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Sunday, September 6, 2015

Author LoRee Peery shares an Anniversary Vacation Memory!




 ~Author LoRee Peery~

Anniversary Vacation

Bill and I were married on July 27, 1974. We began our life together without a whole lot of money, so our honeymoon was a two-week camping trip to the Black Hills in South Dakota.
Many days before our wedding, we were blasted with a Nebraska heat index of 100-plus degrees. The temps in the Hills dropped into the fifties most nights, so we were thankful for sleeping bags. I wish I had pictures, but we didn’t have a camera at the time.

Our big car was a pale green 1968 Lincoln Continental with suicide doors. We pulled a silver trailer with a pop-up tent. To this day, we talk about some of the campgrounds we entered, driving down, down, to a mountain creek, only to leave again because of the objectionable-looking campers already there. Many nights, our lullabies came from the roar of motorcycles, since the rally in Sturgis is the first week of August.

A bright memory from our return trip occurred at Ft. Robinson in northwestern Nebraska. A green ragweed, not yet turned into a tumbleweed, began to shake near our tent. Then, little, by little, it descended into the earth. When it was underground, tiny clawed paws filled in the hole.
Forty years later, our adult children planned a big party at our acreage. We were blessed with tolerable weather and the presence of forty family members. I do have a camera and treasure the two scrapbook keepsakes from July and August, 2014.
           


I’d always wanted to see Nashville, and was thrilled when the RWA conference was scheduled at the Gaylord Opry Resort a few years back. It flooded. The venue was changed. Bill knew how disappointed I was.

God is good, and worked it out…
I fell in love with the TV show Nashville and put visiting the city on my bucket list. In 2014, we agreed to take our fortieth anniversary trip to Nashville. We decided to camp at Opry Resort KOA, in a cabin.

Our first vacation foray was to the historic town of Franklin, where a Blue Grass Festival was being held. Along the way, my niece and her husband were delightful tour guides. Highlights included Leiper’s Fort, Loveless Café, and a bit of twisty drive along the Natchez Trace. Along the way, I snapped a picture of The Bluebird Café.

The night of our anniversary we were treated to a lightning storm, and fell asleep to thundering rain. We sat bolt upright at a nearby crack and knew the strike was near. Upon awakening, half the tree in front of our cabin lay stretched across the neighboring porch.


          


Our gift to one another was a bus tour. Our driver hit Music Row and pointed out multiple highlights. The tour included the historic Ryman Auditorium, the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum, a backstage tour of the Grand Ole Opry, and Gaylord Opry Resort. We spent the next day at Bell Meade Plantation.
I want to go back.
            

Thank you Loree and congratulations on 40 years of marriage!

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