Jambalaya and Gospel

The road to Nashville was long and straight.  We are getting to know route 40 really well.  There are trees by the side of the road in many places, but they're not very dense, and it's easy to see all of the farms beyond them on both sides.  They are growing some rapeseed, and probably cotton, but what we saw most were fields ready to be planted with rice. The rice fields are easily discerned by their unique preparation: as they are tilled, every so often an earth dam about 18 inches wide and equally high is created. The fields and dams are built so that they curve around, making quite a pretty pattern.  In the winter, the fields are filled with water so as to minimize soil erosion.  I learned that eastern Arkansas is the major producer of rice of the six states that produce it, and is responsible for 48% of the rice grown in the US!

I also saw my first armadillo along the way.  Unfortunately, it was a dead armadillo lying on its back by the side of the road, but I was pretty excited anyway.

We watched a crop duster fly back and forth across the fields for while.  It was obvious he was having a lot of fun at his work and must have been a very skilled pilot, as he was flying just 25 to 50 feet above the fields.  Whatever he was dusting the crops with was tinted yellow, and at the end of a pass he would emit a small white cloud to mark where he left off. I thought this was very clever, and at the same time realized just how many details like this go into so many endeavors I'm unfamiliar with.

For a large part of this trip, we have seen many religious billboards, with everything from Bible quotes to warnings that we would be going to Hell. Equally numerous, and sometimes directly next to these, were billboards advertising "Adult Superstores". What to say - wgo to sleep to want to say anything about our dinner at Chili's we have a picture of the tortillas havee were amused, bemused, and appalled.

When we got to Nashville, we quickly checked into our hotel and then headed off to the Grand Old Opry. It was just as we expected, with all the kitsch.  We walked around the grounds for a bit, looking at the azaleas and other plants in full bloom.

Before the show, we had dinner at Chuy's, a Mexican restaurant  in the adjacent mall  .Dinner was good - no better or worse than the Mexican food we had in Tucson or Santa Fe - but the highlight for me was that we finally got to have and see handmade tortillas!

At the entrance to the Opry was yet another sign I was surprised to see: "No guns allowed, even if you have a permit".  There was, however, no metal detector, so apparently there are a lot of people in Nashville who carry guns, but they're very honest.  Interesting.

The show itself was great.  Yet another thing I didn't know before this was that the Opry was one of the inspirations for Garrison Keillor's  "Prairie Home Companion". It was easy enough to see why - each of the shows is broadcast live on radio, so in addition to the performers they have an announcer who introduces them and also reads the commercials from the sponsors between sets. We were lucky enough to have the Oak Ridge Boys on the bill, along with an assortment of other performers singing everything from Hank Williams' "Jambalaya"  ("on the Bayou") to a variety of gospel songs.

Although country is not our number one favorite song genre, we had a wonderful time at the Opry, singing and clapping along with everybody else.  We're really glad we took the time to stop by Nashville.