Heading South

We left Nashville early this AM. Here is the biped's Mom wishing me goodbye.


And here is the biped-Mom's dog wishing me goodbye.


The biped wanted to take a slow drive through the backwoods as part of his "research" for his "book". I said fine, but then you have to do the driving. I'm not getting involved with any of these redneck sheriffs if there's trouble. Before we left Tennessee, we stopped in Tullahoma. I have a train movie, but it's too big to upload--maybe when the biped gets me a better internet connection.

This is one of the fine (and few) brick homes in Tullahoma. Three spinster sisters became artists and teachers after the war. A not unusual occurence when there were so few men left to marry. There's a similar story about a great artist in Huntsville, our destination, but more on her later.



Here is one of those strange and mysterious things that happen in the South. Two white horses that stood and watched us quietly as we drove by looking for the ruins of an old mill. Actually, the biped thought it was strange and mysterious. I nearly barked my face off at those gigantic monsters.



We entered Alabama and realized that we were on this highway. I knew then that the spirit of Dina Martina was watching over us.

This is what once was a grocery and gas station in the middle of the quaint little burg of Princeton, Alabama.
These are what were called--during and after the Civil War--Sherman's sentinels.  In one of the biped's daydreaming fancies, he suggested that perhaps when General Sherman was in Huntsville in 1864, he ordered this house burned because it harbored Rebel sharpshooters.  In Jackson County, it was a not uncommon occurence.  I suggested to the biped that the reality was probably they had old Christmas lights up and it burned the whole house down in 1973. 
This is how people move in Alabama.  You don't just pack your stuff.  You pick up your mobile home and move it with you.  If people in Ptown spent a little more time down South, maybe they wouldn't think the Town Trailer was so bad!

And here's a gratuituously cute picture of me!


We're in Huntsville for most of tomorrow, too. The biped is at the library doing that "research". I'll post about the town tomorrow night. There's too much to say to add it here!

Viva Nash Vegas

You know you're in Tennessee when....you see a giant guitar on the side of the highway.


We've arrived in the Country Music Capital of the WORLD!!!! They play country music from speakers hidden inside garbage cans on the street corners here!!! I've never seen anything like it in my short, short life. But it is a city of contrasts, too. Old and new. Sticky and sweet. Kitschy and verbose. But I digress.

We arrived through the beautiful mountains of East Tennessee (home of Dollywood...) and were able to witness this beautiful sunset.

And before I forget, here are a couple parting shots for Virginia. (Traffic and trailers.)

Anyway, in our wanderings today, here are some of the sights:

Broadway where all the musicians get their start...the old record store....


...I think that's Elvis...


...the famous Tootsie's Orchid Lounge...

...Hooooooooooooow-DEE!!!...

...the historic Ryman Auditorium getting a new roof...


Nashville also thinks of itself as the Athens of the South (coming from Massachusetts, I might even say the BOSTON of the South).   It is a center of learning and medicine--and they take the appellation very seriously. Virtually all of the city's public monuments reference a Classical heritage. The biped (being who he is) referred to it as post-modern neo-classicism. Or neo-classical post-modernism. But not neo-modern post-classicism.

The public library...

...the majestic State House (from the 1850's)...


...the Legislative Offices...

...a church...

...the new Symphony Hall (literally one year old, maybe two)...

...here's the biped-Mom outside the Symphony Hall...


And, of course, a full-size replica of the Parthenon (inside and out)...


And let's not forget that it's Mardi Gras. To celebrate, the biped and the biped mother went to this place for lunch.


It is, as the biped says, the "real deal". In the South, the crummier the restaurant, the better the food. Here's the gold Lincoln Town Car to prove it.


And the biped got to spend time with the biped-Mom and his cousin, Jessica, and her son, Hayden.


There were an insane number of dogs, too. I got so worked up I had to go to the emergency room!! This is Hazel, she's a trip.


This is Titan, he's very pretty. And he's playing with cousin Hayden.


Here's Hazel in a pink tutu!


Bye bye! Tomorrow we're off to Alabama!

Burning Rubber

The biped and I left Provincetown yesterday morning after my struggle with the Living Room Demons. Here's a movie from the last sunset we saw in Provincetown this winter.



We drove through

Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Connecticut
New York
New Jersey
Delaware
Maryland and
Virginia

to get to the biped's Dad's place. This is how I spent most of the driving time.



Today the biped, his dad and his partner went to some restaurant in our nation's capital.



They saw the Washington Monument and the Capitol building.



The biped went to the National Gallery of Art--here he is acting like Tim McGraw.


They went to an exhibit about Dutch Urban Landscapes of the 17th Century and another of decorative arts retrieved from Pompeii and Herculaneum. After lunch, I understand this is what the biped-Dad's stomach felt like, too.


Tomorrow morning, it's an early start to see the biped-Mom in Nashville. We'll be there for a couple days, too.

Adios, Provincetown

The biped and I are leaving today. We're packing up the car and heading west (like hillbillies) on a journey to my homeland. For me, this trip has something of the quality of a visionquest. My spiritual journey began tonight--or rather, this morning at about 5am. I wrestled many demons in the living room. One of them inhabited the body of good old Mr. Platypus.



The biped didn't understand, of course (as bipeds so often do not understand). He cranked and rattled from the bedroom, telling me to keep it down. Um, when you are in a life or death struggle with the dark forces of the universe, the last thing you think about is if you're disturbing the neighbors. The biped asked me who the hell I thought I was. I said, "500 years ago, my ancestors were running around the royal palaces and temples of Tenochtitlan. Where were your ancestors? Eating mud out of a ditch in Eastern Europe?" He didn't think that was very amusing.

Here are some pics I've come by of the biped's night out in Boston last weekend. He and the other bipeds performed a ritual that the Japanese refer to as kara-okay.




Here's my favorite sign from that trip.


This is what the biped and I will become over the next few weeks.



And here I am enjoying Herring Cove beach the day before we leave...


Our first stop is the Federal Capital. I will be blogging along as we go, given access to the internet, of course. Mahalo, friends.