Nashville Here We Come!

We left Texas and sailed into Oklahoma with a rousing chorus of "OKLAHOMA".  Having been in the musical in Regional Theatre, I sang every part with harmonies. My husband started giving me looks 3/4 of the way through "Surry With The Fringe On Top " so I switched to singing under my breath.  Oklahoma seemed to zip by.  We seemed to be through it before I could get through "The Farmer And The Cowman Should Be Friends".
We spent the night in Ft. Smith, Arkansas.  Home of the dead animals.  Well it seemed that way.  We arrived there just after the storm and as we were unloading, I noticed two nearly naked baby birds on the sidewalk outside our hotel room.  One was tiny and already gone but the other was larger and still fighting for life.  Since I used to be in animal rescue, I kicked into rescue mode, scooped it up and ran in the room, wet a towel with very warm water and wrapped it up until I could think of a more permanent solution.  I was sad to find that I had arrived too late as the little bird breathed its last just a few minutes later.  A search of the area found a third dead baby over in the mud.  The storm must have blown them out of their nest.  The only one I could find was at the top of the second story roof tucked in the gutter.   That was a long way to fall and on to the sidewalk too.  Poor little things.  The girls of course wanted to hold them and pet them.  So I let them.

It was a hard lesson to learn but Nature is the best teacher and I don't turn down any opportunity to teach.  The next morning, as I was walking the dog, I found a little grass snake that didn't make it through the storm either.  The girls were thrilled to get to hold it.  I figured they would never develop a fear of snakes if they practiced  holding one that didn't move.

As we pulled out of the  hotel, Abby hollered out with all she could muster, "Good-bye baby birds.  Good-bye baby grass snake.  Good-bye muddy bird"  Abby doesn't leave anyone out. 
Needless to say, we were thrilled to cross over the "mighty Mississip" and into Tennessee.  The girls and I hopped out of the car and did the "We're finally in Tennessee" dance which looked an aweful lot like "Ring Around the Rosy". 

I had had this little ditty floating in my head for 2 days so we decided we ought to at least see Graceland while we were here in Memphis.  Neither of us are really Elvis fans but as the lyrics say, "for reasons I cannot explain, there's some part of me wants to see Graceland."  We headed on over and on the way, found a place to stop so we could all use the bathroom.  As we were pulling out of the parking lot,  I noticed, just out of the corner of my eye, a couple of people getting out of a car and one of them collapsing on the ground.  I brought it to Rick's attention and since we are foster parents and always up to date on our CPR training, Rick said, "Oh great.  Here we go" and turned the car around.  When we came upon the scene we found a young overweight man lying on the ground and his friend, also a young man trying his best to rouse him.  Rick called 911 and I went to see what I could do.  Since all we had ever practiced on were CPR dummies, this was new to us.  I felt for a pulse and found one but could not detect any breathing.  When I opened  his mouth, I heard what sounded like a snore so I knew he had an intake of breath.  I knew he was not sleeping as his color was not good but I was hoping with all my will that the snore meant he was breathing because although I would have done it, I did not wish to do rescue breathing on a stranger with a mouth full of braces to boot.  Rick had made his call and mercifully took over, and by laying his face right on the young man's nose, could detect shallow breathing.  He was out of danger and we could hear the sirens in the distance. We breathed a sigh of relief and waited around while they took this 18 year old boy to the hospital.  After our ordeal, it was too late to go to Graceland so we searched for a hotel in the area that would take pets.  Our search proved fruitless so we got back on the road and spent the night in Jackson.  Today we will be in Nashville and then Franklin and will start searching for a rental home this afternoon.  Our travels are near an end but the journey is still in it's infancy.  If you're interested, I will give you a tour of our new surroundings as well as a play by play on the house hunting.  I hope you've enjoyed the ride along the way and I'll see you in Nashville.