Calloway County.....down on the farm

We drove to New Concord which is right by Murray and enjoyed the drive past all the forrests that have bare trees for the winter, it just looks so different to the summer time. It as been rainig off and on, and cold since we have been here but unfortunately not cold enough to snow so I really dont think at this stage we will get a white christmas.
Pat and Janice produce just about all the food that they eat for themselves and when they kill a hog, as they did the week or so before we arrived, they butcher it and do their own curing and smoking of their meats. We have been having the crispiest and best sugar cured bacon.
Janice had the ham picked out for Christmas dinner and needed to take it to one of the butchers in town to get sliced...well the ham was 34 lbs which is just under 15.5 kg and really big.....the guy at the butcher said leave it her and we will get it done.....Janice wanted to take it and bring it back when they would be doing it and the guy said no leave it or we wont be able to do it before Christmas. Janice said she wasn't happy about leaving a home cured country ham but the guy insisted and said they would look after it.
The next day we get a call that it is ready to be picked up and so we get changed and drive to town it took about 3/4 hour and when we got there they said that 1/2 hour previously that a lady with the same surname had picked it up............Janice was totally devestated to say the least. After much discussion we left the shop with the understanding that this was not over yet.

The next afternoon they called and said they had tracked down the lady and got the ham back and we could pick it up.......which we did .....immediately.....
We all will really enjoy that ham on christmas day.

Last night we went to a Place called Patties for dinner and the house speciality is a 2" thick Pork Loin Chop . We had an excellent dinner and a great time. The whole place was decorated for christmas and the lights were amazing. On the way there we drove to The Land Between the Lakes and saw some Buffalo and Elk.And Yes Melissa....Grant wore a jumper.While I have the laptop hooked up to Janice's ADSL, Grand is out working with Pat in the tobacco shed and they are loading the bundles of tobacco onto the trailerI know its dark but my phone dowsn't have a flash. This is the shed he is working in.

Nashville Stopover

We arrived in Tennessee on Sunday evening at 5.30 pm and it was already so dark and it felt like midnight. We hired a car at the airport. For the un-initiated thats a Lamborgini..........not really we got a white Ford ......boring but comfortable.
We found a place to stay for 2 nights and went to Shoneys for dinner....don't think we will go to one of them again.
Next day breakfast at the Waffel House and had a great breakfast and then went shopping...bought some warm clothes to wear while we are here.
Walked our feet off at nthe Mall and didn't get around to all the stores. Went back to our room and Grant fell asleep while I wrapped all the christmas presents and sorted them into the groups for our 2 christmas's we are having.

Dinner that night at Ruby Tuesdays.And yes Melissa grant was showing what a tough bronzed Aussie he is by not wearing a jumper........whereas I was wearing 3 layers............... Grant was keen to head out to Kentucky the next day so we didn't do the tourist thing in Nashville this time......and we are still feeling jet lagged.

Visiting LA

Well here we are in the land of bright lights and traffic. We arrived at 6.30 am and must say that I hope never to catch the flight again that goes via Auckland.....just too tiring. Got through customs and immigration very fast and found our shuttle bus waiting. We took off with a half full bus then we realized that the bus driver had just circled around and arrived back where he picked us up from and waited for a couple more people to arrive. When all the seats were filled we headed out to Santa Monica. The hotel is right by the pier and easy walking to the shops. The only thing about the shops in Santa Monica is that they are the big name shops and as I am hoping for some cheaper than Australia type of shopping we will wait till we get to Nashville..

Yesterday we did a bus tour of LA. They picked us up at the hotel and off we drove and around the block we went and arrived right back where we started .......twice..... Whats with that???
   I am very glad we did the tour because we now know that we prefer to find our own way around the tourist sights. Some things it was a case of \'blink and you miss it\' and other times it was \' I would love to show you that but the tour busses are not allowed to go there anymore\'.

 We go to Nashville today and once again I can say I am very glad to be leaving LA. Sort of a shame that I feel so strongly about the city of my birth. Just a country girl at heart.

The Journey Begins

We are on our way. Got up at the totally ungodly hour of 4 am after a very short night sleep. We were getting the elevator downstairs at the hotel and the lift doors closed very quickly and they grabbed Grant and for a short time, thankfully, they kept closing. I started to have visions of a squashed Grant being ripped apart by the lift. Anyway it finally let go and we got to the airport. Checked in and these days at the check- in if you are traveling on two passports and one is the US one and your traveling to the USA, that\'s the one you have to show not theAustralian one as they start their screening process for entry into the States even before you board your flight. Totally messed up the lady at check-in as I of course had to give her the wrong passport. She wasn\'t very happy with me.. Got to go and get flight.....more later