I was daydreaming over the weekend about some places I’d like to visit.
Every year I threaten to make a few of these trips, but I think the time has come for me and Kindra to throw clothes and a camera in the pickup and take off.
Perhaps you, too, enjoy thinking about faraway places with strangesounding names. If so, see if any on my list of Places I Want To Go are on yours.
1. The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. I grew up listening to the Grand Ol’ Opry every Saturday night and have always wondered what it would be like to watch a show there.
I think I would close my eyes and imagine seeing Hank Williams and Bill Monroe on that stage.
Daughter Brooke and I came through Nashville on a road trip some years ago, but I think we hit Music City on about Day 7 and both of us were ready to get back home and didn’t stop. Earlier on the trip we went to Graceland and to Monroe’s boyhood home on Jerusalem Ridge, high above Rosine, Ky.
We figured that was already enough of a musical pilgrimage.
2. Avery Island, La. The birthplace of Tabasco Sauce, that magical red liquid produced by the Mc-Ilhenny Company.
The GPS software says it’s but a nine-hour drive from my house, so hey. Maybe we’ll do this sometime on a long weekend. Be a good chance to grab some Cajun food and listen to bayou music.
I was in the vicinity in 1971, when a buddy named Tate and I hitch-hiked from Fort Polk to South Louisiana. We had a fun time riding our thumbs to Lake Charles, Lafayette and points east before catching The Dog back to the base in time for roll call Monday morning.
Kind of wish we’d stopped off for a tour and some hot sauce.
3. The Martin guitar factory in Nazareth, Pa. It’s a little-known theological fact that the angel band plays Martin guitars. There is nothing like the sound of a Martin dreadnaught and I’d like to see where they’re born.
I have been told that they have a testing room where you can try out new Martins and I truly hope that it’s not just an urban legend.
This trip would also let me scratch off Pennsylvania from the list of states I’ve never visited.
That would leave me with 10: Alabama, Delaware, Idaho, Maryland, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon, South Dakota, North Dakota and Washington.
4. Battle of the Little Bighorn. This is a fascinating place and event.
It was a case of people dying because of misguided government policies and poor decisions by an arrogant leader.
It is a poignant reminder of how easily tragedies can occur.
5. There are two things I want to see, but don’t really know where they would be, specifically.
The first is to watch border collies herd sheep. I had three border collies when I was a kid and was astonished at how smart they were.
One learned to play baseball and played some lock-down shortstop. She would catch slow grounders in her mouth and would let hard ones hit her in the side. Then she would sprint to me, which meant I needed to play first base in order to get outs.
There are many Youtube videos of border collies working green pastures to bring the sheep to pen. I’d like to see it in person.
And I’d really like to see bears in a river catching salmon as they try to jump past.
To clarify, I’d like to watch from a safe distance as bears catch salmon as they try to jump past. A part of the allure of the scene is the violence of survival in nature, but I have no interest in becoming part of the violence.
These two trips likely will involve Scotland and Alaska, so we’ll work on 1 through 4 in the short term.