Here We Go Again!

 

It's that time again!! This week we'll be in Nashville for the 29th annual Chet Atkins Appreciation Society convention. We drove over yesterday in some pouring rain but ended up in partly cloudy weather!! Actually, we packed in the rain!! We backed the cars up to the door and with the back gates up, it was almost like a canopy for Pierre to load the things into our vehicles.

 

Actually, for me it began on Wednesday when I finally had the nametags in hand. We'd had them printed at Fedex Kinko in Farragut overnight Tuesday. I picked them up on the way to Norris. Then later on facebook I got a note from a friend saying that she was the one that printed them for us! I didn't realize that she worked at that location but reassuring to know that someone I knew had made sure they were done right!

So I camped out on the dining room table and made nametags....lots of nametags. I finished the ones I could by Saturday evening and then the task of finding everything that we need to remember to take over to Nashville began.

 

 

 Pierre is a good friend from France who flies over each year to spend time in DH's studio, exploring, and then helps pack the vehicles to be sure everything fits.
My van had the things that just go to the registration closet. We had plenty of room this time! Yes, those are rugs in there. We have space at the show this time for a few of us to take things we made to sell. We work hard at the registration desk as volunteers so our reward this time is to sell some of our things. Here's hoping some of the rugs will find new homes!

 DH owns an old jeep Grand Cherokee with over 218,000 miles on it. He's been babying it for a long time already and hopes to keep it several more years but we don't trust it for a trip like this so he rented an SUV. What he ended up with was a Ford Expedition. What alot more space in there than that jeep!! It's quite nice, seats 8, the seats all fold down so that Pierre could get all the suitcases, guitars, amps and things we need in our suite for the duration. His vehicle was fuller than mine.

So we got here before 6pm last night, unloaded both vehicles to their appropriate spaces and then waited a few minutes before friends started arriving. One couple had driven in from Washington State, several flew in from San Francisco and one from Tahiti. That's just the beginning. Today more people will come and by Tuesday the lobby will be full of friends. The convention itself starts on Wednesday. If you're interested in what's happening, you can go to chetsociety.com and find a schedule of who's playing. We'll have people like Doyle Dykes, Earl Klugh, Richard Smith, Frank Vignola, Jim and Morning Nichols and a bunch of people that you've never heard of but who are excellent guitar players. I'm in charge of the registration and DH is in charge of everything else. We'll be registering people the whole week as some can only come for a few hours and we figure out how much they owe and others for the whole 4 days.
The music goes from 9am til well after 11pm and then there are groups all over continuing playing, comparing notes and just having a good time.
I won't be doing any weaving but I did bring a basket of vests to finish. I try to escape for an hour each afternoon to sit up here with my feet up and crochet for awhile. It's good to relax inbetween!
So until next week, take a nap for me. I won't have time for one!!
Carol