In My Life – what's happening in your life currently? | Page 435 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

I’ve spent so much time on the road lately, my head is spinning.

I was in Dallas at the end of March for a week for work, then a week at home, then flew out to Detroit for a few days for business again. Then when I got back my son was on Spring break. I had some PTO scheduled so we (me, Mrs. Ramon and Pablo Jr.) decided to take an impromptu road trip. We literally decided the night before to drive to Nashville and Memphis. Started driving on Thursday morning, stopped to see an enormous model train exhibit called Roadside America before pushing all the way to West Virginia, driving through some incredible mountain scenery on the way. We stayed overnight in WV, got some swimming time in at the hotel, checked out a local record store, had some biscuits and headed south, stopping at the Kentucky Folk Art center on the way.

We made it to Nashville super late, the city is beautiful at night. We awoke the following day, swam, and then went to the Johnny Cash museum and did the Grand Ole Opry backstage tour before sitting down to one of the best meals I’ve had in a long time at Loveless Cafe. Catfish, barbecue, fried chicken and homemade pie. The next day was Easter, so after dinner we drove 3 hours to Memphis and did our best to sleep late. 

Easter morning we drove to Al Green’s tabernacle  – yes, the famous soul singer gave up his secular music to preach the gospel has a small community church where the music is unbelievable and and the people are friendly. We stopped for donuts at Krispy Kreme and the clerk just handed us a dozen donuts for free. Stuff like this kept happening to us – random acts of kindness and good will – and we began to really feel like our trip was filled with miracles. The church service literally brought me to tears, not from religiosity but because I found the sense of community in the church overpowering. One of the best moments of my life, for someone who is on the atheist/agnostic end of the spectrum, that’s pretty special. After that, we did the Graceland tour and paid our respects to the King, before heading to Sun Records on Union Avenue for the last tour of the day. We missed ALOT of Memphis and will most definitely have to return. @Ahhh Girl next time we will have to get in touch ahead of time and try to catch up with you, there was just no time on this whirlwind…

Back to Nashville that night, let Mrs. Ramon sleep while Jr. and I swam. Then breakfast at the Pancake Pantry before heading north. We managed to get to the last tour of the day at Mammoth Cave National Park. I believe that if you’re near a National Park you should make the effort to visit, and this one was well worth it. Fun, interesting and…well now I can say I’ve been in a cave…

We drove on to Cincinnati after a quick stop in Louisville to see the gigantic Louisville Slugger. Checked in at midnight and slept until 8. Then we swam – everywhere we could, we squeezed in a swim – before checking out the Underground Railroad Freedom Center’s Nelson Mandela exhibit which was devastating. We headed across town to the Maneki Neko museum – Maneki Neko are Chinese / Japanese “lucky cats” and had fun catching up with a friend. 

With 10 hours of driving left we picked a midpoint and split it into two days, stopping at a small town in Pennsylvania where we got some swimming in before heading home on Wednesday. 

We are still exhausted but exhilarated by the fun, the beauty, the incredible people but above everything else the great family togetherness we experienced along the way.