Panhandle Opry

Part of the fun of this adventure is taking in the local sights and attractions. Well, Saturday night we decided to visit the Panhandle Opry in nearby Mossy Head, FL. It's billed as the "Cleanest Country Music Show on Earth", and the panhandle's answer to the Grand Old Opry. Now neither of us are big country music fans, but we had heard it was a good time and since it's one of those local attractions, we figured we should check it out especially since the cost was only $6. On this particular Saturday they were having a covered dish dinner an hour before the regular show at no additional charge. The Opry provided the ham, beverages, and dinnerware while all in attendance were to bring a covered dish to share. On the way there we missed a turn so arrived about 5 minutes late, and when we walked in, nearly everyone had already been through the line and were eating!! The food was okay, but the ham was extremely salty even by Russ' standards and you know what a salt fiend he is!

Now we weren't expecting any phenomenal entertainment, and we weren't disappointed. It's a family affair and has a long history in the area. We had heard that pretty much if you've seen the show once, you've seen it all. This particular night they did throw in a few Christmas songs though there were only two that were familiar. Nearly all the songs were slow, and if you like country, it might have been a somewhat enjoyable evening for you. But there were not only musical miscues but they were also having technical difficulties with the sound system. There were a couple highlights of the evening however. One was when two of the grandsons joined the group onstage on lead guitar on Memphis and Heartbreak Hotel during the first half of the show, and on Wipeout on the second half. (This also broke up some of the monotony of the s-l-o-w country music!) And the other was the special guest appearance by "Lulu" singing All I Want for Christmas and Santa Baby.....what a hoot she was!!!

If you want to check out further info and photos on the Panhandle Opry, simply go to http://www.panhandleopry.com/. We can at least say that now we've seen the Panhandle Opry, but it's definitely not something we plan to see again. But then, maybe we just caught them on a bad night....or not. After leaving the Opry, we headed over to the local bar for a couple beers. The band was Vic George & Doublecross, and they were surprisingly good. They played some country but had a really good mixture of other tunes as well. The clientele was quite diverse, and we believe this is the "hot spot" for the local area. We got a kick out of watching the pretty young girls hustling the guys for free drinks. And not just the young guys! Good thing I was with Russ!! Russ commented that the girls were really nasty on the dance floor and enjoyed the show. We even discussed that we should return some evening with the only problem being the action does not pick up until about 10pm. Quite late for us nowadays!

A couple people have asked me via e-mail about my singing, and if I miss it. I've mentioned in the blog about visiting a couple choruses in other states, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I missed out on attending a rehearsal in Ft. Myers. Initially I had hoped to be able to attend a few rehearsals while in this area, but then before we arrived I discovered that the nearest chorus is 1-1/2 hours away. Now I know there are some of my chorus friends who travel that far or further at times to attend a rehearsal, but that's never been something I wanted to do, at least not on a regular basis! I had considered the idea of going at least once during the two months we were here, but the thought of driving that distance by myself at 10pm didn't really excite me. So I haven't been able to sing with a chorus since September, and yes, I miss it, especially this time of year. I've always loved singing Christmas carols, and the smaller choruses I've belonged to always do many Christmas performances as fundraisers and/or community outreach. It's harder for the larger choruses to do this, but they might have a Christmas show instead. In high school there were a few of us that started an annual Christmas caroling event. The first year a few of us along with brothers and other friends decided to go singing door to door simply bringing joy to the neighborhood, but people kept trying to give us money! So we decided we'd go ahead and collect for the American Cancer Society and used someone's knit cap to collect the donations in. We couldn't believe that people actually trusted us enough to put money in a knit cap! Afterwards we went back to my house for hot chocolate. Every year thereafter we'd choose a charity ahead of time (we usually tried to pick one that wasn't as well known and didn't get as many donations), make up a canister, choose one of our neighborhoods, and set a date. Seemed our group got bigger each year, and we so enjoyed doing it. Slowly everyone's lives got busier and it became harder to maintain this tradition, but it's one of my fondest memories. And so, yes, I truly miss singing but will soon be back in Baton Rouge where I can visit my friends in the Baton Rouge Chorus and once more join in song, if only for awhile.

Last week I mentioned about karaoke at hot dog night. The machine wasn't for everyone's use (so no, I did not perform....thank goodness!) But the man who owned the machine and his wife did as well as Wendell, who stays here several months out of the year and plays a mean guitar from what we've been told. And he has quite a good singing voice from what we heard. There was also a special guest appearance by "Willie McLaine". Think he should meet Lulu!!

I shared some photos a couple weeks ago of how folks have decorated their rigs and sites for Christmas so thought this week I'd share some photos of how the owners have decorated the grounds around the clubhouse.

Also, here's a photo of one of the shirts I've painted so far, and I plan to work on another one this week. I'm really enjoying this craft but probably won't continue when I leave here since that would mean buying a whole bunch of new paints since I can't use my ceramic ones on fabric. But at least now I've done it and know the process.

Just a reminder (since someone asked) that if you double-click on the photos, they will open up fullsize...at least most of the time. Every once in awhile you'll find one that won't open. Don't know why since they're all loaded the same way...just won't.

Oh, and by the way, we finally watched Star Wars III, after joking beforehand whether we should first go back and watch number II one more time! LOL Have a great week!