Loretta Lynn’s Ranch Tour

We were on the road by 6 a.m. the next day.  Our destination was Roanoke, Virginia.  As we were driving, we saw all these signs that  showed we were really close to Loretta Lynn's Ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee.  We took a detour to visit her Plantation Home, Ranch, Coal Mine, Butcher Holler Home and Museum. 

Her signs are everywhere for miles and miles so we just had to stop.

We arrived just as a guided tour was to begin so off we went on the shuttle.

There was no picture taking allowed inside the house but it was decorated just as it would have been way back in time.

Loretta Lynn is part Cherokee so she has this huge Cherokee Indian statue on the grounds.

We walked the grounds….

This is a museum of her collection of dolls and also a gift shop.

Then we had a tour of what a coal mine was like back in the day.

Then we were taken by shuttle to the Plantation House.

Beautiful home!

She has quite a collection of carriages…

Mooney’s man-cave was away from the main house.  In looking through the window, it was actually a pretty nice room.

The grounds are beautifully kept.  The guide told us that Loretta’s grandson is one of the grounds keepers.

We were able to see all of the first floor of the home.  She told us how this house is haunted and they have all witnessed this.  She left this home just as when she lived in it.

Several movies were filmed in this home.

We had a great guide.  She also told us that all of Loretta’s children manage the Ranch.

We went into the house through the back door and left out the front door.  There is a very long walk up to the front gate.

Awesome long porch!

This is Loretta’s grandson, hard at work!

The barn and stables are right next door.

Our tour of the house is over and we were taken to the museum next. 

Great place to visit!

Again, pictures were not allowed in the museum.  It is a great museum.  She has a very big section of her museum dedicated to Conway Tweety.  I remember we visited his Tweety City back in like 1983.  It was also a great place.  When we visited there, we also were traveling with Frank and Adela.  Great memories.  Our kids were very young then.  Our Goddaughter, Krista was about 2 years old then. 

This is one of her retired tour buses.  She has another one inside the museum.  We were able to go into that one.  She used to retire her buses every 10 years.  We also saw the one she uses at present.  She was preparing to go out on tour the day after we were there.  She was heading to the Washington DC area.  We are also heading that way.

Her boutique was great.  I took a couple of pictures there.

We were allowed to drive on the grounds, except the house area, so we drove out the back road behind the Plantation House so we could see the house where she lives now.  The guide had told us that she lived in a small house at the back of the property.  Well it was not little.  It is a single story home but not little.

We had to stop at the front entrance to her property so I could take more pictures.  I just had to walk up the stairs to get the whole view of the place.

Nice!

This is the home where she lives now.  It is behind the Plantation Home.  Very nice!

My camera has a pretty good zoom so here you go, closer look.

The surrounding area….

This cemetery is right next to her property. 

We took a little longer than expected so we never made it to Roanoke, Virginia today.  We drove a few hundred miles and stopped at Morristown, Tennessee for the night.  It was a well worth stop.  That is what vacations are about, right?!  More to come!

Our Trip With Our Compadres

A few months ago, our Compadres, Frank and Adela, invited us to go on a road trip in October up to Boston, Massachusetts.  They were very understanding that Manuel sometimes gets sick with out warning and they agreed that if he needed time during this trip, we would take time until he felt better.  We met to plan this trip and decided we needed at least three weeks so the trip would not be too rushed.  I set out to make reservations at military bases along the way, with the exception of stays at time shares the Compadres had made.  As time neared, we got excited about our trip. 

Let me give a little detail about our Friendship with Frank and Adela Garcia.  They have been our friends for 45+ years.  Manuel and Frank met when they were both fresh out of the military.  Manuel was Air Force and Frank was Marines  and they met through a mutual military friend.  They were roommates for a while before Adela and I came into the picture.  When we got married, they were our Padrinos and then when they had their second daughter, we baptized her.  We have remained in close contact all these years.  This trip will test our friendship since we will be together everyday for the duration of the trip.  I know this is a solid friendship and we will do great.

On September 23, we left San Antonio at 5:30 a.m. with our first stop at the Memphis Navy Lodge at 5 p.m.  We checked in and asked the clerk if he could recommend a place to eat.  He highly recommended a home cooking restaurant.  We had some laughs with the gentleman when he told us the name….. because the name of the restaurant was “The Old Timers Illinois Caboose”.  The food was delicious and there were a lot of Old Timers there!!  We all felt we were off to a good trip.  Please notice that most of my pictures were taken from the back seat, or from some kind of a trolley.  I did the best I could.

After dinner, we went on to our room to get some rest.  We will get back on the road early in the morning.

Old Pictures Shared

This week, was a time of old pictures being shared.  My Aunt Mary has the best pictures and she shared them with family.  This is a 1st day of school  in front of our house.  Ready for Bishop High School.  I believe I was a Freshman.

Carmen, Dolores, Me, Jesse, Mary, and Lupe.  Imagine the expense my parents had with all of us in high school.  We also had two younger sisters in middle school.  They are Josie and Alma. 

Great memories.

Lupe & Mary with my Uncle, Jake’s, Sr. Jacket.  He was a football Player.

This was on Christmas Eve, we were all going out to a Christmas dance.  We had also made tamales all that day.  My Mom would make so many tamales and it took all 7 of us girls and some aunts & Mom.  Man, I hated tamales for a long long time.

This is me, Lupe, Dolores, and Mary.

This is a picture of our 8th Grade class in Driscoll, TX.  Go Dragons!

Great Memories! 

Date Nite with Their Daddy!

On Saturday afternoon, they start preparing for their night out with Daddy.  He had taken them to the mall earlier and they got this chocolate cupcake face mask.  They are trying it out.  It smells delicious.  This is supposed to be all handmade natural stuff.  Anyway, check this out!

Lari is very much into this girlie stuff….

 

Arianna, not so much.  She kept hiding from me but finally, I got her!   

They are so cute!  Love these Girls!!!! 

When they went out, Grandpa and I also had a date out with our Friends, Frank & Adela.  They invited us to a Casino Nite at the Church.  We had such a nice time out.  We really enjoyed ourselves and we also won at the card tables.  I played Blackjack with the Compadres and Manuel played 3 Card Poker.  What an awesome time we had.

Until next time!

Grandparents Day

On Friday, Sept. 11, Arianna invited us to celebrate Grandparents Day at her school.  Of course, we would not miss it for the world.  This was at 8:30 am so we headed out to Wilderness Oak really early in the morning.  We had a great time. 

I spotted her in the crowd and she had this big smile when she saw us. 

  

She came and sat with us.  Awesome! These are very special moments for Manuel & I!

We had a great morning with Arianna.  Thanks you, Sweet Pea for the invitation!

We got to meet her Teacher, Ms. Whitis.  They line up to go back to class.