FLORIDA & THE CARIBBEAN

Moving on, we have flown down from Cincinnati to Florida, driving from Orlando to Melbourne for a rest before picking up the Harmony of the Seas from Port Canaveral for a Caribbean cruise. The weather in Fort Thomas was wonderful, mid 20's Celsius, low humidity and sunny, clear days. However, it's definitely taken a turn for the worse in Florida, temperature in the 30's, high humidity, thunder & lightning. Isias is spinning up a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico which is throwing lots of rain our way. We are in the Marriott Residence Inn which has a full kitchen, so we are rustling up some food of our own. Bit of a relief after all the huge meals we have been eating.

Automation is taking off here, driverless Waymo's(coming to London soon) and robot Uber Eats delivery buggies, one of these winked at Lin!

Boarded the Harmony of the Seas, 7th largest cruise ship in the world, lots of kids but we don't see them, we have our own dining room overlooking the pool. Entertainment good on board, went to the diving pool - trapeze - trampoline, Cirque du Soleil style show, an acapella singing show and and an ice skating Romeo & Juliette thing set in 1870's frozen Paris and the happy couple manage to get married.

Grubs been good, took much tho'. Weather is calm but way too hot for us in the 30's. Hurricane Isaias didn't bother us but made a direct hit on Oliver on Ookaloosa Island. He and his wife are OK but have lost their power - not good when it's so hot.

That's the park in the middle of the boat where we listen to music & take a beer or two.

Nassau beach resorts, too hot for us to go ashore.

Old big head in the middle of the ship's village street. It's a revolving sculpture that breaks up and reassembles.

We are at Royal Caribbean's private island, Coco Cay, tied up alongside sister ship, Utopia of the Seas. That's 10,000 people gone ashore to this massive all inclusive resort. Again too hot for us and it's peaceful on board.

We're just chilling in our private bar & restaurant.

FORT THOMAS

 We are visiting our good friends, Andy & Sarah (+ new friend JoJo), with whom we shared the tortuous COVID lockdown cruise. Fort Thomas is a former military site, high on a ridge overlooking the Ohio river. The army certainly knew how to choose prime real estate.

The general's house and the view over the Ohio river. We had a really chilled and relaxed visit with our hosts, walking JoJo, playing cards, going to their grandkids birthday party and a tour around Cincinnati. The Bengals were playing - and losing - but no-one could explain why they are named after an Indian tiger. The best explanation was that they bungle a lot of plays. Who Dey!

Keep still.

We paid a lovely lunch visit to the New Riff whiskey distillery. A newish company in what is the Bourbon capital of the world, there are many distilleries here in Kentucky that are unknown outside the USA - it has already won several awards. We sampled 8 different whiskeys, ryes and bourbons, including the 80% white lightning.

It all started so well - perhaps we should only have sampled 7.

We went on to visit Cincinnati Union station that is an absolute Art Deco gem. It is still a station and houses two museums. We went to the mega Omnimax surround cinema theatre and watched a documentary on the frozen north. The auditorium is so steep it kicked my vertigo into action. See me shuffle along!

Soon we will be flying to Florida. What will that hold?

LEXINGTON KY

It's pretty confusing when there are three Lexington's not too far from one another when it comes to programming your satnav. We are in the Kentucky one, where we are staying for a couple of nights before moving on to Fort Thomas. I must say that this part of Kentucky is beautiful. It's horse country around here with race tracks, stables, studs, farms and huge country mansions. We visited Kentucky Horse Park. It's run by the Kentucky State and promotes all horse activities. It keeps retired horses including 7 champion horses who have won more than $21 million between them. They also keep rare breeds. They show them off & show their great races. We saw Andi'Amu, First Classs & Roy H, beautifully turned out right down to their nail varnish. First Classs, the grey is an Arab.

Weather has been up in the 30's again, nice to sit in the shade of a tree. We left and took a scenic drive along Iron Works Pike that has the most beautiful mansions set in acres of farm and horse paddock. The Ryanair boss bought one a few years back.

I was recommended Ramseys for dinner, try the Hot Brown, it's great.

Wow, wow wow!!

NASHVILLE

Nice lazy day cruising on the Cumberland river, docking in Nashville in the evening. Overnight then full on in Nashville itself. Started with a tour and history of the town.

Broadway with the music bars, really loud at night.

Tennessee State Hall with the quarrelling architect and city councillor buried at adjacent corners. There's a huge map of Tennessee carved in the paving slabs at the foot of the slope. They have interesting places named. Rivers are made from shiny granite.

One of the most famous recording studies in USA. It was the one that got the music business really started in Nashville. All the big names from Elvis onwards have recorded here.

Who would have thought that there was a full size replica of the Parthenon in Nashville, complete with a massive statue of Athena with Nike on her hand. Perhaps we should donate the Elgin Marbles to Nashville!

The Marathon automobile manufacturing building has been kept. The interior is rented out to bars, cafes, shops etc, but has kept key parts of the manufacturing equipment and tools. All those rolls on the pegs are the leather belts used to drive the machine tools from an overhead drive shaft powered by a steam engine. The cars are interesting in that they are all right hand drive. Marathon went out of business in 1914 at the hands of Henry Ford, he sold the Model T for $500, the Marathon cost $1200.

This is Dolly's place by Broadway near the river front, the Songteller Hotel.

This is the Grand Ole Opry which is in a newish building on the outskirts of town. It moved there from the city centre Ryman building. Not everyone likes it so far out. Wooden bench seats, views not bad even from a distance.

It's been going 100 years. It is also a live radio show, you can see the radio presenter in box on the left side of stage. She does introductions, interviews some of the performers and does the commercials - "there are 10,000 Dollar Generals in Tennessee and over 200,000 in the USA, get down to DG and improve the value of your life. Our sponsors have donated a DG voucher to the person sitting in seat .......(pause for drama) K54  - loud roars & applause." The quality of the acts were all excellent, even if we didn't know who they were, the atmosphere was great, an enjoyable experience. These were the acts;

1. Riders in the Sky
2. Sunny Sweeney 
3. Blake Pendergrass
4. Dek of Hearts
5. Jade Eagleson
6. Charlie McCoy
7. Wyatt Flores
8. Sister Sadie

Do you know any?

GOO claim the radio show as the longest running. My internet tells me it's the BBC shipping forecast???

That's the Batman Building. No sleep,  up early, beat the sun to go to the airport to get the car.

GRAND RIVERS, between...

 ......the lakes. This is a picturesque little village set on a narrow strip of land in Kentucky between Lakes Kentucky and Barkley. We transition here between the Tennessee River & the Cumberland River through a short canal to make our way to Nashville. We took a tour by horse drawn buggy through the town with a local guide. There is a notable restaurant there called Patti's Settlement - it's notable for 1lb pork chops, 1 inch thick. Not for us. It also has the mile high pie, a meringue confection that Linda is modelling.

A nice gentle way of sightseeing.

That's one person's portion.

Patti's is more than a restaurant, it is a hotel, wedding venue, crazy golf, animals and a garden walk. It's supposed to get really done up at Xmas.