We docked in a little town 1 1/2 hours west of Nashville named New Johnsonville for 2 weeks while we rented a car & drove to Tryon. We were able to get caught up on some business & socialize (imagine that!) with friends & family. We spent time with Trip’s parents as well as many other friends. Highlights included celebrating our friend Cee Cee’s 50th birthday with the birthday girl as well as Ron, John & Danae. It was great to be able to include a hunt breakfast & catch up with our many hunting friends as well as being able to take in the annual “Shukin N Shagin” night at FENCE. After a week in Tryon we went on our annual hiking trip to Snowbird Mountain Lodge in the Great Smokey Mountain National Forest with our friends Maude, Don & Phyllis. That is such a treat with the leaves changing color & being able to enjoy the lodge, with wonderful fires, games and gourmet food- a very special place! We then headed west & capped off our time away with a long weekend in Nashville, a place we had never been to. It really is an enjoyable city with a great historic downtown & many beautiful parks. We stayed in the convenient Church Street/West End area & were able to walk the dogs at Centennial Park which boasts the only full size replica of The Parthenon in the world. We got to some great restaurants & had seats on Saturday night to the Grand Ole Opry. We are not big country music fans but they really put on a show. Featured singers included Blake Shelton, Trace Adkins, Jimmie Dickens (89 years old) & The Rocky Top Boys. We then drove back to New Johnsonville & boarded “Tally-Ho” with our wonderful crew (Steve and Summer) who had gotten alot done aboard to begin our trip south to Mobile.