.

After a short break, Craig, Vara and Jane headed back to BB King's Club Bar to listen to the BB King Allstars.  We had a great night with a few drinks and some great live music.  Still in the fog, we headed back to the hotel aat ab out 11pm.  We need our beauty sleep!  Candice, Rhyanna and Ivy had a quiet night in.  Rhyanna is managing to catch up with Patrick, her boyfriend, but she still misses him heaps!!  Hi Patrick!!

On Friday we are off to Gracelands.  More on that later