First Moving Container Jammed to Bursting!

15 Days to go!

We continue to pack and get ready to store our "stuff" and leave it all behind. I've added a new page on this blog called "Current Map" (see the tab above). We will keep this updated to track our travels on this trip. Also check out the post below showing where we went on our last trip.

Twenty two days to being homeless!

Not homeless like someone who has been evicted from their apartment or a dog taken to the shelter or an owl whose nest was in the dead tree that your neighbor had cut down. No, we are going to be homeless like migrating tern on their way from the arctic to South America looking for balmy weather, or bison wandering the prarie in search of the sweetest new grass.

We made the decision a few months ago to hit the road full time in our rv. This wasn't a spectacular change, since we have spent 11 of the past 24 months living in our fifth wheel trailer and traveling through much of the Southeast in search of warmer weather, great music, good food, friendly people and interesting places to visit--and we've found all of that in abundance. So deciding to go full time was more an acknowledgement of what was already happening--we were becoming less connected to our home neigborhood (though we are going to very much miss the wonderful friends we have made in Rebecca's Landing) and more comfortable with accepting wherever our trailer happened to be parked as "home" for as long as we were there.

So we have spent the last three months going through everything we own, deciding what to keep and what to part with. I have become a master at selling stuff on Craigslist and Ebay and have derived immense satisfaction in seeing our possessions go to new homes where they can make people happy. We have completed long-avoided tasks like going through 10,000 paper photographs to pull out 1000 to be scanned and kept. Even our beautiful home on Clam Pudding Pond will once again be shelter and inspiration year round for its new owners as it used to be for us.

So stay tuned as we finish the process of cramming most of what's left of our possessions into two steel PackRat containers which will sit in a warehouse waiting for us to find a new home some year. On October  6 we will head North (North!? More on that later) toward Cape Breton Island then Chicago, then generally South and West to winter in Arizona (or thereabouts). Subscribe to get email updates of this blog or just check in every so often and we will try to make our story interesting.

2012-2013 Trip Map

We traveled from late October 2012 to the beginning of June 2013. Where in the world did we go? Now you can see on this interactive map.


View October 2012-June 2013 Trip in a larger map

Two nights in a row at the Station Inn

We love this place.  This old venue just drips with history and musical karma.  It's fair to say that every famous bluegrass artist has played here, probably dozens if not hundreds of times. It's an old cinder block building without windows in what used to be a warehouse and vacant lot area West of downtown Nashville.  Now the neighborhood is "The Gulch" and is all high-rise condos and valet-parking restaurants--all surrounding the old Station Inn.   I chatted with the owner of the club and asked whether the neighborhood was going to squeeze them out, but he said he would keep on doing their thing as long as they could.  To me, the surroundings just make the place even more classic by contrast.

Friday night we saw New Town, a bluegrass band from Lexington Kentucky featuring Katie Penn as singer and fiddle player.  Katie had a brief country music career, but as her bandmate said, she wanted to get back to her lucrative bluegrass where she's made "tens of dollars".  New Town was a solid band with great vocals and tight musicians.

Saturday we arrived at 6:30 for a 7:00 door opening for a 9:00 show...and the line at 6:30 was already long.   In a town with about a hundred music venues to choose from on a Saturday night, this turnout is indicative of how popular is the band The Steeldrivers.  We've seen them a number of times, including twice last spring in Nashville and Gettysburg.  They are another solid, tight bluegrass band, but their big draw is their amazing bluesy lead singer, Gary Nichols.   These guys brought down the house.  Gary was a country artist previously and the fiddle player toured with Reba McEntyre.   Both of them joked that they gave up the private jets to ride a 12-passenger van and make the big bluegrass money.   I'm just glad that they're doing what they do!  My clip from last night:

Tuesday at the Bluebird

We've been in Nashville for over two weeks and hadn't been to the Bluebird Cafe yet, Nashville's premier songwriters' venue.   We tried to go the previous Sunday night but the line was out to the sidewalk and there was no chance we could get in (it only seats 120).   But tonight we had advanced tickets and finally got to go back to one of our favorite places.

Tonight the lineup was very strange, four completely different styles represented.  The format at the Bluebird is four or five songwriters sit in a circle with mics and guitars and go round singing their songs in turn.  There were two kind of nondescript singer songwriters who were just ok, but for me the other two were pretty good.   Steve Goodie is a comedian/songwriter/producer who did all comedy country songs (betcha didn't know that was even a category, did you?)  Some of his songs were funny enough, including a Tom Petty medley he called a "Pedley" (look it up on YouTube).  The stars of the evening were Leigh Nash and her husband.  Nash is the lead singer of Sixpence None the Richer, a one-hit band that had the pop smash "Kiss Me" back in 1999.   She is a really good singer and songwriter and did some enjoyable songs.  Here is an acoustic version of Kiss Me by Leigh:

Monday night band at the Station Inn

For the past 10 years, the TimeJumpers have played Monday nights at the Station Inn.   We saw them at their new venue, 3rd and Lindsley last week and they were great!   There is a new Monday night band at the Station Inn and we went to see them last night.

Val Storey,  Carl Jackson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jackson) and Larry Cordle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Cordle) headline this band and they were yet another terrific Nashville assemblage of talent, Grammy nominees and winners.  They played traditional country, western swing and bluegrass.  Val had an awesome voice.   I don't have a video to post, but here is a YouTube of Carl and Val doing a nice duet: