Blog For Free!
Archives
Home
2007 August
2007 July
2007 June
2007 May
2007 April
2007 March
2007 February
2007 January
2006 December
2006 November
2006 October
2006 September
2006 August
2006 July
2006 June
2006 May
2006 April
2006 March
2006 February
2006 January
2005 December
2005 November
2005 October
2005 September
2005 August
2005 July
2005 June
2005 May
2005 April
2005 March
2005 February
My Links
Daft & Demented
Totally Crotchtastic
Swamp Music @ MySpace
Natblog
Ayn Rant
The Ratclyffs
Van Zant Official Site
Lynyrd Skynyrd
.38 Special
Down South Jukin'
Rickey Medlocke Yahoo Group
Rickey @ MySpace
tBlog
My Profile
Send tMail
My tFriends
My Images
Sponsored
Blog
| Observation |
| 05.20.07 (2:47 am) [edit] |
Ain't it amazing how only a few Oreo cookies can make your dumps look like pieces of coal? |
| 3 Comments |
| Charlie Daniels Volunteer Jam |
| 05.13.07 (2:04 am) [edit] |
|
Okay, where do I start?? The Outlaws/Marshall Tucker/Charlie Daniels concert was AWESOME tonight. We got there a little late and missed the first song by The Outlaws (which, sadly, was "Ghost Riders in the Sky" - DARNIT I was so excited about seeing that one, too), but luckily we didn't get there any later. I was always a bit sad that Hughie Thomasson had left Lynyrd Skynyrd, but now after finally SEEING him with The Outlaws, it's now only bittersweet. I really loved The Outlaws, they were awesome and I'm so glad, after over a year, I've finally gotten the chance to see them and actually DID! We missed them two other times. It was sure worth the wait for this one! Dang is Hughie ever good on that guitar. I was thoroughly impressed by Chris Anderson as well. Heck, the whole band was amazing. I've always loved Marshall Tucker, and finally getting to see them was really great, but compared to The Outlaws and Charlie Daniels, they seemed to sound a bit weak. Not trying to put them down, I still loved them and it was awesome to see them, but their presence just wasn't as powerful. I was sure excited, though, to hear "Heard It In A Love Song", "Can't You See", and "Fire on the Moutain", live. Those are some of my favorites!! And again, I do NOT mean to put them down, they're still one of my favorite bands ever and I'm really stoked to have finally seen them!!! Now, Charlie Daniels? HOLY CRAP. I always knew he was good, but... dayum!! He was absolutely amazing!! I really can't say enough good about him. I was sure he'd be great in concert, but he really, truly, blew me away. I cannot BELIEVE he's 74 years old, he's still going great and it only seems like he's in his late 50's or early 60's, about. He looks and acts so young, and you can tell he's a genuine great guy. They played all the classics, including "Devil Went Down to Georgia" of course, "Legend of Wooley Swamp", "Simple Man" (love it), "In America", etc. But my absolute favorites must be "How Great Thou Art", and "Rocky Top Tennessee". OMG those were SO great. Charlie has such a beautiful voice, and gospel songs come so natural for him. Don't get me started on "Rocky Top", either; that song is SO COOL, always been an old favorite of mine, and hearing Charlie Daniels play it rocked my socks!! And dude... Charlie Daniels' drummer left me speechless. You'll know what I mean if you've seen him. Wow. His main guitarist left me jaw-dropped as well. They closed the concert with "South's Gonna Do It Again", bringing The Outlaws and Marshall Tucker back out on stage to join them. That was sure cool, lasted a long time too, and what a great sound with everybody playing at once! After the show, I bought an Outlaws 2007 tour shirt; it's a womens' shirt, lavender, with a femininized version of their logo on it. The steer skull has roses on the sides, it's really cute. Anyway, I really had a blast tonight and figured I'd tell y'all about it :D!!! I love all three bands more than ever now, especially Charlie Daniels. He's just so adorable, and he's the kind of guy everybody wants for a grandpa. And somehow, knowing he's a Christian as well makes you feel a bond to him. I'm gonna start working on a load of pictures now. I've STILL got to edit all the ones from Texas... and ZZ Top... and Skynyrd... and the last trip... and now this concert. This'll take a while. So until then, here's a teaser from Gettysburg!  |
| 4 Comments |
| PA/WV/MD/DC |
| 05.08.07 (6:13 pm) [edit] |
|
Howdyyyyy!! We just got back from a week long trip yesterday. Visiting my Grandma and Roger in WV was...well...as good as it could go, I guess. LOL. Gosh it's just so BORING there. All they do is sit around the house, watch TV, plan their next meal, and their lives revolve around their new dog Max (which is a very dirty dog and jumps all over you and then they act like YOU'RE the one doing wrong for not liking THEIR dog in your lap with its nose in your crotch...UGH. It's not a BAD dog, I'm just not a dog person and can't stand them jumping on me and licking me), and you just feel DIRTY sitting in there. The house isn't very clean and they let the dog eat off of everything so it's kinda gross... plus it's always so dark and you feel boxed in there - even downtown, the whole area is kinda depressing. They're in a smaller town near Wheeling, and it's like a Depression-era town that never revived itself - all you can feel is bored and depressed; since there's nothing to do, two days felt like a WEEK. But other than that it was nice to see them, HEE. To any relatives that read this, please don't let that get back to Grandma, I love her and we had a good time for the better part, but a stay with her always warrants its complaints, you must understand. At least there were no infestations of fleas or Japanese lady-beetles this time. We left there after two nights and drove through the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains in WV, MD, and PA. Stopped at Antietam, which was amazing and a bit sad (I got a little rocky piece of the Burnside Bridge that had crumbled off from the bottom of the side in the dirt) and stayed in Gettysburg for most of two days and one night. I really, really loved it there and already wanna go back... it was just SO cool. I loved Antietam too, but Gettysburg is a place I've been wanting to go since I was 7 years old. Saw so many places you'd recognize from the movie (if you've seen it)... the fields where General Pickett came out from, the split rail fence that General Longstreet stayed near during the battle, Devil's Den, Big and Little Round Tops (the woods where Colonel Chamberlain fought in), the church General Buford walked outside of, The Angle and clump of trees, the stone fence where General Armistead fell and Pickett's Charge reached its end..... it was just so incredibly awesome to see all those places in person after all these years. I used to really be into the movie (and the battle in general) way back when - it's cool to be so interested in it again and find out that I actually remember almost all of these guys. The place was so peaceful and serene - it was creepy to think so many guys were killed in such a beautiful place. The people are so nice there too. There was this awesome little tavern we ate at twice that was in an underground cellar below this old building (which is also a restaurant) - the entire thing is called the Historic Dobbin House. It was built by an Irishman before the Civil War started. I loved the tavern...the food was awesome and you got the feeling you were in a cave with the stone walls and candles lit and everything - all the candles, old-looking chairs and tables, Celtic music, and the way the waitresses dressed almost gave it a piratey feel, too. Our waitress from the first time remembered us and told our new waitress the second time what drinks we'd want before she even got to our table. We met another guy running an armory shop that was really nice - he was dressed in Civil War boots and a CSA hat and had guns on his sides and everything - he was really sweet and talked to us for a long time and I bought a couple things from him. In another shop I found some cheap pirate jewelry and one of them was a choker with a miniature copy of the Aztec coin from POTC on it. I didn't like the ugly choker it was on, but the pendants are small, so I bought two of them and clipped the coins off, and since they already had holes in them I turned them into a nice pair of earrings. I got some other little souvenirs too, like a replica .58 caliber bullet, a little brass Enfield musket, and a few CSA flags, and a coffee mug with a painting of General Lee on it. And of course some little gifts... I also got the book "Killer Angels" and read a few chapters of it on the plane ride back - I really am enjoying it so far. I'm surprised I never read it sooner. I forgot to mention, I got two tiny wildflowers from both Antietam and Gettysburg. The one from Antietam is a little blue thing that I found growing in the Sunken Road (Bloody Lane). And the one from Gettysburg are some little white flowers with purple edges - not daisies, I'm not sure what they are - I think they're the same kind General Pickett was twirling in his fingers in the movie when General Longstreet was drawing a battle plan out in the dirt - I found them in the same area. I always liked that part... Anyway, I pressed both of them and they're still drying out. I just wanted to keep something that grew from the fields where so many of my Southern ancestors fell. After we left Gettysburg, we went to DC for three nights, that was really cool (although driving in the city with all the stupid one-way streets and trying to find a parking spot was a nightmare). Tree lives there now and she showed us around a lot on the first day and we got to see her new apartment as well (I love her new place and LOVE the cats - okay, I want Sushi. HEE such a cutiepie). Went to a few parts of the Smithsonian [Air & Space, Native American, Natural History...(I FINALLY GOT TO SEE THE DINOSAUR SKELETONS THAT ARE IN ALL THE SCIENCE BOOKS)], saw some of the memorials around the National Mall (WWII Memorial, Vietnam Wall, Korean War Memorial, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, Washington Monument from afar, etc), went to the National Archives and saw the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and all that, and did a few other things. I can't believe we were only gone for a week... and if you don't include the two days that we did NOTHING at Grandma's house (okay, we did go to Cabela's for a couple hours), we sure packed a lot into five days. And the best part of it? Most of it was completely FREE. So except for food and gas and the hotels, we didn't really pay for anything, that I remember (except for a load of souvenirs of course). All the stuff in Washington, even the Smithsonian, were completely free - I just could NOT believe it. I know, I know - our taxes pay for it. But dang, if that museum were down here, we'd probably have to pay $30-$40 A DAY. But yeah, the battlefields were free...and everything. So that was good. One thing we did pay for was an hour-long bus tour around Arlington Cemetery. That was sure sobering... what can I say that hasn't been said before, seeing all the graves of fallen soldiers really does something to you. Seeing the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was especially moving, and we got there just in time for the Changing of the Guard. I got a video of it, I hope it turned out well. But besides that, the highlight of Arlington, for me, was the Arlington House, where Robert E. Lee and his family lived before the war started. I had no idea he had lived at Arlington, so when the narrator guy said we were coming up on the Arlington House/Robert E. Lee Memorial, I was shocked. We got to go in and everything (we walked where Lee walked!), but almost all of the furnishings had been cleared out. If I heard right, the Lee family can no longer afford the taxes on the building and I think they're shutting it down. I'm very sad about it... you'd think somebody would step forward and try to save something like that. Well that's about it really. Got home last night and was totally exhausted, but I finally got to sleep in my own bed - YAY! I took many, MANY pictures, and it might be a while (because I still have to edit and post the pictures from Texas...oops), but in due time I'll add them to D&D! |
| 6 Comments |
