Tag: MUSIC

2017?

So what will 2017 be like?

Reflecting on what happened in 2016 helps me focus on how to make 2017 better, below is an outline of my end of year thoughts and action plans (the first chart is  blank, if anyone wants to use it for themselves, and the second one is filled out- hopefully the filled-out version will motivate me to follow through, after publicly stating this):

2016 Reflection My Thoughts 2017 Plans 2017 Specific Actions
For what am I grateful? Make plans to do something that enhances, improves, what I am grateful for:  Make It Count, Make a Difference.

 
What did I enjoy most? Spend more time and energy on what I am passionate about and identify ways my actions will benefit others:  create purpose!

 
What did I do to benefit, give back to others who are important to me? This is success.  Continue with more and if something is lacking make specific plans to elevate this action.

 
What improvements did I make from the prior year? This is success.  Continue with more, what else can be done? Change is constant, keep it up, find ways to improve more, or lose it; complacency will lose it.

 
What didn’t work out? This is failure, but temporary, because I will learn from it and make changes.

 
What were the challenges? List them along with what I learned from it.

 
What did I want to do, but didn’t get around to doing it? Schedule it in 2017.

complacency

2016 Reflection My Thoughts 2017 Plans 2017 Specific Actions
For what am I grateful?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 ·        Faith

·        Family

·        Friends

·        Health/Fitness

·        Music

·        Nature/Outdoors

·        Travel Opportunities

·        Business Opportunities

·        People who have supported/mentored me throughout my life

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Make plans to do something that enhances, improves, what I am grateful for:  Make It Count, Make a Difference.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 ·        Get involved in a helpful way with church to contribute/give back with my time

·        Plan and Spend quality time with Family and Friends

·        Research and Improve Nutrition through better meal planning

·        Schedule 3-4 days of workouts per week and stick to it

·        Support Musical Artists by attending concerts, buying music, blogging

·        Nature/Outdoors/Travel:  plan trips and share experiences and resources with others

·        Make weekly goals and follow through to grow business

·        Find an organization that helps people act and improve themselves; I’m not much a believer that “just dumping gifts in someone’s lap is the best way to make a long-term difference (if they are not trying to improve themselves on their own), but I want to help people who are trying

 
What did I enjoy most? ·        Time spent with those I care about

·        Music

·        Traveling

·        Improving via Design or Personal Fitness

 Spend more time and energy on what I am passionate about and identify ways my actions will benefit others:  create purpose! My Lifetime Goal/Dream:   I have a grandiose dream of creating or being involved with a luxury get away place that provides a place for people to get healthy, relax, work on fitness and enjoy music – all without leaving the getaway place.  A place for others to recharge, reflect, improve.

 
What did I do to benefit, give back to others who are important to me? ·        Time spent with those I care about, I tried to be present whenever someone needed it.

·        2016 I probably spent more time than ever before reflecting, so next year I want to increase the time spent in action.

 

 This is success.  Continue with more and if something is lacking make specific plans to elevate this action. ·        Increase time spent on actively giving back to others – this area needs improvement for me.
What improvements did I make from the prior year? ·        Stayed physically active throughout the year

·        Attended more often at Church

·        Acted to improve my situation, rather than complaining about it

·        Acted on Real Estate renovations

 

 This is success.  Continue with more, what else can be done? Change is constant, keep it up, find ways to improve more, or lose it; complacency will lose it. ·        Continue plans and focus on health and fitness

·        Get more involved with church

·        Find other opportunities to renovate real estate

·        Continue focus on self-improvement/purpose

 
What didn’t work out?

 

 ·        Failed relationship

·        Relationship damage with others

 This is failure, but temporary, because I will learn from it and make changes.  

·        Try to keep interactions peaceful

·        Make efforts to repair relationship damage with others

 

 
What were the challenges?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 ·        Stress

·        Turmoil

·        Negativity

·        Disrespect

·        De-valued self-worth

·        Flight

·        Escape

·        Sadness

·        Emptiness

·        Simply existing, not living

·        Fallout

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 List them along with what I learned from it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 ·        I learned to Let Go.

·        I learned not to let significant time pass without positive action and improvement in any given situation.

·        Improved Independence

·        Let go of stress related to unimportant/insignificant events

·        Remove myself from turmoil and surround myself with positive people

·        Exercise relieves stress

·        All people deserve respectful interactions, even if there is something bad happening

·        Self-worth: continually work on self-improvement and don’t be affected by others who de-value that self-worth- ignore it

·        Fleeing from a problem doesn’t solve it; it must be tackled head on

·        Get away from environments that can’t be improved and cause sadness

·        Improving my relationship with God and following what I am passionate about removes emptiness

·        Pursing a passion with a purpose leads to happiness and is living, not simply existing

·        Change will create fallout; that is a tradeoff unfortunately and will require more effort to improve but if not; let it go; nothing forced works in the long term.

·        Finding forgiveness for “wrongs” because they fueled improvement, so the “wrongs” turned into a positive outcome.

 
What did I want to do, but didn’t get around to doing it? ·        I wasn’t as affective as I wanted to be in 2016, because I didn’t spend enough time on it. Schedule it in 2017.

It is important to me to live life the way it matters most: TODAY.  When I look back on 2016, I can’t really say that it was a good year, or a bad year, because there were both experiences, almost to the extreme at each end, and somewhat surreal in retrospect.  So many disruptive changes occurred all at once (my dad’s death, a new business venture, loss of employee benefits at my current job but at the same time, my best year ever there, a divorce, giving up a condo on a lake, moving into a new home, renovations, challenges with my kids brought on by the divorce; it’s just been busy); so, I’m hoping that 2017 will be a little bit calmer.  I welcome change, just not as much disruption all at one time, it was an emotional roller coaster year for me and a bit of a blur with so much happening.

I plan to make 2017 a better, calmer year.

I also will pray for guidance, every day, in 2017, it can’t hurt, that’s for sure!

I hope to have the opportunity in 2017 to work with other motivated individuals, to pursue further success in life, because that aligns best with my passion: continued improvement.  This is what I do in my current real estate career (help successful people become more financially successful) and my new business venture (which provides motivated people an avenue to become financially successful).

If you read the original reason, “ABOUT”, from the menu in my blog, which I just started three months ago, this is it:  I am looking to connect with like-minded people and collaborate. 

I realize the internet is filled with a lot of fake people and get rich quick schemes…and this is NOT me, nor what I’m pursing.  I believe I put enough information out there about me, my thoughts, in my blogs, so you can get to know me and hopefully realize I’m a “normal” person, if there is such a thing.  If you search social media (Twitter, FaceBook, Instagram):  annm2705, you will find all my information.  I’m simply at a point in life, ready for the next step in a new venture and excited about the possibilities and opportunities in life.

by Categories: Careers, Entertainment, FAITH, FAMILY, FITNESS, Following Passions, FRIENDSHIP, HAPPINESS, Improvement, Letting Go, Make It Count, MUSIC, Nutrition, RELATIONSHIPS, TRAVEL, WellnessTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

A Night in Nashville- Say “Yes” to Adventure

ROAD TRIP PLANS

Every road trip I’ve taken seems to end up with unexpected happenings and this was no exception!  But this time, it started with an unexpected beginning, which was a text from my friend a week before asking if I was up for a road trip to Nashville the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Well, there was no hesitation to that question!   I had no plans, so YES!!

FRIDAY NIGHT – DR ZHIVEGAS

The trip would have started Friday night, but I already had tickets to attend the second annual Black Friday Ball concert with Dr. Zhivegas, and wasn’t going to miss that.  My intent was not to stay out that late (last time it was 3 or 4 am because we had breakfast after) but not this time, I thought, because we had an early departure Saturday morning at 7:30 am. But when it’s a fun concert, it’s hard to leave and I didn’t pack until Friday night either due to a busy week, so I finally got to bed at 2 am Friday night.  Oops!

This was the Black Friday Ball (current pop music, followed by 70’s music and then Prince):

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SATURDAY- DEPARTURE

The alarm went off at 6 am and I got up, showered and packed some snacks and drinks for the road and thankfully my friend, Krista, picked me up and I didn’t have to drive having only 4 hours of sleep.  We had another friend going with us and picked her up, then we were on our way!

The Road Trip has begun!
Bye STL

SATURDAY- THE DRIVE

One would expect to sleep, but not when you have a couple of friends in the car; we spent the 4.5 hours talking!  When we arrived in Nashville this song started playing ironically.

Woke up in Nashville

Woke up in Nashville! Yes we did!
Hello Nashville!

SATURDAY – THE HOTEL

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We had an early check in and were able to drop off everything in the room.  Along the way, we also found out that another friend of Krista’s and her husband were in Nashville, visiting from Virginia.  So we arranged to meet them at Tootsies.

SATURDAY – TOOTSIES

This was a multi-story honky tonk bar with a roof top outdoor seating.  It was a packed deck at 1:30 pm when we arrived, so we sat inside near the band.  We heard a couple bands play and the local TV station was recording for a promotion of next week’s event, so the crowd got all wound up with that.  It was a fun little bar, we had lunch there and visited with Kim and her husband.  After awhile, Kim and her husband were ready to head back home, so we decided to try another venue.

 

SATURDAY – HONKY TONK

We decided to explore Honky Tonk, Krista has been to Nashville before but Doneen and I have not so we followed along.  This is a 3 story building with 3 different stages on each level, so we started at the top and worked our way down.  The bands were a lot of fun and the crowds kept growing, the place was packed, the sun was going down and it was getting colder, so we decided to head back to the hotel, have dinner and change.

documenting each place
look at the crowds
fun friends

Before we made it, we decided to stop at the Tin Roof and really enjoyed the band there, so we stayed for a little longer before going back to the hotel.

 

SATURDAY- HOTEL

We stopped back at the hotel, changed and then had a substantial meal before heading out again, because this was going to be a long night ahead of us.  We had hilarious conversations and enjoyed the friend conversations and stories of other adventures in the past!

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SATURDAY- TIN ROOF (AGAIN)

We enjoyed the band at the Tin Roof, so we went back again after dinner and heard two more bands. People were having a good time at this point!

The bands were so entertaining and fun; there was a third band that was supposed to start next and evidently all the tables and chairs had to be cleared out because it was going to be a lot of dancing for this band.  We wanted to stay, but we also heard from Krista’s sister in law that David Ray was playing at the Honky Tonk Bar across the street and he was really good.  So we decided to head back there and see if we could find him.  We found him!

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SATURDAY- HONKY TONK (AGAIN)

David Ray had to be my favorite band of the night, he played country and 90’s alternative music, so of course we danced most of the time.

I was starting to get super tired at this point with 4 hours of sleep the night before and even drinking straight Red Bull, the tiredness was catching up.  But our tour guide, Krista, said we just HAD to make one last stop:  The Stage.

SATURDAY – THE STAGE

So we made it to The Stage and the place was packed.  Krista knew just where to head and we went to an elevated inside deck where we could see the band a little better.  It didn’t take long before we were dancing again and awakened!  So about 2:30 am, it was time to leave so we headed out.

SATURDAY – THE HOTEL

We arrived at the hotel and this was going on in the lobby.  This craziness was so unexpected and added another element to the unexpected evening.

Besides this, there was a very interesting couple in the lobby who shared stories about snakes and asked about how to pick out the right boots.  You just can’t make up stuff like this. So we were entertained longer.    We shared the elevator with a couple of the Vanderbilt Football players who had just played earlier that day and finally made it to our rooms!  “Nash-Vegas!” the place where no one sleeps!  We made it to the room with exhaustion, it didn’t take long to be deep in sleep after that day!

SUNDAY – DEPARTURE

It was a much quieter drive home…everyone was exhausted, but had such a great time.  It will be a trip we will never forget!  It may even end up being an annual excursion? The short trip felt much longer because we just didn’t sleep!  But it was certainly fun and worth doing again.

Bye Nashville
The Car Ride Home
Back Home

 

by Categories: Entertainment, Following Passions, FRIENDSHIP, HAPPINESS, Improvement, MUSIC, RELATIONSHIPS, TRAVELTags: , , , , , 1 Comment

THE LANTERN FEST

“Letting Go,” my prior blog, was written before attending the Lantern Fest,  I waited to publish it because the releasing of lanterns symbolically fit the topic of letting go and I was hoping I would get some great shots to add to that post.  But there was so much more to the Lantern Fest we attended, beyond the symbolism, so I wanted to write about it.

LEADING UP TO THE EVENT

I found out about the Lantern Fest on Facebook, which, in my opinion, is Facebook’s strength right now:  finding events of interest.  I’ve seen so many photos of Lantern releases in other countries and the events always appeared so magical, so I knew when I saw the event on Facebook, I wanted to experience it.  I also found out that it is an event that runs nationally and was founded in November 2013.  There are several other USA locations forthcoming.

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EVENTS WITH TEENS

I’m going to bet that many people with teens know that, at this point in life, spending time with mom or dad isn’t high on their priority list.  In fact, I think, as parents, we rank near the bottom of the list of whom they want to hang with on the weekend!  I am faced with this reality; despite all the travel and events we did when they were young and they couldn’t wait to go somewhere with me. But that is a part of them becoming independent, which is important.  So, most of the time, they spend their time based on their plans. This time, I wanted to experience this with them because we don’t often have that opportunity very often: with just us, so I signed us up.  Heading to the event I didn’t have two very excited people with me.  One kept asking how soon we could leave once we got there and the other was just silent and both were exhausted from the soccer games they played all day.

ARRIVAL

I love Google Maps especially because it reroutes us based on traffic jams, so we ended up taking some back-roads and missed most of the traffic arriving quickly.  We arrived just after sunset due to the soccer game schedules and getting ready after them, but if I ever go again, I would be there before sunset.   Immediately upon arriving we could see lights all over a field ; it was a huge festival.  We headed through the Brookdale Farms gates, opposite the activity for parking and took a long windy gravel road back to the corn fields where we parked.  It was dark out now so we found our way back to the event from headlights shining on the gravel, highlighting a few mud puddles, but of course one of us found a puddle on the way.

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THE EVENT

I wasn’t sure when the release was going to happen, so I wanted to find the lantern packages as soon as possible.  I knew the event started at 2pm and there were little ones running around, so people with them would be getting anxious to release the lanterns soon.

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We initially saw all sorts of food trucks and tents lit up, then asked someone in one of the tents where we would find the lanterns.  They directed us to the back of the event and told us to look for a white tent.  We walked for quite a while, and kept going, following the crowd.  As we passed in smoke filled air, we saw fire pits with groups surrounding them, tiki torches, and groups enjoying s’mores- awesome!  We made it to the tent where we were given our lanterns and boxes with the instructions and s’mores sticks.  We stepped to the side and noticed we were at the edge of a lake which was so beautiful reflecting the lights.  We could hear music in the distance, then heard the announcement that the launching would soon occur.  We didn’t have much time to figure it out, so we waited to launch ours, preferring to watch and video this massive launch.  It was beautiful, incredible sight!

 

I attempted to get some good photos, but it was so dark I couldn’t see my camera settings and fumbled around with the camera, taking whatever I could get and hoping to capture some of it.  Most ended up blurred.

LAUNCH TIME

Learning how to light the lantern, waiting until the gas filled the balloon then releasing into the dark sky…

BON FIRE

Our arrival timing worked out because many people left after the launch, so some of the fire pits were now freed up.  We found one near the lake and decided to try out our newly purchased GABOSS inflatable loungers.  These were perfect for the night.  We had an energetic one with us who loved filling these bags with air.

As soon as we had them set up people kept stopping by asking us about them and where we got them.  Click the GABOSS link if you want to order one!  They are sold with a shoulder bag and are much easier than carrying a folding camp chair.  They can be used individually or as a lounger with two or three people and will support over 400 pounds.

Patience? S’mores
S’mores
GABOSS inflated!

We made s’mores, then relaxed in the loungers, waiting for the second launch.  By this time, my phone died, but I still had my camera and could get a few more shots of the night.  The music added to the atmosphere, the night was a little chilly but when the fire was going it was an exceptional outdoor night.  Being near the lake was perfect too, as the first wave of people were leaving, the white and red car lights looked like Christmas lighting.  We decided to lounge outside until the traffic died down.

 

LEAVING THE EVENT

By this time, everyone was starving.  Because of the soccer schedules, there was very little time between games, so none of us ate much since breakfast, besides a few snacks. The craving was Italian pasta, needing those carbs!  My daughter searched on Google maps and found Joe Baccardi’s which was still open, thankfully!  It was about 9:30 pm, so we headed there and everyone ordered.  We barely made it through the meal, with my son was falling asleep at the table, so we headed out just before closing time. I think all but me fell asleep in the car on the way home.  I know for me; this was just what I wanted:  spending time with them and both of my teens seemed to enjoy it too!  We talked about attending one again.

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OPPORTUNITY FOR SCIENTIFIC CREATIVE PEOPLE

As with anything, there are multiple viewpoints.  After I posted pictures and videos on Facebook the next day, I had a friend send me some pictures of the after math.  This was bad, it looked like trash everywhere, on trees, homes etc.  The event was so much fun, but this was not good. Hopefully with technology and creative people, there can be a solution for some biodegradable, quick dissipating material that could possibly be used in the future for lanterns to avoid the landfall?  I’m hoping that someone reading this knows someone or is creative and comes up with a solution, maybe a future Patent?  If you read this and know of someone who might be able to do this, please share this post!

Lanterns in a backyard
Lanterns on roofs
Lanterns in the trees
by Categories: Entertainment, FAMILY, FRIENDSHIP, HAPPINESS, Lantern Fest, Make It Count, MUSIC, RELATIONSHIPSTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

ACTIONS NOT WORDS

SUNDAY REFLECTIONS

I don’t attend church every Sunday, but when I do, it’s truly because I want to be there and connect with God in a different way, than personally through prayer; it is meaningful to me.  It really seems the discussions are relevant to things happening in my life when I am there too.  So in my thoughts, this is God’s message getting through to me.

THE DRIVE TO CHURCH – DECISIONS

This past Sunday, on the way to church, I was talking to my son about “why I go to church and what happens” and about how sometimes when I’m making decisions I will just “have a feeling inside” about which direction I should go, and truly, it’s not always the easy decision “I want”, but I just have a feeling inside that “I should”do it. Is this God letting me know what I should do, because it’s not always what I want to do? During the service, my son and I looked at each other, because it was really ironic, the things we talked about in the car on the way there were the things that Pastor Greg was talking about, almost as if he heard our conversation.  My son noticed it too.

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From The Crossing- Facebook Page

THE MUSIC – CONNECTING PERSONALLY

Another interesting thing happened, this church has phenomenal music by the way, so that probably explains more of why I connect so well.  Anyway, one musician told us a story of how he and a friend had a falling out after a very long friendship, and that he felt like God was telling him to apologize to his friend, which he did apologize, but didn’t get the response from his friend he was expecting.  Anyway that night at 2 am this melody came into his head and he wrote this song until about 4 am; it was a beautiful song. Here is the link:  Kenny DeShields “That’s When You Love”   Relating to this event, in my own experience, I also seem to get middle of the night ideas or early morning ideas.  Is this God providing guidance or influence?

THE MESSAGE

The bible topic this day was the two most important things we can do: “Love God and Love Your Neighbor” The Pastor went into detail on what it means to “Love your Neighbor” and the relevant scripture passage was the Good Samaritan Parable  I’ve heard this story many times before, but he made it more relevant, by asking questions:  he asked everyone to come up with reasons why the first two people didn’t help the beaten man and the answers were: “no one was looking, they didn’t want to be inconvenienced, it was someone else’s job or duty, didn’t want to get involved, etc.”   It is here where it relates to all of us, those could all be OUR reasons for not helping someone in the present day.  How many times have we thought those things in our heads when we didn’t help someone? 

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The Pastor also made another point, if we were truly starving and we were offered a) bread or b) the recipe for bread?   Which would we want at that point in our life?  Of course, the actual bread more immediately addresses the need.  He related this concept of the bread and recipe to people offering empathy or sympathy in WORDS to others, but not taking ACTIONS.  Wow!  I bet we can all relate to that in our lives!  Have you ever had someone tell you what you “wanted” or
“needed” to hear, but not make the personal effort to truly connect with you or take action?  It really feels like empty words, doesn’t it?  Have we done that to others?

SUMMARY: Loving your neighbor may be inconvenient.

MY LIFE EXAMPLES

This also related to me, personally, with the access we have to technology today, we are always connected.  I made the mistake this weekend of multi-tasking, I was distracted by a message that I hadn’t seen.  The message came in about 4 hours earlier so I was curious what it said and clicked on it when I should have been paying attention to the conversation I was having with the person.  This person is 100% more important to me than the message, but I didn’t show it when I quit paying attention to look at the message.  I wasn’t being present in the moment and I offended the other person and felt terrible about it, but I couldn’t take it back!  I did apologize, but the damage was already done at that point.  Sometimes being there for a person may simply mean being fully present and truly listening –  without distractions.  This situation has happened to me, with roles reversed before and it made me feel like I was unimportant.  An action not words example can simply be actively, truly listening to someone, and hearing what they are saying.  And I blew that this weekend!

When someone gives you their full attention, isn’t that awesome? When this happens, it is not only noticed, but remembered, even years later, because not many people truly listen.  So many people have other things going through their minds and may only capture a fraction of what is said.  I seriously remember specific people who listened attentively, because they stand out from all others.

FRIENDS TAKING ACTION

I also had another example of Actions Not Words, that I will always remember:  Our family was away on vacation and had a death in the family while we were away.  A fairly new neighbor heard about this and took immediate action:  Michelle C. contacted people that she met through me and spread the word. She went grocery shopping and Maria R. provided a meal so when we got home we could focus on family and not have to worry about the food basics.  This completely amazed me, the action she took and the other friends who did as well. Logically people do not have much food in their refrigerators when they leave for vacation, so she and others took care of that for us and we didn’t even have to think what we needed!  By the time we arrived home, it was already in our refrigerator!

So in summary, the next time someone is in need the message was to try for Actions not Words in addressing their situation.

THE CHURCH

If you are looking for a Christian Church, they offer online Live service every week, so you can log in where ever you are located as long as you have internet service. Here is their website:  https://www.wcrossing.org/, they are on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter too.

This is an amazing church in my opinion!  My friend, Michelle C. had encouraged me to check out the church years ago, but I was  a member of another church, so I didn’t. Then another friend of mine Krista K. also encouraged me, and I finally did in December 2015.  It was definitely something I should have done a long time ago and since then, I’ve found many of my friends from all different denominations also attend this church.

Have a Make it Count week!  

by Categories: FAITH, Improvement, MUSICTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

“Hat Trick” = Camping, Music, Water!

Yes, we scored:  an incredible experience!  This post is a “Throwback Thursday” kind of post to August 28th 2015. This was an escape from stress at the time, because music usually makes things better!  It was a last minute decision to register for the Annual 93.7 The Bull Float trip, which is how most of the fun usually begins- spontaneously! I happened to be listening to the radio while working one day and heard the lineup, usually we have soccer game commitments every weekend, but that weekend was game free and there were no other commitments.

The Friday night lineup was Gloriana and Michael Ray, and Saturday was Drake White and Joe Nichols. I couldn’t wait to get there, but it was only a week away so I called to check if Ozark Outdoors still had availability, and thankfully, they did, but all that was left was individual inner tubes and a first come first serve campsite, so “let’s go” was my thought, we’ll just make the best of it!  A quick trip to the store to pick up some food, drinks and glow sticks, of course, was all that was needed.

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So Friday we arrived mid-day and the campground facilities were very nice.

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We went in and picked up the t-shirts,wristbands and registration package and were directed to the location of potentially available campsites.

 

 

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As we drove to the camp sites, people were having a pretty good time and hitting it hard, so I was a little nervous how this was going to turn out, because most did not have kids with them.

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We found a nice somewhat private site surrounded by trees amazingly and not too far from where the concerts would be.  As soon as we pitched the tent and got settled, we headed to concert.  We took bag chairs but really they were more of a nuisance because the crowd kept compressing.  These types of situations can either go well or terribly bad based on personalities, so if the personality is easy going, a “go with the flow” kind of person, all is good.

The concert was awesome!  Michael Ray had just released the Album “Michael Ray” which of course I bought the entire album after hearing just one song, and it continues to be one of my favorite albums!  I wasn’t as familiar with Gloriana, but did know a few songs and the show was great!.

Saturday was the float trip: “so wake up and head out!”  Luckily some of the staff noticed us, probably because we were the only ones with kids, and saw that we had individual tubes reserved and had a little empathy!

Fortunately, they worked it out and got a raft for us! Thank God!  That made it so much better!  The beginning of the float was another moment where I was rethinking if I made a mistake because of the kids ages and what is ahead of us on the river, but people were surprisingly very respectful and conscientious, telling the kids how lucky they were to have this experience.  We decided to skip “The Sandbar Stop” thinking we shouldn’t push our luck.  It ended up being a good time on the water.

A few of the water scenes we experienced:

Saturday night was Drake White, who has such a great personality and connected so well with the crowd, I only knew one of his songs at the time: “It Feels Good” and liked it as soon as I heard it because his voice was so different from everyone else and the music was too.  He is such a humble, down to earth, personable guy with great stories during the concert.

drake-white

After a long day on the water, camping and then the concerts, by the time Joe Nichols was up, the youngest was getting restless, so we headed back to camp after only a few songs, but could still hear the music from the campsite.  It was probably good that we left the concert when we did as soon as we heard Joe Nichols start singing “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Come Off”, it was the right departure time for us!

A first time experience and the oldest wanted to come back- but with friends next time. 🙂

A beach trip, like this, next time!

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“This Wine is Making Me Awesome” – October Outing Trip

Hermann, MO

group-photo

 

In Missouri, if you like wine and love the outdoors, there is no better place to be than at a winery in October! This year we went to Hermann, MO.  I look forward to this annual weekend trip with friends; the people attending may change from year to year, but it usually ends up with a tag along story that is repeated year after year.

hello-hermann

Herman History 

In 1857, 11,000 acres were purchased by a school teacher, George Bayer, who was the appointed agent of the German Settlement Society of Philadelphia.  When the first settlers arrived, they were surprised by the terrain and rolling hillsides and were faced with a development challenge.  Making the best of this situation, they planted vineyards on the hillsides and 10 year later a steamboat arrived with St. Louis tourist visitors, attending the first Weinfest.

Today the month of October is Oktoberfest and is filled with celebrations, music and entertainment all month long.

ARRIVAL

by Car:  There are several ways to arrive at Herman, if driving via Interstate 70 or 44.  In my opinion, the most scenic route is Interstate-44 through Washington, MO on State Highway 100.  This drive is phenomenal for viewing the colorful fall leaves with rolling hillsides and incredible pristine farmlands.  If you often drive through the countryside on road trips, you will likely find a few dilapidated buildings, but I do not recall seeing any on this route!  I have never seen so many beautiful estates, one right after another.  And this highway 100 is simply gorgeous for about a 30- 35-mile stretch.

drive-to-hermann

by Bus:  If you have a large group, a private bus, is the way to go; we’ve done that in past years and it is a great experience!  This past weekend, I was driving behind a Cavallo bus as an example.

by Train: You can also take the train to get there, here’s a link:  Amtrak.

by-train

WHERE TO STAY

I recommend booking a place early, we ran into a couple who was visiting for the day and the only room that was available cost $500 per night.  There are so many cute bed and breakfast locations all over; you can find them here.

On our trip, we were fortunate enough to be guests at Mom and Papa Pratte’s home nestled into the beautiful countryside nearby; they are not technically a bed and breakfast location but could be with their accommodations and wonderful hospitality they provided us!

It’s best to have a place to stay or a driver after a long day at the winery!

OUR STARTING POINT:  Hermannhof Vineyards 

“Hermannhof’s ten magnificent stone cellars and charming brick superstructure are among the 100 early Hermann buildings placed on the National Register of Historic places by the Federal Government.”  The Dierberg family purchased this property in 1974, the family is known in St. Louis for their Dierberg’s grocery stores.

Second to location, meeting the people is the next best adventure! Who knew we would meet three Aviation Engineers, in St. Louis on business but visiting Hermann and actually from Germany on this trip?

And if you show up in lederhosen you are bound to be in pictures!

SECOND STOP

After an unseasonably warm day hillside, our next stop was the air-conditioned Tin Mill.

tin-mill

LAST STOP

No trip to Hermann is complete without stopping at the Concert Hall and Barrel Bar, for some drinks and appetizers, music and dancing.  Lucky for us, we had Papa Pratte to pick us up at the end of the day!

WINDING DOWN

After safely arriving home to Mom and Papa Pratte’s we are greeted with even more entertainment awaiting: music and a fire, at least for those who could stay awake!  It was a wonderful weekend with friends!

evening-end

 

by Categories: fall travel, Hermann, TRAVELTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment