Totally Awesome Vacation: Yee Haw!

We had all booked late afternoon flights out, so we had some time to cram in a few more things in Nashville on our last day.

In doing research for the trip (and you know I do tons of it), I stumbled across a place called Hatch Show Print. I have seen a few similar posters in the past, but I did not realize there was a company and this is what they DO, I just thought that there were some cool concert advertisers out there, making some cool posters.

Hatch Show Print is one of the oldest working letterpress print shops in America. Their posters have advertised concerts for "a host of country music performers ranging from Hall of Famers Hank Williams, Bill Monroe and Johnny Cash to present-day stars Garth Brooks, Wynonna Judd and Carrie Underwood." They have even done non-country artists like Coldplay, Pearl Jam and Jack Johnson. These posters are AMAZING. It makes me want to wallpaper my whole house with them. For you politicos, they did the CNN 2008 Election stuff. They also did a recent Anthropologie Catalog. I knew I had to visit this place and HT would love it, too. Hayley and I LOVE typography.

Hatch posters are all printed by hand using the same techniques as 100 years ago (when the focus was circus and carnival-type advertising broadsheets), using hand crafted wood blocks as the letterpress and good ole creativity for design. These posters and wood blocks have a soul and HT and I were in love. Hayley asked if the wood blocks were for sale and the lady told her to take that question back. But they were cool! I wanted one, too. They've kept every woodblock they've ever made with few exceptions. Their posters are so cool, it makes me want to wallpaper my whole house with them.

I think Court and Trist were a little baffled as to why we wanted to spend so much time in the store, but it was AWESOME. I spent too much and came away this gorgeous green print - you can see the wood indentations and the paintbrush streaks in it. It is fantastic. I am going to have it framed and hang it in my bathroom. (Not necessarily as an advertisement. More like a reminder/command. But how cool is that?!) And the brown cowboy motif tee shirt; my only souvenirs (aside from the extra weight I probably packed on thanks to the BBQ.) To me, Hatch Show Print (Check out this website for some REALLY cool posters) was one of the BEST parts of the entire trip.

From here, we walked the few blocks to the Country Music Hall of Fame. See, I am a museum kind of girl. And my people are usually museum kind of people. (It just so happens that the best museum I have ever been in was the College Football Hall of Fame Museum in South Bend, IN. I could have spent DAYS in there. Haven't been to the Pro Hall of Fame yet. YET.) So the CMHOF was something we had to see.

Usually, when the Little Truckers get into a museum, we start out in the same place and each of us end up walking through alone. It just happens that way. We may meet up in different spots. "Hey! Look at that!", but we undoubtedly split off again. I like this. I like that we each take things in at our own pace and absorb things as we wish.

The museum was as you might think. Nothing too spectacular for someone who is not a big country music fan, but had some cool memorabilia (like Hank Williams Jr.'s vest from his Monday night football gig) and they had a GREAT movie that pretty much covered the ENTIRE history of country music and was very entertaining. However, I left thinking "I could have paid $5 to watch the movie and called it good."

Personally, the highlight of the building is the building itself. It had some very cool features. Like the windows that form the keyboard and how on the right, the building comes to a point at the exact same degree as a wing of a 1950s Cadillac. The circular room on the left is the actual Hall of Fame. Around the building are the notes to a song - and kick me, I don't remember which one. The antenna represents the one WSM used to first start broadcasting The Grand Ole Opry and the three rings right below it represent the LP, a 45 and a CD. And when viewed from the air, the building is in the shape of a bass clef. I thought those touches were pretty cool.

There was one last thing I wanted to see before leaving Nashville. The Dukes of Hazzard Museum. Not really a museum, really. It was in a strip mall, but how my brothers and I loved that show growing up. Apparently, there is a Dukes of Hazzard Weekend every year and thousands of people show up. That would be some awesome people watching. It was nostalgic to be in there. The lady that worked there LOOOOOVED her some Dukes.

And as most of you know, no Little Trucker trip is complete without a stop at our VERY FAVORITE restaurant, Bob Evans. We can't explain it, it's magical. We were relieved not to have to eat more meat at this point and opted for their fantastic side salads before heading to the airport.

So ends another Annual Trip to Somewhere. It is always so great to spend time with the best of my friends. Our trips always seem to come at just the right time, when we just really need to spend time together. I am lucky to have them and now these great memories. And you're lucky because I shared them (yes, all of them) with you. :)