Goodlettsville, TN – The Grand Ole RV Resort

On Monday November 15, we left Diamond Caverns RV Resort at 1pm with Acey’s mileage at 79,069 and Thor’s at 95,341. Since Jim had surgery, we did not ride bikes, but hope to get “back on the saddle” soon! Linda drove about 45 minutes – to the Tennessee Welcome Center/Rest Area where we stopped to make lunch.

As Amanda pointed out, you can about look truck drivers in the eye; better to keep your eyes on the road!

We waited a few minutes after we ate; there is a charge to check in before 3pm. So, we arrived at Grand Ole RV Resort right at 3pm (Our GPS likes to call it the Grand Olé [O-Lay] Resort) This place is kind of our “home away from home” as we have stayed here a few times when in the Nashville area. We were here for several weeks after we sold our house in April of 2020, in the begining of the COVID pandemic – or as Jim likes to call it the Fauchi virus. We were back for 2 weeks at Easter and now we are staying here for 2 weeks before we head south – to Alabama and then Florida – and warmer weather!

Tuesday was a busy day! We started at the dentist where Linda got her new crown and we both had our teeth cleaned. Then Jim dropped Linda off at Vanderbilt 100 Oaks for her annual mammogram; he ran a couple of errands and waited in the parking lot. He didn’t want to wait inside where he would have to wear a mask. We had lunch at Firehouse Subs and stopped by storage to pick up a couple of tools and a folding chair for Thanksgiving at Eve’s next week. Then Jim took Linda to play Bridge and he drove out to Dickson to get our mail. It got a bit warmer today – up to 70!

Wednesday, after Linda had a physical, we dropped off our recyclables in Bellevue and had a lovely visit with Craig and Linda (friends and former neighbors) for lunch and it was great to catch up with them!

JIm crouched down to not be so tal!

We were able to get our COVID vaccine booster shots also! We headed to Stephens Valley Church for a Thanksgiving Dinner and service.

It was a full house, with a tasty meal and a good message about gratitude – some quotes by G. K. Chesterton were mentioned that are worth repeating and contemplating.

“When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”

“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”

“When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?”

 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (ESV). Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Having an “attitude of gratitude” is something we should have every day!

Thursday, Jim had a followup with the doctor that did his carpal tunnel surgery (on November 9) and he was given a clean bill of health – another thing to be thankful for! Just need to be careful as it continues to heal, but he doesn’t need a bandage. We stopped by Yazoo to celebrate; the sun was beginning to set and the sky was colorful!

Yazoo has a large carving on the premises – Teddy Bearsevelt – (or is it Beersevelt?) has been a resident of the taproom for many years – a gift from Linus Hall’s uncle who had it carved and delivered to Yazoo. He stands about 6 feet tall – carved from a cedar tree. His appearance is connected to the legend of the Teddy Bear.

The story goes that it all began when Theodore Roosevelt was on a bear hunting trip near Onward, Mississippi on November 14, 1902. Roosevelt, commonly known as Teddy, was an avid outdoorsman and accepted a hunting invitation from Mississippi governor, Andrew Longino. But, unlike other hunters in the group, Theodore had not located a single bear. On the second day of their hunt, Roosevelt’s assistants, led by Holt Collier, a born slave and former Confederate cavalryman, cornered and tied up a black bear behind the lodge. They summoned Roosevelt and suggested that he shoot it. Roosevelt exclaimed that such an act would be unsportsmanlike, and he refused to shoot the bear. The news of this act of compassion from the President spread so quickly around the United States that Clifford Berryman of the Washington Post produced this sensational cartoon that appeared in the Washington Post on November 16, 1902.

A couple in Brooklyn, N.Y., Rose and Morris Michtom, saw the cartoon. They owned a penny candy shop and decided, for fun, that they would make a stuffed plush bear and display it in the window to honor the President. Rose cut out some pieces of fabric and sewed on some button eyes and put it in the window with the name Teddy’s Bear. It was an overnight hit. So much so, that the Mitchtoms had to ask if they could use Roosevelt’s name for the bear. Roosevelt obliged, and their business took off! Instead of selling candy the couple decided to start the Ideal Toy Company, which went on to produce a multi-generational love of Teddy Bears. Roosevelt’s children were some of the first to play with the Teddy Bear.

 Although not confirmed, it is said that as a gift the Michtom’s gave the above bear to Kermit Roosevelt, who was thirteen at the time. The bear was a constant reminder to the children of the tenderness of their father and his deep connection to the natural world. (was that where Kermit the frog’s name came from?)

On another note, next to the bear hangs the artwork (drawn by Lila Hall, as is most all the art for Yazoo’s labels) for the Onward Stout label – a brew that Yazoo needs to bring back (in Linda’s opinion) a delicious stout! Named for Onward where the hunt took place.

The MOON on Friday was a fiery orange – awesome!

Sunday we was a busy day! We went to Sunday School and church at Stephens Valley Church. Linda’s brother Rob had driven up from south Florida on Saturday and is staying with Eve. He joined us for worship at Stephens Valley Church (see the service here). We had lunch at Panera and later, we went to Yazoo and celebrated Linda’s birthday! There was, of course, beer…

and cake – ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins!

and BBQ (from Honeyfire!), games and family fun! Thanks everyone; it was a fun evening!

Chris, Rob, JIm – Amanda, Linda & Eve

Monday, Jim took Linda to Eve’s and we made cranberry pudding for Thanksgiving Day. Rob’s blue and gold macaw, Marlin, watched the goings on perched on the back of a chair. Rob has had him for 37 years – they have been known to live to 75.

Eve and Linda were going to go to Book Club later to discuss Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders by David Grann. As it turned out, Book Club was cancelled due to several circumstances. Jim had a physical; we met him later in the afternoon so Linda could go to the Predators game with Jim. We had season tickets for several years and it was fun to see a live game again at Bridgestone Arena.

Inside the arena, Linda met up with the Treadator – kind of resembling Gnash.

We had great seats – about 10 rows back from the ice – thanks Jim N! We also noticed a new magatron since our last visit – with side panels resembling fangs.

The Preds skated out under the big Pred head…

Gnash came to energize the crowd and was accompanied by Nashville Soccer Club’s mascot – Tempo the coyote. NSC is in the playoffs!

It was a great game – the Preds beat the Ducks 3-2.

Wednesday, Eve and Rob came to Acey for lunch and we finished the BBQ from Sunday’s birthday dinner, played Triominos and watched The Chosen Christmas Special. We went out for dinner at Thai Phooket 2 – nice to enjoy different food for a change!

Thursday – Thanksgiving Day – we spent the day at Eve’s home in Springfield. Chuck was in Korea last week on company business and returned home to Baton Rouge on Sunday. He wanted to join us for Thanksgiving, so he flew up on Thanksgiving Day. Chris picked him up at the airport about 10am. Chuck has been our only overnight guest at Acey – this will be his 3rd time to stay with us!

Chris played chauffeur
Chuck – our world traveller! Jim – chief cook and all around good guy

Eve’s cat, Tank, stayed out of the way as much as possible and paid little attention to what was going on – he just wanted to distance himself from the large bird that had invaded his space and made unusual and loud noises.

We stuffed the bird (herb stuffing with cranberries, carrots, onions, celery, apple and walnuts) and Jim got the turkey in the oven. We fixed sweet potato casserole, mashed rutabega, potatoes au gratin, and a green bean casserole was cooked in the crock pot. What a feast! We were too full to enjoy the cranberry pudding! After dinner, Linda boiled the carcass and began preparations for the turkey soup. Lots of football to be watched – Rob was cheering for the Lions and Michigan.

Rob and Marlin

It was a good day of family togetherness.

Friday, we returned to Eve’s to cook some jambalaya mix and barley, added that to the slow cooker with broth and turkey pulled from the carcass, chili powder and other secret ingedients to cook while we went to City Forum in Clarksville. What a place that is! They have lazer tag, bowling, go-karts, arcade games, mini golf and more – all inside! It was rather noisy with lots of activity all around! We chose to play mini-golf.

Rob watched his shot (as did Eve) – Andrew’s girls, Dulce and Dayanna waited their turn
It was Amanda and Andrew’s suggestion for us to come play here!
Chuck had the best score!
Chris had a good game
Jim also enjoyed his round of golf – his hand is looking really good!
Linda had the highest score…

We enjoyed our round of mini golf! Since it was in the 40’s outside, it was nice to play inside!

Amanda, Andrew and his girls played some arcade games and went home, the rest of us went back to Eve’s – Linda finished making the soup and we had some for dinner. And, we finally had the cranberry pudding and hard sauce! This cakelike-pudding dessert has been a Magnuson family holiday tradition since 1957. YUMMM!

We addded walnuts… but don’t eat it plain like this…
Drizzle it with hard sauce – oh my! – makes it super tasty!

Saturday, we finished off the turkey soup for lunch and visited at Eve’s for a bit – then we headed to Yazoo again, since Chuck missed our previous visit there. Rob had to get to bed early – he plans to get up at 2am to drive back home to South Florida!

Sunday we went to Sunday School and worship at Stephens Valley Church; our last “in person” visit till April when we return to the Nashville area. Today was the first Sunday of Advent – the sanctuary was decorated for the Christmas season and we sang Christmas hymns. You can see the service here and the bulletin here.

After church we had lunch out with friends – but no photos – Linda has missed a few opportunities to photograph our time here! We drove out to Dickson to get our mail and dropped a couple things off at storage. Jim and Chuck listened to the Titans game on the radio and caught the last few minutes on TV when we got back to Acey. Chuck was happy that the NSC made it to semifinals but was disappointed that they lost today – and the Titans lost too. We zoomed with some of the family, and heard from Rob that he got home safely.

Jim fixed salmon burgers for dinner, Linda worked on the blog and more football was being played out on TV. We made a few preparations for our move in the morning.

Monday we head to Robertsdale, AL – a long driving day. Eve picked up Chuck and we said our goodbyes; he flies back home to Baton Rouge later today.

It won’t go below freezing at our next stop. but temps will still drop to the 30s and 40s overnight. We hope to find warmer weather soon!

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9 thoughts on “Goodlettsville, TN – The Grand Ole RV Resort”

  1. If you run out of places to go in North America… It’s warm here all the time, and there’s a golf course right down the street from our house. 😀

    1. Thanks for the suggestion Julie! How much to ferry Acey over the big pond? What is the cost there for diesel fuel? What else shall we consider? 😀

  2. You guys have a safe trip and want to thank you for posting the SVC full services. We are limited in what we can do, so we try to watch Jim’s service. We had a great Thanksgiving too. Our dinner was ordered from Cracker Barrel and they did a wonderful job. I was able to get some left overs home with me. Happy Jim’s hand is doing well. Blessings to you both, 🙂

    1. We enjoyed our time in Nashville and caught up with a few friends – but mostly family time! It was good to be at church in person, but we sure are glad we can still see the services on YouTube!
      Maybe we can plan a visit with you when we come back in April!
      💕 Linda

  3. You are a good writer, linda. I dont know who andrew is. Have a wonderful, warm, Christmas. I head for the hill country of Texas tomorrow for a week. My niece lives in Boerne, a neat little German town, reminds me of franklin. Its about 35 miles from San antonio.

    1. Thanks for reading the blog; I try to make it interesting!
      Andrew is Amanda’s significant other- and has 2 young girls – they live in Clarksville. Eve moved to Springfield to be closer to Amanda, but it’s not really that much closer than Bellevue… she has a nice single level home and we filled it up at Thanksgiving! Have a good trip to Texas

  4. Sorry book club had to be canceled and I therefore missed seeing you. Sounds like you had enough things to do to keep you busy in the Nashville area…. til next visit.

    1. Yeah – I was hoping we could meet up; we’ll be back again in April🥰
      We did have a busy time, especially with family all together for Thanksgiving 🦃

  5. Sounds like a great Thanksgiving family visit to Nashville! And it’s always nice to get those routine doctor and dentist visits out of the way! Things should warm up for you a bit down in Alabama and Florida. Unlike up here in Charlevoix where Jack and I just walked in a howling wind with some kind of snow pellets/sleet/frozen rain falling! But that’s okay, we enjoyed a lot of nice warm walks in the southwest 😀 Enjoy your stay in Alabama!

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