Tripping Again

I apologize for not writing anything last week. We were away on another trip. This one was to Nashville. Our 13-year-old grandson and his hockey team from Clearwater, Fla., were competing in a President’s Day tournament just outside Nashville, in Franklin, Tenn. They won, without suffering a single loss, although they did have one game that ended in a tie. Their trophy was a guitar. What else would you expect from Music City? (Each individual player also got a medal to take home. That guitar will go in the trophy case at their rink.)

We went early so we’d have plenty of time to be tourists and not just fans of our team. The drive to Billings was uneventful. The flights the next day weren’t. That first flight, Billings to Denver, was delayed by about an hour. There was some hydraulic problem, and then the plane needed to be de-iced. There was only one truck working (possibly the hydraulic problem was on the other truck?). Our layover in Denver was therefore shortened up such that our second flight was already boarding when we arrived at the gate.

Once that second plane was fully loaded, we sat in silence for quite some time before the pilot finally explained the delay: the ground crew had discovered paint peeling from one of the engines. They hoped to “tape it over.” Then they discovered that “peeling paint” had extended into the carbon fiber under the paint. Eventually they decided to pull that plane from service, so we all got to disembark.

There were other options: later flights that had layovers in either Chicago or Houston, if there were available seats. Those options wouldn’t arrive until that night. Or we could reschedule our entire trip, possibly spending the night in Denver. Or we could wait and see if they could round up another plane. So we sat in limbo, with “free water and snacks,” waiting to see what the airline would come up with. They eventually got a plane to fly in from Missoula to get us on our way. Instead of arriving at 1:30, it was about 4:30, which wasn’t as bad as we’d feared, especially considering the alternatives.

The next day we rented electric scooters (the kind you stand up on), and tooled around downtown Nashville most of the day. The interesting thing was, while we were figuring out how to rent them (app on the phone) and how to start them, a homeless guy across the street was offering us advice on how they worked. Dennis and I took a break from riding to tour the Johnny Cash museum (our daughter and grandson had toured it the day before while they waited for us to arrive). We met up with them after the tour to go to lunch at Hattie B’s (famous fried chicken). Those scooters are a blast.

That evening we walked three blocks from our air B&B to the Ford Ice Center to watch the Nashville Predators get humiliated by the Dallas Stars. The Stars leapt out to a 4-0 lead in the first period. The hapless Preds didn’t even get a shot on goal until about seventeen minutes into the game. The crowd erupted in cheers (jeers?) as if they’d just won the game. The final score was 9-2.

The next day, Dennis and I opted to skip the scooters and do the old-person tourist thing and ride the hop-on, hop-off trolley tour. Kim and Jace rode the scooters again, managing to cover the two roads they missed the day before. That night we went to the Ryman and took in a Clint Black concert.

Saturday morning, early, we moved to Franklin for the hockey tournament we’d actually traveled to see. Our team, the Clearwater Ice Storm, stormed the ice. They really play well together. We enjoyed cheering for them, and meeting most of the parents (plus one other set of grandparents) of Jace’s teammates. The championship game was Monday morning, and our flight home was at 2:30. We took an Uber from the rink to the airport. Kim’s flight didn’t leave until 5:00, so they did some more sightseeing. The flights home were uneventful, for which we were grateful.

We could have been heading back to Florida this week. The 11-year-old grandson, Cam, and his team, the Gulf Coast Flames, competed in the State tournament this past weekend (they didn’t win). Jace competes in his state tournament this weekend. But we’ll be watching those games from the comfort of home via LiveBarn. Dennis isn’t up to another trip just yet. (Neither is the pocketbook!)

I hope to be back to writing something that has more to do with gardening next week - or at least offer new recipes!