By Way of Salem: Butter Roll

Friday, September 6, 2013

Fall Fever!

Is there such a thing? I think there must be cause I've come down with it! It's still in the 80's up here in the northwest, which is unusual even for summer around these parts, but you can tell Fall is on it's way. There's just that "something" you can feel; a stirring of air, a few scattered leaves zig zagging to the ground, and of course the sun setting earlier and earlier with each day.

This year I'll be welcoming in Fall by a trip to Tennessee! If you've never been, you really must go. It's so beautiful, and even more so in the Fall. The colors just explode with some of my favorite Autumn and Halloween colors of gold and orange!

The purpose of my trip? I will be visiting with my best old "Bag" friend/sister, fellow artist/creator and proprietress of Macabre Webs, Ellen. She's my Halloween pal, partner-in-crime and past life webweaver. And we actually lived to tell about it!

The "Bag" lives outside of Nashville on her own piece of heaven; 6 acres in the country, with her hubby and various critters. They have an amazing barn and a workshop where they create Halloween props and an assortment of monstrous effects for movies, as well as for her own art, not to mention throwing THE annual Halloween hoedown! The biggest pumpkinfest that side of the Appalachia!!! Yee haw Pa!

We have a full itinerary planned as you can imagine; Day 1: Heading east to Jack Daniel's in Lynchburg, then over to the Lynchburg Hardware and General Store, then it's over to Marvin's in Fayetteville. OMG - you haven't lived till you've eaten BUTTER ROLL.

Day 2: Paddling the Harpeth River out of Kingston Springs. I'm hoping the trees along the bank will be turning all my favorite Fall colors by then. Maybe Mondel's for dinner or to the Loveless Cafe.

Day 3: Franklin, TN and Belle Meade Plantation, then to downtown to check out the little shops and to CeCe's for frozen yogurt.

I won't bore you with the rest of the details, but we're going to go check out some properties while I'm there as well. I'm hoping to buy there so I can have all my horses at home with me, and then start a new business with her. I think TN would be a marvelous place to do that! In another post, I'll tell you all about that.

Besides running around to the point of sheer exhaustion no doubt, we WILL be going to all our favorite food places and are making a VERY lengthy list of all the southern food items that I must consume; deep fried pickles, butter roll (duh!), fried chicken, sweet potatoe pie, chicken and waffles, CeCe's yogurt, chocolate dipped cones from this place in Pegram, moonpies from Bell Buckle. Oh the list continues to grow, as does my expanding waist! LOL!

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Elvis and Me - Birthday Celebration 2013 - Part 2

Didn't I say that 2013 would be a great year? Well it's sure starting off great for me! Hope for you too! Ok, now let me get to the good stuff...

Me in the back of the limo - driving up through the gates of Graceland WOW!

As you know, I got invited back to Graceland again this year as the Elvis on Tour exhibit that Elvis' folks put together for my brothers movie closed in January after a 1 year showing.

The sign outside the exhibit

And what a beautiful exhibit it was! I brought the Golden Globe that the film and my brother won so it was on exhibit there the whole year. Now I've got it back home with me for now.

Thank you EPE for all the hard work that you did to honor the movie. I hope all you Elvis fans out there got to see it. If not, I'm sure you can go on to Elvis.com and check out past photos.

That's me (R) with Kelly, who works at Graceland. She's so fun and a By Way of Salem customer!

This year was Elvis 2013 Birthday Celebration and he would've been 78. Though I didn't get to cut his cake this year, I was still invited onto the lawn of Graceland and it was glorious! A beautiful sunny, but chilly morning, and there were a ton of fans there to mark this always-amazing occasion. Elvis' cake this year looked like the American Eagle jumpsuit he wore on his Aloha Hawaii event that was televised all over the world.

That's me (R) with Isabella Taylor Scott, the youngest fan club president. Isabella got to cut the cake this year. I cut it last year. We laughed that we are now members of the Elvis Cake Cutters Club!

Me (Middle) with Laurie (L) & Caroline (R) - fans of Elvis on Tour!

Aside from the birthday celebration on January 8th, I got to visit with a lot of friends and fans I met last year when the exhibit opened. I had a great time and I love Memphis. It's always hard to leave....

Candy, one of Graceland's horses and my personal favorite. I love this horse!

And for all of you who've never visited Memphis - well don't pay any mind to what negative things you may have heard. Memphis is a beautiful place with lots to do and see, it's home of the blues, the best BBQ, lots of history, beautiful scenery, and was also named one of Forbes best places to vacation! Don't miss it!!!